Let Them Eat Cupcakes

An interesting piece in the Telegraph last week [ed. Oops, I'm not sure how I forgot to hit "publish" on this one] on a successful hacking operation by MI6 to disrupt al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula's online propaganda efforts by replacing Inspire magazine's bombmaking recipes with cupcake recipes.

Photo: AP/ALAMY, via the Telegraph

Although this will hopefully make it more difficult for "lone-wolf" terrorists to obtain bomb-making expertise, do we really want AQAP to have access to "The Best Cupcakes in America"?  Are there no state secrets anymore?  And what does it say about the decline of the British Empire that they have to use American cupcake recipes rather than "The Best Cupcakes in the UK"?

(In all seriousness, this is an inexpensive and brilliant way to win the information operations campaign against al-Qa'ida.  Although the lid has already been blown off Pandora's Box with regards to home-crafted bombs and WMD, anything that makes the extremists look ridiculous to their targeted audience is an operational victory for the West).