MI6 scores al Qaeda hit, with cupcakes | World News - Hindustan Times
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MI6 scores al Qaeda hit, with cupcakes

PTI | By, London
Jun 04, 2011 12:50 AM IST

British spy agency MI6 has hacked into an al Qaeda online magazine and replaced "bomb-making" instructions with a recipe for cupcakes.

British spy agency MI6 has hacked into an al Qaeda online magazine and replaced "bomb-making" instructions with a recipe for cupcakes.

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The operation was launched by MI6 to disrupt efforts by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular to recruit "lone-wolf" terrorists with a new English-language magazine, Daily Telegraph reported. When followers tried to download the 67-page colour magazine, instead of instructions about how to 'Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom' by 'The AQ Chef', they were greeted with garbled computer code.

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The code, which had been inserted into the magazine by the British intelligence hackers, was actually a web page of recipes for 'The Best Cupcakes in America' published by the Ellen DeGeneres chat show. It said: "The little cupcake is big again. Self-contained and satisfying, it summons memories of childhood even as it's updated for today's sweet-toothed hipsters."

It included a recipe for the mojito cupcake - "made of white rum cake and draped in vanilla buttercream" - and the rocky road cupcake - "warning: sugar rush ahead!" The original magazine featured a recipe showing how to make a lethal pipe bomb using sugar, match heads and a miniature lightbulb, attached to a timer.

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