That could be anybody's jihad

In a finding that raises questions about whether the medium or the messenger is part of the message, a BBC investigative team found that an expelled Islamic cleric is still reaching adherents via the Internet and making (perhaps empty) threats against the wrong Irish airport --

The joint investigation by File on [Radio] 4 and Newsnight has found Omar Bakri Mohammed broadcasts hatred for the UK using a variety of pseudonyms. He was excluded from the UK last August on the grounds that his presence was "not conducive to the public good." ... Omar Bakri Mohammed ran the radical al-Muhajiroun group from Tottenham, north London, until it was proscribed last year.

But the BBC has learned that he broadcasts online most evenings - a voice recognition expert confirmed that the voice was that of the radical preacher ... A chatroom has been infiltrated by a group called Vigil, which aims to disrupt radical groups and report back to police and security services.

During an online question and answer session a Vigil member asked Omar Bakri Mohammed if Dublin Airport should be a terrorist target because US troops transit there on the way to Iraq.

The cleric replied: "Hit the target and hit it very hard, that issue should be understood. Your situation there is quite difficult therefore the answer lies in your question."

Both the question and answer are vague and confused; for one thing the questioner surely meant to refer to Shannon, not Dublin, although the cleric's endorsement of a hit on the airport is clear enough. What's unknown is the capacity of the audience to carry out the threat, or whether the idea gets more weight when endorsed by a specific person as opposed to just a random pseudonymous lunatic.