What do you remember of the dictator Augusto Pinochet in Chile? Even if you are not well versed in Latin American history you are bound to know that his reign, from 1973 to 1990, was not good. Thousands of opponents, dismissed as ‘Communists’ or ‘leftists’, were killed, tens of thousands were probably tortured and close […]
Author: Phil Gurski
Phil Gurski is the President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting Ltd. Phil is a 32-year veteran of CSE and CSIS and the author of six books on terrorism.
(NB how’s that for an analogy?) When I was a kid I did not have a good impression of the military (Canadian in my case of course). My friends and I would laugh at those who joined the cadets or reserves, seeing them as ‘losers’. My childhood was first filled with images of US army […]
There are terrorists groups that have their rise and fall over time. Some groups are remarkably resilient and longlasting, such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which is pretty close to a century old. Others are a flash in the pan such as the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) which lasted only between 1973 and 1975 […]
If you go far enough back in recent-ish history one of the terrorist groups that used to get a fair bit of attention was an outfit named Black September. Named after the month in 1970 during which the Jordanian armed forces clashed with fighters from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO – remember them?), which led […]
Far right terrorism is our #1 threat! No, jihadi terrorism is! Which one is it? What do the numbers tell us? Have a listen to episode 18 of An Intelligent Look at Terrorism with Phil Gurski.
One thing we know about terrorism is that it has no boundaries. No single language, ethnicity, religion, ideology or national entity – except maybe Antarctica: I cannot find any terrorist acts there – has an inherent wall around it to prevent terrorism from unfurling its violence on innocent people. Yes, some places suffer disproportionately from […]
When I used to work in counter terrorism at CSIS many analysts used to say that of all the terrorists and terrorist groups in the world, and there were far too many to monitor at any given time, the real ‘A-team’ was Hizballah. The Lebanon-based group which was created in the aftermath of the Israeli […]
On this day in 1920 a horse-drawn wagon passed by lunchtime crowds on New York’s iconic Wall Street, stopped near the JP Morgan bank headquarters and went boom.
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on September 9, 2019. We all believe that hate is on the rise. Whether it is statements made (and later denied) by presidents who shall remain nameless or an apparent increase in marches and public displays of anger by groups of (largely) white men who seem to be […]
NB due to technical issues this blog is two days late: my apologies If you follow the news even a bit you know that places of worship are prime targets for terrorists and hatemongers. There are probably several reasons for this: they are generally unprotected; they are full of people at times; and they are […]