Foreign fighters are all the rage these days in Canada (hmm, ‘all the rage’ – kinda describes jihadis to a T doesn’t it?). Many, many Canadians are going ballistic over reports that some of our citizens who left our land to join Islamic State or other terrorist groups abroad have had a change of heart […]
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.
While this may strike some people as arrogant and dismissive I have to confess that when I listen to ‘experts’ talk about national security issues in the media I first look at who is speaking. Some of those who offer opinions are journalists, others are politicians or political junkies, still others are academics. All have […]
Have you ever been to Singapore? I have, several times. Nice city, clean, ordered, not really a lot to do there though. Capable intelligence services from my perspective. What has always struck me on arrival at Changi Airport is the location of very, very big signs in English that tell you in bold letters what […]
When it comes to Islamist terrorism there is a lot we know and a lot we don’t. We may not be able to predict – ever – why and when a given individual chooses to adopt the violent radical ideology that leads him or her to engage in acts of extremism, but we do have […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on October 8, 2018. How many of you recall the terrorist attack in San Bernardino back in December 2015? An Islamist terrorist couple went in to a California health sector office’s Christmas party and opened fire, killing 14 and wounding 22. The two were later killed in a […]
Sometimes you read something in the news that leaves you shaking your head. Here is an example. The government of Nepal has banned pornography – again – in order to, wait for it, ban rape. To this end, it has added harsh fines or prison sentences for internet service providers who refuse to comply with the […]
Well, the Saudis may have really put their foot in it this time. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of vocal Saudi critic and journalist Jamal Kashoggi at the Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul ten days ago is deepening. Saudi claims that he left of his own accord are laughable: his fiancee was waiting for him outside […]
The stories of so-called ‘foreign fighters’ – outsiders who left their homelands to hook up with terrorist groups like Islamic State (IS), Al Qaeda (AQ) and others – are a dime a dozen. Literally. As estimates range up to 40,000 who joined IS alone over the past five years or so, one can be excused […]
Do you know the old saying “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”? It refers to the notion that we may be hoodwinked by an unscrupulous character once for no fault of our own (aside from having a poor judge of character perhaps), but if we have the wool pulled […]
As a former practitioner in the security intelligence world I have, as do many others, a distinct bias. My understanding of many different social phenomena is informed and framed by the job I did and the particular kind of information I had access to for more than three decades: i.e. classified secrets. In light of […]