The VIA passenger train trial has been a tortuous one. The two terrorists, Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier were found guilty on eight of nine charges back in March of this year. The plot was disrupted two years previously: that is how long it takes terrorist cases to come to trial. Actually, this was very […]
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.
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Suffer the young – part two
When we studied radicalisation to violence at CSIS in the 2000s, we found out that while anyone could engage in violent ideologies, the vast majority were young – ish. The age range tended to be 18-28. This is not to say that older, or on rare occasions younger, people did not get involved. This finding […]
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Heading off in a new direction
The world of counter terrorism is usually associated with security intelligence agencies and the military. The former carry out investigations, using human sources and court-approved taps on communications while the latter undertakes “kinetic” action and captures terrorists or kills them through the use of drones/aircraft or special forces (think here of the operation to locate […]
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Passport to danger
What do you call it when a team of experts weigh in on an issue and provide a recommendation on a proposed new practice and the management ignores the recommendation, intending to forge on ahead with the change? Meh? Managerial discretion? Probably not too important? When it comes to the proposed new system of passport […]
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Signs of the times – 2
It is comforting and yet humbling to see a news article that conveys information which confirms a lifetime’s work. I studied radicalisation to violence, as inspired by Al Qaeda (and increasingly nowadays the Islamic State) for 15 years from a privileged position as a senior strategic analyst at CSIS. I was able to leverage that […]
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The long arm of the terrorist law
When a terrorist act occurs there are a number of inevitable events that follow immediately afterwards. The attackers are called “cowards” (while those who leave IEDs may be described so, can anyone really call a suicide bomber a coward?). There is a usual demand for vengeance and retaliation. And the head of state promises that […]
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The psychology of terrorism
The field of psychology has taken quite a hit lately. Since the true test of scientific veracity is replication (if I make a hypothesis about a phenomenon based on an experiment and no one can get the same results based on the same methodology the hypothesis is weak), a recent report that slightly more than […]
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Refugees and terrorism
The photo has already become iconic. The picture of the little Kurdish boy lying face down in the water has touched the lives of tens of millions around the world. It ranks up there with the girl running naked after a napalm strike in Vietnam and the vulture stalking a starving Ethiopian boy. This photo […]
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What to do with “former” terrorists?
When our security and law enforcement agencies do their jobs when it comes to terrorism, violent extremists are detected, investigated, neutralised, arrested, tried, convicted and incarcerated. And this marks the end of our problem, right? Unfortunately, not. Incarcerated terrorists remain a potential threat because, if given the chance, they can radicalise others in the prison […]
We make laws to reflect our values and to protect ourselves from those that would undermine them. For instance, we say that murder is a crime because we value life. We have laws against the theft of personal goods because we value our property. In a more controversial vein, we have hate laws because we […]