Author: Phil Gurski

When we talk of terrorism we often tiptoe around terminology.  Even the word “terrorism” itself has caused some angst: witness the debate back and forth over what to call the killing of three US Muslims in North Carolina a few months ago by a crazed neighbour and the more recent slaughter of nine African Americans […]

The more our security agencies investigate groups and individuals who adopt violent ideologies, some of which will engage in planning violent acts, the more we will be subjected to high profile and riveting trials.  In Canada over the past decade we have had several, ranging from the Toronto 18 to Momin Khawaja, and including plots […]

When most people think about terrorism, they probably have some pre-set notions of what it looks like.  Terrorists are from disadvantaged backgrounds.  They are marginalised.  They have mental health issues.  They are inherently violent people. All these preconceptions are wrong.  Or at least they are not very good at predicting who becomes a terrorist and […]

In the struggle to come up with strategies to deal with violent extremism (notice I didn’t say “War on Terror”?) a number of policies, strategies and measures are continually being proposed by governments, academics, experts and thinktanks around the world.  There is even some attempt at coordinating positions and coming to some agreement on what […]

A couple of years ago, I remember reading an article in the Wall Street Journal in which the phenomenon of “lawfare” was featured.  Lawfare occurs when a person misuses the legal system to intimidate others from criticising him/her and threatens to bring personal liability action.  The term was applied to a number of scenarios: when […]

Still with me?  Let’s continue #13 and #14 – fantastic (that’s even better than great)!  We should have let CSIS and the RCMP off the leash a long time ago.  They, more than anyone, know the nature and level of the threat and should be able to tell Canadians about it. #15 – very good, […]

I’m no fan of spaghetti westerns and the 1966 film starring Clint Eastwood among others has nothing to do with terrorism.  It’s just that I can think of no better phrase to describe the interim report issued by the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence on countering the terrorist threat in Canada (see the […]

I see that a Canadian arrested a few months ago and awaiting trial on terrorism charges has been beaten up in an Ottawa detention centre.  This individual, Carlos Larmond, was allegedly attacked by inmates who were tired of his attempts to recruit “soldiers of Islam” and for threatening non-Muslim prisoners (see story here).  It is […]

I read two very interesting articles this Sunday, one in the New York Times and one in the Toronto Star.  The NYT article was about preventing and detecting concussions (see it here) and the part that struck me was the fact that renewed interest in this phenomenon, especially in the wake of several high profile […]

Further to my earlier post on when Egypt would learn from its historic mistakes in dealing with terrorism and violence, I now turn my attention to Turkey.  According to news sources, the Turkish government may invade along a 70-mile stretch of its border with Syria to establish a 20-mile buffer zone (see article here) Given […]