Jul 15, 2019

1,000 blogs on terrorism and counting…where will this all end?

When I left the Canadian civil service – more accurately the security intelligence world – in May 2015 I had some of the restrictions on what I can say and do lifted. Up to a point. I still cannot talk in detail about operations I was part of or intelligence I was privy to and […]

Jul 15, 2019

Would you shill for Usama bin Laden?

This post appeared in The Hill Times on July 15, 2019. There are all kinds of consultants out there – heck, even I call myself a consultant these days. You would imagine that good consultants have a service to offer based on their expertise, acquired how ever it was. In my case, I can leverage […]

Jul 15, 2019

What terrorists do when the facts tell them they are wrong

It is hard to admit when you have made a mistake. After all, we want to be right every time and when it becomes obvious that we are not it takes a special effort to pronounce a mea culpa. Me, I have tried to be gracious when obvious errors are pointed out to me: perhaps […]

Jul 15, 2019

CVE in Canada needs better scrutiny

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on July 8, 2019 If there is one buzzword that has gained a lot of ground in Canada and elsewhere in the post 9/11 period it is CVE (which stands for Countering Violent Extremism; sometimes it is also called PCVE – Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism). This field […]