So excited about this interview with my daughter Erin on what it was like to witness 9/11 as a 12 year old and what terrorism means to her now. Have a listen!
PLEASE! Before you excoriate me and engage in ad hominem attacks based on the title of this blog – not that I have not been subject to both before! – read to the end. Then, if you still think I am a knuckle-dragging troglodyte have at ‘er. Shortly after the creation of the Soviet Union […]
As some of you may know, I am a grandfather (yes, I am THAT old!). I have an almost 2-year old grandson and, duh!, he is the most perfect grandchild. Ever. In the history of the planet. Of that there is no doubt and I should know since I am his grandfather. What is that […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on August 12, 2019. I never worked in foreign affairs or for Foreign Affairs (or Global Affairs Canada as it is now known, having once been designated External Affairs and many other names) but I know a little about about the subject. After all, you cannot work in […]
We all remember when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau uttered the famous line “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian” right? It was during one of the Munk debates in the lead up to the 2015 federal elections after which he became our leader. In that debate, Mr. Trudeau was responding to plans by the […]
My wife and I are quite taken by British programming. We have watched Midsomer Murders – all 19 seasons we have access to – at least twice and other similar series on Netflix and Acorn TV. We are currently making our way through George Gently, starring Martin Shaw (and Lee Ingleby, who also played Stan […]
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When bad guys use good technology
I have to confess that I am a fan of the CBC. Not out of any sense of Canadian nationalism necessarily, although there is probably some of that too. No, I like the CBC because I like the variety of its programming, especially the radio offerings. I try not to miss episodes of The Debaters, […]
When you work in intelligence there is nothing more important than accuracy. Whatever your source – human, intercept, imagery – you need to determine how true it is before you use it in assessments that get passed on to decision makers. The usual way to do this is through corroboration: getting the same facts from […]
There is so much that has gone awry in the so-called war on terrorism that a complete list is probably uncompilable – and certainly too much for a blog piece. I have already made many arguments as to why this is not a good way to view or frame our efforts at preventing or thwarting […]
There is no question that there is a lot of terrorism about. Even a cursory glance at the news on a daily basis will uncover stories like an attack on a school by the Taliban in Afghanistan, an Al Shabaab strike on a Mogadishu hotel, yet another Boko Haram use of young girls as suicide […]