Have you been following the tortuous twists and turns surrounding the brutal torture, killing and apparent dismemberment of Saudi journalist and critic Jamal Kashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2? Can you make sense of all the claims and counterclaims? Do you know who ‘did’ the deed? If you answer yes to […]
Here we go again. Another terrorist attack, this time in Melbourne, Australia, another chorus of ‘he was mentally ill’ and, I guess, not responsible. Last Friday (November 9) an ethnic Somali man drove to that city’s central business district with a bunch of gas cylinders turned to the open position (seeking one surmises to cause […]
I suppose that the literal definition of a ‘moonshot’ is the act of sending a rocket to the moon. Interestingly, there is another set of metaphorical definitions I found online which include: an ambitious, exploratory and ground-breaking project undertaken without any expectation of near-term profitability or benefit and also, perhaps, without a full investigation of […]
In the US there is a big debate going on, at least among some in Democratic Party circles, to do away with ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In truth, parts of ICE have been involved in activities that some seen as inhuman such as the location, detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants who have […]
On at least a weekly basis I get an email or a LinkedIn message from someone, usually in Canada, who has an interest in terrorism. Wait, let me clarify that – an interest in either studying terrorism or working in counter terrorism. Phew! If it were another interest I’d have to tell my friends at […]
OK, it is probably best to get this out right at the start. When it comes to ‘terrorism experts’ I have a HUGE bias. As a former practitioner, someone who spent decades in counter terrorism as an analyst for a security intelligence service, I lean heavily in favour of listening to those who work in […]
There is a lot of debate these days about what is more important when it comes to terrorism: Islamist extremism (i.e. jihadis) or right wing extremists. The truth is that both pose a threat but which one is scarier depends on what part of the world you are talking about. In the US it is […]
There is so much to write about when it comes to pointing out the lies, exaggerations and outright whoppers spewed by US President Trump that it is almost not worth doing anymore. There is no challenge to it: it is like shooting fish in a barrel. I am not suggesting that no one monitor the […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on November 5, 2018. For a country that is thankfully rarely touched by terrorism we in Canada sure seem to talk about it a lot. I suppose I am partly responsible for this as I tend to write about violent extremism ad nauseum, but given my career in […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on October 29, 2018 Now that we are two weeks and counting away from the ‘incident’ involving Saudi dissident Jamal Kashoggi at the Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul I have lost track of how many versions of the story we have received from our Saudi ‘friends’. First Mr. Kashoggi […]