You gotta hand it to MBS, the power behind the throne in Saudi Arabia. Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, son of the current king, has sure made a name for himself of late. Letting women drive. Promising a new future for his country with shiny impressive technological cities and the like. Corruption has been nipped in […]
Shortly after I joined CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) in January 2001 I attended a presentation by a friend who was working at the Canadian embassy in Kenya in the late 1990s. He related that he was at home on August 7, 1998 when a massive blast took him and a colleague off their feet […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on July 30, 2018 In the wake of an attack, whether it be terrorist in nature or a mass shooting/stabbing/vehicle ramming incident, we often read comments and statements such as the following: no one saw this coming it was completely unpredictable (and by extension unpreventable) who would have […]
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3D printable guns and terrorism
I was reminded this week how old I am. I was engaging clients on the issue of 3-D printable guns and whether or not they needed to worry about them for their business line. In the throes of our back and forth I brought up that famous line from The Graduate, where Dustin Hoffman’s character, […]
Before I get into the thesis behind this blog I must state that the title I chose should not be interpreted as dismissiveness over shootings. Anytime innocent people are killed or wounded by someone with a firearm is tragic. Not only are lives lost or compromised but the impact on family, friends and communities is […]
It is never a good idea to get into a debate on the US Constitution’s Second Amendment – the one that talks about the ‘right to bear arms’ – because it is pointless. Gun advocates seldom have any interest in discussing their God-given freedom to carry a weapon, any weapon including some very powerful automatic […]
An edited version of this piece appeared in The Hill Times on July 23, 2018 Is Alex Neve, the secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada insane? Full disclosure: I have been a supporter of Amnesty International and its work for decades. I admire the positions they adopt and the advocacy they employ in the interests of […]
I have always believed it important to own up to an error, especially an error in analysis. A good analyst is ALWAYS open to learning, to considering new information, and to changing his or her mind in the face of that new info. A bad analyst sticks to his or her guns irrespective of new […]
We need to take a realistic approach to all this. No, not all returning women and children pose a danger to our societies and not all are inhuman monsters.
Sometimes calling an act of serious violence terrorism is really easy. Like when Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum narrowly escaped a deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport as he returned home from more than a year in exile in Turkey the other day (Taliban or Islamic State). Or when Somalia’s al Shabaab says “We first attacked […]