Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Who is fighting back against the Taliban?

Episode 250 – The Taliban has an opponent: here’s to their success! Ever since the Taliban retook Afghanistan in the fall of 2021 news out of that nation has been solidly negative. Public executions have been reinstated. Women’s rights are as bad now as they were when the Taliban (Taliban 1.0) took power in 2001. […]

Categories
Podcast Quick Hits

Is an act of violence terrorism if there is no underlying coherent ideology?

Episode 254 – Is the Magdeburg Christmas market attack an other example of ‘cafeteria terrorism’? Another mass gathering, another vehicular attack, this time in Magdeburg, Germany. This is a trend, especially amongst Islamist jihadis (Nice, Barcelona, London, Berlin…) in recent years. This case is different, though, as the alleged motive of the alleged attacker seems, […]

Categories
Podcast Spies Like Us

Operation Kris Kringle

Spies Like Us Season 2 Episode 16 In this last episode of 2024 the guys talk about the pluses and  minuses of calling Luigi Mangione, the killer of a US healthcare executive, a terrorist, and why Santa Claus would make a GREAT intelligence operative

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

What other types of violence other than jihadi is prominent in Pakistan?

Pakistan’s struggle to contain Baloch insurgencies in the southwest area of the country is causing all kinds of problems

Categories
Podcast Quick Hits

The 5 eyes are skewing ‘radicalisation’ data

Episode 254 – Is it helpful to ignore the jihadi elephant in the room? Ever since 9/11, Western nations have devoted a lot of time and money trying to understand ‘radicalisation’, and more narrowly the kind of radicalisation that leads to violence. In essence, this is what causes terrorism (terrorists are made, not born). Our […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

What, if anything, does the killing of a healthcare CEO have to do with radicalisation?

Episode 248 – Is the killing of a US healthcare executive an act of terrorism? As I have noted on far too many occasions no one can agree on what is terrorism and what is not. Not all acts of violence qualify as such and it is often very difficult to determine if the requisite […]

Categories
Podcast Spies Like Us

AI-AI-Oh!

Season 2 Episode 15 Alternative link When you don’t know nuthin’ it is best to ask someone who does know sumpin’. The guys are happy to welcome AI guru Ryan Zorn, an ex-CSIS dude, to demonstrate the challenges of AI and the threats to national security. Oh, and hope springs eternal that AI will create […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Whither Syria after the Assads?

Episode 247 – Is it time to yet to celebrate a new beginning in Syria? Any time a brutal dictator is ousted is a good day for the world as there are far too many still in power in the world. The Assads, father and son, were particularly inhumane, using, among other tools, chemical weapons […]

Categories
Podcast Quick Hits

Democracies of the world unite!

Episode 253 – The West needs to stand up more to autocracy The world is in a terrible mess right now. Autocracies like Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and others are running roughshod over human rights and international norms. All this has huge implications for national – and international – security. The democracies on […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh!

Finding an assassin’s gun? Cool!

Episode 246 – The gun that killed Thomas Darcy McGee, father of Canadian Confederation There are undoubtedly many artifacts of historical importance that have gone missing, and the discovery of such is a meaningful event. The fact that the gun believed to have killed a leading Canadian politician shortly after the country’s independence went missing […]