Search: “Terrorists”

In 1996 then First Lady Hillary Clinton published a book It Takes a Village which was essentially a tome on how to raise children.  The main argument centred on the responsibilities that everyone has to contribute to the shaping of productive, well-adjusted citizens and was a bit of a call to an earlier age where this […]

Although most countries cannot agree on what constitutes terrorism, if we judge by the number of definitions that are out there, they do seem to do a better job at determining what a terrorist group is.  There are so-called terrorist listings in the US, the UN, the EU, and the UK among other jurisdictions.  We […]

Another terrorist attack another claim that a – pick one – mentally ill/alienated/uneducated/inherently violent/disenfranchised young  man “self-radicalised” and went on to commit a terrorist act.  The case this time is the axe attack on a train in Germany by an Afghan (or Pakistani – the information on this is not yet clear) immigrant.  German officials […]

Like a lot of people I enjoy traveling.   I had some amazing opportunities to see the world while I worked in intelligence and I have continued to voyage abroad in retirement.  There is so much that our planet has to offer and it is indeed a privilege to see it close up. When I […]

If there is one thing that is true about all Islamist extremist groups is that they are full of hate.  They hate other Muslims.  They hate the Shia.  They hate the Sufis.  They hate non-Muslims.  They hate LGBT.  They hate choice.  They hate everything in their warped world view.  Hate.  Hate.  Hate. One other thing […]

The horror of what happened in Nice compounds the horror of what happened in Paris in January and November of last year.  These large-scale attacks got a lot of attention, but there were also some smaller ones like the killing of a police officer and his wife and an attempt to blow up a gas […]

As I write this blog events in Turkey are still unfolding.  Whether we call this a successful coup or an attempted coup is not relevant to what I hope to convey here.  Suffice to say that a tactic the Turkish military used all too frequently in the 20th century appears to have resurfaced. I have […]

If I have said it once, I have said it many times: it is best to wait for information to come in before issuing “definitive”analyses of what has just happened.  The tragic attack in Nice may be over but it is far too soon to give in to speculation about who was responsible and why […]

Every day we seem to read about yet another terrorist attack attributed to Islamic State.  Whether or not the group claims the event – and there is a lot of analysis over when it does and when it doesn’t – there is no question that in the minds of most people IS is the world’s […]

It seems like a no-brainer.  If we could identify the factors that lead someone to embrace terrorism, or at the very least point to those vulnerable to terrorist messaging and recruitment, we could achieve several things.  We could identify individuals who exhibit those risk factors and get them help before it is too late.  Or […]