Search: “9/11”

Governments around the world have adopted a number of strategies to deal with their citizens who want to engage in terrorism.  At the far end of the scale investigations are carried out, arrests are made, trials are held and guilty parties are put in prison.  On the other end of the scale early intervention and […]

If there is one spy agency in Canada that is poorly understood and about which much of little veracity has been published it has to be CSE – Communications Security Establishment. CSE has a number of roles but the one that gets the most public attention is signals intelligence or SIGINT. This method of intelligence […]

I have decided to reread the Sherlock Holmes collection of stories (you can randomly make those kinds of decisions once you have retired).  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books and some of the series/movies based (sometimes loosely) on them have always appealed to me (NB I do prefer the Jeremy Brett interpretation over all others) and […]

As we still reel from the foiled terrorist attack  last week in Strathroy, Ontario, we can still rest assured that attacks, successful or not, remain a rarity in Canada.  In the period since 9/11 we have had no more than 8 such incidents: on average one every two years.   When we compare our experiences […]

The other day I was reading a fascinating article in Discover science magazine on Robert Hare, a Canadian psychologist who revolutionalised our understanding of psychopathy through years of studying inmates in Canadian correctional institutions.  Some of his more famous subjects, familiar to all Canadians, include Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.  His diagnsotic tool, the Psychopathy […]

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks one of the most often asked questions amongst Americans (and many others)  was: why?  Why were we attacked?  Why did so many innocent people have to die?  Why did we deserve such a catastrophe?  Why do they HATE us? The answers to those questions were spread all over […]

When it comes to what to do to counter terrorism there is an easy answer. Find people radicalised to violence, follow them, arrest them before they strike, put them on trial, incarcerate them and throw away the key.  What’s not to like about this approach?  No one gets hurt, do they? Indeed, this method does […]

The use of language to describe acts of mass violence is again under the microscope.  In the wake of the Orlando massacre, which was immediately called an act of terrorism by just about everyone, we now have a much smaller incident – the murder of British MP Jo Cox in her  West Yorkshire constituency.  Unlike […]

Another terrorist attack, another desperate search for meaning.  The bodies were still warm in Orlando when the speculation about the killer and his motive began in earnest.  Not surprisingly, the event dominated world news – as it should – and the usual parade of experts and analysts were asked to explain everything immediately despite the […]

There is obviously a difference between thought and action.   While it is generally true that most actions are preceded by thought, save I suppose rash emotional or instinctive/involuntary acts, it is also true that many thoughts do not lead to action.   If you think about all the thoughts you have in a given […]