Search: “Afghanistan”

In the wake of the attacks in Paris on November 13, we have already seen a wide variety of responses on what this all means and what do we do now.  French President Hollande has called the barbarity an act of war and vowed a crushing reply to the Islamic State.  We shall see what […]

We make laws to reflect our values and to protect ourselves from those that would undermine them.  For instance, we say that murder is a crime because we value life.  We have laws against the theft of personal goods because we value our property.  In a more controversial vein, we have hate laws because we […]

In an earlier blog post I spoke of the dangers of allowing intelligence analysis to be driven by politics (Not Very Intelligent – July 22).  Now the US assessments on its campaign against the Islamic State (IS) may have been subject to the same scourge. In a front-page piece in the New York Times (see […]

Whenever an act of terrorism occurs in the West there is an immediate flurry of questions and panic.  How did this happen?  Who was the perpetrator?  Why did he (or, more infrequently, she) do it?  Where did they get radicalised?  Is this another self-radicalised lone wolf (perhaps the most inaccurate label out there)?  What do […]

It must appear to most people in Canada that terrorism is a daily scourge.  If you take a global snapshot that is undeniably true.  Over the last few weeks we have seen attacks in France, Tunisia, Kuwait, Yemen and the inevitable – and sadly too frequent – violence in Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And […]

I have already talked a bit about the Sunni-Shia split in an earlier piece (Brothers at Arms).  Today’s thoughts are along a different pathway. When I worked in the intelligence world and looked at violent radicalization, the focus was entirely on Sunnis, not Shia.  Of course, there were other kinds of violence to worry about […]

What should Canadians make of Adil Charkaoui?  I’d be surprised if you haven’t heard of him.