How close have you been to a terrorist attack? Not too close I hope. This Quick Hits podcast looks at what it means to be near to one of these events.
From my point of view, I have been tantalisingly close to 3 acts of terrorism (2 in Canada and 1 in France) in my career as an Intelligence Analyst with the Canadian Government. Please share your experience in the comment section below.
2 replies on “Have you ever witness an act of terrorism? | QUICK HITS 21”
If one has ever watched the British show the IT Crowd, the “Robot” episode is similar to my first close call with terrorism. Coming from the site of the IRA Canary Warf bomb 2 weeks earlier, we accidentally crossed a police cordon and ended up 6 feet from 5 lbs of semtex in a shopping bag as they worked to make it safe. We were curious as to these people huddled around the phone box, and then when we found out what it was, calmly strolled over to the cordon.
The second time was 20yrs later when I was heading back to an embassy in Athens, having just gotten lunch, turned the corner and an anarchist’s device sent to another embassy went off right where I had just been.
Now I am teaching a class on terrorism in London. 2 weeks after talking students on a tour of the City, showing them how they created an invisible fortress using landscaping, architecture and loads of CCTV, we get the London Bridge attack and the unique narwhal tusk defence technique. Took another class there 2 weeks ago, so far no attacks yet (so I am kind of hoping I am not a “bad penny”, although sometimes coup attempts also happen right after I have visited some places).
Thanks for taking the time to comment James! Please stay in touch and good luck with the course!