Do you remember when airplane hijackings were all the rage? They seemed to happen all the time way back then such that they even became a joke of sorts (albeit not for those on the plane!). Even Airplane!, the 1980 movie, made fun of them. Most incidents ended more or less peacefully I seem to […]
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(NB how’s that for an analogy?) When I was a kid I did not have a good impression of the military (Canadian in my case of course). My friends and I would laugh at those who joined the cadets or reserves, seeing them as ‘losers’. My childhood was first filled with images of US army […]
One thing we know about terrorism is that it has no boundaries. No single language, ethnicity, religion, ideology or national entity – except maybe Antarctica: I cannot find any terrorist acts there – has an inherent wall around it to prevent terrorism from unfurling its violence on innocent people. Yes, some places suffer disproportionately from […]
NB due to technical issues this blog is two days late: my apologies If you follow the news even a bit you know that places of worship are prime targets for terrorists and hatemongers. There are probably several reasons for this: they are generally unprotected; they are full of people at times; and they are […]
On this day in 2006, four gunmen attacked the US Embassy in Damascus, storming the compound with grenades and automatic weapons before being repelled by Syrian security forces.
OK, OK, I am a little sensitive when it comes to articles on CSIS. I did work there for 15 years after all and was (and still am) very proud of what I and my colleagues did to help keep Canadians safe. No, we were not perfect but I think we did our best. So […]
I don’t know how closely you follow terrorism-related stories in the news ( I know I spend FAR too much time doing so!) and thus I don’t know if you are aware of the ‘peace talks’ that have been developing for some time between the US and the Taliban in Afghanistan. These negotiations are linked […]
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On existential threats
It is rare for the head of an intelligence agency to give a public talk. Spy services, as we all know, work in the shadows and do things that are sometimes not generally nice (like assassinating terrorists). We’ve all seen the Jason Bourne films, right? So when the leader of one of these organisations does […]
When you work in national security you do the best job you can to stop bad things from happening. If those bad things involve terrorism what you are trying to do is to prevent attacks from taking place. You identify potential terrorists, follow them, determine which ones are serious about actually doing something, run sources […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on August 12, 2019. I never worked in foreign affairs or for Foreign Affairs (or Global Affairs Canada as it is now known, having once been designated External Affairs and many other names) but I know a little about about the subject. After all, you cannot work in […]