Search: “9/11”

I have written on many, many occasions that bad data and/or bad analysis usually leads to bad decision making.  Think about it.  If the basic facts are wrong or are misconstrued how can any policy based on those facts be of any value?  Garbage in, garbage out as they say. This axiom was shown to […]

A lot of people are fascinated with technology. Maybe a little too fascinated.  I am not suggesting that the use of technology is bad: after all, I am writing this blog on my Dell laptop and not the manual Smith-Corona typewriter (if you are under 30 look up the word “typewriter” in a dictionary) that […]

One of the main reasons I like to lecture at universities is that I find young people a breath of fresh air.  They are not as jaded as old farts like me and are not afraid to ask questions and challenge assumptions.  They may not be that knowledgeable on any given topic but they are […]

I have a fear of heights.  This fear makes it hard for me even to climb ladders. I know it sounds silly and irrational but that is what fears often are – irrational.  Yes, some fears are valid and they do serve a purpose – for example a fear for snakes and spiders as some […]

In the ill-named “war on terror” small victories, let alone crushing ones, are hard to find.  It seems that no matter how many terrorists we kill more rise up like the warriors that sprang from dragon’s teeth in Greek mythology and we see more attacks (one more today in Jerusalem).  So it is little wonder […]

OK, I admit I am a little sensitive when it comes to the term “intelligence failure”.  You would be too if the profession you devoted three decades to was constantly criticised in the media for screwing up.  The failure to predict 9/11.  The failure to predict India’s acquisition of a nuclear weapons capacity.  The classic […]

It is obvious that a lot of people are worried about terrorism.  The news is full of stories of attacks, both successful and thwarted, and sometimes really alarming accounts like the news out of France that the government suspects that there are 15,000 French residents radicalising.  More than 70% of Americans think more terrorist attacks […]

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 […]