Search: “Africa”

Ya gotta feel for Nigeria. This West African country is, and has been for some time, beset with all forms of violence, from organised crime to ethnic clashes to jihadi terrorism. In the latter category we have Boko Haram (BH), an Al Qaeda affiliate wannabe that has been very active since the late 2000s largely […]

When you have been at war with something for almost two decades it is important to declare ‘victory’ at some point. Those whose support you – i.e. the public/taxpayer – need and want to see some results for the actions they are backstopping. Fighting for years with no sense that you are winning is a […]

We seem to collectively have short memories. When something bad happens, or better yet several bad somethings occur over a short time span, we immediately declare this to be a new trend, as if these incidents have never been seen before. This, of course, is not usually correct. As the Old Testament’s Book of Ecclesiastes […]

They often say that truth is the first casualty of war. States and militaries have all kinds of reasons to hide facts if for no other one than to cover up their ‘mistakes’ (except that military ‘mistakes’ usually imply lots of meaningless deaths). A good example is the US insistence that few if any civilians […]

If you are really seized with an issue – and I mean really, really burning with zeal and a desire to right a perceived wrong – would you not want to put your commitment to the test as soon as you could? Would you not want to show the world that what you fervently believe […]

If there is one nation that gets a disproportionate percentage of the headlines, especially in light of its small size (under nine million, including in lands many see as ‘occupied’ – more on that later), it is Israel. The world’s only ‘Jewish’ state (more on this later) is known for its high tech success and […]

Of all the analysis on the terrorist attack in New Zealand which an Australian white supremacist slaughtered 50 innocent Muslims at prayer, including a three-year old boy, what has surfaced on occasion is the fear that this incident will inspire others to carry out similar heinous acts of violence: copy cat crimes if you will. […]

Here is a link to the YouTube version of podcast (it is also available on iTunes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uy_S0Inojk Here are some informative links about China’s campaign against the Uyghurs https://thediplomat.com/2019/01/are-indonesia-and-malaysia-ready-to-stand-up-for-chinas-muslims/ https://www.rfa.org/english/women/suffering-01302019152956.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/02/07/uighurs-australia/?utm_term=.59e0784d5aea https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2186446/beijing-backs-patriotic-actions-chinese-students-who-reported https://ent.siteintelgroup.com/Chatter/is-supporter-calls-to-kill-chinese-in-defense-of-islam-and-uyghurs.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/21/how-china-tried-stop-my-freedom-speech-canada/?utm_term=.214ddb57f282&wpisrc=nl_todayworld&wpmm=1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/china-has-put-1-million-muslims-in-concentration-camps-mbs-had-nothing-to-say/2019/02/24/370be676-36e4-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html?utm_term=.84e60354c337&wpisrc=nl_todayworld&wpmm=1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/chinas-expanding-war-on-islam-now-theyre-coming-for-the-kazakhs/2019/03/01/16ebbe76-38ff-11e9-a2cd-307b06d0257b_story.html?utm_term=.0e75941659e5&wpisrc=nl_todayworld&wpmm=1 Featured terrorist attack – Kashmir https://www.economist.com/asia/2019/02/15/a-deadly-bombing-provokes-a-crisis-between-india-and-pakistan Terrorism this fortnight (Feb 12-25) Afghanistan Afghan Intelligence forces arrested two members of […]

There is a phrase I love and which I would like to share with you today as it has a lot to with the theme I want to briefly develop. It’s “past performance is no guarantee of future results”. You may have seen this before, on prospectuses for mutual funds or investments for instance. In […]

Here is the script that accompanies episode #4 of the podcast “An Intelligent Look at Terrorism”: W(h)ither Al Qaeda? There are a lot of good pieces on the status of Al Qaeda and here are links to a few of them: https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/08/opinions/where-is-bin-ladens-partner-in-crime-ayman-al-zawahiri/index.html https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-isis-syria-iraq-iran-terror-islamic-state-washington-a8769936.html https://ctc.usma.edu/fighting-the-long-war-the-evolution-of-al-qaida-in-the-arabian-peninsula/ Here is a piece on the assessment of the Office of […]