Categories
Perspectives

At what price freedom of expression?

You do not have to go that far back in human history to have seen people burned at the stake, hung, drawn and quartered and otherwise treated very badly for having ‘blasphemed’ (although my favourite blasphemy scene is still from Monty Python’s Life of Brian where John Cleese plays a rabbi calling for the death […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

What did Canada’s deployment to Afghanistan mean?

Episode 252 – When the soldiers come home from a foreign deployment, what then? After 9/11 Canada was one of the first nations to send its forces to Afghanistan to find Al Qaeda and help Afghanistan oust the Taliban. Thousands of soldiers deployed and over a decade 159 died (in addition to seven civilians). Canada […]

Categories
Podcast Quick Hits

What have we learned from the New Orleans attack?

Episode 258 – While every attack is different there are some familiar characteristics here Another vehicular attack, another round of questions on what happened and why. The families of those killed and injured in an ISIS-inspired incident want answers on why this occurred, what was known, and why it was not stopped. Was there anything […]

Categories
Podcast Quick Hits

What to watch on the terrorism landscape in 2025

Episode 256 – Terrorism is with us to stay unfortunately I would imagine most people are sick of hearing about terrorism. We read and view reports on a daily basis where individuals and groups carry out attacks or, more hopefully, are foiled by law enforcement and security intelligence agencies. Enough is enough, right? Alas, likely […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

How does the intelligence cookie get made?

Episode 251 – What good is intelligence if it is not passed on to decision makers? Those who work in intelligence have a tough job. Whether it is HUMINT, SIGINT, IMINT or any other ‘INT’, the data is vast and must be collected, processed, tested for accuracy, corroborated, analysed and put into short product so […]

Categories
Podcast Quick Hits

There is no need to play the racist card over speculation

Episode 255 – Why can’t we all get along in the terrorism studies field? In many areas it is acceptable to put forward a hypothesis, based on what is known, and see where it goes. Honest practitioners will change that idea once new information is made available, and not hold to it in the face […]

Categories
Podcast Quick Hits

Is an act of violence terrorism if there is no underlying coherent ideology?

Episode 254 – Is the Magdeburg Christmas market attack an other example of ‘cafeteria terrorism’? Another mass gathering, another vehicular attack, this time in Magdeburg, Germany. This is a trend, especially amongst Islamist jihadis (Nice, Barcelona, London, Berlin…) in recent years. This case is different, though, as the alleged motive of the alleged attacker seems, […]

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

What other types of violence other than jihadi is prominent in Pakistan?

Pakistan’s struggle to contain Baloch insurgencies in the southwest area of the country is causing all kinds of problems

Categories
Canadian Intelligence Eh! Podcast

Whither Syria after the Assads?

Episode 247 – Is it time to yet to celebrate a new beginning in Syria? Any time a brutal dictator is ousted is a good day for the world as there are far too many still in power in the world. The Assads, father and son, were particularly inhumane, using, among other tools, chemical weapons […]

Categories
Podcast Quick Hits

Democracies of the world unite!

Episode 253 – The West needs to stand up more to autocracy The world is in a terrible mess right now. Autocracies like Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and others are running roughshod over human rights and international norms. All this has huge implications for national – and international – security. The democracies on […]