A couple of months ago I attended a meeting of TSAS, an assembly of Canadian academics who look at terrorism and national security issues (TSAS stands for ‘Terrorism, Security and Society). I have a number of friends at TSAS and am in fact an affiliate, although I am not myself an academic. At that meeting […]
Search: “CSIS”
We found 1,022 results for your search.
One of the harshest criticisms over a lot of stuff that is written about terrorism is the distinct lack of reliable and primary sources. Papers and books are written in an academic style with little use of actual data, although as my friend Bart Schuurman in the Netherlands has stated things are looking up as […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on August 27, 2018 Whatever side you take on the investigation by former FBI Director Robert Mueller on whether the Trump campaign team colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential elections – either it is a very serious allegation of wrongdoing by the current president and/or his […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on August 20, 2018 Is there any less desirable way to travel these days than by air? Long lineups everywhere, intrusive searches, the delicate dance of holding up your pants while shuffling (since you have to remove your belt before you pass through the scanner), trying to figure […]
Categories
Insecurity and security clearances
I was very privileged to work in the Canadian intelligence community for more than 3 decades. My career spanned 17 years with CSE – Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s signals intelligence agency – and 15 with CSIS – the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. There was not a day when I could not wait to get to […]
Why are we still at ‘war’ with terror 16 years after 9/11? This book looks at a variety of approaches and responses to international Islamist extremism, ranging from military and security/law enforcement action to government policies, community measures and religious efforts, with a goal to determining what has worked and what has not. The examples […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on August 6, 2018 Well, it has been a week since the mass shooting in Toronto’s Greektown and we have been subject to countless voices in the media as to what happened, what could have been done (if anything) to prevent it, and what it all means to […]
Charitable institutions are usually seen as good things in society. Ones we normally think of – the Red Cross, Amnesty International, the Canadian Cancer Society, etc. – play a very important role in raising money and spending it on the most needy: people suffering in war zones, prisoners of conscience, those suffering from serious disease. […]
Shortly after I joined CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) in January 2001 I attended a presentation by a friend who was working at the Canadian embassy in Kenya in the late 1990s. He related that he was at home on August 7, 1998 when a massive blast took him and a colleague off their feet […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on July 30, 2018 In the wake of an attack, whether it be terrorist in nature or a mass shooting/stabbing/vehicle ramming incident, we often read comments and statements such as the following: no one saw this coming it was completely unpredictable (and by extension unpreventable) who would have […]