Search: “Iraq”

One thing we have all gotten used to in the post 9/11 era is the question: at any given time how at risk are we from terrorism?  In an effort to answer this query for a nation’s citizenry a number of methods have been proposed. One of the more famous ones was the US Department […]

Well, we are coming up to the six-month mark of the Donald Trump era and it is time for a reckoning.  So much print and coverage has been devoted to the Donald that I hesitate to add to this amount.  And yet there is quite a bit that bears on counter terrorism policy and strategy […]

Some people have unrealistic views of security intelligence services.  I cannot count how many times I have turned to my wife, while we were watching a movie featuring the NSA (the US signals intelligence agency) or the CIA, and guffawing ‘as if!’ when something truly outrageous is presented.  Like when a small team can find, […]

Following up on yesterday’s blog about a possible Canadian who knifed a police officer at Flint Airport in Michigan, we now know that yes indeed he is Canadian.  Thankfully, the wounded officer’s condition has gone from critical to stable after he underwent surgery yesterday.  The assailant, Amor Ftouhi, has been taken into custody and charged. […]

A few months ago an Austrian town put out a ‘help wanted’ sign – for a hermit.  I am not making this up.  The town has apparently had a hermit since the 17th century and the last one ‘retired’ in the fall of 2016 (how do you retire from being a hermit?  I wonder how […]

I have come to know the journalist Michael Petrou over the past few years.  He would sometimes call me to seek my views on terrorism when he was with Macleans magazine and I relied heavily on his book ‘Renegades’ – the story of Canadians in the Spanish Civil War – for a section of my […]

A pattern is emerging when it comes to the aftermath of a terrorist attack in the West.  People of all faiths and backgrounds denounce the attack, politicians swear that their nations will not be cowed by fear, candles and late-night vigils abound, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris is lit with the colours of the […]

Terrorists are hateful people, of that there is no doubt.  What they hate varies based on the underlying ideology of the group to which they belong or through which they derive their inspiration and yet there are similarities at times.  Most of them hate society or governments or policies or something else and have concluded […]

Once in a while I come across (or, in this case, have someone point me in the right direction) a story related to terrorism that surprises even  me, a 30-year grizzled veteran of intelligence and counter terrorism.  I saw a lot in my time at CSIS and had the incredibly amazing opportunity to work on […]

It was the US artist Andy Warhol who once said “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”, a phrase that seems to have underscored a universal desire to get noticed.  There is no question that it is much easier in a world of 24/7 news to have one’s story told: recall the […]