Search: “Terrorists”

Here we go again.  Another terrorist attack, this time in Melbourne, Australia, another chorus of ‘he was mentally ill’ and, I guess, not responsible.  Last Friday (November 9) an ethnic Somali man drove to that city’s central business district with a bunch of gas cylinders turned to the open position (seeking one surmises to cause […]

In the US there is a big debate going on, at least among some in Democratic Party circles, to do away with ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  In truth, parts of ICE have been involved in activities that some seen as inhuman such as the location, detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants who have […]

OK, it is probably best to get this out right at the start.  When it comes to ‘terrorism experts’ I have a HUGE bias.  As a former practitioner, someone who spent decades in counter terrorism as an analyst for a security intelligence service, I lean heavily in favour of listening to those who work in […]

There is so much to write about when it comes to pointing out the lies, exaggerations and outright whoppers spewed by US President Trump that it is almost not worth doing anymore.  There is no challenge to it: it is like shooting fish in a barrel.  I am not suggesting that no one monitor the […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on November 5, 2018. For a country that is thankfully rarely touched by terrorism we in Canada sure seem to talk about it a lot.  I suppose I am partly responsible for this as I tend to write about violent extremism ad nauseum, but given my career in […]

Sophie’s Choice is a 1982 film (starring Meryl Streep in the title role) of a woman sent to the concentration camp in Auschwitz who is forced by a sadistic doctor to make a terrible choice: she can save only one of her two children and must choose.  One will live and the other will die, […]

Have you ever been to Singapore? I have, several times. Nice city, clean, ordered, not really a lot to do there though. Capable intelligence services from my perspective. What has always struck me on arrival at Changi Airport is the location of very, very big signs in English that tell you in bold letters what the Singaporeans […]

While this may strike some people as arrogant and dismissive I have to confess that when I listen to ‘experts’ talk about national security issues in the media I first look at who is speaking. Some of those who offer opinions are journalists, others are politicians or political junkies, still others are academics. All have interesting perspectives […]

Foreign fighters are all the rage these days in Canada (hmm, ‘all the rage’ – kinda describes jihadis to a T doesn’t it?). Many, many Canadians are going ballistic over reports that some of our citizens who left our land to join Islamic State or other terrorist groups abroad have had a change of heart and […]

Canadians are justifiably angry at those among us who spat on our flag, burned their passports and left one of the world’s finest countries to join terrorist groups like Islamic State (IS). Not that the numbers are that high – a few hundred maybe compared with thousands from several European, African and Asian nations – but […]