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Yet another terrorist plot to airlines

Here we go again, an alleged terrorist plot against planes.  We have been there before – far too often.  There was 9/11 of course, and the 2002 ‘shoebomber’, and the 2006 liquid plot, and the 2009 ‘underwear bomber’, and the 2010 printer cartridge plot – clearly there is a trend here.  As a result of […]

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Is Canada’s 150th birthday a prime terrorist target?

This is a big year for us in Canada.  Sure, we are a youngish nation and celebrating 150 years may sound quaint to our older international cousins, but it is a cause for celebration nonetheless. I am looking forward to the commemoration as I was six when we marked our centennial in 1967 and don’t […]

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Preliminary thoughts on the London attacks

Residents of London have undergone yet another terrorist attack.  The nation that survived countless IRA attacks and threats in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and which saw the carnage of July 2005 and the attempted beheading of a military member in Woolwich in 2013 is reeling from yesterday’s events where a man ran over people […]

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From the Long War to the Forever War in counter terrorism

We seem to be having a hard time figuring out what to call our struggle with terrorism.   Leaving aside the belief, held by me and others, that framing counter terrorism in terms of war is a bad idea, it is clear that we keep changing our minds about what we are really involved in. […]

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The real link between alienation and radicalisation/terrorism

One of the most oft-cited ‘push factors’ for why people become radicalised and join terrorist groups is the nebulous idea of ‘alienation’.  Read any story or academic paper on the subject and you are bound to come across a phrase something like “the most vulnerable to radicalisation are alienated (NB or marginalised) youth”.  Go ahead […]

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‘Alternative facts’ are making us less safe – correction

I know that I need to stop carping about the proliferation of ‘alternative facts’, otherwise known as lies.  I am obsessing about pointing them out all with the full knowledge that there are far too many and they are coming in too fast and furious to keep up.  I suppose I want to provide an […]

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Perspectives

Wikileaks, Snowden and the impact on Canadian intelligence

Edward Snowden is painted as a courageous whistleblower and maybe hr are. Yet there is little in life that is uniquely positive and this goes as well for the smashers of secrets.

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Giving our security agencies the powers they need to stop terrorism

In a democracy that prides itself on the rule of law, no one in Canada is above the law, even – and especially – those charged with enforcing it, i.e. law enforcement agencies and their members.  Nothing subverts the faith a society has in its legal institutions more than the belief that laws are not […]

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Is Canada soft on terrorism? No!

If there is one myth in the ever increasing world of ‘alternative facts’ (i.e. lies) that has otherworldly strength and perseverance it is the whopper that some of the 9/11 hijackers came through Canada.  This inaccurate account of recent history has been repeated by people who should have known better – e.g. former Democratic presidential […]

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Should we be laying blasphemy charges in the 21st century?

There have been many times in history where statements made publicly have turned out to be somewhat less than true.   Remember the famous “Dewey defeats Truman” headline in the 1948 US Presidential election?  What about then CIA Director George Tenet’s claim that intelligence pointing to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was a “slam […]