Search: “Terrorists”

It is rare for an intelligence agency to get public credit for what it does or how it does it.  It is even rarer for a group of intelligence analysts to be featured in a news story and described as at the forefront of understanding a particular threat. Analysts are like the Steve Carrell character […]

I’m sure you’ve had times where you remark “do you remember…?”.  It could be about someone you went to high school with.  Or that ice cream place your parents would always stop at on the way back from the cottage.  Or maybe a song that was always on the radio way back when.  Yep, these […]

We can’t seem to get away from the whole mental illness/terrorism nexus.  Popular wisdom still maintains that people who engage in acts of terrorism must have some form of mental disturbance.  This argument is being put forward yet again in the case of the Chatanooga shooter, as he was allegedly depressed at some point in […]

When we talk of terrorism we often tiptoe around terminology.  Even the word “terrorism” itself has caused some angst: witness the debate back and forth over what to call the killing of three US Muslims in North Carolina a few months ago by a crazed neighbour and the more recent slaughter of nine African Americans […]

When most people think about terrorism, they probably have some pre-set notions of what it looks like.  Terrorists are from disadvantaged backgrounds.  They are marginalised.  They have mental health issues.  They are inherently violent people. All these preconceptions are wrong.  Or at least they are not very good at predicting who becomes a terrorist and […]

In the struggle to come up with strategies to deal with violent extremism (notice I didn’t say “War on Terror”?) a number of policies, strategies and measures are continually being proposed by governments, academics, experts and thinktanks around the world.  There is even some attempt at coordinating positions and coming to some agreement on what […]

A couple of years ago, I remember reading an article in the Wall Street Journal in which the phenomenon of “lawfare” was featured.  Lawfare occurs when a person misuses the legal system to intimidate others from criticising him/her and threatens to bring personal liability action.  The term was applied to a number of scenarios: when […]

I’m no fan of spaghetti westerns and the 1966 film starring Clint Eastwood among others has nothing to do with terrorism.  It’s just that I can think of no better phrase to describe the interim report issued by the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence on countering the terrorist threat in Canada (see the […]

I see that a Canadian arrested a few months ago and awaiting trial on terrorism charges has been beaten up in an Ottawa detention centre.  This individual, Carlos Larmond, was allegedly attacked by inmates who were tired of his attempts to recruit “soldiers of Islam” and for threatening non-Muslim prisoners (see story here).  It is […]

Further to my earlier post on when Egypt would learn from its historic mistakes in dealing with terrorism and violence, I now turn my attention to Turkey.  According to news sources, the Turkish government may invade along a 70-mile stretch of its border with Syria to establish a 20-mile buffer zone (see article here) Given […]