Search: “Terrorists”

The photo has already become iconic.  The picture of the little Kurdish boy lying face down in the water has touched the lives of tens of millions around the world.  It ranks up there with the girl running naked after a napalm strike in Vietnam and the vulture stalking a starving Ethiopian boy.  This photo […]

In what seems likes eons ago,  former US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld once provided his take on what the US intelligence community knew about the terrorist threat during a news conference.  It is worth repeating here. “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is […]

So this guy gets on a train traveling from Brussels to Paris, pulls out a couple of weapons, including an AK-47, and fails to kill dozens only because three US citizens heroically take him out (see story here).  In the aftermath, the suspect is confused that he is being labelled a terrorist (despite the fact […]

Canadians remember the 1988 Seoul Olympics when “our” sprinter Ben Johnson won gold in the 100-metre dash.  Celebrations turned to sorrow quickly, however, when accusations began to surface that Ben doped up before the race (it turned out he had been doping up for years).  A hero became a pariah. What was interesting, however, about […]

I don’t normally pay attention to what politicians say, especially during an election campaign, but someone alerted me (thanks to whomever that was!) to an interview this morning (August 15) with Defence Minister Jason Kenney on CBC’s The House.  In the exchange, which covered a number of items (the economy, Mike Duffy…), the Minister talked […]

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 […]