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Today in terrorism: September 30, 2012/2017

Terrorists acts vary widely – very widely – in scope. At the one end, the end with the highest casualties, we have 9/11 of course: almost 3,000 dead, countless wounded and trillions of dollars in damages. At the other end we have no casualties (dead or wounded): this is not to say that people are […]

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Today in Terrorism: September 26, 2014

In all the debates about what is more important today from a terrorism angle, i.e. where we should put the greatest concentration of resources to counter it, I find there is one glaring omission. As we go back and forth on whether to put all our eggs in the jihadi basket or the far right […]

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What if we can’t prosecute returning terrorist ‘foreign fighters?

A version of this piece appeared in the Globe and Mail online on September 25, 2019. In much of the debate over what to do with ‘Jihadi Jack’, who is now all ours thanks to the UK decision to revoke his citizenship, a lot of arguments for and against repatriation were made. One of the […]

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Why sending military forces abroad is a two-edged sword

(NB how’s that for an analogy?) When I was a kid I did not have a good impression of the military (Canadian in my case of course). My friends and I would laugh at those who joined the cadets or reserves, seeing them as ‘losers’. My childhood was first filled with images of US army […]

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September 20, 1980: ETA kill four members of Spain’s Guardia Civil at a bar

There are terrorists groups that have their rise and fall over time. Some groups are remarkably resilient and longlasting, such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which is pretty close to a century old. Others are a flash in the pan such as the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) which lasted only between 1973 and 1975 […]

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September 19, 1972: Letter bomb sent to the Israeli embassy in London

If you go far enough back in recent-ish history one of the terrorist groups that used to get a fair bit of attention was an outfit named Black September. Named after the month in 1970 during which the Jordanian armed forces clashed with fighters from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO – remember them?), which led […]

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September 16, 1920: Wall Street bombing

On this day in 1920 a horse-drawn wagon passed by lunchtime crowds on New York’s iconic Wall Street, stopped near the JP Morgan bank headquarters and went boom.

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September 15, 2017: Parsons Green train bombing

On 15 September 2017, at around 08:20 BST, an explosion occurred on a District line train at Parsons Green Underground station, in London, England.

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September 13, 2006: Gunmen hit U.S. embassy, 3 attackers die

On this day in 2006, four gunmen attacked the US Embassy in Damascus, storming the compound with grenades and automatic weapons before being repelled by Syrian security forces.

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Our protectors need better support from the courts

There is a constant battle between what are commonly called good and evil. Good in this case consists of the men and women who toil on our behalf to keep us safe: in Canada that would be the security service (CSIS), law enforcement agencies (RCMP as well as provincial and municipal police services) and others. […]