Search: “islamic state”

One thing I have learned over three decades of working in intelligence and counter terrorism is that perspective matters.  As an analyst one of the gravest sins you can commit is to give in to what is called “mirror imaging”, the erroneous belief that everyone thinks like you do.  When you do that, you are […]

I must confess that I am feeling a little frustrated with my US friends these days.  There is a lot to admire in the US of A and that is why so many people want to move there.  True, they have their problems, and they have Donald Trump, but don’t we all (except for Trump […]

In the ill-named “war on terror” small victories, let alone crushing ones, are hard to find.  It seems that no matter how many terrorists we kill more rise up like the warriors that sprang from dragon’s teeth in Greek mythology and we see more attacks (one more today in Jerusalem).  So it is little wonder […]

If you read the news in whatever format you prefer you cannot escape the reality that there are a lot of hateful people out there. Online (so-called Internet shaming), offline, it doesn’t matter.  Some people just get off on spewing venom and trying to get  a rise out of everyone else. We know of course […]

Imagine that you are the parent of Steven Sotloff, or Alan Henning, or Moaz al-Kasasbeh, all of whom were assassinated brutally by Islamic State. The first two were beheaded while the third, a Jordanian pilot, was burned alive.  Your children were taken from you and died in some of the most horrific ways possible. Now […]

Wouldn’t it be great if the whole were always the sum of its parts?  That way, if we could ensure that we have all the ingredients and understand how they go together we could reliably predict what the end state would be.  If only life were like math: 2 + 3 + 4 = 9 […]

One thing that is obvious is that terrorists love social media.  They are all over it and are masters at using it to their advantage.  This should surprise no one.  Terrorists tend to be two things: young and smart.  Young smart people know how to get their message out and are adept at modifying what […]

In the Harry Potter novels the villain is known as Lord Voldemort.  He is in many ways a terrorist.  He is ideologically driven (he wants to take over the wizarding world and force everyone to conform to his way of doing things) and he uses violence to achieve his goals.  He recruits followers and tortures […]

The US has suffered through two scary incidents in the past 24 hours.  Fortunately, as of the time of writing, no one has died in either event.  A man dressed in a security uniform knifed 8 people at a mall in central Minnesota.  There are reports he talked of Allah and asked at least one […]

I like Tariq Ramadan, I really do. I have had the privilege of hearing him talk several times in Ottawa and I find him to be a very well spoken and intelligent man. And I don’t buy the accusation that as the grandson of Hassan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, he is […]