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Perspectives

The world may need more Canada, but not more Canadian terrorists

Even if terrorist attacks are rare in Canada, some Canadian extremists do elect to strike abroad. What should we do with them?

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The greening of terrorism?

Why the sustained use of violence by environmental groups is just a matter of time.

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Today in Terrorism: November 19, 1995 – Attack on the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan

A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-packed truck into the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad on Nov. 19, 1995, killing 15 people, including the second secretary of the embassy and three Egyptian security guards.

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CSIS is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t

CSIS is criticized when it refuses to divulge anything at all. It is criticized when it at least makes an effort to let out some information. Why should the intelligence agency even try then?

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Today in terrorism: 13 October 2015, A pox on both your houses

The neverending back-and-forth between the Israelis and the Palestinians was captured in a single day back in 2015.

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Politics may be a blood sport, but death threats are unacceptable

Canadian 2019 Elections: Disliking a candidate or a whole party is one thing. Issuing death threats is another.

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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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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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9/11: looking back and looking forward

This piece is a bit of a cheat. Rather than an entirely new thought it is a cut and paste from the introduction to my fourth book An End to the War on Terrorism, published in 2018. Given that today marks the 18th anniversary of the single greatest terrorist attack in our planet’s history I […]

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Another front in the US’ ‘war on terrorism’?

I don’t know how closely you follow terrorism-related stories in the news ( I know I spend FAR too much time doing so!) and thus I don’t know if you are aware of the ‘peace talks’ that have been developing for some time between the US and the Taliban in Afghanistan. These negotiations are linked […]