Search: “russia”

If there is one agency that has not done too well, at least not publicly, since 9/11 it is the US’ CIA.  From failing to have the right people and resources in place to prevent those terrorist acts from happening to the news over the use of torture and ‘black sites’, the Agency – as […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on September 3, 2018. What is a citizen?  Well it depends.  The concept appears to date back to city states in ancient Greece, but in the modern era each state decides what the rules are.  For the average person citizenship is determined by the particular country in which […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on August 27, 2018 Whatever side you take on the investigation by former FBI Director Robert Mueller on whether the Trump campaign team colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential elections – either it is a very serious allegation of wrongdoing by the current president and/or his […]

I remember it as if it were yesterday.  My first day at CSE was July 14, 1983.  I moved to Ottawa from London (ON) and went to the Sir Leonard Tilley Building where I was brought to a former RCMP officer I’ll call ‘Joe’ who provided me my security indoctrination.  After outlining what CSE did […]

You have to hand it to Islamic State (IS) and its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi – whose demise by the way has achieved Mark Twainian status (“rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated”).  Despite the loss of the Caliphate, the deaths of thousands of its members, the virtual drying up of its fighter pipeline […]

I was very privileged to work in the Canadian intelligence community for more than 3 decades.  My career spanned 17 years with CSE – Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s signals intelligence agency – and 15 with CSIS – the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.  There was not a day when I could not wait to get to […]

Tunisia presents an interesting case study when it comes to terrorism.  The North African country was, of course, where the ‘Arab Spring’ began on December 18, 2010 (coincidentally my birthday!) when a crowd protested the self immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi who killed himself the day before when police had confiscated his wares and a female […]

The US intelligence community is huge.  I mean HUGE.  At least 16 separate agencies and hundreds of thousands of men and women, civilian and military, all dedicated to doing their utmost to keep America safe and protect US interests.  Is the community perfect? Of course it isn’t.  The Saddam Hussein weapons of mass destruction debacle […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on June 11, 2018. All is takes is a cursory glance at the news on any given day to conclude – erroneously as I hope to show – that Islamist extremist terrorism is a daily event that threatens us all.  We read of bombings in Afghanistan, beheadings in […]

Hubris, defined as “excessive pride or self-confidence or arrogance”, is a human emotion that has long fascinated me.  There are individuals who exercise it with alarming regularity – a certain US President whose name rhymes with ‘dump’ readily comes to mind – and it is often seen as a fatal flaw that results in someone’s downfall.  For  instance, Napoleon could […]