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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 […]

Quick!  Name the top ten causes of death in Canada!  Can you?  Here is one list I found in the wondrous playground and source of all wisdom we call the Internet (the data is from 2012: the rightmost column is percentage of yearly deaths:   1. Malignant neoplasms (cancer) 30.2 2 Diseases of heart (heart […]

China is getting a lot of headline attention these days in Canada and elsewhere.  Most of this coverage revolves around Chinese attempts to have its state-owned enterprises (SOEs) buy up Western companies.  Some of these deals have been cancelled by Western authorities over security concerns.  The bottom line seems to be we in the West […]

In the wake of the van attack in Toronto last week there has been a lot of ink spilled and airtime filled on the problem of what to do with young men. Regardless of motive, it seems that serious violence is carried out overwhelmingly by the male half of the human species.  Many researchers and […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on April 23, 2018 Way back when I was an analyst at CSE I recall a conversation with an workmate about who was more important to the organisation (we were both young and full of piss and vinegar).  He worked on the ‘Soviet problem’: I was assigned along […]

As a former intelligence analyst with more than three decades in national security and someone who has chosen to go public with my knowledge, perspective and experience I have attracted a lot of attention.  Some of it is praiseworthy (“Thanks for your service”), some appreciative (“I like what you wrote”) and some not so good […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on February 26, 2018   I still remember my first day at CSE. I had moved to Ottawa from London (Ontario) where I had been interviewed by CSE representatives and later offered a job.  I knew little of what I was being asked to do since the poster […]

I have a confession to make.  I wear a mask sometimes.  I think I have a good excuse though: I play goal in pick-up hockey games in Ottawa.  My face may not be Tom Cruise-worthy, but I sure don’t want to look like Jacques Plante before he pioneered the wearing of face masks in the […]