Curated knowlege, trenchant insights & witty bon mots
Esquire magazine has a very interesting story: A now-retired member of SEAL Team 6, the man who actually killed Osama bin Laden, is struggling in civilian life with no pension, health care or job. The Stars and Stripes, the newspaper of the U.S. armed forces, has already picked away at some of the 15,000-word article.
Mon, February 11 2013 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders followed up on work by his colleague Colin Freeze by interpreting what a report tells us about who becomes a violent extremist, and just as importantly, who doesn’t.
Sat, February 9 2013 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
The New York Times had a big scoop within a story on drone strikes: The CIA was operating a drone base in Saudi Arabia. However, as NYT public editor Margaret Sullivan notes, the paper had the information more than a year before they published it. They withheld publication at the request of the CIA, which [...]
Sat, February 9 2013 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page, Media » Comments Off
The Caucasus region of Russia hasn’t been very newsworthy since the fracas between Russia and Georgia, has it? But much has festered below the surface, and that boiled over with the Monday attack on two subway stations in Moscow that left 38 dead.
Wed, March 31 2010 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
ABC News obtained some photos taken from a helicopter by an NYPD officer on 9/11. See them here. Still chilling after all these years.
Wed, February 10 2010 » Main Page, Media, multimedia » Comments Off
Someone I briefly worked with in Cambodia more than a decade ago was a Monday night guest on The Daily Show.
Tue, June 9 2009 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
Outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush has said one of his main accomplishments had been keeping terror groups from carrying out another strike on U.S. soil. But what if the big leaguers, al Qaeda, weren’t really trying in that period? What if it’s been waiting for a time more to its strategic advantage? What if [...]
Tue, January 20 2009 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » 1 Comment
From a March 27, 2007 lecture at the U of T’s Munk Centre by Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11:
Thu, February 14 2008 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
I went to a Canadian Journalism Foundation event tonight featuring Pamela Wallin talking about the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan report.
Wed, January 30 2008 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists examines the grim possibility of nuclear terrorism, noting that the failure to prevent 9/11 itself stemmed from a failure of imagination: “A similar failure of imagination leads many today to discount the risk of a nuclear 9/11.”
Tue, October 10 2006 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off