Canadian Intelligence Eh
Everywhere you look these days terrorism and violent extremism dominate the headlines. Whether you follow what is happening in Afghanistan or Iraq, or in the West writ large, we are inundated with news of attacks by groups and individuals fighting for a 'cause'.In a world of multiple voices and opinions it can be very hard to know where to turn. One choice is to look to those who actually worked in counterterrorism in the national security world. In these half-hour podcasts 30-year Canadian intelligence veteran Phil Gurski is joined by a fascinating array of individuals with something meaningful to say about these issues as they provide insight into what they mean and what we need to do about them.
Canadian Intelligence Eh
Episode 195 - Too many cooks can spoil the intelligence casserole
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Phil Gurski
Intelligence services have a lot of structures in place to ensure that what they do is both effective and safe. This is especially important when it comes to human sources (HUMINT), the use of human beings to collect information on your behalf. If the targets - those on whom you are spying - find out your sources they can turn them against you...or kill them. Who, then, should be responsible for running such programmes? A real intelligence service or a foreign ministry where little training was provided? Borealis talks to two former CSIS intelligence officers about the allegations that Canada's Global Security Reporting Programme (GSRP) was not playing by the rules.