Canada Views Terrorist Threat to Transportation
“On 12 November 2002, Osama Binladen issued a public statement which specifically targeted Canada for the first time for its collaboration with the United States in attempting to dismantle Al Qaida,” a 2002 Canadian intelligence report (pdf) noted.
With that statement in mind, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) conducted classified studies on the terrorist threat to Canadian transportation systems. Two of those classified studies have now been declassified and released in redacted form.
The declassified studies were obtained under Canada’s Access to Information Act by former Canadian intelligence officer and author Stéphane Lefebvre, who provided copies to Secrecy News.
At least some of the many redactions seem silly, for example: “Surface transportation presents a [adjective deleted] degree of vulnerability to terrorist attacks,” one study begins. The missing word is probably not “low” or “negligible.”
See “International and National Terrorist Threats to Surface Transportation,” CSIS Study #2002-3/26 (redacted) (3 MB PDF).
and “The International Terrorist Threat to Maritime Transportation,” CSIS Study #2003-4/02 (redacted) (2.7 MB PDF).
If the government wants a system of learning and adaptation that improves results in real time, it has to treat translation, utilization, and adaptation as core functions of governance rather than as afterthoughts.
Coordination among federal science agencies is essential to ensure government-wide alignment on R&D investment priorities. However, the federal R&D enterprise suffers from egregious siloization.
Don’t like the Chinese-backed EVs that are undercutting your market? Start with a well-designed statute to strengthen market oversight and competition while also providing American companies with support.
Cities and states are best positioned to design policies to accelerate clean energy, innovation, and economic development because they can design approaches that work in different social, political, and economic contexts.