A 16-hour hostage siege in Sydney, Australia has ended with the death of attacker Man Haron-Monis and two of his hostages killed and a policeman injured, but in stable condition. Other hostages were also reported injured, but details are scant.
The attacker sought to present himself as an ISIS supporter, though the indications are that he was a lone wolf, and one with a long history of legal and mental problems at that.
He was born in Iran, but fled the country in 1995 to escape fraud charges. During his time in Australia he was charged with accessory to murder in the death of his ex-wife, and was charged with sexually assaulting numerous women while presenting himself as a “healer.”
Haron-Monis most recently claimed to be a Sunni cleric, though that does not appear to have been the case, and indeed he didn’t even bring his own ISIS flag to the hostage situation, having to make a flag his first demand.
What he wanted beyond that was still unclear, though he reportedly sought a phone call with Premier Tony Abbott and also wanted to broadcast a video on local media.
Though the borrowed ISIS flag sparked a lot of speculation, experts say the attack showed a remarkably disorganized and poorly planned lone wolf operation, with several hostages managing to escape during the protracted siege, and Haron-Monis appeared to have no strategy for what to do after taking the hostages.
Still, hawks are playing up the dubious ISIS connections as a way of beating the drums for more crackdowns on civil liberties, particularly against the Muslim communities in Western nations, trying to portray an isolated, lone wolf attack as proof of ISIS infiltration.
Hiring semi-sane Muslims to do stupid crap, isn't that the FBI's m.o.? Puppet state/perennial colony of someone Australia must have gotten some training for this.
Sorry,but even this site,on this section jumped on band wagon of the same driven hysteria when it put on a report with this headline,"Sydney siege in pictures: 'Islamist' gunman holds hostages in Lindt cafe"maybe in the future it is better to wait to find out the truth than be quick to judge and sensationalist.
Yes, he was one of the three killed- the first hostage killed was a young hotshot who thought he was going to disarm Haron-Monis and wound up getting himself shot and killed. The other hostage was a young woman who was shot while shielding her friend- but as there were only two shots from inside the store before police responded, we still haven't been told WHO fired the bullet that killed her. We can pretty much conclude it will be reported that Haron-Monis killed her regardless of the forensics investigation, though- we can't have the police (anyone's police) gearing up for major combat and mowing down an innocent civilian.
My question, in the larger scheme of things, is why THIS story? We have these sorts of incidents occurring in every country around the globe- why did we pick THIS one to trumpet in the US media? White, english-speaking players being held by a single big, bad Muslim wannabe terrorist maybe? Why not some hostage situation in Malaysia, or Guatemala, or India, or Uzbekistan? Surely there's some good juicy crimes going on that are worthy of the media attention lavished upon Australia these past few days. Oh wait- I forget- those countries aren't predominantly white or english-speaking, so sorry you can't play.
There's an agenda being served by this- but whose agenda this time?
It's the story because Australia resembles the US in the same way that Tel Aviv or Liverpool or Frankfurt does. They all have the same franchises, lots of white people, etc. In other words, the audience can identify with the hostages. Perhaps they have been in Sydney, and everyone knows the ironic Opera House. Nobody really needs to look up the place.
What is hard to understand is how the Iranian guy ever made it into Australia in the first place, given his criminal background (even against Iran). How did someone who appears to be an accessory in his ex-wife's murder not get jailed and deported? His whole act seems to point to some kind of an asset of intelligence or even a cut-out. But the deed is done, he's now a meme, he can be used an object in conversation about terror, and he definitely takes the heat off the torturers described in the USA torture memo. When the Australian public comes to discuss their role, if any, in the renditions, they will have this badge of victimhood to point to, so as to justify the whole sorry mess.
My understanding is that he emigrated to Australia in 1996 seeking political asylum.
Who wounded the policeman?
A martyr to millions in his nation — So are to ignore his cause completely?
As a pacifist in quest of the grand scheme of things, an insatiable lust for knowledge into the root cause of things, I see this shootout not as a lone wolf act of stupidity, but as the birth pangs of a Revolution that will bring a downfall to the Western Empire of white supremacy.
For it was the SWAT mob of legalized killers and their thousands of live rounds fired that slaughtered the two hostages and the citizen who chose to use violence against a government that has a monopoly on the use of force and violence. Killed the young hotshot who charged at the revolutionary, as the past practice of SWAT killers charging at hostage takers instilled in the fool a desire to be such a public hero. Killed the woman for had there been no SWAT killers involved, she no doubt would still be alive today.
For the goal of all such Muslim revolutionaries is a peaceful settlement of the Middle-East state of war, namely, the expulsion of all Western troops and Western war materials from Muslim nations.
For the root cause of this state of war is a Western violation of basic decency. For who but a white Western supremacist likes the idea of teenage girls in skintight pants shoving their fanny in your face?
While the incident was still unfolding,the overwhelming and over kill western media headlines coverages were headed by the words Islamist,Islamic ,and to a less degree Muslim, terrorist,jihadist were very much emphasized.Western coined terms,like many others,that are cleverly invented to fill the minds of the people in the west that the source of violence and destruction are the Muslims and Islam,and get them to not just believe that but convince them,and get them to support and approve of the much destructive and more expansive violent military actions that their governments desire to undertake.When the Americans,Britons,Australians,French,Dutch,Germans,and so on were told by their governments that they have go back to Iraq to fight an entity called the{ Islamic }State most of them signed on and supported that.
Now dictators and wanna be dictators in Muslim countries have borrowed the terms,Islamist,Islamic,Jihadies,Jihaddists, to describe any opposition to their oppressive and repressive regimes and actions and labeled them terrorists since those terms are code s for being terrorist.And since they are fighting terrorists and on behalf of the west,the western powers are more than welling to look the other way while they subjugate their people and deny them rights.
Any group or political party that wish to be independent and free of western domination ,to serve and protect the interests of their country and people are called Islamic,Islamist to easily demonize them and and accuse them of being violent,and terrorists and declare war against them and eliminate them.And the case of Egypt illustrate that very much.
Anita Bryant
“Welcome to my world, won’t you come on in, memories like this can happen now and then”
Why is it that all of the comments here explore what is objective and external to the hostage taker, the criminal government that gave him little choice but violence, the corporate media that turns real news into fiction propaganda that strongly motivates those out of the mainstream toward violence?
And why is it a world in reverse to try and comprehend the comments made in mainstream media, most all exploring what is subjective and internal to the one who did so violate the organized will of society, how sick and criminal he was to harm the moral fabric of a superior white Western society?
Before the incident ended the headlines mostly were emphasizing the terms or accurately the label of Islamist,Islamic ,Muslim jihaddi] ,then when it came to an end ,I tried to google these words in reference to Sydney incident the results were the old headlines but it takes to headlines of a lone wolf and so on.As an example this entry from Google search for Islamis holds sydny … for NBC news
"Suspected Islamist Holds Hostages in Sydney Cafe – NBC … http://www.nbcnews.com/…/sydney…/sydney-siege-five-f....
NBCNews.com
1 day ago – A suspected Islamist gunman was holding hostages inside a chocolate"
However, when I clicked om it it give totally different headlines.The old link somehow disappeared.
Bu what do we expect from the partners in the government and facilitators of its crimes?
comparing the coverage of what happened in Sydney and the killing spree in PENNSBURG, Pa. one would find that the two incident were treated very much differently.
"Man accused of killing ex-wife, five relatives in Pa. found dead". That he was former marine veteran of the Iraq wars was not referenced to at the top of headline as usually the case with a person that happened to be a Muslim.The words Islamist ,Islamic would be the first words in the headlines.
A mentally deranged loner who attacked the cafe in Sydney is a Muslim terrorist.The same day a gunman shot and killed six in Philadelphia .No one mentions or highlights his religion