Just one day after a hostage situation at a Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Sydney, Australia's financial district ended with three dead after law enforcement stormed in, the country is left to ponder how something so sinister could have even played out there. We now know that Man Haron Monis was the 50-year-old gunman who fancied himself a sheikh with a personal agenda, but what is not clear is how he was free in the first place.
Monis had a long history of brushes with the law and he was charged with everything from sexual assault to sending hate mail to the families of fallen Australian solders who died in Afghanistan. Perhaps the most horrific thing he had been charged with before yesterday was being an accessory to his former wife's murder.
Apparently, Monis's latest girlfriend stabbed his ex and then set her on fire and he was actually out on bail for his part in the crime when he decided to take 17 hostages yesterday morning and demand that a flag of ISIS be brought to him.
Sydney locals's shock morphed into anger when they realized that not only did their own law enforcement seem to drop the ball with Monis, but even with his outward love of Muslim extremist behavior he actually was not on any kind of terror watch list. This fact has left Prime Minister Tony Abbott deeply disturbed.
"How can someone who has had such a long and checkered history not be on the appropriate watch list? And how can someone like that be entirely at large in the community? These are questions we need to look at carefully and calmly and methodically. That's what we'll be doing in the days and weeks ahead," said Abbott in a prepared statement.
With ISIS's militant behavior making major headlines recently, there has been a real concern about the possibility of lone wolf terrorists carrying out acts like the one we saw yesterday. Had Monis been on any type of watch list, then perhaps he would not have been out on bail at this point in time and his actions could have been prevented.
The U.S. already took measures to beef up security in and around New York City yesterday, Dec. 15, fearing that a similar hostage situation could easily play out right here on U.S. soil if people are not kept on their toes.
Do you think the official terror watch list is missing a lot of important names or do you think that for the most part law enforcement has a good idea of who to keep an extra eye on? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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