Australia’s ‘Terror Mascot’ and Team America Goes Global

Investigative journalist and founder of 21st Century Wire.com Patrick Henningsen discusses the recent hostage drama in Sydney, Australia that ended with two hostages and the lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, being killed.

“There were a number of drills that were done previous to this event, security drills. Australia passed some anti-terror legislation only a week or two earlier, so the timing of it is very interesting,” Patrick said about the curious timing of the incident.

“In the aftermath of this event, Prime Minister Tony Abbott admitted that Sheik Monis was ‘well-known’ to authorities, and had a history of extremism and mental instability.”

But 24 hours later, Patrick points out that the prime minister distanced himself from those comments and said that Monis was not on security watch lists. “And we find out later that he’s in fact a local media celebrity, so this is no rogue terrorist, or ISIS member. This is someone who is a real caricature in the Australian media who kind of plays the role of the terror mascot.”

He said this kind of terror mascot role has been used by governments before, Abu Hamza, U.K. cleric who was the face of terrorism in Britain and the rest of Europe for nearly a decade. “And we find out later, before his trial last year, he was an MI-5 informant the whole time – so he was informing to the security services. Now the security services have denied that, and said, no he wasn’t an informant, but it was too late by that point.”

“You have to start asking lots of questions: what was his relationship with the police – with special branch, with security services? Did he have a history of mental illness, apparently he did? Where did he get his gun?”

Patrick said Monis had a total of 50 sexual assault complaints against him, plus he had outstanding charges with regards to the torching of his ex-wife. “So a number of violent crimes, a very long criminal rap sheet. And normally with informants – while they’re acting as informants – it’s not uncommon that they feel at some point that they’re above the law, and this is a perfect example of this.”

Patrick also addresses the controversy over the hack attack of Sony - now being officially blamed on North Korea – that led the movie studio to cancel the release of the movie The Interview due to threats to cinemas in the United States.

He points out that U.S. officials have been somewhat cautious in their finger pointing of North Korea in the cyber attack, and that the media was actually first to bring up the possibility that North Korean might be responsible. “Immediately the media connected the Sony hacks to the release of the film The Interview, which depicted a gross, violent, graphic death of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“You have to be very skeptical, in my opinion anyway, about anything coming out of publicity departments in Hollywood, especially studios, and also Washington, DC, which is not known for its accuracy or credibility in terms of who is the culprit of any particular international boogey man crisis.”

Watch the full interview for more from Patrick – including his views on the group claiming responsibility for the Sony hack attack, the “Guardians of Peace,” as well as a discussion on the free speech implications of the cyber crime.