Siege in Sydney

Tuesday morning marked the end of a 16-hour siege in a local cafe in Sydney, Australia. Central Sydney was in lockdown Monday morning as a gunman entered the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Martin Place and seized 17 hostages.

Five of these hostages managed to escape later Monday afternoon. Several more escaped early on Tuesday morning.

• At 9.45 AM local time, police were called to the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Sydney following reports of an armed robbery. Soon after, it emerges that it is a gunman holding a number of people hostage.
• Between 16.00 - 17.00, three men sprint to safety from the cafe's side door, shortly followed by two women.
• Just after 2.00 AM on Tuesday morning more hostages manage to escape. Just after this commandos storm the cafe and the remaining hostages escape.
• At 2.45 AM police officially confirm the end of the siege and later report the deaths of three people, including the gunman.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn would not say whether the gunman had shot the two hostages himself. She said that all the hostages had 'acted courageously'.

The gunman has been identified as Man Haron Monis. He is a self-styled Muslim cleric, and sought asylum in Australia in 1996. Despite having a history of religiously inspired activism, officials say there is as yet, no link to international Islamist movements.

He was convicted of sending offensive letters to families of deceased Australian soliders in 2009. IN 2013, he was charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife but was given bail. He also has faced more than 40 sexual and indecent assault charges.

His website, now closed down, had hosted a series of videos supporting terrorism and blaming rape victims for their attacks.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has questioned why Monis was not on the country's terror watch list. He has said that the government would examine why Monis was given bail.

Abbott says Monis was being monitored by domestic spy agency Asio in 2008 because of the letters but then dropped off watch lists.

"How can someone who has had such a long and chequered history not be on the appropriate watch lists, and how can someone like that be entirely at large in the community?" he asked.

An investigation has been launched into the police operation and the police are also investigating the motives of Monis.

How did an Iranian refugee who already faced multiple criminal charges manage to get a gun?

Under Australian law, pump-action or self-loading shotguns holding five or fewer rounds are strongly restricted. Only farmers, occupational shooters, collectors and some clay target shooters can own them.

Monis had claimed his siege was part of an Islamic State (IS) attack and he forced his captives to hold up what appeared to be a black Islamic banner in the café window.

But exactly what he hoped he would achieve remains unclear and experts say his profile and his actions do not fit the usual criteria applied to terrorists.

Australia's former spy chief David Irvine has raised the alarm about Muslim Australians travelling to Syria and Iraq to fight with IS.

"Lone wolf" terrorists and suicide bombers returning to Australia were a great threat to security, he said in September.

'Monis simply didn't have the standard hallmarks of a terrorist,' says James Brown, Military Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy.

While not underplaying the fear Monis' captives would have experienced, Mr Brown says Monis could have made things much more terrifying.

With a terrorist attack, "you plan to kill as many people as you can to create havoc and fear and you plan for a clear outcome, and to use the hostages for leverage for what you want," he says - all of which stand in contrast to what appeared to be an unplanned and unfocussed attack by Monis.

"The reason people are reaching out to talk about it as an act of terrorism is because IS has put out a call for individuals to carry out such acts."

The final question that some people want answered is why Monis was allowed into the country.

He sought asylum from Iran, citing political persecution by the Iranian government.

It is something Mr Abbott says a joint federal and state government review will examine, along with his successful applications for permanent residency and citizenship.

Police have named the two people who died as barrister Katrina Dawson, 38, and cafe manager Tori Johnson, 34.

Katrina Dawson, 38, had been having coffee with a pregnant colleague when the gunman walked in to the Lindt Chocolat Cafe.

Ms Dawson had three young children with her husband, Paul Smith.

She worked at Eight Selbourne chambers in the Central Business District, not far from the cafe.

The Sydney Morning Herald carried a tribute from Australia's former Governor-General Quentin Bryce, who was the Women's College principal at the University of Sydney when Ms Dawson was studying there as an undergraduate.

"Brilliant mind, joie de vivre spilling over, talented sportswoman, one of those rare natural leaders. Confident, courageous, out-front, articulate, warm and funny, but thoughtful, gentle and understanding too."

Ms Bryce added: "I admired her strength of purpose and character. We knew she had a great future ahead of her, a life of achievement and contribution."

Tori Johnson had worked at the Lindt Chocolat Cafe for two years. Before that he had worked at various restaurants in Sydney and the US.

Police have not confirmed reports in local media that Mr Johnson tried to wrestle the weapon away from the gunman in order to help other hostages escape.

His parents said that their son would live forever in their memories.

"We are so proud of our beautiful boy Tori," their statement said. "The most amazing life partner, son and brother we could ever wish for."

His parents also thanked police, armed forces and emergency services for their "tireless efforts" and the public for their response to the shootings.

"We'd like to thank not only our friends and loved ones for their support, but the people of Sydney; Australia and those around the world for reaching out with their thoughts and prayers," they said.

Tributes to the victims of the siege come in the form of flowers, covering the whole of Martin Place.

Torture against Terror; What’s Worse?

The CIA are the biggest intelligence agency in the world. Recently, it has come to public attention that in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the CIA were less than humane in their approach to catching the people responsible.

Their interrogation techniques towards members off al-Qaeda have been described as ‘brutal’ and ‘criminal.’ After going through six million pages of documents regarding the interrogations, a 500 page report has been published. The authors of this report have concluded that in none of the cases that had been examined, had the use of torture stopped a terrorist attack. Not only has this result severely damaged America’s but has also placed the country in a difficult position when it comes to criticising how other countries run their affairs. Can America now say that dictatorial regimes are unjust? Can terrorists now justify their crimes by highlighting the abuse from the Americans?

Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, introduced the report to the Senate, describing the CIA’s actions as a ‘stain on US history’. 

"The release of this 500-page summary cannot remove that stain, but it can and does say to our people and the world that America is big enough to admit when it's wrong and confident enough to learn from its mistakes," she said. "Under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured," she added.

President Barrack Obama said; ‘These techniques did significant damage to America’s standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners.’

Senate Republican leaders insisted that these methods had helped in the capture of important suspects and eventually the killing of Osama bin Laden. Senators Mitch McConnell and Saxby Chambliss released a joint statement saying that ‘Claims included in this report that assert the contrary are simply wrong.’

British Prime Minister David Cameron stated that the issue had been ‘dealt with from a British perspective’ but that torture ultimately was wrong. ‘After 9/11 there were things that happened that were wrong – and we should be clear about the fact they were wrong.’

The main points of the report include the following;

-          None of the 20 cases of counterterrorism ‘successes’ attributed to the techniques led to unique or otherwise unavailable intelligence

-          The CIA misled politicians and public, giving inaccurate information to obtain approval for using techniques

-          The CIA claimed falsely that no senators had objected to the programme

-          At least 26 of 119 known detainees in custody during the life of the programme were wrongfully held, and many held for months longer than they should have been

-          Methods included sleep deprivation for up to 180 hours, waterboarding, beating, ‘rectal hydration’ and in some particular cases detainees were kept alive through ‘rectal feeding’ which medical experts have reported has no medical benefits

-          Waterboarding was physically harmful to prisoners, causing convulsions and vomiting

The CIA and other US Intelligence Agencies were accused of using ‘extraordinary rendition’ to send terror suspects for questioning in countries where they were under no legal protection or rights where American law was concerned. Some suspects also claimed that they had been tortured in countries such as Syria and Egypt.

 UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Ben Emmerson said that senior officials from the administration of George W Bush who planned and sanctioned crimes must be prosecuted, as well as CIA and US government officials responsible for torture such as waterboarding.

"As a matter of international law, the US is legally obliged to bring those responsible to justice," Mr Emmerson said. “The US attorney general is under a legal duty to bring criminal charges against those responsible.”

Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said that 

“the CIA's actions are criminal "and can never be justified".

"Unless this important truth-telling process leads to prosecution of officials, torture will remain a 'policy option' for future presidents," he said.

Mr Obama said on Tuesday that he hoped that the publication of the report would not lead to a re-fight of old arguments, but "help us leave these techniques where they belong - in the past". Republican Senator John McCain argued that torture "rarely yields credible information" and that even in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden the most important lead came from "conventional interrogation methods".

The CIA has argued that the interrogations had helped save lives.

"The intelligence gained from the programme was critical to our understanding of al-Qaeda and continues to inform our counterterrorism efforts to this day," director John Brennan said.

Poland's former president has publicly acknowledged for the first time his country hosted a secret CIA prison.

Aleksander Kwasniewski said that he put pressure on the US to end brutal interrogations at the prison in 2003.

"I told Bush that this cooperation must end and it did end," Mr Kwasniewski told local media.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius called on the US to say whether CIA used his country to interrogate prisoners.

A previous Lithuanian investigation found the CIA set up and ran a facility near the country's capital but could not determine if prisoners were held there.

And Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani called the report "shocking", saying the actions "violated all accepted norms of human rights in the world".