[Livia]

Originally Posted by The Geordie Jesus

Yeah shame we couldn't torture an unhinged individual acting alone for information about groups that he has no actual contact or affiliation with. The idea that all extremists are part of a highly organised and coherent command structure is a convenient idea but an inaccurate one. Kinda similar to the idea that the more brutal the torture the better information you get; convenient but false.

With respect MTVN, you don't know he was unhinged nor whether he has contact or affiliation with extremist groups. There's a pretty good chance that only the bit about him being unhinged is a fair assumption but contact and affiliation with a larger group is a distinct possibility. While he acted alone, there's more than a good chance that others were involved on the periphery. He was known to the security services, only the equality of the law was keeping him free when really, he should have been banged up long before this happened.

[MTVN]

Originally Posted by Livia

With respect MTVN, you don't know he was unhinged nor whether he has contact or affiliation with extremist groups. There's a pretty good chance that only the bit about him being unhinged is a fair assumption but contact and affiliation with a larger group is a distinct possibility. While he acted alone, there's more than a good chance that others were involved on the periphery. He was known to the security services, only the equality of the law was keeping him free when really, he should have been banged up long before this happened.

Admittedly to some extent it's speculation. However from what we know about him:

- Self styled sheikh
- Previously a self-proclaimed spiritual healer specialising in black magic and astrology
- Used the above position to commit a string of sexual assaults
- Charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex wife and then claimed the Iranian secret services had collaborated with the Australian security agency in a conspiracy against him
- Wrote a rambling treatise on Islam and sent it to the King of Jordan, Bashar al-Assad, the Iraqi Prime Minister, the King of Saudi Arabia, Barack Obama, David Cameron and Tony Abbott

On top of that is the fact that no organisation has claimed responsibility when usually they shout it from the rooftops, and the whole incident has not actually gained much traction among the active extremist community.

To quote the BBC profile of him:

he has no known links to jihadist groups, and commentators have suggested he is likely to be working alone.

"Certainly this appears to be the actions of a lone actor, perhaps not very well prepared, perhaps not very well planned," Anne Aly, head of the counter terrorism research programme at Australia's Curtin University, told the BBC.