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In the wake of the terrorist attack in Melbourne’s Bourke street last Friday, which left restaurateur Sisto Malaspina dead and several others injured, there has been considerable debate about whether the security services could have done more to monitor the actions of the attacker, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, and prevent the attack. The Somalia-born Shire Ali was known to authorities as an Islamist extremist but was not actively being monitored by Australian security services.

Coincidentally, just days before the attack, Australia was visited by Prof. Boaz Ganor, founder and head of Israel’s Institute for Counterterrorism in Herzliya (ICT), who spoke extensively around the country to both public forums and closed workshops of police and security officials specifically about the problem of detecting “lone wolf” terrorists like Shire Ali. This video, taken in Melbourne on Nov. 1, gives just a small taste of his extensive discussion of the “lone-wolf” issue. Viewers can see more in his Sydney Institute lecture – although obviously, his briefings to security officials were even more detailed.