Information
Opinion
Recently, our intelligence agencies declassified their threat assessments in New Zealand which included a summary of the ‘extremist’ groups that were considered a security risk.
The things they said:
Under “faith motivated violent extremism”:
They acknowledged there are still ISIS-inspired radicalised people in New Zealand. However, they also said that there would be no further attacks inspired by the New Lynn attacks.
However, they also mentioned the possibility of other religious extremists for balance.
Under “identity motivated violent extremism”:
Only two groups were discussed: white identity motivated groups who would be motivated by New Lynn and the Christchurch attack and ‘small Hindutva motivated groups’ in New Zealand.
Under “politically motivated violent extremism”:
This section solely focused on anti-vax and opposition to the Covid-19 response. They mentioned there was a core of “anti-authority” figures who would “encourage violence as a legitimate response”.
Under “single-issue violent extremism”:
The single issues included
- Anti-1080 poisoning
- Climate change
- Anti-abortion
- Animal Rights
- Anti-vax
Their conclusion was that they were most concerned by the opposition to the Covid-19 health response and that there would likely be a terrorist attack from within that movement.
I find this hard to believe as the movement has consistently denounced violence and advocated peace.
What they didn’t discuss:
Under “faith motivated violent extremism”:
- The Muslim Brotherhood and its continued influence and funding of Muslim terrorist groups.
ISIS elements will continue to attack. I believe that the American withdrawal from Afghanistan will also embolden the Islamic extremists.
Under “identity motivated violent extremism”:
- Maori identity extremism – Possibly they are now scared of another ‘Urewera incident’. If the mainstream media is denying this exists, then clearly it must exist. This movement may become increasingly violent now with the police.
This has also further escalated with Black Lives Matter and other nationalist movements. It is concerning how often Maori activists are inspired by the civil rights activists despite the violent rhetoric of Malcolm X, the LA Riots and the 2020 summer of violence inspired by the BLM movement.
One of the goals of the BLM charter is to “take down the system”. One of their slogans was “Burn the whole system down”. Their leaders include Angela King, a convicted terrorist who murdered a police officer. They also have connections to the Weather Underground movement, a group responsible for a number of bombings in the 60s.
- Pasifika identity extremism – The Pasifika Panthers had a long history with even two Pasifika Panthers visiting the Black Panthers movement that inspired them. The Black Panthers were involved in a number of gunfights with the police.
- Ukrainian identity violent extremism – The attempted arson attack on a Russian embassy shows the potential for an attack from Ukrainians
- Palestine identity extremism – In October 2021, six Palestinian NGOs were charged with funding the terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. There have been open calls by Palestinian leaders to attack Jews. During the escalation of violence in May 2021, social media videos showed Jews getting attacked by Palestinians while in America Jews reported an increase in antisemitic attacks in cities such as New York.
It’s interesting that the intelligence services included “Hindutva” as part of their list of possible sources of this type of extremism. Hindutva is quite misunderstood. It’s actually the idea of preserving the Hindu identity. It was founded in response to British colonialism when Indians were in the middle of an identity crisis.
Under “politically motivated violent extremism”:
- This needs to be extended to include the violent extremism of the socialists and Marxists. The Peace Action Wellington movement planted fake bombs at the Doc Edge Festival in 2018.
In this category, I was disappointed that the issue of foreign interference was not taken into account. One of the biggest frustrations is how this government consults media and communications people and former journalists instead of our intelligence agencies.
A recently published CIA report showed that the political tensions were escalated during the 2020 presidential elections in the US by Russian, Chinese and Iranian accounts on social media. The Chinese accounts encouraged increasing violence in the Black Lives Matter Movement and spread criticism against Trump. Russian accounts spread criticism against Biden and Iranian accounts spread criticism against both.
Under “Single-issue motivated violent extremism”:
- They were solely focused on Covid. There are other issues that should be addressed. One is the Russia-Ukraine issue as there will be extreme views against both Russians and Ukrainians. The mainstream media have already addressed this recently.
- Anti-racist and anti-fascist extremism – This includes the elements who believe in doxxing and identifying racists in society. The bomb threat that stopped Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux from speaking in New Zealand show the lengths to which they will go.
I’m sure there are other things that could be considered threats to New Zealand’s national security but these are the ones I could easily identify.
