The War on Terrorism in Aotearoa

Posted on October 24, 2007 by @ndy

…goes on.

Word on the street is that Helen Clark may have bitten off a little more than she can chew by authorising the ‘anti-terrorism’ raids of last week.

To begin with, while the 300 or so police who conducted the raids were — especially in the case of the Tuhoe — expected to deliver their orders in Maori, they did not (although the exact reasons why remain a little obscure). And when Clark claimed that “she’d been informed of the raids in advance”, and evinced “surprise… at the scale and numbers of people involved”, she was actually attempting to minimise the extent of her own involvement, which apparently included her helping to prepare this strategy (NZ police raid military-style camps, AP, The Age, October 15, 2007).

Secondly, the authorities have a list of approximately 60–70 or so individuals they wish to speak with in relation to the investigation, but are having some small difficulties in actually finding them, and so activists (of all sorts) can expect further raids on and searches of their properties. According to Tim Johnston of the International Herald Tribune (Anti-terror raids cause turmoil in New Zealand, October 22, 2007):

…According to the police, the investigation started in December of 2005, when two hunters in the remote Urewera mountains in northeastern New Zealand stumbled across a camp where armed men, some in balaclavas, were training. They reported what they saw to the police, and the camps were put under surveillance.

In the following months, the police logged 74 people passing through, although people who attended more than one gathering would have been counted every time. The police also intercepted telephone calls and monitored a number of computer accounts…

In addition, the raids involved the use of not only regular police, but paramilitary and military forces, including — supposedly — elements of the SAS, as well as having involved political and secret police forces in its planning (if not execution). Also included in the planning, in addition to the NZ PM, were the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) — a bunch of spooks created in 1977 by ex-NZ PM Robert ‘Piggy’ Muldoon — and the Security Intelligence Service (SIS). Naturally, so as to avoid overly-‘politicising’ the issue, Clark’s Government seeks to minimise not only her, own personal involvement in the ‘counter-insurgency’ operation, but that of the spooks too.

In other schnews, one of the seventeen (18?) accused, Rongomai Pero Pero Bailey of Auckland, a 28 year old unemployed filmmaker, was today granted bail by the courts. He’s been charged with four firearms offences. “Prosecutor Ross Burns said police had reason to believe Bailey had attended the alleged military-style training camps near Ruatoki three times in the past year and that there was a chance he would follow through with violence should he be released on bail.”

Fortunately for the filmmaker, the police claim didn’t wash with the judge. As a result, Bailey is the second person to be released on bail by Judge Bouchier, the first being James Lockett, whose release was overturned by a higher court (Man arrested in terror raids given bail, Kim Ruscoe, Fairfax Media, October 23, 2007).

So where to now for the state? Despite increasingly widespread criticism, both national and international (see, for example, Claims of Maori separatist plot begin to unravel, Kathy Marks, The Independent, October 23, 2007), it would be difficult to envisage Clark’s Government instructing the relevant authorities not to lay charges of terrorism against at least some of those arrested. Certainly, a failure to do so renders inadmissible much of the evidence police (and other agencies) claim to have collected over the last year or more. The spectre of such charges being laid is also a useful device to threaten vulnerable arrestees into collaborating with police, just as has been the case in the United States in the state’s ongoing campaign against radical activists there. At this point, however, and unlike at least one of the cases in the US, there is no suggestion that state agencies actually employed someone to entrap activists.

In the meantime, this Saturday, October 27, has been designated a Global Day of Action in solidarity with the accused. In Melbourne, a solidarity demonstration — possibly consisting of terrorist hordes currently hiding deep within the sacred Dandenongs — will be held in Federation Square, at 12 midday. In Sydney, a public meeting and demonstration is being held on Thursday, October 25, @ 5:30pm, outside the New Zealand Consulate-General, 55 Hunter St, City.

See also : Aziz Choudry, New Zealand Government Is Not Fit to Sit on UN Human Rights Council (A Highly Unsuitable Candidate), Dissident Voice, October 22, 2007 | Anti-terrorism raids continue to cop flak, Niu FM, October 23, 2007 | Paul Buchanan, Guantanamo On The Pacific?, October 23, 2007 (“The arrest and detention without bail of seventeen individuals on grounds that they were planning terrorist attacks against political targets in New Zealand represents a step towards the “Guantanomisation” of national security policy in this country, at least as it applies to political dissent…”) | Civil Rights Defence… Oh yeah. Apparently, there’s thirteen men rotting in Barwon Prison too. According to Kath Wilson: “ONE OF THE MOST extraordinary features of the Barwon 13 case was that an undercover agent had infiltrated the group and influenced the men’s activities. The Age reported that an agent provocateur “of Middle-Eastern heritage” befriended the group “by pretending he shared similar beliefs”. The agent allegedly showed the men how to use explosives…” Thought Crime and Punishment, Overland, No.186, Autumn 2007.

Posted in State / Politics, War on Terror | 6 Comments

Stamp out racism! Thursday, October 25

Posted on October 22, 2007 by @ndy

    Football Federation Victoria
    Darebin International Sports Centre
    Head Office : John Cain Memorial Park
    281 Darebin Rd, Thornbury, VIC, 3071
    Melway REF: 31A7

    Postal Address : P.O. Box 318, Fairfield, VIC, 3078
    Phone : (03) 9474-1800
    Fax : (03) 9474-1899
    E-mail : [email protected]

Posted in Uncategorized | 76 Comments

Student charged over Russian neo-Nazi execution video

Posted on October 22, 2007 by @ndy

Russian authorities get involved in “someone else’s bullshit”…

Student Charged Over Video
The Moscow Times
October 22, 2007

Prosecutors have charged a student with inciting ethnic hatred after he posted an execution video on the Internet.

The three-minute video, which appeared in August on several ultranationalist web sites, shows two men kneeling in the woods in front of a Nazi flag with their arms and legs bound and identified by a subtitle as “colonists from Tajikistan and Dagestan.” One of the men is shown being beheaded, and the other is shot in the head.

The video ends with two men in black masks and camouflage clothing giving Nazi salutes.

Police in Maikop, the capital of the southern republic of Adygeya, detained a student on Aug. 15. The suspect, identified by Kommersant on Saturday [?] as Viktor Milkov, 24, admitted to posting the video but maintained that he received it as an e-mail attachment from a stranger. Investigators have established that the e-mail came from a different region of the country.

Milkov, a self-described nationalist, was charged with inciting ethnic hatred, said Vasily Semyonov, the head of the Investigative Committee in the regional prosecutor’s office.

If convicted, Milkov could face up to four years in prison. A court has ordered him to remain in Maikop.

It was unclear whether authorities had made any progress in determining who made the video and, if it was authentic, who carried out the killings.

Given the more general reluctance of Russian authorities to investigate all the other violent activities associated with Russia’s burgeoning fascist movement, it’s unlikely they’ll make any progress in determining who made the video any time soon, unfortunately. As for its authenticity, if faked, it’s a remarkably accomplished one. In the meantime, non-Whites, punks and skinheads will continue being butchered by neo-Nazis. And of course, the student allegedly responsible for publishing the video can argue that doing so doesn’t necessarily mean they support its contents… does it? And anyway, the people who object to the literal butchery of individual members of groups of people neo-Nazis don’t like are just as bad as the Nazis, what happened to free speech, and anarchy is a fag.

Locally, ‘Bill’ reckons No Idea aren’t going to play any more gigs at local neo-Nazi venue The Birmy, “but will still drink and organise shows there” — which makes about as much sense as The Worst being selected to support DOA on the weekend (and which also, perhaps, helps to explain why relatively few people saw either). On the other hand, as time progresses, more people appear to be supporting the boycott of the venue, while those who continue to scab on it appear to grow more shrill.

Following Blood & Honour Australia’s and the Hammerskins departure from Fitzroy’s Birmy, the two neo-Nazi groupings have been offered shelter by Melbourne’s Croatian community; specifically, the Melbourne Croatia Social Club, located at the Melbourne Knights home ground in Sunshine. As a result, this Thursday there will be a rally outside of the headquarters of Football Federation Victoria, to demand that the Federation hold an investigation into exactly how club facilities came to be used to promote neo-Nazi organisations and beliefs of the kind that have their logical consequence in the murders in Russia.

WHEN : 12 midday, Thursday, October 25th
WHERE : Football Federation Victoria, 281 Darebin Road, Thornbury

Posted in Anti-fascism | 2 Comments

Anarchist statement on the New Right

Posted on October 21, 2007 by @ndy
    Below is the text of a collective statement by a small number of local anarchist groups on the subject of the New Right, a recently formed fascist groupuscule based in Sydney which made its first public appearance at the APEC demonstrations in that city in early September.

Introduction

On Saturday, September 8, 2007, a small group of between 15-30 individuals assembled in Sydney under the banner of the New Right. They were there to attend the anti-APEC summit rally and protest, and did so while assembled in the manner of a black bloc (dressed in black uniforms and wearing masks to disguise their faces). Their propaganda proclaimed the group to be composed of ‘national anarchists’.

This statement is being issued by a number of anarchist groups in Australia and Aotearoa in order to unmask these impostors, to expose ‘national anarchism’ as being the fascist nonsense that it is, and to give notice, both to the ‘national anarchists’ and to the general public, that anarchists in Australia and Aotearoa will not tolerate fascist elements attempting to use anarchist rhetoric and imagery in order to pursue their goals. We do so on the basis of our support for the equality and freedom of all individuals, regardless of race or ethnicity, and in recognition of the role of fascist ideas, parties and movements in destroying the libertarian working class cultures and movements which anarchists promote and which we depend upon for our survival.

But what, exactly, is the ‘New Right’, and what is a ‘national anarchist’?

The New Right

In Australia, the New Right is a tiny grouping on the far right, established in late 2005, largely via the efforts of a German-born, Sydney-based businessman named Welf Herfurth. Herfurth has a long history of involvement in the German neo-Nazi movement, including the NPD, and more recently the Australian far right, including organisations and projects such as the Australia First Party, Blood & Honour, One Nation and the Inverell and Sydney Forums. According to Herfurth and the New Right, “National-Anarchism represents the political embodiment of the… New Right — it is the political wing”. In other words, while the New Right provides the ‘theory’, ‘national anarchism’ is the ‘practice’.

National anarchism

‘National anarchism’ has its origins in the UK, and is largely the brainchild of Troy Southgate, another individual with a long history of involvement in the British neo-Nazi movement, including organisations such as the National Front, the International Third Position, the English Nationalist Movement and the National Revolutionary Faction. Critic Graham D. Macklin notes that “When put into its wider context… ‘national-anarchism’ appears as one of many groupuscular responses to globalization, popular antipathy towards which Southgate sought to harness by aligning [his activities]… with the resurgence of anarchism whose heroes and slogans it arrogated, and whose sophisticated critiques of global capitalist institutions and state power it absorbed…”.* In essence, ‘national anarchism’ is an attempt to use anarchist rhetoric and imagery in order to better advance the cause of reactionary, racist and fascist politics.

Our response

As anarchists, we categorically reject this. We also categorically reject any and all attempts by the New Right (and any other group with politics similar to it) to align themselves in any way, shape or form with the contemporary anarchist movement in Australia and Aotearoa. The use of such tactics by the far right, including the formation of ‘black blocs’ such as the one in Sydney, has been witnessed in Europe for a number of years, and it now appears that an attempt, however minor, to do so in Australia is now being made. (In Germany, for example, some right-wing radicals even use the “Antifaschistische Aktion” logo (a circle with a red and black flag) but adorn it with the slogan “Nationale Sozialisten” (national socialists)!)

We consider the use of such tactics to be deliberately aimed at causing confusion among the broader public with regards the aims and methods of elements of the far right, and to confuse anarchism with the pursuit of ‘white, nationalist’ politics. Such tactics are also based upon a recognition by elements of the far right of the attractive nature of anarchist rhetoric and imagery to many young people, and a desire to win some of these individuals away from genuine attempts to create true anarchy; a society without rulers — of whatever colour, and of whatever supposed nationality.

As such, we, as anarchists: wish to make our opposition to the New Right and ‘national anarchism’ known; denounce their attempts to appropriate ‘anarchist’ rhetoric, imagery and symbology for their own, racist and fascist purposes; commit ourselves to ensuring, each in our own way, that any and all confusion be eliminated in the minds of both the ‘national anarchists’ and the broader public regarding the opposition between anarchism and the antics of groups such as the New Right.

Signed : Anarchist Direct Action, Barricade Books, Melbourne Anarchist Club (Melbourne); Jura Books (Sydney); Wildcat (Wellington)

    *Graham D. Macklin, Co-opting the counter culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction, Patterns of Prejudice, Vol.39, No.3, 2005 [PDF]
Posted in Anarchism, Anti-fascism, Media | 49 Comments

Animal loving Tuhoe peace freak terror-attack plan shock!

Posted on October 21, 2007 by @ndy

Oh man, this just gets better.

According to today’s Sunday Star Times, King George II (a/k/a George W Bush) was a possible target of the small group of 17 (or possibly 18) men and women so far arrested by police in Aotearoa/New Zealand as part of the state’s War on Terror™ / crackdown on dissent. Responding to widespread criticism by media and members of the general public, police have apparently leaked the claim that “US President George Bush was among those allegedly targeted in the threats recorded by police investigating the alleged Urewera terrorist training camps”. Exactly what this means — both in law and in reality — is a bit more difficult to ascertain.

The Times, for example, also reports that those taking part in the “terrorist training camps” — in what Bernard Lagan in Sydney describes as being “found deep within New Zealand’s most sacred mountain range” — were the subject of a 22-month long investigation by secret police, the ‘Special Investigations Group’. And at some point during this period, some of those who had their communcations recorded by the SIG made some kind of unspecified threat, not only with regards President Bush, but Prime Minister Helen Clark and National Party leader John Key (Threat on PM’s safety linked to raids, TVNZ, October 15, 2007: “It is understood there was a recent specific threat to Prime Minister Helen Clark’s safety linked to the training camp activities pounced on by police on Monday…”).

This, apparently, is what justified the use of 300 or so armed police to raid houses, establish road blocks, board a bus containing children (about which fact, according to the driver, the police lied), and to arrest Maori sovereignty / environmental / peace activists and anarchists.

On a slightly more sombre note, Joseph Lose of the Sunday News (October 21, 2007) reports that:

Top Maori were terror targets

Prominent Maori, including government department bosses, were among the targets of a simultaneous, multi-pronged terror attack that would have rocked the country, Sunday News has been told…

But it is the information provided by Sunday News‘ source within the operation which is most shocking.

“Each different splinter group was training under the one umbrella and they were going to carry out attacks on targets and infrastructure,” said our source.

“You would have had Tuhoe carrying out attacks on their selected targets, animal rights groups targeting their lot and the so-called `peace freaks’ carrying out their acts.

“There were a number of different groups at the table. They were going to wreak havoc according to their own agendas. They were going after a broad spectrum and broad range of targets…

Our source said activist groups’ terror-attack plans were firmly in place.

“They were pretty well advanced in what they were planning to do,” he said.

“They were not of the sophistication of the IRA or Bader [sic] Meinhoff (German Red Army [F(r)action]) but they were technologically more aware than the likes of the terrorists in Rhodesia Zebra and Zanu.”

Top stuff. Apparently, the loose assortment of activists arrested by police and currently facing various charges for violating the Firearms Act are technologically “more aware” than Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African Nationalist Union (ZANU), while at the same time not as “sophisticated” as the IRA…

The mind boggles.

See also : The accidental terrorist – Tame Iti’s story, Sunday Star Times, October 21, 2007 (“Tame Iti’s arrest last week added another chapter to a colourful life. Tony Wall explores the many faces of the Tuhoe warrior and asks whether he is more ‘thespian than terrorist’.”) | Matt McCarten, Forget terrorists – it’s the secret police the public needs to fear, Herald on Sunday, October 21, 2007 (“The current young activists held without bail can stay in jail for up to two years without being convicted. The information that I have received is that the police have transcripts of all their phone calls and texts as well as all their personal emails. That can only mean that our citizens are being widely electronically monitored.”) | Noam Chomsky, The New War Against Terror, Counterpunch, October 24, 2001 (“We certainly want to reduce the level of terror, certainly not escalate it. There is one easy way to do that and therefore it is never discussed. Namely stop participating in it.”)

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Media, State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

@ bloggy

Posted on October 20, 2007 by @ndy

So I’ve been reading over some @ blogs. In particular, the ones I include(d) on my blogroll. Here’s what I’ve discovered:

1) Two have disappeared (including that of Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil, forced to flee the country in August).

2) A number of others have become dormant. aketus hasn’t posted since June 28, anarchafairy July 7, Anarcho-Din May 11, Angry White Kid July 25, Blogging the Middle East February 11, Bloggreen July 31 (although here it is a case of simply moving address), Callan ain’t posted nothin’ since December 26, 2006, love and rage since May 1 (although love bears an eerie resemblance to another blog whose name and location escapes me for the moment),* there’s been no further filth from the fine folks at Riot Porn since June 4 and finally The Disillusioned Kid has become disillusioned with blogging, and stopped doing so on July 19.

3) In other words, over the last nine months or so, about a third of my anarchist blogroll has disappeared, and only one new (for old) blog emerged.

4) So what? Well, like Robert Plant, it makes me wonder: why bother? Way I see it, the Vikings had the right idea.

And Viking Kittens leave Blood Red Eagle for fucking dead.

*Old Punks Never Die!

Otherwise…

A mob in Aotearoa/New Zealand has established a new website, Civil Rights Defence, “as part of the nationwide support campaign for those arrested, questioned and harassed by Police during and since the October 15th raids across the North Island and Christchurch”. In Sydney, there’s gonna be a rally in support on Thursday, October 25th @ 5:30pm outside the NZ Consulate-General, 55 Hunter St, Sydney. (Nearest train station is Martin Place.) In Melbourne, the next planned rally is Saturday, October 27th @ midday in Federation Square (City).

Previously on Terror Threat Blues:

    “Terrorist Army” forms in Melbourne

    In response to raids and arrests in Aotearoa, 30 people gathered to protest outside the New Zealand Consulate-General in inner city Melbourne on Tuesday (October 16).

    At 2pm NZ time, members of the group donned a number of repertory style military hats and proclaimed the establishment of an Insurrectionary Army.

    A spokesperson said, “If evidence of terrorism now includes wearing military camouflage and crawling through the bush, then wearing a fighter pilot’s skull-cap and sailor’s hat surely makes us a threat to National Security. We are here to point out that the New Zealand and Australian definition of a ‘Terrorist’ is now so broad as to be meaningless.”

    The group then launched an air strike on the NZ Consulate, throwing several paper airplanes at the plate glass.

    Several people spoke, expressing concern and solidarity for all those in New Zealand affected by aggressive police actions. Comparisons were made with tactics of police intimidation in Australia and the US, where serious charges against political activists are widely publicised, later to be quietly dropped for lack of evidence.

Word on the street is that the group of masked anarchists otherwise known as the dreaded Dole Army may also once again emerge from Melbourne’s storm-water drains in response to the crackdown in Aotearoa. A press release urges fellow Australians to ‘join the Army’ and use the massive sums of money they regularly defraud the Government of to purchase one enormous paper airplane, to fly to Aotearoa and join the underground movement there. Or, possibly, to dig a tunnel beneath the Tasman to free their jailed comrades. For reasons of state, plans are yet to be finalised…

Posted in Anarchism, Media | 2 Comments

Ordinary average blokes pissed off at police state repression

Posted on October 19, 2007 by @ndy

Aziz Choudry, This Average Kiwi Bloke Has Had Enough, October 19, 2007

As an ordinary average Kiwi bloke watching the events of the past few days in Aotearoa from Canada, I have felt both a sense of déjà vu and strong parallels between the two places. My outrage at the actions of the New Zealand Police and their political masters, and the way in which media feeding-frenzies and sensationalism has ensured that the words “terror” and “Maori” get bandied hysterically throughout the country and the globe, is tempered with a sense of how pathetically predictable this operation has been…

This ordinary average Aussie bloke agrees.

See also : G20: With experts like these…

JOHANN MOST WRESTED; Anarchist Editor Locked Up at Police Headquarters. Complaint Based on Recent Editorial in His Paper “Freiheit” Advocating Murder.

Johann Most, the Anarchist, and editor of the Anarchistic organ, Freiheit, was arrested last night in a saloon at 69 Gold Street, over which are the [offices] of his newspaper. Most had consumed one glass of beer and had called for another when Central Office Detectives Krauch and Ferneisen stepped forward and told him he was under arrest… ~ The New York Times, September 13, 1901

Posted in War on Terror | 1 Comment

DOA : Smash the State, “anarchy is a fag”, and neo-Nazis armed with pipes and bottles

Posted on October 19, 2007 by @ndy
    Update : ‘Nazis not all bad, 50% of Melbourne fashion punks say’, Sydney Morning Herald, October 19, 2007: “MELBOURNE: A poll shows half of all fashion punks living in the city believe there were at least some positive aspects to Nazi rule – a finding that comes after a Melbourne pub was boycotted for hosting a neo-Nazi gig accompanied by an incident of racist abuse…”

Tonight, the thoroughly faggoty, state-smashing DOA are playing at The Arty. Supporting them will be No Idea and The Worst. As the following review of DOA’s DVD Smash the State makes clear, DOA mean it, man. As for No Idea, I’ve no idea — after playing a local neo-Nazi venue, The Birmy, the band has indicated it will no longer. The Worst, on the other hand, in the person of vocalist Chunga, has declared that “The crusty wankers who think they’re so good for being anti-racist are no fucking better than the nazis… They think they’re better than everybody!!! And they dislike anyone who doesn’t share their beliefs… Fuck off you cocksuckers and get a life!!!” By way of clarification, Chunga adds that:

Anyway… anarchy is a fag… that’s all I have to say to you Mr Moran…

See how fast words travel my friends? Be careful what you write on the internet…
Coz you never know when some stalker is gonna put it on there [sic] website.
Thanx to the people who have supported us… and to the random [sic] people letting us know about this anarchist knobjockey Mr Moran…

See you in hell[!].

Well, you won’t be seeing me at the gig, that’s for sure.

DOA : Smash the State
Bob Lange
Glide
October 18, 2007

In the days where a huge corporate rock band like Rage Against the Machine reunites to enrich themselves under the guise of protest music, seeing a band who lived their message as DOA did is engaging and inspiring. When DOA was tearing up stages in protest to all they saw wrong with the world, there was no major label money, no big arena shows and no slick videos, just some kids trying to make a difference…

There is little question that DOA, love them or hate them, were the real deal. Can you imagine Rage or System of a Down forgoing the big paycheck to play the Anarchist Anti-Canada Day gig? While DOA has yet to realize their dreams of change, watching Smash the State leaves little doubt that the band believed in them. It’s so convincing that I’m surprised there’s actually a copyright on the box. I guess the world’s still that imperfect.

Oh and apparently neo-Nazis in Russia are in the habit of attempting to murder punks — especially those who consider themselves ‘anti-fascist’ but who as we know are, in reality, no better than the people stabbing them to death.

Neo-Nazi Violence in St. Petersburg
UCSJ
October 18, 2007

Neo-Nazis attacked concert goers at a St. Petersburg night club and placed an explosive device in the building, according to an October 15, 2007 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. The Rox Club was the scene of the violence on October 13. Around two dozen neo-Nazis armed with pipes and bottles attacked five club goers inside the venue; other attacks took place nearby, including a stabbing that left a victim hospitalized in serious condition. Security extinguished the explosive device, which neo-Nazis took credit for on one of their web sites. While none of the attacks appear to have had a racist motivation, neo-Nazis regularly attack anti-fascist youths and youths belonging to other sub-cultures like fans of rap and punk music.

Posted in Anarchism, Anti-fascism, Music | 2 Comments

ANARCHIST PLOTS UNEARTHED; EUROPE SWARMING WITH THE ENEMIES OF SOCIETY.

Posted on October 19, 2007 by @ndy

ANARCHIST PLOTS UNEARTHED; EUROPE SWARMING WITH THE ENEMIES OF SOCIETY. A Great Conspiracy Discovered by the Police in Vienna — Eighty-two of the Anarchists Under Arrest in that City and the Capital of Moravia — Bombs and Damaging Papers Found in the Houses of the Prisoners — The Attack on Captain General Campos.

VIENNA, Sept 25. — The arrest Saturday of fourteen Anarchists here and the capture yesterday of sixty-eight members of a secret society at Bruenn, the capital of Moravia, has revealed the existence of a widespread Anarchist plot. To-day seven more members of the gang were taken into custody, and the proof against all the persons arrested is said to be overwhelming…

The New York Times, September 26, 1893

Posted in Anarchism, Media, War on Terror | 2 Comments

“…many are linked through common causes and associates…”

Posted on October 18, 2007 by @ndy

Common threads in raid arrests
TVNZ
October 17, 2007

While most of those arrested after Monday’s anti-terrorism swoop have name suppression, ONE News can reveal that many are linked through common causes and associates.

Seventeen people are currently going through the courts following the arrests. One of those is Aucklander Jamie Lockett. A strong supporter of Maori Sovereignty, Lockett counts Iti, who has also been charged, as a friend and leader.

Iti, an often controversial figure, is well known for his support of Maori, and Tuhoe sovereignty.

“What we mean by a Tuhoe nation is we have total control and I know that the power to be are not going to give it to us. They are going to be strong and resistant on that,” Iti said in a video posted on YouTube.

One of Iti’s close relatives was also arrested and a clutch of his friends were taken into custody in the raids. Among them were two of his former Auckland flatmates.

One of the flatmates is an Auckland University student accused of firearms charges and possessing Molotov cocktails. He is also a member of the group Radical Youth which describes itself as an anti-capitalist and anti authoritarian youth movement.

The student is also associated with an anarchist’s collective.

Another of those arrested in the raids was a Bay of Plenty artist and friend of Iti’s who also supports anarchist causes and has spent time at one of the Wellington properties searched on Monday.

Anarchist supporters, members of a peace movement, and an anti-bypass group are among those arrested in Wellington.

A number share common environmental causes: three of them are working on a film project along with one of those arrested in Auckland, and two are related.

Some of those charged in Wellington and Auckland are involved in an independent media group that has been screening a documentary about Iti.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment