New Zealand mosque attack difficult to prevent despite Five Eyes intelligence sharing, Experts say

On Friday afternoon local time, a gunman carried out an attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 49 people.

But as people across the globe mourn, questions have been raised about whether the attack could have been prevented with better intelligence sharing and online surveillance.

The alleged shooter appears to have had a significant online footprint, with pictures of his weapons posted online before the shooting and an apparent manifesto describing the contours of his white supremacist and right-wing ideology shared on social media.

Recently, some questioned New Zealand’s role in the Five Eyes alliance—a group of countries that also includes the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia—which share intelligence among each other. Critics have argued that New Zealand should be kicked out of Five Eyes for its slow response to political interference by the Chinese Communist Party. Others, however, say that New Zealand is too close of an ally to shut out.

But many national security experts say Friday’s shooting in New Zealand probably could not have been prevented, even with robust intelligence sharing measures.

“Five Eyes intelligence sharing in my experience did not delve deeply into what we would consider to be domestic terrorism. So any shortfall in this area would not have involved singling out New Zealand for China reasons, or any other,” Nicholas Rasmussen, a national security and counterterrorism expert at The McCain Institute for International Leadership, told Newsweek.

“And to be sure, if the U.S. had any information at all that would have pointed to any potential attack by any terrorist, domestic or international, we would have shared that information. Full stop. We have a duty to warn and that extends beyond just Five Eyes partners, indeed to pretty much everybody,” Rasmussen added.

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Meanwhile, others have pointed to the easy way that white supremacy is spreading in online chat rooms in the current political climate.

“The atrocity in New Zealand shows us, once again, that we’re dealing with an international terrorist movement linked by a dangerous white supremacist ideology that’s metastasizing in the echo chambers of internet chat rooms and on social media networks,” Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement.

“In this case, a killer attacked Muslims worshiping at two mosques. In November, a killer massacred Jews at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Though the victims were different, and the attacks came in different parts of the world, the terrorists shared the same ideology of white supremacist hate.”

https://www.newsweek.com/new-zealand-mosque-attack-five-eyes-security-1365155

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New Zealand Prime Minister says, 'Our gun laws will change'

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Saturday morning that "our gun laws will change" following the mass shooting at two Christchurch mosques that left 49 people dead.

"There were five guns used by the primary perpetrator," she said at a news conference in Wellington. "There were two semi-automatic weapons and two shotguns. The offender was in possession of a gun license. I'm advised this was acquired in November of 2017. A lever-action firearm was also found."

She said the suspect, identified as Brenton Tarrant, obtained a gun license in November 2017 and began purchasing guns legally in December 2017.

"While work is being done as to the chain of events that lead to both the holding of this gun license and the possession of these weapons, I can tell you one thing right now. Our gun laws will change." Ardern said.

Nation's last mass shooting 3 decades ago

Until Friday, the biggest massacre in the country's history happened 30 years ago, when a man named David Gray went on a shooting rampage, killing 13 people.

Following that attack, the nation's gun laws – which were first passed in 1983 – came under scrutiny. The ensuing debate led to a 1992 amendment on the regulation of military-style semi-automatic firearms.

Despite those laws, New Zealand's weapons legislation is considered more relaxed than most Western countries outside of the USA. Gun owners do need a license but they aren't required to register their guns – unlike in neighboring Australia.

While authorities do not know exactly how many legally or illegally owned firearms are currently in circulation in New Zealand, estimates put the number at about 1.2 million, according to New Zealand Police. This figure equates to about one gun for every three people – a rate that is considered high when compared with Australia, which has 3.15 million guns, approximately one for every eight people.

That said, gun-inflicted fatalities remain relatively low in New Zealand. The number of gun homicides per year in the decade up to 2015 was in the dozens, according to figures compiled by the University of Sydney. This equated to an annual rate of about one death per 100,000 people – in contrast to the United States, which had 12 deaths per 100,000 people in 2017.

Potential gun owners in New Zealand must be over the age of 16 and pass a police background check, according to GunPolicy.org and its founder Professor Philip Alpers.

Alpers, who is based at the University of Sydney but originally from New Zealand, told CNN: "Not one of these measures has been addressed by legislation. Government has since considered a range of similar recommendations, but special interest groups prevent meaningful change."

In 79 countries surveyed by the United Nations, firearm registration is the accepted norm and a cornerstone of gun control, according to GunPolicy.org. Among developed nations, New Zealand's decision not to register 96% of civilian firearms makes it a stand-out exception, alone with the United States and Canada, Alpers said.

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https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/15/asia/new-zealand-gun-control-intl/index.html

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