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Dozens killed in shootings at two New Zealand mosques; 4 people in custody

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that 49 people were killed in shootings at two mosques in Christchurch in "one of New Zealand's darkest days."

Authorities said they had taken three men and one woman into custody. Their identities were not released, but Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison said one was an Australian citizen.

In addition to the 49 killed, Ardern said that 20 people had been injured.

Portions of the attack were streamed live on Facebook from the gunman's point of view.

"This can only be described as a terrorist attack," she said. "While we do not have anything to believe at this stage that there were any other suspects, we are not assuming that at this stage."

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Friday morning that the U.S. stands by New Zealand.

"My warmest sympathy and best wishes goes out to the people of New Zealand after the horrible massacre in the Mosques," the tweet read. "49 innocent people have so senselessly died, with so many more seriously injured. The U.S. stands by New Zealand for anything we can do. God bless all!"

Trump's tweet followed a White House statement issued by press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders:

"The United States strongly condemns the attack in Christchurch. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families," the statement read. "We stand in solidarity with the people of New Zealand and their government against this vicious act of hate."

Police Commissioner Mike Bush told a news conference that a man has been charged with murder and will appear in court Saturday. He would not say whether the same shooter was responsible for both attacks.

A man who earlier claimed responsibility said he was a 28-year-old Australian and described anti-immigrant motives in a manifesto.

Suspected New Zealand mosque shooter hoped to spark civil war in US



The 28-year-old white supremacist who livestreamed himself slaughtering Muslims inside a New Zealand mosque said he hoped the massacre, among other things, would spark a civil war in the United States.

In a twisted, 74-page manifesto, Australian citizen Brenton Tarrant describes his anti-immigrant motives for unleashing the rampage at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch , saying the victims were a “large group of invaders” who “seek to occupy my peoples lands and ethnically replace my own people [sic].”

He calls himself “just a regular White man, from a regular family. Who decided to take a stand to ensure a future for my people,” adding that he is “a private and mostly introverted person.”

“I had little interest in education [no fucking kidding]during my schooling, barely achieving a passing grade. I did not attend University as I had no great interest in anything offered in the Universities to study,” he writes, adding that he has been working as a “kebab removalist.”

He also admits he is racist and is an “Eco-fascist by nature.”

Tarrant poses the question of why he carried out the attack, then lists more than a dozen reasons.

“To most of all show the invaders that our lands will never be their lands, our homelands are our own and that, as long as a white man still lives, they will NEVER conquer our lands and they will never replace our people,” he says.

“To take revenge on the invaders for the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by foreign invaders in European lands throughout history,” he continues.

“To take revenge for the enslavement of millions of Europeans taken from their lands by the Islamic slavers,” he says. “To take revenge for the thousands of European lives lost to terror attacks throughout European lands.”

He says he also wanted “to create conflict between the two ideologies within the United States on the ownership of firearms in order to further the social, cultural, political and racial divide within the United states.

“This conflict over the 2nd amendment and the attempted removal of firearms rights will ultimately result in a civil war that will eventually balkanize the US along political, cultural and, most importantly, racial lines.”

• WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Upbraiding the ESPN anchor Jemele Hill for calling Donald Trump a “white supremacist,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Wednesday that “no one has done more than President Trump to prove that white people are not superior.”
  
  “It’s grossly unfair that Ms. Hill sought to portray Donald Trump as an upholder of white supremacy, when everything he says or does directly undermines that whole concept,” Sanders said. “Anyone who thinks that Donald Trump is on some mission to make white people look good hasn’t been paying attention.”
  
  Sanders urged the ESPN anchor to “do her homework” on Trump before making baseless allegations. “Read his tweets,” she said. “Listen to his speeches. If you still think Donald Trump is trying to prove that white people are superior, I tip my hat to you.”
  
  Ending on a personal note, Sanders said that she was “a hundred-per-cent sure” that her boss is not a white supremacist. “Donald Trump cannot even spell the word ‘supremacist,’ ” she said.

Burning Petard wrote:A significant part of these mass-shooter motivations is notoriety. I wish the American news media would respect the New Zealand requirement that the shooter's name and picture or other image not be circulated.

snailgate.

Lord Jim wrote:Obviously a malignant narcissist with some serious delusions of grandeur issues...

Racist suspect in New Zealand mosque massacre praised President Trump as 'a symbol of renewed white identity'

The immigrant-bashing white supremacist suspected of killing dozens of Muslims at a mosque in New Zealand released a disturbing manifesto before the Friday massacre praising President Trump as an inspiration for his hate.

The suspect, who has been identified as 28-year-old Australian citizen Brenton Tarrant, released the since-deleted screed before storming into the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch during afternoon prayer local time and killing at least 41 people. Another eight people were killed in a separate attack at a nearby mosque minutes later.

So many sick people among us; I suppose it was ever thus and the Internet only makes it easier to know it.

New Zealand shooter steeped attack in dark internet culture

The suspected New Zealand shooter carefully modeled his attack for an internet age. He live-streamed the massacre, shouted out a popular meme slogan and published a long, rambling manifesto replete with inside jokes geared for those steeped in underground internet culture.

All that makes Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the man charged with murder for the attack Friday on mosques in Christchurch, the latest person to allegedly commit mass slaughter alongside a targeted appeal to online communities that breed extremism.

Recruitment with and proliferation of extremist ideals is nothing new — in person or online. People who want to discuss such ideas are bound to find each other, said Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. But whereas small groups might have once met up in real life, now people can go online and find large groups to reinforce and encourage their ideas almost instantly.

People do things online that they might be hesitant to do in real life, Byman said. That can range from harmless acts, such as emailing someone you would be too intimidated to approach at a party, to sharing, building on and encouraging extremist views and violence.

"It enables you to be bolder," Byman said.

The shooter did his research, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper , associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization. "He found information online, he found validation, he found an ideology and a purpose in life that led directly to what he did," Cooper said.

Social media is at the center of this increasing challenge, he said. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other sites that allow people to upload their own content have faced fierce backlash for letting violent and hate-filled posts and videos spread.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said Friday there's a theory that the New Zealand shooting massacre was actually a false flag attack conducted to boost the political left and the gun control movement.

Speaking on his show, Limbaugh said the accused shooter in the terror attack — which left 49 people dead at two mosques in Christchurch — could have been a gun control advocate rather than the anti-immigrant, white supremacist he claimed to be.

"There's an ongoing theory that the shooter himself may in fact be a leftist who writes the manifesto and then goes out and performs the deed purposely to smear his political enemies, knowing he's gonna get shot in the process," Limbaugh said. "You can't immediately discount this."

After reading portions of the accused shooter's manifesto that referenced U.S. politics, Limbaugh added, "Now, if we're to take this at face value, the guy's objective here — and it probably is multifaceted — but one of his objectives is to continue to roil American society because he understands the leadership role America takes in the world, both culturally, economically, and politically."

An Australian senator has been strongly criticised after he blamed the New Zealand shooting on Muslim immigration.

Following the attack, which left 49 people dead at two mosques in Christchurch, Fraser Anning tweeted: “Does anyone still dispute the link between Muslim immigration and violence?”

In a statement shared by an Australian journalist on Twitter, the Queensland senator also wrote: “As always, leftwing politicians and the media will rush to claim that the causes of today’s shootings lie with gun laws or those who hold nationalist views, but this is all cliched nonsense.

“The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place.”

“There is no doubt that what happened in New Zealand as horrific as it is, is a false flag that will be blamed on conservatives when it’s all said and done! Only a total nutjob lunatic, insane demonized freak goes into a building and kills people, it’s unacceptable on every level!”

Burning Petard wrote:And then the Australian Senator was egged.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/16/worl ... e=Homepage

Snailgate

On Saturday, people were donating funds online to cover the teenager’s legal fees, the ABC reported, and to help him buy “more eggs.”

Burning Petard wrote:And then the Australian Senator was egged.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/16/worl ... tion=click&