The Urewera 17 threat

Speaking of Nazis, they started out by creating bands of violent thugs to intimidate their opponents. That’s fact.

Solo pulls out some facts that seem to have been forgotten by too many.

  The network had an arsenal of rifles, shotguns and pistols, including military-style semiautomatics, and used high-capacity magazines and silencers. A grenade launcher was obtained, and Molotov cocktails were used at the camps. Attendees carried weapons at all times, firing off hundreds of rounds and carrying out ambush drills under the instruction of at least one Vietnam veteran and an ex-Territorial soldier.

Tuhoe activists have repeated the lie that only 4 weapons and 230 rounds of ammunition were seized so often that the media have taken it as fact. One Ruatoki suspect had two .22 calibre rifles and a 7.62 mm Saiga (a hunting rifle based on the AK-47) while another suspect had one rifle seized. However, many other weapons were found as well, according to Detective Inspector Bruce Good, who claimed that 20 weapons were seized including “AK-47 assault rifles, shotguns, rifles and pistols, plus silencers, scopes, ammunition and firearms parts.” [4]

Most of the firearms were purchased legally through one of the Auckland arrestees – one of the few members of the network with a firearms license. He bought rifles online through TradeMe, from Gun City in Christchurch, from two Auckland gun shops, and from a North Shore arms collector. The same North Shore dealer cut down a shotgun for him, offered to sell him “fireworks” and gave him an imported Chinese grenade launcher in exchange for a website. The suspect bought so much ammo – thousands of rounds – that he resorted to buying an ammunition-making machine, which he was paying off when he was arrested. He also modified a replica Glock starter pistol to fire live rounds, which he suggested could be used for an “execution-style” shooting.

Some of these weapons were transferred to anarchists and “peace activists”. This included an SKS (Russian predecessor of the AK-47) in Auckland, and a silenced .22 calibre firearm – possibly a pistol – given to a Wellington arrestee. Media reports suggest that no weapons were seized in Wellington, so these weapons may still be available to the suspects, who are all out on bail.

You may not have heard this either:

• Supporters of striking waterfront workers in Wellington in 1913 engaged in sabotage and attempted bombings.
• During the Vietnam War, a group of students bombed military depots and other targets which they identified as right-wing – even the NZ Rugby Union [2].
• In 1969 and 1973, Molotov cocktails and bombs were thrown at US diplomatic targets.
• In 1982, New Zealand’s only suicide bombing involved anarchist Neil Roberts blowing himself up in the Police Computer Centre foyer in Wanganui, causing minor damage.
• In 1987, a gang of Rastafarians in Ruatoria began an armed insurgency. Like the 2007 plotters, their leader declared war on New Zealand and talked about killing white people and driving farmers from their land. Their reign of terror involved capturing armed police at gunpoint, accusations of police brutality, and the arson of more than 60 buildings, including the courthouse and the police station. The rebellion only stopped when the Rasta leader, Chris Campbell, was shot dead by a local farmer in self-defence [3].