More on Terrorism arrests

The HoS has an article focusing mainly on claims from and about Jamie Lockett.

Bill Ralston wonders why he has not yet been raided.

The Hos Editorial says the Police had better have a  winning hand of cards.

Matt McCarten defends Iti:

The young idealists arrested with him were traipsing around his bush camp. No doubt they were firing guns and if the police say they set off napalm, I’m inclined to believe them. But does this mean that an eclectic group of Maori, political and environmental activists were being turned into a terrorist army?

Like most, I find it hard to think there was a conspiracy amongst all those arrested to set up a terrorist army.  But if people were breaking the firearms laws they need to be accountable for that.  If they regularly talked about using the illegal firearms they had collected to kill prominent NZers, well I don’t want a Police force which says “Nah, we don’t think they are serious”.  On the other hand it is an open question as to whether the evidence does add up, and whether they really needed to raid as aggressively as they did.

Sunday News asserts some top Maori or “Uncle Toms” were targets of the alleged terror attacks.   They also assert there was a definite plan:

“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.

I’d take this info more seriously if it was not in the Sunday News. But again will be interesting to see what is in the evidence.

The SST has a bit of a scoop with their lead story alleging Clark, Key and Bush were discussed as targets by those arrested.  They also have some detailes of what was allegedly seized:

The Star-Times, which broke the story on Fairfax Media’s Stuff website last Monday, understands the police have seized more than 20 guns, including AK-47s and other military-style semi-automatic rifles, as well as stab and bullet-resistant clothing, camouflage netting, bomb-making recipes and an IRA manual.

Of the 17 people arrested, about half have links with the Maori sovereignty movement, while most of the others are self-described anarchists.