NZ security attitudes ‘changed forever’
Police and security agents will comb phone and email records, social media, knock on doors and probably intercept communications in the wake of the Christchurch attacks, a former intelligence officer says.
Massey University academic Dr Rhys Ball, a former NZ Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) intelligence officer, told the Herald on Sunday that beyond the short-term scramble for information, New Zealanders’ attitudes to security have been forever changed.
“This is going to change the country. It’s a new day now.”
Events have been cancelled, defence forces are on standby, and the national threat level is now “high”, triggering strengthened aviation and border security.
Ball, whose work with the NZSIS involved intelligence work on counter terrorism targets, said that response had been prepared for with decades of training exercises.
“The country doesn’t often see or hear about the various terrorism exercises that take place. But they happen for this very reason.”
Police would be working back from the suspects to find out how coordinated the attacks were, he said, and whether they were the work of one person or a larger group.
Ball said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and NZSIS would be helping to collect intelligence: “You would expect to have a number of warrants in place to intercept communications.”
Some security experts have questioned how the alleged gunman, Australian Brenton Tarrant, was not on NZ or Australian intelligence agencies’ watch-lists or radar.
RMIT Professor Joe Siracusa told 9 News the killings were a “catastrophic failure of intelligence”.
Paul Buchanan, director of 36th Parallel Assessments, has said intelligence agencies weren’t focused on the threat of right-wing extremism, despite repeat incidents involving white supremacists in Christchurch.
“The intelligence community don’t like missing things, because the finger gets pointed and it’s described as an intelligence or security failure.”
However, he said it was hard to prevent attacks from individuals, and they had occurred in countries with substantive security agencies and powers.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush said on Friday night no agency here or in Australia had any information about the suspects before the mosque shootings.
Asked if agencies had missed the threat from white supremacists, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, “Given the rise of extremist views by those who hold ideology that I can only describe as violent and extreme, our agencies here in New Zealand have stepped up the work that was being done in that area.”
However, when asked what was the most burning question, she said, “Very much whether or not there was any indication, including on social media, that this individual should have been responded to earlier”.
Tomorrow, Ardern will reconvene security and intelligence agencies to further piece together the alleged gunman’s prior travel and movements, including his purchase of guns.