Christchurch Mosque Attacks: 50 Dead

Friday is the Muslim holy day, a day of worship at mosques.

The naming of Christchurch, New Zealand, the capital city of the Canterbury region, occurred in 1848, when the founders who had attended Christ Church College in Oxford, named it after their Alma Mater.

At around 1:40 pm, attacks at two mosques, perhaps more, have left fifty people deceased and another fifty injured, on Friday, March 15, 2019, in Christchurch, New Zealand. (The death toll was updated to 50 when another body was found on March 16, 2019.)

First reports were that four individuals had been arrested, one woman and three men. But only one person was tied to the actual shooting. One male has been identified as an Australian Caucasian.

This Christchurch shooter self-identified himself as "Brenton Tarrant." He posted this photo of himself. (He was charged with murder on March 16, 2019.

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Brenton is an English place name and surname. The surname Brenton indicates that one's ancestors came from a place called Brenton near Exminster, England, the original meaning of which was "Bryni's homestead." Bryni was an Old English given name based on the word bryne, "flame."

Tarrant is a Welsh name meaning "thunder."

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After going back outside and shooting a woman there, he gets back in his car, where the song 'Fire' by the English rock band The Crazy World of Arthur Brown can be heard blasting. The singer bellows, 'I am the god of hellfire!' and the gunman drives away. Source.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed that at least one of the individuals taken into custody is an Australian born citizen. He called the shooting as being at the hands of a "extremist right wing, violent terrorist," at a press conference Friday.

The attacks appear to have unfolded at the Al Door Mosque, Deans Avenue, next to Hagley Park, and at the Linwood Mosque in the suburban location of Linwood.  One shooter live-streamed his attack on social media, gruesomely displaying how he entered the mosque and shot innocents. New Zealand Police have requested this video be taken down from any social media site.

In a social media post just before the attack, an account that is believed to belong to one of the attackers posted a link to an 87-page manifesto that was filled with anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim ideas and explanations for an attack. The manifesto was not signed.

The shooter's weapons were marked with white supremacist symbols and the names of historical figures who fought against the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic superpower of its day.

Besides automatic weapons employed, multiple improvised explosive devices were attached to vehicles as part of the attack.

All schools, for a time being, and all mosques were closed. Christchurch experienced a massive lockdown. A worldwide alert went out, and mosques in many locations - New York City, Los Angeles, London, Minneapolis and other cities - were closed or security forces were sent to guard them.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, "This is one of New Zealand's darkest days."

Journalist Chris Lynch, a radio host on New Zealand station ZB Radio, told CNN that one of the shootings had occurred at "the biggest mosque in all of Christchurch."

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After a period of relatively quiet, as far as mass violence, it will be noted that on Wednesday, March 13, 2019, Brazil experienced a mass shooting at the state school in Suzano, near São Paulo, when students were on a snack break. Two school employees, five adolescent students, and the two former students all died. One owner of a nearby car rental shop was also killed. One of the gunmen was his nephew and they stole a car from him before the school shooting.

Melbourne Attack

#BREAKING:  Eyewitness of #MelbourneAttack says driver shouted "Allahu Akbar". Assumed terrorist drove car into crowd near the Bourke Street Mall. At least three (some reports say five) killed, including a baby, and over 20 injured. January 19, 2017, local time.

The thin man was hanging out the car window screaming, "Allahu Akhbar, Allahu Akhbar, Allahu Akhbar!"

Apparently tentatively identified as a Greek male who has converted to Islam. May have Kurdish ties, as well.

The attack reminds commentary observers of the attacks in Nice and Berlin, and the ongoing series of car rammings of groups of people in Israel.

Dreamworld Dead: 4

Four people have died after a raft flipped off a river rapids ride at Dreamworld theme park in Australia.

The Thunder River Rapids ride (built in 1986) suffered a "malfunction," which caused two people to be thrown from the six-person raft and two people to be trapped in its conveyor belt on Tuesday, October 25, 2016, at 2:17 pm, local time.

Two men and two women between the ages of 32 and 40 died on the family ride, which is open to children as young as two, on the Gold Coast in Queensland. 

Those killed include Canberra woman Kate Goodchild (née Dorsett), 32, her brother Luke Dorsett, partner Roozi Araghi and a 42-year-old woman. 

Witnesses said the accident was horrific and happened as the ride was coming to an end.

"My sister and niece were in the ride, they were so traumatised, there is a woman hanging by her foot, crushed from the ride," one witness told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Local media reports the victims were possibly from the same family and may have been visiting from Canberra. 

Other incidents have occurred at Dreamworld, including:

June 2009: Helicopter crashes into Dreamworld carpark, injuring the pilot and four Taiwanese passengers

2011: Two separate reports of Bengal tiger Kato biting handlers at the Tiger Island attraction - once in May and once in September

November 2013: More than 7000 people evacuated from Dreamworld in under an hour after a bushfire came close to the facility 

April 2016: A passenger on the Rocky Hollow Log Ride nearly drowned after being thrown from the attraction and suffering lacerations to his head

A recent new HBO tv series, based on an earlier Michael Crichton movie about a futuristic theme park, is Westworld. The series deals with "malfunctions" occurring within the previously smoothly running park.

Stock image of the ride:

Dreamworld is a theme park situated on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It is Australia's largest theme park with over 40 rides and attractions, including five roller coasters.

(An early logo for Dreamworld, never used.)

The original theme park was built from 1974-1976 with the employment of several designers who designed Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

The park is made up of several themed lands: Ocean Parade, DreamWorks Experience, Wiggles World, Gold Rush Country, Rocky Hollow, Tiger Island and the Dreamworld Corroboree. These lands have a collection of rides, animal exhibits, shows, food outlets and merchandise shops.

Dreamworld is noted for being the location of the Australian Big Brother house since the program began in Australia in 2001. 

On several occasions during the year, Dreamworld remains open after dark. This event, known as Screamworld, includes all of the thrill rides and a selection of children's rides.

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Westworld is a 1973 science fiction Western thriller film written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton about amusement park androids that malfunction and begin killing visitors. It stars Yul Brynner as an android in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park, and Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.

Westworld was the first theatrical feature directed by Michael Crichton. It was also the first feature film to use digital image processing, to pixellate photography to simulate an android point of view. The film was nominated for Hugo, Nebula and Saturn awards.

Westworld was followed by a sequel film, Futureworld (1976), and a short-lived television series, Beyond Westworld (1980). A new television series from HBO, based on the original film, debuted on October 2, 2016. Source: Wikipedia.

Scottsdale, Arizona, WestWorld, Present

Neverland (credit: Johnny Walsh)

Disneyland, It's A Small World

Nada, Japan, Dreamland, 1961-2006

Manoora Massacre

The slaughter of the innocents continues, even if merely in purely domestic situations.

A teddy bear was seen against a fence across the road from the Cairns child massacre, apparently left for the "Temu Family."

Repeating imagery. Photo by Darren Broo.

On December 19, 2014 emergency crews were called to a home at 34 Murray Street in the Cairns suburb of Manoora, Queensland, at about 11:20 a.m. local time where eight children were found dead. The victims were aged between 18 months and 15 years. Lisa Thaiday, who said she was the children's mother's cousin, said another sibling, a 20-year-old man, came home and found his brothers and sisters dead inside the house. The 34-year-old mother of seven of the children was also reportedly injured and taken to hospital.

Murray Street: The name Murray is Celtic and the meaning is "lives by the sea." In some interpretations, it is regarded as "from the sea" and/or "Lord of the Sea" (a/k/a Poseidon.)

The backyard of the home where eight children were found stabbed to death. Note the cross formed by the clothes lines.

Police had not issued any charges, as of 8:30 pm December 19, 2014.

The tragedy follows the Martin Place/Lindt siege which traumatized Australians this week. Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said, “These are trying days for our country.”

The home where eight children were killed in Murray St, Manoora, Cairns, Australia.

“This neighbourhood is going to be a different place,” said 20-year-old Ngatu Temu, who knew the family well.

Rather sad and mysterious, but intriguing that this occurred during Hanukkah (sunset, December 16 to nightfall, December 24, 2014) in a town, Manoora, which phonetically sounds like menorah. There is absolutely no indication that this family is Jewish, of course.

Claims of "virulent anti-semitism" indicates a shortsighted reading of synchromystic and twilight language analayses.
The family names Temu and Thaiday appear to be indigenous in origin, from Pacific Islands, via Cook Island, through New Zealand, and ending up in Australia.

Night flight emails me this: "In addition to the name Manoora sounding like menorah, there were also eight children murdered and eight candles on the menorah. Strange coincidence."

These are all merely coincidences, but strange things do happen.

"It is in the humble opinion of this narrator that this is not just 'something that happened.' This cannot be 'one of those things'...This, please, cannot be that. And for what I would like to say, I can't. This was not just a matter of chance.…These strange things happen all the time." ~ Magnolia

(One candle for each child?) A candlelight vigil is held in the street where eight children died in a multiple stabbing in the suburb of Manoora. Photo: Ian Hitchcock. Source.

This northern Manoora is in Queensland, and appears to have been named after another Manoora in South Australia. The first Europeans to settle at the southernmost Manoora, in about 1841, were the sheep pastoralists Edward and William Peter, of Scottish origin. Peter (the "rock") is a name tied to early Christianity, needless to say.

The location of the first Manoora in Australia.

If this turns out to be a case of the mother stabbing her own children, it fits into a pattern in Australia of a high number of cases of mothers killing their own children. The infanticide is often carried out by taking the kids out into the desert in a van, and the killing (murder-suicide) of the mother and her children by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Update: The mother of seven of the children, 34-year old Mersane Warria, , also known as Raina Thaiday, now has been arrested over the murder. The eighth victim is believed to be Warria’s niece.

Neighbors reported Warria was seen pulling all of her belongings out the front door, screaming she was starting a "new life."

This is a domestic mental health issue. Neighbors reported they saw Warria pulling her belongings out the front door, exclaiming that she wanted to start a new life.

Oz's Lindt Chocolate Cafe Hostage Situation

A Lindt Chocolate Cafe is the focus of a terrorist hostage situation in Oz. The exact filming location of some of the scenes in Matrix are where this event is occurring.

A major police operation was under way on what is Monday morning, December 15, 2014, at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe, on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Martin Place, Sydney, Australia.

An armed man was filmed with black headband with Arabic writing (see below). A black Arab flag was seen flying inside the cafe. Witnesses described seeing cafe staff and shoppers pinned up against the building’s front window, with their arms raised and a black and white Islamic flag in the window (as shown at top).

As many as 13 hostages were being held in the Lindt Cafe. At least two gunmen took over cafe just before 10 a.m. Customers and staff locked in David Jones in Elizabeth Street. Davy Jones' Locker, also Davy Jones's Locker, is an idiom for the bottom of the sea: the state of death among drowned sailors and shipwrecks.

It is believed six Black Hawk helicopters with troops on board are headed to the city. Castlereagh Street is swarming with hundreds of shocked onlookers and media personnel.

Lindt & Sprüngli AG, more commonly known as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolate and confectionery company, dating back to 1845. Rudolf Lindt, (July 16, 1855 – February 20, 1909) was a Swiss chocolate manufacturer and inventor.

Lindt has opened eight chocolate cafes in Australia, four in Sydney and four in Melbourne. The first one opened in 2004 at Martin Place in Sydney.

The name Lindt is derived from the Upper German word lind, which means "tender," "gentle hearted." The similar phonetic name Linde comes from "Linden," which is a type of tree. It is generally known as a sacred, hallowed tree in Slavic and Germanic cultures, and in England is called a "lime tree."

The symbol found on the logo is of a dragon.

Imprinted on individual chocolates is the logo's dragon. But, intriguing, turned...

...upside down, the head of the dragon looks like a machine gun. This was discovered and noted here, and mentioned in a blog in 2012.

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A rundown of the current breaking news follows. First, a bit of history:

In September 2014, the Australian Federal Police made "a host of arrests after allegedly uncovering a plot to abduct a random Australian and execute them by beheading in a public place, possibly Martin Place and post the act on social media."

Source.

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Murder on Twilight Beach Road

Rising baseball star Christopher Lane, 22, grew up in Oak Park in Melbourne, Australia’s north and was in America on a sports scholarship. His life ended in a random killing in the USA.

Lane was jogging through an area of "high dollar homes" after leaving the home of his American girlfriend, Sarah Harper, when he was followed and shot at the intersection of Country Club Road and Twilight Beach Road. Lane, of course, means a narrow way,  passage or track between walls, hedges, or fences.

Three teenagers, 15, 16, and 17, two black, one white, decided to make a name for themselves, and kill someone. They murdered Lane during a random drive-by shooting in the town of Duncan, Oklahoma. Local law enforcers noted that the alleged killers came up from behind Lane, shot him in the back with a small-calibre handgun and sped off. The alleged suspects are named Chancey Luna, Michael Jones and James Edwards.

Lane's murder has shocked the residents of Duncan, a quiet city of 25,000 people in southern Oklahoma, and his teammates at East Central University, where Lane won a scholarship to be the team's catcher.

ECU's mascot is the tiger.

The town has had only one other murder the past five years. Source.

Duncan, Oklahoma once adopted the slogan, "The Buckle on the Oil Belt". Its main claim to fame is as the birthplace of the Halliburton Corporation. Erle P. Halliburton (statute above) perfected a new method of cementing wells, making oil production much easier and more profitable, and established the New Method Oil Well Cementing Company in 1919. He died in 1957, at which time the company had 201 offices in 22 states and 20 foreign countries. Halliburton maintains seven different complexes in Duncan plus an employee recreational park, but the corporate offices relocated first to Dallas and later to Houston.
Halliburton operates the Halliburton Technology Center in Duncan. In 2010 Halliburton announced that 150 jobs in the center will move to Houston over the following two years. Source.

For more insights and information on the background and details of this murder, please see the Red Dirt Report.

Andrew W. Griffin / Red Dirt Report