OTTAWA—While only one man is believed to have been directly responsible for the brutal killing of 49 Muslim men and women in Christchurch, New Zealand, it’s likely a mistake to call him a “lone actor.”Two former intelligence analysts said the concept of “lone actor” terrorists overlooks the online and in-person relationships that lead to radicalization and violence.“Radicalization is social. You don’t come to these conclusions by yourself,” said Stephanie Carvin, an assistant professor at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs and former CSIS analyst. But the nature of those networks and connections — especially in the horizonless online world — still make it extremely difficult for intelligence and law enforcement agencies to detect or disrupt the kind of attack that shocked New Zealand and the world Thursday night.“The sheer number of places that extremist content can proliferate is certainly a challenge, because we can’t (monitor) all of them,” said Jessica Davis, the president of Insight Threat Intelligence and a former senior analyst at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.“It’s a huge space to try to essentially generate leads from.”Read more: New Zealand mosque shooter a white nationalist seeking revengeNew Zealand shooting manifesto resembles Norway mass murderer’s text‘An extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence’: Mass shootings at New Zealand mosques kill 49, one man chargedIn attacks on two separate mosques in Christchurch Thursday, a single gunman killed 49 worshippers while live streaming the carnage on Facebook.In a post to 8chan just before the attack, a gathering place for internet subcultures and activism, an anonymous user believed to be the shooter released a 74-page manifesto railing against immigration and calling Muslims “invaders.”The author also decried “white genocide” ...
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