Thread: Explosion In Centre Of Norwegian Capital

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Nope - Koman is going further than that. He's justifying the setting - saying it's a correct analystic view. He's not saying the killings are justified - but he's alleging that the trigger - the touch paper - whatever, was there for a long time. Almost like - 'not surprised it happened or took this long to happen'..

Bomb Suspect Is a Mystery - WSJ.com

• EUROPE NEWS
• JULY 23, 2011, 10:15 A.M. ET

Bomb Suspect Is a Mystery

Associated Press

STOCKHOLM—The 32-year-old man suspected of massacring at least 80 young people at a summer camp in Norway and setting off a bomb in downtown Oslo that killed at least seven is a mystery to investigators: a right-winger with anti-Muslim views but no known links to hard-core extremists.

"He just came out of nowhere," a police official said.

Public broadcaster NRK and several other Norwegian media outlets identified the suspected attacker as Anders Behring Breivik, a blond, blue-eyed Norwegian who expressed right-wing and anti-Muslim views on the Internet. Police have the suspect in custody.

Norwegian news agency NTB said Mr. Breivik legally owned several firearms and belonged to a gun club. He ran an agricultural firm growing vegetables, an enterprise that could have helped him secure large amounts of fertilizer, a potential ingredient in bombs.

But he didn't belong to any known factions in Norway's small and splintered extreme-right movement and had no criminal record except for some minor offenses, the police official told the Associated Press.

"He hasn't been on our radar, which he would have been if was active in the neo-Nazi groups in Norway," he said. "But he still could be inspired by their ideology."

He spoke on condition of anonymity because those details hadn't been officially released by police. He declined to name the suspect.

Neo-Nazi groups carried out a series of murders and robberies in Scandinavia in the 1990s but have since kept a low profile. "They have a lack of leadership. We have pretty much control of those groups," the police official said.

Mr. Breivik's registered address is at a four-story apartment building in western Oslo. A police car was parked outside the brick building early Saturday, with officers protecting the entrance.

National police chief Sveinung Sponheim told public broadcaster NRK that the gunman's Internet postings "suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views, but whether that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen."

A Facebook page under Mr. Breivik's name was taken down late Friday. A Twitter account under his name had only one Tweet, on July 17, loosely citing English philosopher John Stuart Mill: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests."

Police were interrogating the man, first at the scene of the shooting, and later at a police station in Oslo. "It's strange that he didn't kill himself, like the guys that have carried out school shootings," the police official told AP. "It's a good thing that he didn't because then we might get some answers pointing out his motivation."

He said the attacks appeared to be the work of a lone madman, without links to any international terrorist networks.

Investigators said the Norwegian carried out both attacks—the blast at the prime minister's office in Oslo and the shooting spree at the left-wing Labor Party's youth camp—but didn't rule out that others were involved. But the police official said it wouldn't be impossible for one man to carry out the attacks on his own.

A chunk from The Guardian's live blog...more information emerging from various sources about this psychopath.

Norway attacks: live coverage | World news | guardian.co.uk

Norway attacks: live coverage

• At least 92 killed in Norway attacks
• Bomb blast in capital Oslo kills at least 7
• 85 killed at youth camp on Utøya island
• Norwegian gunman 'held rightwing views'


Rescue workers evacuate youths from the Utøya camp near Oslo where scores of people where at least 85 people were shot dead by a gunman. Photograph: Morten Edvarsen/AFP/Getty Images

3.51pm: The perpetrator of the attacks in Norway may have been inspired by an Armageddon-like idea of "bringing the system to its knees", a terrorism expert has suggested.

If he harboured far-right beliefs, he would be strongly opposed to the Norwegian government's pursuit of peace and conflict resolution, Paul Wilkinson, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, told PA.

The atrocity could therefore have been a domestic challenge to the current political establishment, he said.

We've heard [the suspect] described as a man with far-right links. We know Norway has groups of that kind and if that's the case, the likelihood is it's a domestic challenge to the prime minister and ruling party.

A person on the far right would be bitterly hostile to [their] policies and to socialism. I would think it would be a domestic motivation of hatred of the ruling government and a kind of Armageddon idea of bringing the system to its knees.

Prof Wilkinson, who has written several books about terrorism, said the attacks served to highlight the fact that terror attacks can be carried out anywhere at any time.

I think this is one of those dreadful occasions when people are reminded that terrorism is still a scourge or a problem, not just for failing or failed states but for prosperous democracies as well.

3.50pm: As the day has progressed more and more people have been commenting on the fact that the bomb blast in Oslo now seems to have been cynically planned as a diversionary tactic, writes Andrew Boyle.

Without the chaos of the Oslo bomb, the gunman would not have been allowed out to the Utøya camp, even with convincing police uniform. That Breivik strategically used one terror action to facilitate the success of a second, more brutal massacre has been a disturbing dimension for Norwegians to grasp.

3.40pm: Norwegian TV has footage of covered bodies of shooting victims near the water's edge on Utøya island.

3.36pm: There was a New Orleans-style march on the last day of the Molde Jazz festival in mourning for the victims of the attacks, writes Neil Perry.

3.18pm: Another person is confirmed to have died as a result of the shootings on Utøya island, bringing the total death toll to 92.

3.14pm: Reuters has more reaction to the attacks from residents of Oslo.

"It's absurd - I can't believe it. Norway is the most safe and peaceful place in the world - or was," said Beate Karlsen, 39, standing at a police roadblock as she tried to catch a glimpse of the bombed government offices in Oslo.

"Maybe Norway is no longer as innocent and safe as we thought," she added.

Marit Saxeide, 68, who runs a combined video rental and horse betting store in a district where many non-Western immigrants live, was relieved the suspect was not a Muslim. "It would have been hell here if that were the case," she said.

"It's incomprehensible how a seemingly educated man can do something like this. I sympathise with his mother though, it must be terrible for her."

Marit's son Helge, 40, said the attacks marked "day zero" for Norway.

"It's a double shock. 99 percent of Norwegians immediately believed this was a Muslim terror attack. When it turned out not to be, that was the second shock," he said.

3.06pm: The English Defence League's Darren Lee was a speaker at recent Norwegian Defence League rally. (Spotted by journalist Lynsey Barber on Twitter.)

2.41pm: My colleague Peter Beaumont has picked out some extracts from the thoughts of Anders Behring Breivik posted on Document.no. You can read an English translation of the full document here.

On "hate ideologies":

Islam(ism) has historically led to 300 million deaths

Communism has historically led to 100 million deaths

Nazism has historically led to 6-20 million deaths

ALL hate ideologies should be treated equally.

On the failure of the Progress Party:

The vast majority of new faces in the Progress Party are now politically correct career politicians and not in any way idealists who are willing to take risks and work for idealistic goals.

On Norway's Marxists:

I have great respect for how the Marxist-humanist networks in Norway are able to use their power through "force Multiplication" and cooperation. They are insanely hard-working, skilled in the consolidation the right has a lot to learn from them.

In Norway and Sweden extreme Marxist attitudes have become acceptable/everyday while the old-established truths of patriotism and cultural conservatism today are branded as extremism.

On his fear that Oslo west will become majority Muslim:

There are political forces in Oslo who want to mass subsidised and low cost "Islam-blocks" in Oslo West for "better integration"... If this ever becomes the case, most of Oslo West will move to Bærum (and most will eventually follow).

On his discussion with English Defence League members:

I have on some occasions discussed with … the EDL and recommended them to use conscious strategies. The tactics of the EDL is to "entice" an overreaction from Jihad Youth/Extreme-Marxists something they have succeeded several times already.

His five year plan:

The agenda of the Norwegian cultural conservative movement over the next 5 years are therefore:

1. Newspaper with national distribution
2. Work for control of several NGOs
3. Norwegian EDL

2.38pm: Leader of the Labour youth movement Eskil Pedersen managed to get away from Utøya on one of the first boats, writes Andrew Boyle.

He told a press conference this morning: "The gunman took from his victims their lives. But he can't take away what they believed in: tolerance and anti-racism."

At his press conference this morning prime minister Jens Stoltenberg was asked whether the attacks would affect Norway's open society?

Stoltenberg replied: "This is our emblem, that the society is open, and we must do everything to not lose it: It is our emblem, he said, that people in Norway feel themselves secure. We must do everything in our power to reinforce is."

2.19pm: The Swedish anti-racism magazine EXPO reports that Anders Behring Breivik has been a member of Nazi forum Nordisk since 2009.

1.44pm: Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre has said some of those killed on Utøya probably died from drowning as well as from gunshot wounds.

Around 19 victims of the Utøya shootings are having surgery for gunshot wounds, according to Norwegian media reports.

1.37pm: Stoltenberg said Norwegian officials are working with foreign intelligence agencies to see if there there was any international involvement in the attacks, Reuters reports.

The prime minister said: "We have running contact with other countries' intelligence services. Some of the investigation is under way. Some of it is obviously to ... investigate whether there are any international connections."

1.33pm: The Norwegian prime minister said many of those killed in the attacks were "heroes", adding that the whole world was thinking of the victims.

After meeting survivors and relatives of the dead, Jens Stoltenberg said he was "deeply touched", and said he personally knew several of those killed.

He said many of them had been "heroes" and had saved the lives of their friends:

They are deeply affected and a lot of them said that the best way of honouring those who lost their lives is to carry on being active...and those who try to scare us will not succeed.

We are very grateful for the strong support we have received from all of the world, from heads of state, they have phoned and sent messages and expressed their solidarity and offered assistance and they have said they feel Norway doesn't deserve this.

1.15pm: Breivik described himself as a "nationalist" and had posted many comments online criticising immigrants as well as Norwegian politicians whom he considered sympathised with them, Peter Beaumont writes.

Among those in the party surprised at Breivik's actions is Ove Vanebo, Progress Party youth leader, who told TV 2: "We are as surprised and sad like everyone else. No matter which party he has been a member of this is completely unacceptable. ... We did not think he was capable of something like that. He was apparently a quiet and modest man."

In other postings Breivik is clear of the nature of his notion of "idealism". He has described himself as a "nationalist" and written offensively of Somali immigrants with "full Norwegian passports" sitting at home on benefit and sending back money to the Islamist Al-Shabab.

One target of Breivik's anger was former Norwegian prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland – a member of Norway's Labour Party – who had spoken to the youth camp on Utoya the day before the massacre.

What seems clear, however, from his online postings was that Breivik increasingly, perhaps, had a grandiose sense of himself. In one – attacking Brundtland – he predicted that Norwegians would soon no longer be "immune to inflated [political] rhetoric, while in a solitary Twitter post a week before launching his attack, he paraphrased John Stuart Mill to write: "One person with belief is equal to the force of 100, 000 who have only interests."

1.09pm: My colleague Peter Beaumont has been examing what is known about Anders Behring Breivik, who has been arrested over yesterday's attacks.

One of the few who knew him, who have spoken so far, was an anonymous friend who told the Norwegian newspaper VG that Breivik had been a far right winger since at least his late twenties, when he had begun posting a series of controversial opinions on Facebook.

What has emerged so far paints a disturbing picture: a Christian fundamentalist with a deep hatred of multiculturalism in his country, of the left and of Muslims who had written disparagingly of prominent Norwegian politicians. A far of violent video games as well who some former neighbours have told Norwegian media had sometimes been seen in "military-style" clothing.

In the pictures that have so far emerged of him Breivik appears well dressed, slender and clean-shaven, a picture of the young entrepreneur he wanted to be.

Breivik's businesses, however, were not much of a success, each one of them being dissolved after a short while after making a loss until he established his farm business in 2009 and moved out of Oslo.

But the man who listed Kafka and George Orwell's 1984 as his favourite books on Facebook, made little secret to the friends he had, or others on the Christian fundamentalist and far right websites that he frequented, of his racist views.

The darkest side of all was revealed not only in the killings but in how he undertook them, not least on the island teaming with several hundred teenagers, where wearing earplugs and a police uniform he calmly called over his victims to join him so he could begin his executions.

A Freemason, reportedly a body builder and a hunter with two registered weapons – a Glock pistol and an automatic rifle - it has been Breivik's online profile that has, so far supplied the most public information.

Breivik was also a former "a youth member" of his country's conservative Progress Party – a party he criticised in one posting for embracing "multi-culturalism" and "political correctness" rather than taking an "idealistic stand". Despite that, those who knew him in the party then, described him as "calm and quiet", his extremism coming later.