Wednesday, July 27, 2011 4:21:18 AM
Suspect admired bloggers who believe Europe is drowning in Muslims
Norway attacks suspect Anders Behring Breivik frequented websites that see the modern world as a "clash of civilizations".
By Tim Lister, CNN
July 27, 2011 -- Updated 0631 GMT (1431 HKT)
(CNN) -- Andres Behring Breivik was a prolific blogger and visitor to online sites that reaffirmed his worldview.
Breivik's taste in online conversation shows a compulsive interest in websites that see the modern world in terms of a "clash of civilizations," where Christian values are supposedly under siege in the face of an Islamic onslaught.
But rarely if ever does he seem to have advocated a violent response to what he saw as the Islamization of Europe, even as he planned a massacre for years.
The head of Norway's intelligence police, Janne Kristiansen, told a Norwegian newspaper Monday that Breivik had "deliberately desisted from violent exhortations on the net. He has more or less been a moderate, and has neither been part of any extremist network."
The blogs and websites Breivik enthused about were pro-American and pro-Israel, extremely hostile to Islam and despairing that the European political elite would ever see the error of its liberal multicultural outlook.
One such site is Gates of Vienna, whose banner reads: "At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war."
Breivik regularly applauded a writer who goes by the name of Fjordman on the site, one of whose contributions, from 2007, reads: "When the Swedish welfare state collapses, the immigrants who lose their payments will have to go somewhere. Denmark will probably be fairly successful at keeping them out. A lot of them will migrate to Norway, some will move to Germany and the Netherlands, and some will probably end up in Eastern Europe."
Breivik also praised Fjordman's book, "Defeating Eurabia," describing it as "the perfect Christmas gift for family and friends."
The book contends that Europe is being overrun by Muslims -- and that its governing class is complicit in this surrender. "According to some, one out of three babies born in France is a Muslim," Fjordman writes.
"Hundreds of Muslim ghettos already de facto follow sharia, not French law. Some believe France will quietly become a Muslim country, while others predict a civil war in the near future."
Fjordman has never advocated violence and has condemned Breivik's actions, posting on Gates of Vienna: "Any person doing such a thing is a monster. He murdered dozens of people in cold blood and injured countless others, mentally or physically."
Efforts by CNN to identify Fjordman have been unsuccessful.
Breivik was a prolific contributor to a Norwegian site, Document.no, in 2009 and 2010, purportedly posting such comments as: "Can you name ONE country where multiculturalism is successful where Islam is involved?" and "Today's Protestant church is a joke. Priests in jeans who march for Palestine and churches that look like minimalist shopping centers."
Other websites and blogs he followed include Jihad Watch, Brussels Journal, TheReligionofPeace and Atlas Shrugs. ReligionofPeace describes Islam as a "rigid political and cultural system with a mandate to conquer and govern the lives of others via necessary force."
Breivik points to a piece written by Pamela Geller in Atlas Shrugs in July 2009. "The Muslims have taken to rampaging, destroying and setting alight the streets of France. The media has abetted the fifth column with cowardly silence," she writes.
Geller has been prominent in opposition to the building of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York.
She notes there is just one reference to her in Breivik's purported 1,500-page manifesto, and ridicules the notion that she could have influenced his behavior.
"Anders Behring Breivik is responsible for his actions," she writes. But she adds: "If anyone incited him to violence, it was Islamic supremacists. If anything incited him to violence, it was the Euro-Med policy," a reference to immigration to Europe from North Africa.
Geller also complains, in a posting Tuesday, about "More expected grotesque exploitation and opportunism from Muslim Brotherhood groups in America" of the Oslo attack.
But to her long-time adversary Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic magazine, Geller and others of like mind clearly influenced Breivik: "Free speech means free speech. But she should be aware now that violent people look to her for guidance, and she should write with that in mind."
On his blog Sultan Knish, Daniel Greenfield says that "trying to apply rational standards to Breivik is futile. Like many killers he was of above average intelligence, but below average sanity. Remove the politics, and Breivik fits the profile of most spree killers. He was angry at society, a loner ..."
Another conservative blogger, Mark Steyn, agrees. In a blog entitled "Islamophobia and Mass Murder" for the National Review Online, he argues that attaching the far-right tag to Breivik is pointless.
"This man Breivik may think he's making history and bestriding the geopolitical currents and the clash of civilizations, but in the end he went and shot up his neighbors. Why let his self-aggrandizing bury the reality?" Steyn wrote Monday.
But Greenfield insists Breivik's attacks did have a cause: "The Oslo killings are another item on the ledger of the high cost of Islam. The explosive rage on both sides fueled by a social instability created by aggressive immigration with no thought to its impact on the country as a whole. It was Breivik who spent nine years planning and carrying out the attacks, but it was the political authorities who had created a scenario that made it possible."
One of Breivik's entries on Document.no compliments the far-right English Defence League. "The tactics of the EDL is now out to 'entice' an overreaction from Jihad Youth / Extreme-Marxists -something they have succeeded several times already," he writes.
The EDL has also condemned Breivik -- saying that "Anyone who expresses any extremist beliefs of any kind, be it white supremacist, Christian fundamentalist or Islamic extremists, they all get banned from the (Facebook) site." But its leader Tommy Robinson echoed Greenfield and Geller in a BBC interview, saying: "There are British people that are greatly concerned about the threat Islam that is having on our nation ... There needs to be a platform given to people so they can have their frustrations heard."
Mark Steyn fears the platform for debate will actually shrink as a result of Breivik's rampage. "Free societies can survive the occasional Breivik," he wrote in a post Monday for the National Review Online. "If Norway responds to this as the Left appears to wish, by shriveling even further the bounds of public discourse, freedom will have a tougher time."
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/07/27/norway.terror.web/ [with comments]
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Disturbing look into mind of Norway suspect
Bomb and terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik leaves the courthouse in a police car in Oslo Monday.
By Magnus Ranstorp, Special to CNN
July 26, 2011 -- Updated 1240 GMT (2040 HKT)
Editor's note: Magnus Ranstorp is research director of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College. He is a member of World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Terrorism for 2011-2012 and he testified before the 9/11 Commission in 2003.
(CNN) -- To borrow the title of Sebastian Junger's book, a "perfect storm" helped lead to the extremist thinking of Norway massacre suspect Anders Behring Breivik.
Globalization, extremist websites propagating the theory of Eurabia -- the colonization and Islamization of Europe -- and role-playing games all blend into one conspiratorial outlook that captures how Breivik views the world, how he defines his enemies, the fantasy world he sought to re-create in the real world and his narcissistic view of his role in the "resistance struggle" and the legacy he would leave behind.
I've read the purported 1,500-page manifesto of Breivik for hours on end to get an insight into the man suspected of staging Friday's terrorist attacks that claimed 76 lives. The picture that emerges is rather more complex and disturbing than I initially thought.
Breivik carefully constructs a "stormy," threatening and "globalized" world that he blames for bringing refugees and foreigners into Norway and the West. It is striking how he lacked the skills to critically question his sources of information for veracity and to filter and relate facts, arguments and interpretations.
He represents the exception rather than the norm in right-wing extremist circles. Traditionally, right-wing extremism has been disorganized and impulsive, and it has often been manifested through localized hate crimes against immigrants. These sporadic acts, often committed by educational underachievers, can usually be contained and managed by police and security services.
Breivik was the polar opposite. His nine-year preparation for creating the lengthy manifesto and the violent action that he argues for and documents in minute detail contradicts our traditional view. He argues against impulsive acts of harassing foreign immigrants in favor of spectacular, well-prepared attacks.
Having only a high school degree, he claims he has self-studied for more than 16,500 hours, the equivalent of several college and graduate degrees.
The second half of the purported manifesto is a DIY-manual of how to conceal and prepare an underground terrorist cell -- almost entirely derived from open sources. It is striking how he has utilized those sources to conduct surveillance on potential targets, to protect his operational tradecraft and potential recruits against detection and to organize into so-called armed resistance groups. Of particular concern is his discussion of how to target installations such as nuclear facilities and to stage spectacular attacks.
The goal is of course to create an "awakening" of the masses -- a war between the West and the Muslim world. He believes in shock-and-awe terrorist tactics. And he knows how to utilize psychological warfare in pursuit of his goals.
Ending multiculturalism and expelling foreign influences are key goals in his vision. Yet it is remarkable how Breivik's worldview mirrors that of his principal enemies -- the jihadists' own discourse: the role of martyrs in igniting widespread support; and the struggle where the glorious past is projected onto a long-ranging promising future.
Ironically and inadvertently, Breivik copies the blueprint of do-it-yourself terrorism campaigns and the themes of "resistance" from al Qaeda-inspired sources. His DIY section is an indirect copy of the jihadist revolutionary theoretician Abu Musab al-Suri.
Besides the mind-numbing detail about weapons systems and operational art, the manifesto provides a unique insight into the mindset of a right-wing extremist and the thought processes involved in conducting a terrorist operation. Few other documents exist providing such insight into a disturbed mind.
It is evident that he has thought through every aspect of igniting the fires to generate new followers and bolster the cause. Simultaneously he is in command of the marketing aspect and of his persona as he tries to pre-empt journalists' questions.
Toward the end of the manifesto he has a lengthy Q&A dissecting every conceivable aspect of his personal background and why he acted. He is in command of his image. This is macabre theatre, and he is the central character whose mission and personal legacy is everything.
Rarely before have we been able to get into the head of an extremist in quite this way. Breivik even spells out what music he planned to listen to on his iPod as he carried out the shooting.
By providing such a detailed blueprint, Breivik has exposed his own psychological state and his weaknesses, which will provide guidance to police and government security forces seeking to prepare for and prevent future attacks.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Magnus Ranstorp.
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07/26/ranstorp.norway.massacre/ [with comments]
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Manifesto suggests massacre suspect troubled, not insane, experts say
Several experts agreed that Anders Behring Breivik seems to have more in common with mass killers than with many typical extremists.
By Josh Levs, CNN
July 26, 2011 -- Updated 2329 GMT (0729 HKT)
(CNN) -- Norwegian massacre suspect Anders Behring Breivik's purported 1,500-page manifesto paints a picture of a deliberative, driven killer -- not a rambling crazy person, criminologists said Tuesday.
Speaking to CNN after Breivik's attorney said his client "may be" insane, Brian Levin, a criminologist with California State University, San Bernardino, rejected the suggestion. Based on what is known at this point, "he's not crazy," Levin said; he is a "sociopath," but "not crazy."
Criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University echoed those sentiments. "The behavior is crazy, but not necessarily the state of mind of the person committing it," he said. "Mass murderers rarely are psychotic. They know what they're doing. They don't hear voices in an empty room. They're mad, but (mad) in terms of bitter and resentful -- not how we often use 'mad' to describe mental illness," he said.
Both said a "crazy" person can be commonly understood as someone who cannot tell the difference between right and wrong and does not understand the nature and consequences of his actions.
Breivik, 32, has acknowledged carrying out a bombing and a shooting rampage Friday, a judge said Monday. Authorities say eight people were killed in the bombing of an Oslo building that houses Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's offices, and 68 were killed at a youth summer camp run by his ruling Labour Party. Breivik said the attacks were necessary to prevent the "colonization" of the country by Muslims, the judge said.
Experts -- who have not met Breivik but have examined materials purported to be from him -- had different takes Tuesday on whether the manifesto suggests he was motivated more by ideology or by a desire for infamy. But several agreed that he seems to have more in common with mass killers, from "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski to Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho, than with many terrorists and typical right-wing extremists.
"If you see this killer as only a terrorist, you might see him as exceptional," said Jack Levin, also a criminologist with Northeastern University. "If you see him also as a mass killer, he fits the mold."
Levin said Breivik's purported manifesto and the "Hollywood-type photos of himself" -- including one in which he is dressed in a wetsuit with a patch that reads "Marxist Hunter" and holding a high-powered rifle -- suggest a "personal pathology, the need to be a celebrity, to achieve worldwide infamy may have been the real motive for this crime," more than an effort to cause terror among a specific population.
Cho, who killed 33 people at Virginia Tech in 2007, also had a manifesto and took photos and a video of himself, Levin said.
Fox, Jack Levin's colleague at Northeastern, had a similar view. "I think this is more about vanity than insanity ... and in fact more self-promotion than promoting any particular ideology," he said.
"The posed photographs, video, and of course the manifesto -- it seems to be all about him. And when you consider his background, (he was) fairly unsuccessful, which is something you find commonly among mass murderers. They see, through their crimes, the opportunity to feel like a big shot."
The manifesto vows that a "European civil war" will lead to the execution of "cultural Marxists" and the banishing of Muslims. At one point, the writer states that his "European Declaration of Independence" took him nine years to complete. The document contains a link to a video.
The writer identifies himself as Anders Behring Breivik.
CNN could not independently verify that Breivik wrote the document or posted the 12-minute video, and Norwegian authorities would not confirm that the man in their custody wrote the manifesto, saying it was part of their investigation.
Breivik says that he was in touch with two terror cells in Norway and in contact with other cells abroad, but that he acted alone in carrying out the attacks, his attorney said Tuesday.
Fox noted that "mass murders are typically well-planned executions."
Fox added that Breivik's apparent manifesto suggests similarities to U.S. domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, and to Kaczynski, who killed three people and wounded 23 others in a string of bombings from 1978 to 1995. The FBI dubbed him the "Unabomber" because of his early targets: universities and airlines.
"McVeigh had his own grudge against the government. And the Unabomber had his issues with technology. And in these cases and many more, they used murder as their means of filing a complaint," Fox said.
Magnus Ranstorp, research director of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College, wrote in an editorial for CNN.com that Breivik "represents the exception rather than the norm in right-wing extremist circles.
"Traditionally, right-wing extremism has been disorganized and impulsive, and it has often been manifested through localized hate crimes against immigrants. ... Breivik was the polar opposite. His nine-year preparation for creating the lengthy manifesto and the violent action that he argues for and documents in minute detail contradicts our traditional view. He argues against impulsive acts of harassing foreign immigrants in favor of spectacular, well-prepared attacks."
Levin of California State University, San Bernardino, said Breivik is "much more deliberative" than people "like the impulsive neo-Nazi" who goes out and attacks people, and seems to be more similar to McVeigh, who planned his attack deliberately.
Levin said he believes ideology was probably Breivik's chief motivation -- and seeking personal benefit took a back seat.
"We're seeing the rise of the aspirational extremist," Levin said, describing someone who "perceives society as careening out of control off a cliff."
"This guy Breivik had a very tight ideological argument for what he was doing," the criminologist said.
Setbacks in Breivik's life certainly played a role as well, Levin said. "When people face a ruthlessness and some kind of personal setback and they've already been accustomed to an ideology that gives them comfort, they can ramp it up to violent forms of it."
Levin warned against writing off Breivik, with his "Islamophobic" writings, as a lone exception who does not reflect broader thinking around him. "While the violence was extreme, the actual sentiments are sentiments that are widely expressed in some form throughout the mainstream of Europe," he said.
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/07/26/norway.terror.attacks.experts/index.html [with comments]
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Anders Behring Breivik had links to far-right EDL, says anti-racism group
EDL leader Stephen Lennon denies claims Anders Behring Breivik attended EDL demonstrations.
Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
Searchlight wants English Defence League classified as extremist group amid claims of online discussions with Breivik
Matthew Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 July 2011 16.45 BST
Anti-racism campaigners believe they may have uncovered evidence that Anders Behring Breivik, the man who carried out the mass killings in Norway, was in touch with activists from the English Defence League as recently as March.
Searchlight said the 32-year-old used the pseudonym of a 12th-century Norwegian king to communicate with people on the EDL forum before retreating to a remote farm to prepare for last week's attacks.
In one posting, on 9 March, the author called on rightwing activists in the UK to "keep up the good work".
"Hello. To you all good English men and women, just wanted to say that you're a blessing to all in Europe, in these dark times all of Europe are looking to you in such [sic] of inspiration, courage and even hope that we might turn this evil trend with islamisation all across our continent. Well, just wanted to say keep up the good work it's good to see others that care about their country and heritage. All the best to you all. Sigurd"
Breivik boasted about his links to the UK far-right group in his 1,500-page manifesto, written in English under his Anglicised name, Andrew Berwick.
In the document, he says he was given the codename "Sigurd (the Crusader)" at a meeting of a group called the Knights Templar Europe in London in 2002. There is no confirmation that the author is Breivik. Sigurd is a common name in Norway.
In messages, "Sigurd" says he attended a football match in the UK and expresses his admiration for the EDL, adding that he would like join one of its demonstrations.
"i've seen with my own eyes what has happened to england, i was in bradford some years ago, me and a friend walked down to the football stadium of bradford, real 'nice' neighborhood, same thing in the suburbs of london. well thinking about taking a little trip over the sea and join you in a demo. would be nice with a norwegian flag alongside with union jack or the english flag, that is if a norwegian would be welcome offcourse?"
In another message, he goes on to discuss the situation in Norway.
"The biggest problem in Norway is that there is no real free press, there is a left-wing angle on all the political topics so most people are going around like idiots. And offcourse with our norwegian labour party beeing in power for most of the last 50 years dont help. but i i think there is an awakening now at least i hope so."
In his manifesto, Breivik repeatedly refers to the EDL, stating at one point: "I used to have more than 600 EDL members as Facebook friends and have spoken with tens of EDL members and leaders."
"In fact, I was one of the individuals who supplied them with processed ideological material (including rhetorical strategies) in the very beginning."
The EDL – which has staged a series of street demonstrations, many of which have turned violent, since it was formed two years ago – denies any links to Breivik and has condemned the killings, stating it is a peaceful organisation that rejects all forms of extremism.
There have also been claims that Breivik attended EDL demonstrations in London and Newcastle upon Tyne last year. One alleged EDL activist posted a comment online on Sunday stating: "[B]ar one or two doubt the rest of us ever met him, altho he did come over for one of our demo in 2010 … but what he did was wrong."
Another alleged EDL supporter suggested in a separate forum that she had come across Breivik in the UK. "OMG [Oh, my God] … HIM?! He wrote some books and did talks didn't he?"
Stephen Lennon, the leader of the EDL, told the BBC on Monday he had never met Breivik and added that he did not believe the Norwegian had attended any EDL demonstration. He also pointed out that at one point in his manifesto Breivik described the EDL as "naive fools" who believed in the democratic process.
Searchlight's editor, Nick Lowles, said there was now "clear evidence" of a direct link between Breivik and the English Defence League.
"The Home Office must now formally classify the EDL as an extremist organisation and allow the police to deploy the same manpower and resources to monitoring their activity as they would other extremist groups. It's also clear that the proposed EDL march in Tower Hamlets cannot be allowed to proceed."
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/26/anders-behring-breivik-edl-searchlight
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Police probe Breivik’s links abroad
An English Defence League (EDL) demonstration in Newcastle, England, during 2010. Oslo attacks suspect Anders Behring Breivik claims to have links with the group.
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons
An English Defence League (EDL) activist at a demonstration in 2010.
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons
July 26, 2011
The international search for accomplices and supporters of the Oslo and Utøya attacks suspect Anders Behring Breivik has begun, as Norwegian police revealed that he had been on one of their lists as early as March. His links to British far right organizations and extremists have sparked an investigation in the country.
Breivik’s 1,500-page online manifesto, signed with the anglicized pseudonym “Andrew Berwick” and claiming to have been written in London, mentions a number of links to the far right in Britain. The suspected terrorist further claimed in his appearance in an Oslo court on Monday that there were two further “cells” in operation to which he was connected.
British links revealed
Breivik’s manifesto mentions a British mentor named “Richard,” who is yet to be identified but is believed to be named after the British king “Richard the Lionheart,” famed for his involvement in the Crusades. One British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, claims to have found a blog written by someone calling himself “Lionheart” and authorities are now investigating.
The “Lionheart” blogger’s real name is Paul Rey, who claims to be a “founding father” and active participant in the English Defence League (EDL). The EDL has held a number of violent anti-Islamic demonstrations in the UK in recent years. In his manifesto, Breivik said, “I used to have more than 600 EDL members as Facebook friends and have spoken with EDL members and leaders.” He claims to be “one of the individuals who supplied them with processed ideological material (including rhetorical strategies) in the very beginning.” In other comments attributed to Breivik online, he states that a key strategy for “Christian conservatives” in Norway is to establish their own version of the EDL.
Breivik ‘participated in British demonstrations‘
The EDL have released a statement that reads, “we can categorically state that there has never been any official contact between him and the EDL.” Nonetheless, a number of EDL members have informed The Daily Telegraph that they have had contact with Breivik. He is believed to have been in London as part of a far-right solidarity demonstration when Dutch politician Geert Wilders visited Britain.
An EDL organizer, Daryl Hobson, told The Daily Telegraph that several members of the organization had met Breivik. A Facebook post from Hobson also claims that Breivik “did come over for one of our demo [sic] in 2010,” before going on to say that “what he did was wrong.” An anonymous member of the EDL also told the newspaper that they had met Breivik, suggesting that EDL members would be taken by an “extremely intelligent” man. “It’s like Hitler, people said he was hypnotic,” the source is quoted as saying. Another alleged EDL member, Katie Hedderick, posted on a message board about Breivik, stating “HIM?! He wrote some books and did talks didn’t he?”
The founder of the EDL, Stephen Lennon, told BBC news programme Newsnight on Monday night that “we’re against it [the Oslo attacks] but at the same time you cannot brush off millions of people who have concerns against Islam as lunatics.” Lennon has previous convictions for violence as part of scenes of football hooliganism. Another EDL leader, Tommy Robinson, is quoted by The New Yorker as saying, “we don’t want English lads blowing themselves up on our soil, but that will happen if they don’t give us a platform.”
‘Knights Templar’ and ‘Norwegian Defence League’
The order of the Knights Templar that Breivik claims to have been a member of, described as the “Knights Templar Europe,” was also apparently established in London in 2002. Breivik states that its aim is “to seize political and military control of western European countries and implement a cultural conservative political agenda.” In his manifesto, Breivik claims to be the youngest in the group and had been put in contact with them through a “Serbian crusader commander.” He also claimed that the group later held larger meetings in “Balticum.”
A source in the Norwegian Defence League (NDL) has now also confirmed to newspaper Aftenposten that Breivik was a member, and that he used the pseudonym “Sigurd Jorsalfar.” Breivik was apparently active in the organization’s foundation but became increasingly less involved because “he believed we [the NDL] were too kind.” The NDL arranged its first demonstration on April 9, when just nine followers showed up and a large counter-demonstration was held by anti-fascists. The source said that the group “completely and utterly” distances itself from the attacks.
Britain investigates
British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to investigate links between Breivik and the EDL, confirming to a number of news outlets that he takes them “extremely seriously.”
A British police expert has already been dispatched to Oslo to assist the police in identifying Breivik’s international connections. Europol are also assisting the Norwegian police, making use of their continental database of known far right extremists.
Breivik was on police list
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Police Security Service (Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste, PST) confirmed on Monday that Breivik had come to their attention in March on a list of people who had bought products from a Polish firm selling chemicals. Breivik was reportedly checked but no further action was deemed necessary.
The PST’s director, Janne Kristiansen, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that his name was listed along with around 50 to 60 others “in connection with a currency check from an international customs project.” She added that the police “are not allowed without further grounds to put such names in our register, but we checked if we had anything else on the people on the list, if there was anyone that could be connected to other information we have, but we had absolutely nothing on Breivik.”
Kristiansen went on to say that following the attacks, the PST will not push for “methods or regulations where we will be able to keep surveillance over all people,” adding that “not even in the old East Germany, I believe, would one have been able to become aware of Breivik because he quite simply has not broken the law before.”
The PST has also said before that “lone wolves are something we cannot intercept in the kind of society we want to have.”
Copyright © 2011 Views and News from Norway
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2011/07/26/police-probe-breiviks-international-links/ [no comments yet]
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Norway killer's lawyer Geir Lippestad defended neo-Nazi
Geir Lippestad, the defence lawyer for Anders Behring Breivik
Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Geir Lippestad is a personification of everything Anders Behring Breivik hates about Norway. He is also the killer's lawyer.
4:51PM BST 26 Jul 2011
Urbane, liberal and fluent in English, Mr Lippestad was shocked when he was contacted by police at home and told that Norway's most hated man has asked for his help.
For several hours he hesitated and discussed with friends and family whether to defend a man who only hours early had massacred 68 young people on a summer holiday island.
But in the end his civic instincts trumped his initial horror. "I believe that the legal system is very important in a democracy and someone has to do this job," he told reporters this afternoon.
There are two further twists to the relationship between killer and client. First, it was revealed Breivik had once rented an office close to where Mr Lippestad's firm is based.
They lawyer said he had never met Breivik before the killing but it's possible that the gunman knew who he was and singled him out long in advance.
Second, Mr Lippestad is also a prominent member of the ruling Labour Party, whose youth wing the terrorist targeted on Friday.
At one point he was deputy chair of the constituency party in Nordstrand, a borough of Oslo.
At his remand hearing, Breivik said the Labour Party had failed the Norway and left the country to be "colonised by Muslims."
But a clue to Breivik's choice may lie in Mr Lippestad's past: in 2002 he represented a neo-Nazi who murdered a mixed race teenager in Oslo.
The death of Benjamin Hermansen, whose mother was Norwegian and whose father was Ghanaian, sparked outrage in Norway and led to large marches against racism.
Michael Jackson even dedicated his number-one album Invincible to Benjamin's memory.
The case propelled Mr Lippestad to national attention as a man who believes that even the most brutal murderers deserve a fair trial.
Now the eyes of the world will be on him as he makes the case to defend Breivik's savagery.
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2011
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8663525/Norway-killers-lawyer-Geir-Lippestad-defended-neo-Nazi.html
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Norway attacks suspect Anders Behring Breivik frequented websites that see the modern world as a "clash of civilizations".
By Tim Lister, CNN
July 27, 2011 -- Updated 0631 GMT (1431 HKT)
(CNN) -- Andres Behring Breivik was a prolific blogger and visitor to online sites that reaffirmed his worldview.
Breivik's taste in online conversation shows a compulsive interest in websites that see the modern world in terms of a "clash of civilizations," where Christian values are supposedly under siege in the face of an Islamic onslaught.
But rarely if ever does he seem to have advocated a violent response to what he saw as the Islamization of Europe, even as he planned a massacre for years.
The head of Norway's intelligence police, Janne Kristiansen, told a Norwegian newspaper Monday that Breivik had "deliberately desisted from violent exhortations on the net. He has more or less been a moderate, and has neither been part of any extremist network."
The blogs and websites Breivik enthused about were pro-American and pro-Israel, extremely hostile to Islam and despairing that the European political elite would ever see the error of its liberal multicultural outlook.
One such site is Gates of Vienna, whose banner reads: "At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war."
Breivik regularly applauded a writer who goes by the name of Fjordman on the site, one of whose contributions, from 2007, reads: "When the Swedish welfare state collapses, the immigrants who lose their payments will have to go somewhere. Denmark will probably be fairly successful at keeping them out. A lot of them will migrate to Norway, some will move to Germany and the Netherlands, and some will probably end up in Eastern Europe."
Breivik also praised Fjordman's book, "Defeating Eurabia," describing it as "the perfect Christmas gift for family and friends."
The book contends that Europe is being overrun by Muslims -- and that its governing class is complicit in this surrender. "According to some, one out of three babies born in France is a Muslim," Fjordman writes.
"Hundreds of Muslim ghettos already de facto follow sharia, not French law. Some believe France will quietly become a Muslim country, while others predict a civil war in the near future."
Fjordman has never advocated violence and has condemned Breivik's actions, posting on Gates of Vienna: "Any person doing such a thing is a monster. He murdered dozens of people in cold blood and injured countless others, mentally or physically."
Efforts by CNN to identify Fjordman have been unsuccessful.
Breivik was a prolific contributor to a Norwegian site, Document.no, in 2009 and 2010, purportedly posting such comments as: "Can you name ONE country where multiculturalism is successful where Islam is involved?" and "Today's Protestant church is a joke. Priests in jeans who march for Palestine and churches that look like minimalist shopping centers."
Other websites and blogs he followed include Jihad Watch, Brussels Journal, TheReligionofPeace and Atlas Shrugs. ReligionofPeace describes Islam as a "rigid political and cultural system with a mandate to conquer and govern the lives of others via necessary force."
Breivik points to a piece written by Pamela Geller in Atlas Shrugs in July 2009. "The Muslims have taken to rampaging, destroying and setting alight the streets of France. The media has abetted the fifth column with cowardly silence," she writes.
Geller has been prominent in opposition to the building of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York.
She notes there is just one reference to her in Breivik's purported 1,500-page manifesto, and ridicules the notion that she could have influenced his behavior.
"Anders Behring Breivik is responsible for his actions," she writes. But she adds: "If anyone incited him to violence, it was Islamic supremacists. If anything incited him to violence, it was the Euro-Med policy," a reference to immigration to Europe from North Africa.
Geller also complains, in a posting Tuesday, about "More expected grotesque exploitation and opportunism from Muslim Brotherhood groups in America" of the Oslo attack.
But to her long-time adversary Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic magazine, Geller and others of like mind clearly influenced Breivik: "Free speech means free speech. But she should be aware now that violent people look to her for guidance, and she should write with that in mind."
On his blog Sultan Knish, Daniel Greenfield says that "trying to apply rational standards to Breivik is futile. Like many killers he was of above average intelligence, but below average sanity. Remove the politics, and Breivik fits the profile of most spree killers. He was angry at society, a loner ..."
Another conservative blogger, Mark Steyn, agrees. In a blog entitled "Islamophobia and Mass Murder" for the National Review Online, he argues that attaching the far-right tag to Breivik is pointless.
"This man Breivik may think he's making history and bestriding the geopolitical currents and the clash of civilizations, but in the end he went and shot up his neighbors. Why let his self-aggrandizing bury the reality?" Steyn wrote Monday.
But Greenfield insists Breivik's attacks did have a cause: "The Oslo killings are another item on the ledger of the high cost of Islam. The explosive rage on both sides fueled by a social instability created by aggressive immigration with no thought to its impact on the country as a whole. It was Breivik who spent nine years planning and carrying out the attacks, but it was the political authorities who had created a scenario that made it possible."
One of Breivik's entries on Document.no compliments the far-right English Defence League. "The tactics of the EDL is now out to 'entice' an overreaction from Jihad Youth / Extreme-Marxists -something they have succeeded several times already," he writes.
The EDL has also condemned Breivik -- saying that "Anyone who expresses any extremist beliefs of any kind, be it white supremacist, Christian fundamentalist or Islamic extremists, they all get banned from the (Facebook) site." But its leader Tommy Robinson echoed Greenfield and Geller in a BBC interview, saying: "There are British people that are greatly concerned about the threat Islam that is having on our nation ... There needs to be a platform given to people so they can have their frustrations heard."
Mark Steyn fears the platform for debate will actually shrink as a result of Breivik's rampage. "Free societies can survive the occasional Breivik," he wrote in a post Monday for the National Review Online. "If Norway responds to this as the Left appears to wish, by shriveling even further the bounds of public discourse, freedom will have a tougher time."
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/07/27/norway.terror.web/ [with comments]
===
Disturbing look into mind of Norway suspect
Bomb and terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik leaves the courthouse in a police car in Oslo Monday.
By Magnus Ranstorp, Special to CNN
July 26, 2011 -- Updated 1240 GMT (2040 HKT)
Editor's note: Magnus Ranstorp is research director of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College. He is a member of World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Terrorism for 2011-2012 and he testified before the 9/11 Commission in 2003.
(CNN) -- To borrow the title of Sebastian Junger's book, a "perfect storm" helped lead to the extremist thinking of Norway massacre suspect Anders Behring Breivik.
Globalization, extremist websites propagating the theory of Eurabia -- the colonization and Islamization of Europe -- and role-playing games all blend into one conspiratorial outlook that captures how Breivik views the world, how he defines his enemies, the fantasy world he sought to re-create in the real world and his narcissistic view of his role in the "resistance struggle" and the legacy he would leave behind.
I've read the purported 1,500-page manifesto of Breivik for hours on end to get an insight into the man suspected of staging Friday's terrorist attacks that claimed 76 lives. The picture that emerges is rather more complex and disturbing than I initially thought.
Breivik carefully constructs a "stormy," threatening and "globalized" world that he blames for bringing refugees and foreigners into Norway and the West. It is striking how he lacked the skills to critically question his sources of information for veracity and to filter and relate facts, arguments and interpretations.
He represents the exception rather than the norm in right-wing extremist circles. Traditionally, right-wing extremism has been disorganized and impulsive, and it has often been manifested through localized hate crimes against immigrants. These sporadic acts, often committed by educational underachievers, can usually be contained and managed by police and security services.
Breivik was the polar opposite. His nine-year preparation for creating the lengthy manifesto and the violent action that he argues for and documents in minute detail contradicts our traditional view. He argues against impulsive acts of harassing foreign immigrants in favor of spectacular, well-prepared attacks.
Having only a high school degree, he claims he has self-studied for more than 16,500 hours, the equivalent of several college and graduate degrees.
The second half of the purported manifesto is a DIY-manual of how to conceal and prepare an underground terrorist cell -- almost entirely derived from open sources. It is striking how he has utilized those sources to conduct surveillance on potential targets, to protect his operational tradecraft and potential recruits against detection and to organize into so-called armed resistance groups. Of particular concern is his discussion of how to target installations such as nuclear facilities and to stage spectacular attacks.
The goal is of course to create an "awakening" of the masses -- a war between the West and the Muslim world. He believes in shock-and-awe terrorist tactics. And he knows how to utilize psychological warfare in pursuit of his goals.
Ending multiculturalism and expelling foreign influences are key goals in his vision. Yet it is remarkable how Breivik's worldview mirrors that of his principal enemies -- the jihadists' own discourse: the role of martyrs in igniting widespread support; and the struggle where the glorious past is projected onto a long-ranging promising future.
Ironically and inadvertently, Breivik copies the blueprint of do-it-yourself terrorism campaigns and the themes of "resistance" from al Qaeda-inspired sources. His DIY section is an indirect copy of the jihadist revolutionary theoretician Abu Musab al-Suri.
Besides the mind-numbing detail about weapons systems and operational art, the manifesto provides a unique insight into the mindset of a right-wing extremist and the thought processes involved in conducting a terrorist operation. Few other documents exist providing such insight into a disturbed mind.
It is evident that he has thought through every aspect of igniting the fires to generate new followers and bolster the cause. Simultaneously he is in command of the marketing aspect and of his persona as he tries to pre-empt journalists' questions.
Toward the end of the manifesto he has a lengthy Q&A dissecting every conceivable aspect of his personal background and why he acted. He is in command of his image. This is macabre theatre, and he is the central character whose mission and personal legacy is everything.
Rarely before have we been able to get into the head of an extremist in quite this way. Breivik even spells out what music he planned to listen to on his iPod as he carried out the shooting.
By providing such a detailed blueprint, Breivik has exposed his own psychological state and his weaknesses, which will provide guidance to police and government security forces seeking to prepare for and prevent future attacks.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Magnus Ranstorp.
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07/26/ranstorp.norway.massacre/ [with comments]
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Manifesto suggests massacre suspect troubled, not insane, experts say
Several experts agreed that Anders Behring Breivik seems to have more in common with mass killers than with many typical extremists.
By Josh Levs, CNN
July 26, 2011 -- Updated 2329 GMT (0729 HKT)
(CNN) -- Norwegian massacre suspect Anders Behring Breivik's purported 1,500-page manifesto paints a picture of a deliberative, driven killer -- not a rambling crazy person, criminologists said Tuesday.
Speaking to CNN after Breivik's attorney said his client "may be" insane, Brian Levin, a criminologist with California State University, San Bernardino, rejected the suggestion. Based on what is known at this point, "he's not crazy," Levin said; he is a "sociopath," but "not crazy."
Criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University echoed those sentiments. "The behavior is crazy, but not necessarily the state of mind of the person committing it," he said. "Mass murderers rarely are psychotic. They know what they're doing. They don't hear voices in an empty room. They're mad, but (mad) in terms of bitter and resentful -- not how we often use 'mad' to describe mental illness," he said.
Both said a "crazy" person can be commonly understood as someone who cannot tell the difference between right and wrong and does not understand the nature and consequences of his actions.
Breivik, 32, has acknowledged carrying out a bombing and a shooting rampage Friday, a judge said Monday. Authorities say eight people were killed in the bombing of an Oslo building that houses Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's offices, and 68 were killed at a youth summer camp run by his ruling Labour Party. Breivik said the attacks were necessary to prevent the "colonization" of the country by Muslims, the judge said.
Experts -- who have not met Breivik but have examined materials purported to be from him -- had different takes Tuesday on whether the manifesto suggests he was motivated more by ideology or by a desire for infamy. But several agreed that he seems to have more in common with mass killers, from "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski to Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho, than with many terrorists and typical right-wing extremists.
"If you see this killer as only a terrorist, you might see him as exceptional," said Jack Levin, also a criminologist with Northeastern University. "If you see him also as a mass killer, he fits the mold."
Levin said Breivik's purported manifesto and the "Hollywood-type photos of himself" -- including one in which he is dressed in a wetsuit with a patch that reads "Marxist Hunter" and holding a high-powered rifle -- suggest a "personal pathology, the need to be a celebrity, to achieve worldwide infamy may have been the real motive for this crime," more than an effort to cause terror among a specific population.
Cho, who killed 33 people at Virginia Tech in 2007, also had a manifesto and took photos and a video of himself, Levin said.
Fox, Jack Levin's colleague at Northeastern, had a similar view. "I think this is more about vanity than insanity ... and in fact more self-promotion than promoting any particular ideology," he said.
"The posed photographs, video, and of course the manifesto -- it seems to be all about him. And when you consider his background, (he was) fairly unsuccessful, which is something you find commonly among mass murderers. They see, through their crimes, the opportunity to feel like a big shot."
The manifesto vows that a "European civil war" will lead to the execution of "cultural Marxists" and the banishing of Muslims. At one point, the writer states that his "European Declaration of Independence" took him nine years to complete. The document contains a link to a video.
The writer identifies himself as Anders Behring Breivik.
CNN could not independently verify that Breivik wrote the document or posted the 12-minute video, and Norwegian authorities would not confirm that the man in their custody wrote the manifesto, saying it was part of their investigation.
Breivik says that he was in touch with two terror cells in Norway and in contact with other cells abroad, but that he acted alone in carrying out the attacks, his attorney said Tuesday.
Fox noted that "mass murders are typically well-planned executions."
Fox added that Breivik's apparent manifesto suggests similarities to U.S. domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, and to Kaczynski, who killed three people and wounded 23 others in a string of bombings from 1978 to 1995. The FBI dubbed him the "Unabomber" because of his early targets: universities and airlines.
"McVeigh had his own grudge against the government. And the Unabomber had his issues with technology. And in these cases and many more, they used murder as their means of filing a complaint," Fox said.
Magnus Ranstorp, research director of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College, wrote in an editorial for CNN.com that Breivik "represents the exception rather than the norm in right-wing extremist circles.
"Traditionally, right-wing extremism has been disorganized and impulsive, and it has often been manifested through localized hate crimes against immigrants. ... Breivik was the polar opposite. His nine-year preparation for creating the lengthy manifesto and the violent action that he argues for and documents in minute detail contradicts our traditional view. He argues against impulsive acts of harassing foreign immigrants in favor of spectacular, well-prepared attacks."
Levin of California State University, San Bernardino, said Breivik is "much more deliberative" than people "like the impulsive neo-Nazi" who goes out and attacks people, and seems to be more similar to McVeigh, who planned his attack deliberately.
Levin said he believes ideology was probably Breivik's chief motivation -- and seeking personal benefit took a back seat.
"We're seeing the rise of the aspirational extremist," Levin said, describing someone who "perceives society as careening out of control off a cliff."
"This guy Breivik had a very tight ideological argument for what he was doing," the criminologist said.
Setbacks in Breivik's life certainly played a role as well, Levin said. "When people face a ruthlessness and some kind of personal setback and they've already been accustomed to an ideology that gives them comfort, they can ramp it up to violent forms of it."
Levin warned against writing off Breivik, with his "Islamophobic" writings, as a lone exception who does not reflect broader thinking around him. "While the violence was extreme, the actual sentiments are sentiments that are widely expressed in some form throughout the mainstream of Europe," he said.
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/07/26/norway.terror.attacks.experts/index.html [with comments]
===
Anders Behring Breivik had links to far-right EDL, says anti-racism group
EDL leader Stephen Lennon denies claims Anders Behring Breivik attended EDL demonstrations.
Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
Searchlight wants English Defence League classified as extremist group amid claims of online discussions with Breivik
Matthew Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 July 2011 16.45 BST
Anti-racism campaigners believe they may have uncovered evidence that Anders Behring Breivik, the man who carried out the mass killings in Norway, was in touch with activists from the English Defence League as recently as March.
Searchlight said the 32-year-old used the pseudonym of a 12th-century Norwegian king to communicate with people on the EDL forum before retreating to a remote farm to prepare for last week's attacks.
In one posting, on 9 March, the author called on rightwing activists in the UK to "keep up the good work".
"Hello. To you all good English men and women, just wanted to say that you're a blessing to all in Europe, in these dark times all of Europe are looking to you in such [sic] of inspiration, courage and even hope that we might turn this evil trend with islamisation all across our continent. Well, just wanted to say keep up the good work it's good to see others that care about their country and heritage. All the best to you all. Sigurd"
Breivik boasted about his links to the UK far-right group in his 1,500-page manifesto, written in English under his Anglicised name, Andrew Berwick.
In the document, he says he was given the codename "Sigurd (the Crusader)" at a meeting of a group called the Knights Templar Europe in London in 2002. There is no confirmation that the author is Breivik. Sigurd is a common name in Norway.
In messages, "Sigurd" says he attended a football match in the UK and expresses his admiration for the EDL, adding that he would like join one of its demonstrations.
"i've seen with my own eyes what has happened to england, i was in bradford some years ago, me and a friend walked down to the football stadium of bradford, real 'nice' neighborhood, same thing in the suburbs of london. well thinking about taking a little trip over the sea and join you in a demo. would be nice with a norwegian flag alongside with union jack or the english flag, that is if a norwegian would be welcome offcourse?"
In another message, he goes on to discuss the situation in Norway.
"The biggest problem in Norway is that there is no real free press, there is a left-wing angle on all the political topics so most people are going around like idiots. And offcourse with our norwegian labour party beeing in power for most of the last 50 years dont help. but i i think there is an awakening now at least i hope so."
In his manifesto, Breivik repeatedly refers to the EDL, stating at one point: "I used to have more than 600 EDL members as Facebook friends and have spoken with tens of EDL members and leaders."
"In fact, I was one of the individuals who supplied them with processed ideological material (including rhetorical strategies) in the very beginning."
The EDL – which has staged a series of street demonstrations, many of which have turned violent, since it was formed two years ago – denies any links to Breivik and has condemned the killings, stating it is a peaceful organisation that rejects all forms of extremism.
There have also been claims that Breivik attended EDL demonstrations in London and Newcastle upon Tyne last year. One alleged EDL activist posted a comment online on Sunday stating: "[B]ar one or two doubt the rest of us ever met him, altho he did come over for one of our demo in 2010 … but what he did was wrong."
Another alleged EDL supporter suggested in a separate forum that she had come across Breivik in the UK. "OMG [Oh, my God] … HIM?! He wrote some books and did talks didn't he?"
Stephen Lennon, the leader of the EDL, told the BBC on Monday he had never met Breivik and added that he did not believe the Norwegian had attended any EDL demonstration. He also pointed out that at one point in his manifesto Breivik described the EDL as "naive fools" who believed in the democratic process.
Searchlight's editor, Nick Lowles, said there was now "clear evidence" of a direct link between Breivik and the English Defence League.
"The Home Office must now formally classify the EDL as an extremist organisation and allow the police to deploy the same manpower and resources to monitoring their activity as they would other extremist groups. It's also clear that the proposed EDL march in Tower Hamlets cannot be allowed to proceed."
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/26/anders-behring-breivik-edl-searchlight
===
Police probe Breivik’s links abroad
An English Defence League (EDL) demonstration in Newcastle, England, during 2010. Oslo attacks suspect Anders Behring Breivik claims to have links with the group.
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons
An English Defence League (EDL) activist at a demonstration in 2010.
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons
July 26, 2011
The international search for accomplices and supporters of the Oslo and Utøya attacks suspect Anders Behring Breivik has begun, as Norwegian police revealed that he had been on one of their lists as early as March. His links to British far right organizations and extremists have sparked an investigation in the country.
Breivik’s 1,500-page online manifesto, signed with the anglicized pseudonym “Andrew Berwick” and claiming to have been written in London, mentions a number of links to the far right in Britain. The suspected terrorist further claimed in his appearance in an Oslo court on Monday that there were two further “cells” in operation to which he was connected.
British links revealed
Breivik’s manifesto mentions a British mentor named “Richard,” who is yet to be identified but is believed to be named after the British king “Richard the Lionheart,” famed for his involvement in the Crusades. One British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, claims to have found a blog written by someone calling himself “Lionheart” and authorities are now investigating.
The “Lionheart” blogger’s real name is Paul Rey, who claims to be a “founding father” and active participant in the English Defence League (EDL). The EDL has held a number of violent anti-Islamic demonstrations in the UK in recent years. In his manifesto, Breivik said, “I used to have more than 600 EDL members as Facebook friends and have spoken with EDL members and leaders.” He claims to be “one of the individuals who supplied them with processed ideological material (including rhetorical strategies) in the very beginning.” In other comments attributed to Breivik online, he states that a key strategy for “Christian conservatives” in Norway is to establish their own version of the EDL.
Breivik ‘participated in British demonstrations‘
The EDL have released a statement that reads, “we can categorically state that there has never been any official contact between him and the EDL.” Nonetheless, a number of EDL members have informed The Daily Telegraph that they have had contact with Breivik. He is believed to have been in London as part of a far-right solidarity demonstration when Dutch politician Geert Wilders visited Britain.
An EDL organizer, Daryl Hobson, told The Daily Telegraph that several members of the organization had met Breivik. A Facebook post from Hobson also claims that Breivik “did come over for one of our demo [sic] in 2010,” before going on to say that “what he did was wrong.” An anonymous member of the EDL also told the newspaper that they had met Breivik, suggesting that EDL members would be taken by an “extremely intelligent” man. “It’s like Hitler, people said he was hypnotic,” the source is quoted as saying. Another alleged EDL member, Katie Hedderick, posted on a message board about Breivik, stating “HIM?! He wrote some books and did talks didn’t he?”
The founder of the EDL, Stephen Lennon, told BBC news programme Newsnight on Monday night that “we’re against it [the Oslo attacks] but at the same time you cannot brush off millions of people who have concerns against Islam as lunatics.” Lennon has previous convictions for violence as part of scenes of football hooliganism. Another EDL leader, Tommy Robinson, is quoted by The New Yorker as saying, “we don’t want English lads blowing themselves up on our soil, but that will happen if they don’t give us a platform.”
‘Knights Templar’ and ‘Norwegian Defence League’
The order of the Knights Templar that Breivik claims to have been a member of, described as the “Knights Templar Europe,” was also apparently established in London in 2002. Breivik states that its aim is “to seize political and military control of western European countries and implement a cultural conservative political agenda.” In his manifesto, Breivik claims to be the youngest in the group and had been put in contact with them through a “Serbian crusader commander.” He also claimed that the group later held larger meetings in “Balticum.”
A source in the Norwegian Defence League (NDL) has now also confirmed to newspaper Aftenposten that Breivik was a member, and that he used the pseudonym “Sigurd Jorsalfar.” Breivik was apparently active in the organization’s foundation but became increasingly less involved because “he believed we [the NDL] were too kind.” The NDL arranged its first demonstration on April 9, when just nine followers showed up and a large counter-demonstration was held by anti-fascists. The source said that the group “completely and utterly” distances itself from the attacks.
Britain investigates
British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to investigate links between Breivik and the EDL, confirming to a number of news outlets that he takes them “extremely seriously.”
A British police expert has already been dispatched to Oslo to assist the police in identifying Breivik’s international connections. Europol are also assisting the Norwegian police, making use of their continental database of known far right extremists.
Breivik was on police list
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Police Security Service (Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste, PST) confirmed on Monday that Breivik had come to their attention in March on a list of people who had bought products from a Polish firm selling chemicals. Breivik was reportedly checked but no further action was deemed necessary.
The PST’s director, Janne Kristiansen, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that his name was listed along with around 50 to 60 others “in connection with a currency check from an international customs project.” She added that the police “are not allowed without further grounds to put such names in our register, but we checked if we had anything else on the people on the list, if there was anyone that could be connected to other information we have, but we had absolutely nothing on Breivik.”
Kristiansen went on to say that following the attacks, the PST will not push for “methods or regulations where we will be able to keep surveillance over all people,” adding that “not even in the old East Germany, I believe, would one have been able to become aware of Breivik because he quite simply has not broken the law before.”
The PST has also said before that “lone wolves are something we cannot intercept in the kind of society we want to have.”
Copyright © 2011 Views and News from Norway
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2011/07/26/police-probe-breiviks-international-links/ [no comments yet]
===
Norway killer's lawyer Geir Lippestad defended neo-Nazi
Geir Lippestad, the defence lawyer for Anders Behring Breivik
Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Geir Lippestad is a personification of everything Anders Behring Breivik hates about Norway. He is also the killer's lawyer.
4:51PM BST 26 Jul 2011
Urbane, liberal and fluent in English, Mr Lippestad was shocked when he was contacted by police at home and told that Norway's most hated man has asked for his help.
For several hours he hesitated and discussed with friends and family whether to defend a man who only hours early had massacred 68 young people on a summer holiday island.
But in the end his civic instincts trumped his initial horror. "I believe that the legal system is very important in a democracy and someone has to do this job," he told reporters this afternoon.
There are two further twists to the relationship between killer and client. First, it was revealed Breivik had once rented an office close to where Mr Lippestad's firm is based.
They lawyer said he had never met Breivik before the killing but it's possible that the gunman knew who he was and singled him out long in advance.
Second, Mr Lippestad is also a prominent member of the ruling Labour Party, whose youth wing the terrorist targeted on Friday.
At one point he was deputy chair of the constituency party in Nordstrand, a borough of Oslo.
At his remand hearing, Breivik said the Labour Party had failed the Norway and left the country to be "colonised by Muslims."
But a clue to Breivik's choice may lie in Mr Lippestad's past: in 2002 he represented a neo-Nazi who murdered a mixed race teenager in Oslo.
The death of Benjamin Hermansen, whose mother was Norwegian and whose father was Ghanaian, sparked outrage in Norway and led to large marches against racism.
Michael Jackson even dedicated his number-one album Invincible to Benjamin's memory.
The case propelled Mr Lippestad to national attention as a man who believes that even the most brutal murderers deserve a fair trial.
Now the eyes of the world will be on him as he makes the case to defend Breivik's savagery.
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2011
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8663525/Norway-killers-lawyer-Geir-Lippestad-defended-neo-Nazi.html
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