Sunday, July 31, 2011 2:55:32 AM
A Madman and His Manifesto
By TIMOTHY EGAN
July 28, 2011, 8:30 pm
It passed with only scant notice, as with so many of the rude extremes of American life in a kinetic media age. The bodies of those Norwegian children slaughtered by a terrorist had yet to be fully recovered, let alone buried, when Glenn Beck compared the victims to Nazis.
The summer camp where children of the Norwegian Labor Party went for soccer, swimming, political debates and lectures “sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler Youth,” Beck said in his national radio broadcast.
No, Beck wasn’t justifying the killing of 68 people on Utoya Island. He was merely muddying the humanity of those young people executed by Anders Behring Breivik, the self-professed “Christian Knight” who has confessed to the attacks. But Beck’s Web site, The Blaze, was full of justifications for the mass murder of innocents, and provided a sampling of the troubled audience he caters to in this country.
On Tuesday, after the site posted the story of the lawyer’s description [ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/oslo-shooters-lawyer-i-think-my-client-is-insane/ ] of Breivik as “insane,” the first comment to follow was this: “I really feel for the guy. He loves his country so much that to see his own culture eroded away by multicultures that the govt is letting in, drove him to this heinous act.”
There were many, many more, of a similar vein. “You gotta like the guy,” another person wrote. “He speaks the truth” and has the mettle “to prove it.”
For an establishment variant of this larger “truth” behind the crime, there was the durable Pat Buchanan, writing on American Conservative’s web site. “As for a climactic conflict between a once-Christian West and an Islamic world that is growing in number and advancing inexorably into Europe for the third time in 14 centuries, on this one Breivik may be right.”
In other words: the madman was onto something with his manifesto.
For all of these reasons, Breivik cannot be dismissed as a lone crackpot whose xenophobia got the most of him. To call him insane and let it go at that is too easy, for him and for the rest of us. His hatred — of Muslims, immigrants and, most of all, fellow Norwegians elected to lead their country — is a familiar virus transplanted to a peaceful country.
When it turned out that the terrorist who shocked the world last Friday was no Islamic extremist, but a blue-eyed, light-haired Nordic, those who see hatred coming mainly from one religious extreme were quick to place the case in a box of isolation. The crime was about evil, critics like Michael Medved argued [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/25/michael-medved-should-the-oslo-killings-discredit-conservatives.html ], not ideology.
It was about both. In his own words, Breivik connected his violence to a warped Christian version of jihad. “I prayed to God,” Breivik wrote, to “ensure that the warriors fighting for the preservation of European Christendom prevailed.”
I live in the Pacific Northwest, a place with a deep northern European tradition, from Nordstrom to retail co-ops, with progressive if process-driven politics. It is also secular, like much of Europe. After the murders, more than 500 people packed into the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Through tears and prayers, they tried to fathom the unfathomable. How could one person mow down children from his own country?
Certainly, one answer is the evil that kills a soul, and overrides all reason. But another is the political component — fitting that hatred into a larger narrative.
Take a look at comments from anti-immigration groups across Europe [ http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7670673.html ] this week. As with Buchanan and the followers of Glenn Beck, these people did not go so far as to cheer the killings. But they portrayed the terrorist attack in Norway as an act of frustration, brought on by liberal policies to dilute an ever-shrinking native European population.
“What happened in Oslo shows how desperate some people are becoming in Europe,” Stephen Lennon, the hard-right head of the English Defense League, told the Associated Press. “It’s a ticking time bomb.”
In Italy, Mario Borghezio, a member of the European Parliament who belongs to the anti-immigrant Northern League, expressed open sympathy with many tenets of Breivik’s philosophy.
“Some of the ideas he expressed are good — barring the violence,” Borghezio told Il Sole radio. “Some of them are great.”
We should not try to ban or overlook this kind of speech, whether it comes out the sewage end of Glenn Beck’s Web site, or from a member of the European Parliament. It needs examination, in the same way that sane people have to understand why a reading of the Koran could lead someone to strap on a suicide bomb.
As Muslims become a greater presence in Europe and the United States, the cultural struggle will be one the great tests for the West. It is not a war, not so long as its battlegrounds are parliaments and playgrounds, and its voices are people like Sabria Jawhar, a columnist for the Saudi Gazette. “Outlawing the burqa will create a tremendous divide between non-Muslims and Muslims,” she wrote last year. “But wearing the burqa in the West is just plain stupid.”
Such is the Western tradition: argument, reason, civil laws trumping religious ones. It was encouraging to see Norway’s prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, insist that his wounded country would fight back with “more democracy.”
The alternative is war under the banner of heaven, as both Breivik and his hated Islamists advocate.
© 2011 The New York Times Company
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/a-madman-and-his-manifesto/ [with comments]
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Time for Norway to face its Islamophobia
By Aslak Sira Myhre, Published: July 28[, 2011]
OSLO
It is easy to take pride in being Norwegian this week, when hundreds of thousands of people gather on our public squares without a yell for revenge or death. The Norwegian response to the terror of July 22 [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/norways-capital-shaken-by-bomb-blast/2011/07/22/gIQABA6dTI_story.html ] has been exceptional: after the initial chaos, calm solidarity. But I fear that it would not have been so if the murders had been committed by a Norwegian-born Muslim with sympathies for al-Qaeda, instead of by a white man. We have in recent decades grown accustomed to reacting and thinking differently about “them” and “us.”
To be able to do what the terrorist of Oslo did on July 22, I think you have to be mad. But there are two kinds of madness: psychopathic and political.
These days, when a mad person with a Muslim background commits an act of terrorism, it is seen as a result of his or her religion. The clinical madness needed to be a killer on this scale is explained through the political madness of fundamentalism. But when a non-Muslim right-wing extremist, such as the terrorist of Oslo and Utoya or the Oklahoma City bomber, commits the same kind of atrocity, the political madness is said to result from clinical madness.
One of the most frightening things in the aftermath of last week’s murders is that Anders Behring Breivik’s manifesto makes clear that his sort of political madness is not unknown to us. On the contrary, many of his words have been used time and again in Norway in recent years. Phrases such as “secret Islamification” and “Muslim takeover” have appeared not just on obscure Web pages but also on TV and radio, in articles and in the general debate. Islamophobia has become an accepted part of our public life.
Thirty years ago it would have been different. In the Norway where I grew up, it was not possible to be taken seriously in public discourse if you claimed that there was an essential difference between people of different religions, races or nationality. The Norway I grew up in was politically correct. Teachers would stop you in class if someone said that Muslims were more likely to be killers, black people more likely to be stupid or white people morally superior. Newspapers wouldn’t print articles claiming such things, and no one in their senses would arrange debates on the idea that foreigners posed a danger to the Norwegian way of life. But political correctness has become a punch line over the past two decades, and somewhere along the way we lost decency in public debate.
Indeed, after 20 years of wars in or against countries in the Middle East, 10 years after the horrors of Sept. 11 and in the aftermath of this terrorism, we no longer speak about people of other religions or nations as if they were as humane as ourselves. Instead, we turn them into enemies. All over Europe we have grown used to hearing of conspiracies on Eurabia, how Muslim women give birth to many children to take over Europe, how “their” culture is less developed than ours, “their” religion is more inclined toward war, “their” humanity less than ours. What was extreme 25 years ago has become commonplace today — not just in online debates but far into academic circles in Norway. And as the general conversation has become more extreme, the extreme has to move further out.
Some have said that Norway lost its innocence on July 22. Unfortunately, that is not completely true. A country that has been at war in Afghanistan for 10 years, that has fought in Iraq and that is an eager bomber of Tripoli cannot be called innocent. But it has been a good country to live in, a largely welcoming and egalitarian community. I hope the solidarity that has arisen from our collective sorrow can make it even better.
Nobody but the killer bears responsibility for the atrocities in Oslo. But our society has a responsibility to shift our public debate. We are responsible for the wars we wage, the words we use and the way we treat people who are different from ourselves. This is a responsibility we in Norway have not taken in recent years.
If something good might come out of the Oslo terror, I hope it will be a change in the way we talk and think about “others.” On the ruins of our government buildings and the lost youth of Utoya we have the possibility to create a society in which we will grant people the same humanity regardless of religion, nation, gender or sexual orientation. Norway must take back the political correctness of my youth. We must regain decency in our public debate.
Aslak Sira Myhre is director of the House of Literature [ http://www.litteraturhuset.no/english ] in Oslo. He is an author and a former leader of the Red Electoral Alliance [ http://wn.com/Red_Electoral_Alliance ].
© 2011 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/time-for-norway-to-face-its-islamophobia/2011/07/27/gIQATFrsfI_story.html [with comments]
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Ancient Knights Templar name used in modern criminal crusades
Anders Behring Breivik's purported manifesto includes excerpts from a Wikipedia entry about the Knights Templar
By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
July 29, 2011 -- Updated 1335 GMT (2135 HKT)
(CNN) -- A bright red cross marked the cover of a manifesto purportedly written by the suspect in last week's terror attacks in Norway.
Nearly 6,000 miles away, Mexican police seized white robes emblazoned with the same symbol in a series of raids aimed at cracking down on one of the country's newest drug cartels.
The Knights Templar -- warriors during the medieval holy wars known as the Crusades -- wore the cross insignia as they went into battle. Its red color represented the blood of Christian martyrs.
The recent modern-day interpretations of the crusaders' ancient cause wouldn't sit well with the original Knights Templar, according to British historian and novelist Piers Paul Read.
"They'd have been horrified. ... They were very devout people," said Read, who detailed the knights' history in his book "The Templars."
The knights began in the 12th century as a religious order fighting Muslims and protecting Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land.
They mostly came from Western Europe and took strict vows of poverty, Read said. But over time, their organization amassed significant wealth and property, drawing ire from citizens and royalty alike.
Amid accusations of heresy and devil-worship from France's king, the pope dissolved the order in 1312, Read said. The group's last leader was burned at the stake, but the story of the Knights Templar lives on, portrayed in films and popular fiction such as "The Da Vinci Code."
Now authorities are investigating Norway attack suspect Anders Behring Breivik's purported manifesto, which claims that another group using the Knights Templar name intends to carry out "shock attacks" across Europe in a campaign to fight Islam and "cultural Marxism."
Authorities accuse Breivik of killing at least 76 people when he set off a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo last Friday, then ambushed an island political youth retreat. Breivik's lawyer told reporters that his client was "a little bit surprised" that he was able to pull off the bombing and shooting rampage, for which authorities say he has claimed responsibility.
Separately, Mexican officials blame members of a new criminal organization that use the Knights Templar name for extorting business owners, decapitating and dismembering kidnapping victims and setting vehicles ablaze to block roads during shootouts with police.
The original Templars' noble ideals and dramatic demise give them "an aura of glamour and mystery," said Paul Crawford, an associate professor of ancient and medieval history at California University of Pennsylvania.
Crawford and other historians argue that most fictional accounts of the group focus on unsubstantiated myths and conspiracy theories and that recent reappearances of the Knights Templar name in Norway and Mexico are just the latest attempts to manipulate their legacy.
"The drug gang and the murderer are trying to cloak the horror of their acts with the glamour and ideals of this religious order," Crawford said.
Striving to be 'the perfect knight'
The rambling, 1,500-page account that constitutes Breivik's purported manifesto includes excerpts from a Wikipedia entry about the Knights Templar and pictures of sword-wielding medieval knights wearing cloaks and armor.
CNN has not independently confirmed that Breivik is the author of the manifesto, which bears his name and says it is intended to be circulated among sympathizers. The writer rails against Muslims and their growing presence in Europe, and calls for a European civil war to overthrow governments, end multiculturalism and execute "cultural Marxists."
The author also makes numerous references to what he describes as a new incarnation of the Knights Templar, which he says was "re-founded as a pan-European nationalist military order" during an April 2002 meeting in London. The manifesto details necessary steps to become a "Justiciar Knight," including pledging a Knights Templar oath.
"Any candidate prepared to walk this road must be willing to forfeit his materialistic ambitions and embrace voluntary poverty and martyrdom," Breivik writes.
"You are operating as a jury, judge and executioner on behalf of all free Europeans. ... There are situations in which cruelty is necessary, and refusing to apply necessary cruelty is a betrayal of the people whom you wish to protect," he continues.
In a diary-like log of events leading up to last week's attacks, the manifesto's author says he is trying to set an example.
"I am one of many destroyers of cultural Marxism and as such; a hero of Europe, a savior of our people and of European Christendom -- by default. ... The Perfect Knight I have always strived to be," he writes.
Crawford, the historian at California University of Pennsylvania, said such assertions show a clear misunderstanding of the Knights Templar.
"They were soldiers. They confronted Islam on the battlefield and Islam returned the favor. They did not, to the best of my knowledge, ever engage in massacres of unarmed combatants," he said. "They were not terrorists and wouldn't have approved of it."
'They want to demonstrate that they're courageous'
The new Mexican cartel known as the Knights Templar announced its presence earlier this year. Banners hung in prominent locations -- and photographed by local media -- vowed to protect residents of the Mexican state of Michoacan.
"Our commitment to society will be to preserve order and prevent robbery, kidnapping and extortion, and protect the state from interventions by rival organizations," the signs said.
For months, authorities and analysts said they suspected the Knights Templar had split from one of the nation's most notorious criminal organizations, La Familia Michoacana -- a cartel known for its mix of ruthless violence and religious ideology.
Mexico's government said La Familia's founder, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, was killed in clashes with authorities last year. In a dossier released as they announced his death in December, officials described Moreno as a "spiritual leader" who used religion to strengthen his stronghold. The government file said Moreno dubbed himself the "savior of the people" and outlined the cartel's philosophy in a "bible" provided to new recruits.
The discovery earlier this month of the white robes with red crosses and handbooks outlining a code for the Knights Templar showed further evidence of a connection with La Familia, authorities said.
"Presumably they were indoctrinating their members," Mexican federal police spokesman Juan Carlos Buenrostro told CNNMexico.com.
For the splinter group, choosing the Knights Templar name was no accident, said George W. Grayson, a professor of government at the College of William & Mary.
"They want to demonstrate that they're courageous and valiant, but at the same time they are generous," said Grayson, who studies Mexico's organized crime syndicates.
He said the alleged leader of the Knights Templar, a former lieutenant of La Familia known as "La Tuta" -- the teacher -- "has the same kind of religious inspiration" as Moreno.
While some of the cartels' leaders may believe in its ideology, Grayson says others have a more pragmatic approach, using religion as a "recruiting device."
"Now you're at one with the Lord, even as you decapitate people and carve (messages) into the bodies of your opponents," he said.
Promoting peace, fighting a 'social cancer'
Another group that uses the Knights Templar name has been waging its own campaign to distance itself from the Mexican drug gang and the Norway attacks.
The international Christian nonprofit known as Knights Templar International issued a statement saying their group is not and has never been affiliated in any way with Breivik.
"Christ's message is one of love, understanding and tolerance of all peoples of the world," the organization said in a statement. "How Anders Behring Breivik so misunderstood and corrupted Christ's message is beyond reason or belief."
The organization's Mexico chapter also issued a statement saying it has no connection to the drug gang, which it referred to as a "social cancer." The statement lambasted the criminal group for committing acts that are "full of shame, dishonor and totally contrary to the principles of the order."
Robert C.G. Disney, the grand commander of Knights Templar International, said the organization's more than 6,000 members around the world regularly support charitable projects, such as helping fund reconstruction of a Muslim mosque and a Christian church in Pakistan following mudslides there.
"Obviously it's very distressing for me and for all of our members to see our name bandied about by the drug cartel and this deranged person in Norway," he said. "Unfortunately, we do not have exclusive rights to the words 'Knights Templar.' Those words have been in the public domain for almost 1,000 years."
Members can join Knights Templar International only by invitation, Disney said, but the organization has no particular church affiliation, and provides humanitarian aid to anyone in need, regardless of race or creed.
"We have no political or religious agenda," he said. "Our agenda is basically all about bringing about peace, reconciliation and understanding."
Journalist Rodrigo Aguiar, CNNMexico.com and CNNRadio's Libby Lewis contributed to this report.
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/07/28/knights.templar.groups/ [with comments]
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Pastor and imam unite for first funeral of Norway victim
A picture and the casket of Bano Rashid, 18, are carried to Nesodden church during the funeral ceremony near Oslo July 29, 2011, as the nation pauses for memorial services after the worst attacks on the nation since World War Two.
Photograph by: Wolfgang Rattay, Reuters
Agence France-Presse July 29, 2011 12:39 PM
NESODDEN - A woman pastor and an imam celebrated together Friday the funeral of 18-year-old Bano Rashid, the first victim of Anders Behring Breivik's killing spree to be buried.
The double heritage of the young woman, of Kurdish origin, and her commitment to politics were celebrated during the ceremony at an overflowing tiny church near the Oslo fjord.
"An imam and a pastor side by side for this funeral is a very powerful message," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said after the service.
Similar to dozens of other Norwegian churches, the one in Nesodden, a small municipality south of Oslo, cannot fit more than a hundred or so people.
But many more gathered on Friday to pay tribute to Bano Rashid, who was gunned down while taking part in a retreat organized by the Norwegian Labour Party's youth wing on Utoeya island, near the capital.
The shooting left 69 dead and a car bomb in central Oslo killed eight other people, bringing the last official death toll of last Friday's twin attacks to 77.
Behring Breivik, a far-right extremist, confessed to carrying out the attacks when questioned last Saturday.
Bano Rashid was on the island with her younger sister, who survived the massacre.
"The answer must not be hatred, but even more love," their mother Beyan Rachid told Norwegian media.
Many young people were at Friday's service, carrying roses and praising Bano's political involvement and strength.
"It feels good to be here, all together, to say a last goodbye," said Siri Hov Eggen, also a member of the Labour Party's youth wing.
"She did tremendous work, she would have become an extraordinary political leader," she said, describing her slain party colleague as a "solid" young woman with a "strong personality".
Around her, other young people stifled their sobs.
Friends described Bano as a good student comfortable around people. She had an objective — to become a lawyer — and a dream to get elected to parliament.
The young activist had also written frequently about the evils of racism and discrimination.
Inside the wood and stone church, Stoere drew both smiles and tears from the assembly.
"As refugees who came from Iraqi Kurdistan in 1996, you arrived in Norway as a family, looking for protection and safety. And now you have been hit by what is most absurd, most outrageous and most brutal here in our home, in safe Norway," he said, addressing Bano's family.
"Bano is not here today. It is not understandable," he said, standing next to the young woman's coffin, topped with flowers and a picture of a happy-looking teen with long brown hair.
Stoere also recounted how on that fatal rainy day in Utoeya last week, Bano had lent her rubber boots to her role model, former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, a hugely respected figure within Norwegian Labour, who spoke to the young activists only hours before the shooting.
Bano, he said, had already been following in the politician's footsteps, and "this girl, who came came to Norway as a refugee, had it in her to fill Gro's shoes."
Once the ceremony was over, the crowd gathered outside the church and parted to let the coffin, also draped in a Kurdish flag and a ribbon in the colours of Norway, go through.
The mourners followed it until it was lowered in the ground. A few young women broke down in tears, while young men tried to hide their bloodshot eyes behind sunglasses.
© Copyright (c) AFP
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Pastor+imam+unite+first+funeral+Norway+victim/5180271/story.html
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Utoya attack was Norway killer's back-up plan
Norway's Crown Prince Haakon led yesterday's memorial service in Oslo's central cathedral Domkirke as the city paid respects to the 77 people killed on 22 July
EPA
Thousands of flowers were laid in Oslo in tribute to the dead
AP
Wounded victim, Eivind Thoresen, recovering in hospital
Reuters
Anders Breivik admits island camp was not prime target
By Kunal Dutta and Jonathan Owen
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Even as grief-stricken Norwegians, led by the Crown Prince Haakon, paid their respects yesterday in a private memorial service in Domkirke, the main cathedral in central Oslo, Anders Behring Breivik showed no sign of remorse for one of the most lethal killing sprees by a single person in history.
Last night it emerged that Breivik harboured plans to detonate several bombs in the centre of Oslo including its royal palace. But he was unable to produce explosives in time. During a 10-hour police interrogation Breivik was said to have been more interested in asking authorities how many people he had killed, apparently reacting "without emotion" when told.
Authorities explained how Breivik said that the attacks – which comprised a bomb in centre Oslo and a gun massacre of 69 people on the island of Utoya at least 20 miles away – were actually the contingency plan of a wider plot involving multiple devices across the city. Police would not confirm local reports that the royal palace and Labour Party headquarters were among the targets.
Despite Breivik's efforts, the tragedy has only served to bring Norwegians together in dignified displays of unity.
Oslo was littered with roses yesterday: potent symbols of a people in mourning. Aled Fisher, 24, from Cardiff, a student at the University of Oslo, described the scene, saying: "The centre of town is packed. It's very hot and people are out sunbathing and having a good time.
"Cafés, bars and down by waterfront looks completely normal except for roses everywhere you look. People came back from the memorial on Monday and stuck them in public places, traffic lights, gates. Everywhere you look today you see roses covering things. By the cathedral, there is a large sea of flowers. The memorial services have been events to keep survivors occupied and together."
Norwegian journalists were told by police who interviewed Breivik yesterday that he was eager to know whether his photograph had appeared in newspapers and the exact number of television crew in Oslo. The 32-year-old been prohibited from seeing any media since his arrest.
Although Breivik claims to have spent almost a decade preparing his deadly attack, police say that he does not appear to have shared his plans with anyone. His rampage began on 22 July, when he parked a van loaded with a bomb made from fertiliser outside government offices in central Oslo. Eight people were killed in the explosion. Less than two hours later, Breivik walked into a youth political camp on Utoya island dressed as a policeman and armed with a handgun and a semi-automatic rifle, and embarked on a shooting rampage. He claims to have carried out the attacks as part of a network of modern-day crusaders – the Knights Templar – to launch a revolution against a Europe spoilt by Muslim immigration, and that there are other cells ready to strike. Although it has been established that Breivik had contacted members of the English Defence League (EDL), investigators say they have found no signs of a larger conspiracy.
Britain's National Association of Muslim Police (Namp) will deliver a letter to Theresa May, the Home Secretary, stating that its officers have been targeted by radicalised members of the EDL. It details an unresolved investigation of an unidentified man arrested last year with "quantities of fireworks/devices" alongside names of Muslim police officers circled on whiteboards for attacks.
The letter also outlines concerns that EDL leader Stephen Lennon suggested similar events to those witnessed in Norway could be "years away" if his organisation's concerns were not addressed.
The Independent on Sunday can also reveal that British businessman Alan Lake, a known funder of EDL and other far-right groups in Europe, was filmed on Norwegian TV saying that he would be happy to execute extremist Muslim. He said: "I call them seditious. They are seeking the overthrow of the state. They are not respecting that which respects the state and as far as I am concerned I'd be happy to execute people like that."
Meanwhile, leading charities joined Labour in urging Theresa May to review the Government's recently introduced Prevent strategy and its entire approach to terrorism. It was echoed by comments from Jonathan Birdwell of Demos. "Security services have to examine far-right activities on the fringes more carefully. Politicians need to start speaking about these issues."
To an extent, however, it is still unclear how seriously European authorities should take Breivik's claims of links to others. Police investigations into claims made by Breivik shed fresh light on his tenuous grip of reality and vainglorious self-obsession.
His claims that he once almost gained a seat on Oslo's city council were dismissed as "nonsense" by Joran Kallmyr, who was chairman of the Progress Party's youth wing and is now a vice mayor of Oslo. He claimed Breivik attended just five or six party meetings and barely spoke. "I remember there was nothing special about him that could lead to something like this," said Mr Kallmyr.
Richard Steenfeldt Berg, described as a one-time business mentor by Breivik, said the claims were a "bizarre exaggeration". He added that the only thing he taught Breivik was how to record corporate minutes.
"Yes, I met this monster 11 years ago. No, I did not coach him in any subjects, except for some advice on writing corporate minutes protocol, which he requested fervently," Mr Berg said in a letter on his Facebook page. "No, I have never acted as, nor accepted the role of, any kind of 'mentor' for him."
The conflicts between Breivik's story and reality highlight the delusional tone of the 1,518-page manifesto he released hours before the attacks. He described teen years infatuated with hip-hop, spray-painting buildings with graffiti before apparently reinventing himself as a crusader against Islam. Although former friends confirm Breivik's claims of troublemaking, they add that he was a loner, reluctant to reveal his own thoughts.
Last week his former stepmother, Tove Overmo, said: "If I'd had some kind of suspicion, some kind of idea that something was not right with him, it would have been easier. He left saying 'see you soon' or something like that, something very normal."
Additional reporting by Sarah Morrison and Andrew McCorkell
©independent.co.uk
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/utoya-attack-was-norway-killers-backup-plan-2329187.html [with comments]
By TIMOTHY EGAN
July 28, 2011, 8:30 pm
It passed with only scant notice, as with so many of the rude extremes of American life in a kinetic media age. The bodies of those Norwegian children slaughtered by a terrorist had yet to be fully recovered, let alone buried, when Glenn Beck compared the victims to Nazis.
The summer camp where children of the Norwegian Labor Party went for soccer, swimming, political debates and lectures “sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler Youth,” Beck said in his national radio broadcast.
No, Beck wasn’t justifying the killing of 68 people on Utoya Island. He was merely muddying the humanity of those young people executed by Anders Behring Breivik, the self-professed “Christian Knight” who has confessed to the attacks. But Beck’s Web site, The Blaze, was full of justifications for the mass murder of innocents, and provided a sampling of the troubled audience he caters to in this country.
On Tuesday, after the site posted the story of the lawyer’s description [ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/oslo-shooters-lawyer-i-think-my-client-is-insane/ ] of Breivik as “insane,” the first comment to follow was this: “I really feel for the guy. He loves his country so much that to see his own culture eroded away by multicultures that the govt is letting in, drove him to this heinous act.”
There were many, many more, of a similar vein. “You gotta like the guy,” another person wrote. “He speaks the truth” and has the mettle “to prove it.”
For an establishment variant of this larger “truth” behind the crime, there was the durable Pat Buchanan, writing on American Conservative’s web site. “As for a climactic conflict between a once-Christian West and an Islamic world that is growing in number and advancing inexorably into Europe for the third time in 14 centuries, on this one Breivik may be right.”
In other words: the madman was onto something with his manifesto.
For all of these reasons, Breivik cannot be dismissed as a lone crackpot whose xenophobia got the most of him. To call him insane and let it go at that is too easy, for him and for the rest of us. His hatred — of Muslims, immigrants and, most of all, fellow Norwegians elected to lead their country — is a familiar virus transplanted to a peaceful country.
When it turned out that the terrorist who shocked the world last Friday was no Islamic extremist, but a blue-eyed, light-haired Nordic, those who see hatred coming mainly from one religious extreme were quick to place the case in a box of isolation. The crime was about evil, critics like Michael Medved argued [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/25/michael-medved-should-the-oslo-killings-discredit-conservatives.html ], not ideology.
It was about both. In his own words, Breivik connected his violence to a warped Christian version of jihad. “I prayed to God,” Breivik wrote, to “ensure that the warriors fighting for the preservation of European Christendom prevailed.”
I live in the Pacific Northwest, a place with a deep northern European tradition, from Nordstrom to retail co-ops, with progressive if process-driven politics. It is also secular, like much of Europe. After the murders, more than 500 people packed into the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Through tears and prayers, they tried to fathom the unfathomable. How could one person mow down children from his own country?
Certainly, one answer is the evil that kills a soul, and overrides all reason. But another is the political component — fitting that hatred into a larger narrative.
Take a look at comments from anti-immigration groups across Europe [ http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7670673.html ] this week. As with Buchanan and the followers of Glenn Beck, these people did not go so far as to cheer the killings. But they portrayed the terrorist attack in Norway as an act of frustration, brought on by liberal policies to dilute an ever-shrinking native European population.
“What happened in Oslo shows how desperate some people are becoming in Europe,” Stephen Lennon, the hard-right head of the English Defense League, told the Associated Press. “It’s a ticking time bomb.”
In Italy, Mario Borghezio, a member of the European Parliament who belongs to the anti-immigrant Northern League, expressed open sympathy with many tenets of Breivik’s philosophy.
“Some of the ideas he expressed are good — barring the violence,” Borghezio told Il Sole radio. “Some of them are great.”
We should not try to ban or overlook this kind of speech, whether it comes out the sewage end of Glenn Beck’s Web site, or from a member of the European Parliament. It needs examination, in the same way that sane people have to understand why a reading of the Koran could lead someone to strap on a suicide bomb.
As Muslims become a greater presence in Europe and the United States, the cultural struggle will be one the great tests for the West. It is not a war, not so long as its battlegrounds are parliaments and playgrounds, and its voices are people like Sabria Jawhar, a columnist for the Saudi Gazette. “Outlawing the burqa will create a tremendous divide between non-Muslims and Muslims,” she wrote last year. “But wearing the burqa in the West is just plain stupid.”
Such is the Western tradition: argument, reason, civil laws trumping religious ones. It was encouraging to see Norway’s prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, insist that his wounded country would fight back with “more democracy.”
The alternative is war under the banner of heaven, as both Breivik and his hated Islamists advocate.
© 2011 The New York Times Company
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/a-madman-and-his-manifesto/ [with comments]
===
Time for Norway to face its Islamophobia
By Aslak Sira Myhre, Published: July 28[, 2011]
OSLO
It is easy to take pride in being Norwegian this week, when hundreds of thousands of people gather on our public squares without a yell for revenge or death. The Norwegian response to the terror of July 22 [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/norways-capital-shaken-by-bomb-blast/2011/07/22/gIQABA6dTI_story.html ] has been exceptional: after the initial chaos, calm solidarity. But I fear that it would not have been so if the murders had been committed by a Norwegian-born Muslim with sympathies for al-Qaeda, instead of by a white man. We have in recent decades grown accustomed to reacting and thinking differently about “them” and “us.”
To be able to do what the terrorist of Oslo did on July 22, I think you have to be mad. But there are two kinds of madness: psychopathic and political.
These days, when a mad person with a Muslim background commits an act of terrorism, it is seen as a result of his or her religion. The clinical madness needed to be a killer on this scale is explained through the political madness of fundamentalism. But when a non-Muslim right-wing extremist, such as the terrorist of Oslo and Utoya or the Oklahoma City bomber, commits the same kind of atrocity, the political madness is said to result from clinical madness.
One of the most frightening things in the aftermath of last week’s murders is that Anders Behring Breivik’s manifesto makes clear that his sort of political madness is not unknown to us. On the contrary, many of his words have been used time and again in Norway in recent years. Phrases such as “secret Islamification” and “Muslim takeover” have appeared not just on obscure Web pages but also on TV and radio, in articles and in the general debate. Islamophobia has become an accepted part of our public life.
Thirty years ago it would have been different. In the Norway where I grew up, it was not possible to be taken seriously in public discourse if you claimed that there was an essential difference between people of different religions, races or nationality. The Norway I grew up in was politically correct. Teachers would stop you in class if someone said that Muslims were more likely to be killers, black people more likely to be stupid or white people morally superior. Newspapers wouldn’t print articles claiming such things, and no one in their senses would arrange debates on the idea that foreigners posed a danger to the Norwegian way of life. But political correctness has become a punch line over the past two decades, and somewhere along the way we lost decency in public debate.
Indeed, after 20 years of wars in or against countries in the Middle East, 10 years after the horrors of Sept. 11 and in the aftermath of this terrorism, we no longer speak about people of other religions or nations as if they were as humane as ourselves. Instead, we turn them into enemies. All over Europe we have grown used to hearing of conspiracies on Eurabia, how Muslim women give birth to many children to take over Europe, how “their” culture is less developed than ours, “their” religion is more inclined toward war, “their” humanity less than ours. What was extreme 25 years ago has become commonplace today — not just in online debates but far into academic circles in Norway. And as the general conversation has become more extreme, the extreme has to move further out.
Some have said that Norway lost its innocence on July 22. Unfortunately, that is not completely true. A country that has been at war in Afghanistan for 10 years, that has fought in Iraq and that is an eager bomber of Tripoli cannot be called innocent. But it has been a good country to live in, a largely welcoming and egalitarian community. I hope the solidarity that has arisen from our collective sorrow can make it even better.
Nobody but the killer bears responsibility for the atrocities in Oslo. But our society has a responsibility to shift our public debate. We are responsible for the wars we wage, the words we use and the way we treat people who are different from ourselves. This is a responsibility we in Norway have not taken in recent years.
If something good might come out of the Oslo terror, I hope it will be a change in the way we talk and think about “others.” On the ruins of our government buildings and the lost youth of Utoya we have the possibility to create a society in which we will grant people the same humanity regardless of religion, nation, gender or sexual orientation. Norway must take back the political correctness of my youth. We must regain decency in our public debate.
Aslak Sira Myhre is director of the House of Literature [ http://www.litteraturhuset.no/english ] in Oslo. He is an author and a former leader of the Red Electoral Alliance [ http://wn.com/Red_Electoral_Alliance ].
© 2011 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/time-for-norway-to-face-its-islamophobia/2011/07/27/gIQATFrsfI_story.html [with comments]
===
Ancient Knights Templar name used in modern criminal crusades
Anders Behring Breivik's purported manifesto includes excerpts from a Wikipedia entry about the Knights Templar
By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
July 29, 2011 -- Updated 1335 GMT (2135 HKT)
(CNN) -- A bright red cross marked the cover of a manifesto purportedly written by the suspect in last week's terror attacks in Norway.
Nearly 6,000 miles away, Mexican police seized white robes emblazoned with the same symbol in a series of raids aimed at cracking down on one of the country's newest drug cartels.
The Knights Templar -- warriors during the medieval holy wars known as the Crusades -- wore the cross insignia as they went into battle. Its red color represented the blood of Christian martyrs.
The recent modern-day interpretations of the crusaders' ancient cause wouldn't sit well with the original Knights Templar, according to British historian and novelist Piers Paul Read.
"They'd have been horrified. ... They were very devout people," said Read, who detailed the knights' history in his book "The Templars."
The knights began in the 12th century as a religious order fighting Muslims and protecting Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land.
They mostly came from Western Europe and took strict vows of poverty, Read said. But over time, their organization amassed significant wealth and property, drawing ire from citizens and royalty alike.
Amid accusations of heresy and devil-worship from France's king, the pope dissolved the order in 1312, Read said. The group's last leader was burned at the stake, but the story of the Knights Templar lives on, portrayed in films and popular fiction such as "The Da Vinci Code."
Now authorities are investigating Norway attack suspect Anders Behring Breivik's purported manifesto, which claims that another group using the Knights Templar name intends to carry out "shock attacks" across Europe in a campaign to fight Islam and "cultural Marxism."
Authorities accuse Breivik of killing at least 76 people when he set off a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo last Friday, then ambushed an island political youth retreat. Breivik's lawyer told reporters that his client was "a little bit surprised" that he was able to pull off the bombing and shooting rampage, for which authorities say he has claimed responsibility.
Separately, Mexican officials blame members of a new criminal organization that use the Knights Templar name for extorting business owners, decapitating and dismembering kidnapping victims and setting vehicles ablaze to block roads during shootouts with police.
The original Templars' noble ideals and dramatic demise give them "an aura of glamour and mystery," said Paul Crawford, an associate professor of ancient and medieval history at California University of Pennsylvania.
Crawford and other historians argue that most fictional accounts of the group focus on unsubstantiated myths and conspiracy theories and that recent reappearances of the Knights Templar name in Norway and Mexico are just the latest attempts to manipulate their legacy.
"The drug gang and the murderer are trying to cloak the horror of their acts with the glamour and ideals of this religious order," Crawford said.
Striving to be 'the perfect knight'
The rambling, 1,500-page account that constitutes Breivik's purported manifesto includes excerpts from a Wikipedia entry about the Knights Templar and pictures of sword-wielding medieval knights wearing cloaks and armor.
CNN has not independently confirmed that Breivik is the author of the manifesto, which bears his name and says it is intended to be circulated among sympathizers. The writer rails against Muslims and their growing presence in Europe, and calls for a European civil war to overthrow governments, end multiculturalism and execute "cultural Marxists."
The author also makes numerous references to what he describes as a new incarnation of the Knights Templar, which he says was "re-founded as a pan-European nationalist military order" during an April 2002 meeting in London. The manifesto details necessary steps to become a "Justiciar Knight," including pledging a Knights Templar oath.
"Any candidate prepared to walk this road must be willing to forfeit his materialistic ambitions and embrace voluntary poverty and martyrdom," Breivik writes.
"You are operating as a jury, judge and executioner on behalf of all free Europeans. ... There are situations in which cruelty is necessary, and refusing to apply necessary cruelty is a betrayal of the people whom you wish to protect," he continues.
In a diary-like log of events leading up to last week's attacks, the manifesto's author says he is trying to set an example.
"I am one of many destroyers of cultural Marxism and as such; a hero of Europe, a savior of our people and of European Christendom -- by default. ... The Perfect Knight I have always strived to be," he writes.
Crawford, the historian at California University of Pennsylvania, said such assertions show a clear misunderstanding of the Knights Templar.
"They were soldiers. They confronted Islam on the battlefield and Islam returned the favor. They did not, to the best of my knowledge, ever engage in massacres of unarmed combatants," he said. "They were not terrorists and wouldn't have approved of it."
'They want to demonstrate that they're courageous'
The new Mexican cartel known as the Knights Templar announced its presence earlier this year. Banners hung in prominent locations -- and photographed by local media -- vowed to protect residents of the Mexican state of Michoacan.
"Our commitment to society will be to preserve order and prevent robbery, kidnapping and extortion, and protect the state from interventions by rival organizations," the signs said.
For months, authorities and analysts said they suspected the Knights Templar had split from one of the nation's most notorious criminal organizations, La Familia Michoacana -- a cartel known for its mix of ruthless violence and religious ideology.
Mexico's government said La Familia's founder, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, was killed in clashes with authorities last year. In a dossier released as they announced his death in December, officials described Moreno as a "spiritual leader" who used religion to strengthen his stronghold. The government file said Moreno dubbed himself the "savior of the people" and outlined the cartel's philosophy in a "bible" provided to new recruits.
The discovery earlier this month of the white robes with red crosses and handbooks outlining a code for the Knights Templar showed further evidence of a connection with La Familia, authorities said.
"Presumably they were indoctrinating their members," Mexican federal police spokesman Juan Carlos Buenrostro told CNNMexico.com.
For the splinter group, choosing the Knights Templar name was no accident, said George W. Grayson, a professor of government at the College of William & Mary.
"They want to demonstrate that they're courageous and valiant, but at the same time they are generous," said Grayson, who studies Mexico's organized crime syndicates.
He said the alleged leader of the Knights Templar, a former lieutenant of La Familia known as "La Tuta" -- the teacher -- "has the same kind of religious inspiration" as Moreno.
While some of the cartels' leaders may believe in its ideology, Grayson says others have a more pragmatic approach, using religion as a "recruiting device."
"Now you're at one with the Lord, even as you decapitate people and carve (messages) into the bodies of your opponents," he said.
Promoting peace, fighting a 'social cancer'
Another group that uses the Knights Templar name has been waging its own campaign to distance itself from the Mexican drug gang and the Norway attacks.
The international Christian nonprofit known as Knights Templar International issued a statement saying their group is not and has never been affiliated in any way with Breivik.
"Christ's message is one of love, understanding and tolerance of all peoples of the world," the organization said in a statement. "How Anders Behring Breivik so misunderstood and corrupted Christ's message is beyond reason or belief."
The organization's Mexico chapter also issued a statement saying it has no connection to the drug gang, which it referred to as a "social cancer." The statement lambasted the criminal group for committing acts that are "full of shame, dishonor and totally contrary to the principles of the order."
Robert C.G. Disney, the grand commander of Knights Templar International, said the organization's more than 6,000 members around the world regularly support charitable projects, such as helping fund reconstruction of a Muslim mosque and a Christian church in Pakistan following mudslides there.
"Obviously it's very distressing for me and for all of our members to see our name bandied about by the drug cartel and this deranged person in Norway," he said. "Unfortunately, we do not have exclusive rights to the words 'Knights Templar.' Those words have been in the public domain for almost 1,000 years."
Members can join Knights Templar International only by invitation, Disney said, but the organization has no particular church affiliation, and provides humanitarian aid to anyone in need, regardless of race or creed.
"We have no political or religious agenda," he said. "Our agenda is basically all about bringing about peace, reconciliation and understanding."
Journalist Rodrigo Aguiar, CNNMexico.com and CNNRadio's Libby Lewis contributed to this report.
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/07/28/knights.templar.groups/ [with comments]
===
Pastor and imam unite for first funeral of Norway victim
A picture and the casket of Bano Rashid, 18, are carried to Nesodden church during the funeral ceremony near Oslo July 29, 2011, as the nation pauses for memorial services after the worst attacks on the nation since World War Two.
Photograph by: Wolfgang Rattay, Reuters
Agence France-Presse July 29, 2011 12:39 PM
NESODDEN - A woman pastor and an imam celebrated together Friday the funeral of 18-year-old Bano Rashid, the first victim of Anders Behring Breivik's killing spree to be buried.
The double heritage of the young woman, of Kurdish origin, and her commitment to politics were celebrated during the ceremony at an overflowing tiny church near the Oslo fjord.
"An imam and a pastor side by side for this funeral is a very powerful message," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said after the service.
Similar to dozens of other Norwegian churches, the one in Nesodden, a small municipality south of Oslo, cannot fit more than a hundred or so people.
But many more gathered on Friday to pay tribute to Bano Rashid, who was gunned down while taking part in a retreat organized by the Norwegian Labour Party's youth wing on Utoeya island, near the capital.
The shooting left 69 dead and a car bomb in central Oslo killed eight other people, bringing the last official death toll of last Friday's twin attacks to 77.
Behring Breivik, a far-right extremist, confessed to carrying out the attacks when questioned last Saturday.
Bano Rashid was on the island with her younger sister, who survived the massacre.
"The answer must not be hatred, but even more love," their mother Beyan Rachid told Norwegian media.
Many young people were at Friday's service, carrying roses and praising Bano's political involvement and strength.
"It feels good to be here, all together, to say a last goodbye," said Siri Hov Eggen, also a member of the Labour Party's youth wing.
"She did tremendous work, she would have become an extraordinary political leader," she said, describing her slain party colleague as a "solid" young woman with a "strong personality".
Around her, other young people stifled their sobs.
Friends described Bano as a good student comfortable around people. She had an objective — to become a lawyer — and a dream to get elected to parliament.
The young activist had also written frequently about the evils of racism and discrimination.
Inside the wood and stone church, Stoere drew both smiles and tears from the assembly.
"As refugees who came from Iraqi Kurdistan in 1996, you arrived in Norway as a family, looking for protection and safety. And now you have been hit by what is most absurd, most outrageous and most brutal here in our home, in safe Norway," he said, addressing Bano's family.
"Bano is not here today. It is not understandable," he said, standing next to the young woman's coffin, topped with flowers and a picture of a happy-looking teen with long brown hair.
Stoere also recounted how on that fatal rainy day in Utoeya last week, Bano had lent her rubber boots to her role model, former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, a hugely respected figure within Norwegian Labour, who spoke to the young activists only hours before the shooting.
Bano, he said, had already been following in the politician's footsteps, and "this girl, who came came to Norway as a refugee, had it in her to fill Gro's shoes."
Once the ceremony was over, the crowd gathered outside the church and parted to let the coffin, also draped in a Kurdish flag and a ribbon in the colours of Norway, go through.
The mourners followed it until it was lowered in the ground. A few young women broke down in tears, while young men tried to hide their bloodshot eyes behind sunglasses.
© Copyright (c) AFP
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Pastor+imam+unite+first+funeral+Norway+victim/5180271/story.html
===
Utoya attack was Norway killer's back-up plan
Norway's Crown Prince Haakon led yesterday's memorial service in Oslo's central cathedral Domkirke as the city paid respects to the 77 people killed on 22 July
EPA
Thousands of flowers were laid in Oslo in tribute to the dead
AP
Wounded victim, Eivind Thoresen, recovering in hospital
Reuters
Anders Breivik admits island camp was not prime target
By Kunal Dutta and Jonathan Owen
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Even as grief-stricken Norwegians, led by the Crown Prince Haakon, paid their respects yesterday in a private memorial service in Domkirke, the main cathedral in central Oslo, Anders Behring Breivik showed no sign of remorse for one of the most lethal killing sprees by a single person in history.
Last night it emerged that Breivik harboured plans to detonate several bombs in the centre of Oslo including its royal palace. But he was unable to produce explosives in time. During a 10-hour police interrogation Breivik was said to have been more interested in asking authorities how many people he had killed, apparently reacting "without emotion" when told.
Authorities explained how Breivik said that the attacks – which comprised a bomb in centre Oslo and a gun massacre of 69 people on the island of Utoya at least 20 miles away – were actually the contingency plan of a wider plot involving multiple devices across the city. Police would not confirm local reports that the royal palace and Labour Party headquarters were among the targets.
Despite Breivik's efforts, the tragedy has only served to bring Norwegians together in dignified displays of unity.
Oslo was littered with roses yesterday: potent symbols of a people in mourning. Aled Fisher, 24, from Cardiff, a student at the University of Oslo, described the scene, saying: "The centre of town is packed. It's very hot and people are out sunbathing and having a good time.
"Cafés, bars and down by waterfront looks completely normal except for roses everywhere you look. People came back from the memorial on Monday and stuck them in public places, traffic lights, gates. Everywhere you look today you see roses covering things. By the cathedral, there is a large sea of flowers. The memorial services have been events to keep survivors occupied and together."
Norwegian journalists were told by police who interviewed Breivik yesterday that he was eager to know whether his photograph had appeared in newspapers and the exact number of television crew in Oslo. The 32-year-old been prohibited from seeing any media since his arrest.
Although Breivik claims to have spent almost a decade preparing his deadly attack, police say that he does not appear to have shared his plans with anyone. His rampage began on 22 July, when he parked a van loaded with a bomb made from fertiliser outside government offices in central Oslo. Eight people were killed in the explosion. Less than two hours later, Breivik walked into a youth political camp on Utoya island dressed as a policeman and armed with a handgun and a semi-automatic rifle, and embarked on a shooting rampage. He claims to have carried out the attacks as part of a network of modern-day crusaders – the Knights Templar – to launch a revolution against a Europe spoilt by Muslim immigration, and that there are other cells ready to strike. Although it has been established that Breivik had contacted members of the English Defence League (EDL), investigators say they have found no signs of a larger conspiracy.
Britain's National Association of Muslim Police (Namp) will deliver a letter to Theresa May, the Home Secretary, stating that its officers have been targeted by radicalised members of the EDL. It details an unresolved investigation of an unidentified man arrested last year with "quantities of fireworks/devices" alongside names of Muslim police officers circled on whiteboards for attacks.
The letter also outlines concerns that EDL leader Stephen Lennon suggested similar events to those witnessed in Norway could be "years away" if his organisation's concerns were not addressed.
The Independent on Sunday can also reveal that British businessman Alan Lake, a known funder of EDL and other far-right groups in Europe, was filmed on Norwegian TV saying that he would be happy to execute extremist Muslim. He said: "I call them seditious. They are seeking the overthrow of the state. They are not respecting that which respects the state and as far as I am concerned I'd be happy to execute people like that."
Meanwhile, leading charities joined Labour in urging Theresa May to review the Government's recently introduced Prevent strategy and its entire approach to terrorism. It was echoed by comments from Jonathan Birdwell of Demos. "Security services have to examine far-right activities on the fringes more carefully. Politicians need to start speaking about these issues."
To an extent, however, it is still unclear how seriously European authorities should take Breivik's claims of links to others. Police investigations into claims made by Breivik shed fresh light on his tenuous grip of reality and vainglorious self-obsession.
His claims that he once almost gained a seat on Oslo's city council were dismissed as "nonsense" by Joran Kallmyr, who was chairman of the Progress Party's youth wing and is now a vice mayor of Oslo. He claimed Breivik attended just five or six party meetings and barely spoke. "I remember there was nothing special about him that could lead to something like this," said Mr Kallmyr.
Richard Steenfeldt Berg, described as a one-time business mentor by Breivik, said the claims were a "bizarre exaggeration". He added that the only thing he taught Breivik was how to record corporate minutes.
"Yes, I met this monster 11 years ago. No, I did not coach him in any subjects, except for some advice on writing corporate minutes protocol, which he requested fervently," Mr Berg said in a letter on his Facebook page. "No, I have never acted as, nor accepted the role of, any kind of 'mentor' for him."
The conflicts between Breivik's story and reality highlight the delusional tone of the 1,518-page manifesto he released hours before the attacks. He described teen years infatuated with hip-hop, spray-painting buildings with graffiti before apparently reinventing himself as a crusader against Islam. Although former friends confirm Breivik's claims of troublemaking, they add that he was a loner, reluctant to reveal his own thoughts.
Last week his former stepmother, Tove Overmo, said: "If I'd had some kind of suspicion, some kind of idea that something was not right with him, it would have been easier. He left saying 'see you soon' or something like that, something very normal."
Additional reporting by Sarah Morrison and Andrew McCorkell
©independent.co.uk
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/utoya-attack-was-norway-killers-backup-plan-2329187.html [with comments]
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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