Norway Attack Was Commited By A Christian Right-wing Extremist With Anti-Muslim Views

Man Charged in Norway Attacks - WSJ.com

"OSLO-Oslo police charged a Norwegian man on suspicion of the bombing and shooting attacks in Norway's capital and a nearby island Friday night that left at least 92 people dead and prompted the country's leaders to hold a crisis meeting to discuss the terror threat level, with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg calling it a "national tragedy."
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Agence France-Presse/Getty Images An undated image on Facebook shows the 32-year-old suspected attacker, whom local media identified as Anders Behring Breivik.







"Never since the Second World War has our country been hit by a crime on this scale," Mr. Stoltenberg told a news conference in Oslo. "It hurts especially that my youth paradise has been turned into a hell."
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• Scandinavian Countries Have Recent History of Attacks

Police said 85 people, many teenagers, were killed in the Friday afternoon shooting at a summer camp for the youth wing of the ruling Labor party, AUF, on the island of Utoya, where about 600 people were present at the time of the attack. The rampage followed a bombing that ripped through government offices in the Norwegian capital and killed at least seven people. Norway Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store estimated that there were dozens wounded in hospitals. The mass shooting was among the worst in history, and political leaders world-wide condemned the killings.
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Reuters Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg hugs Labor Youth Wing leader Eskil Pedersen (R) in Sunvold on July 23.Oslo police chief of staff Roger Andresen on Saturday said the death toll could rise further and that police continue to scour the waters outside the island for potential victims. He said police label the attacks acts of terrorism punishable by up to 21 years in prison according to Norwegian law.








A 32-year-old Oslo resident and Norwegian citizen was charged on suspicion of the twin attacks Friday. Media reports identified the man as blond-haired,

and blue-eyed Anders Behring Breivik. Police declined to name him, but confirmed the reports that the suspect's Facebook postings suggest he is a Christian right-wing extremist with anti-Muslim views who runs a farm. According to media reports, Mr. Behring Breivik has two weapons registered to his name.
In a threat assessment report in March, the Norwegian Police Security Service warned of increasing activity in right-wing extremist circles, but concluded that right-wing fringe groups or individuals wouldn't constitute a major threat against the Norwegian society.
The Oslo police's Mr. Andresen said that the suspect is willing to talk and that the initial interrogations suggest he "wants to explain himself."
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Associated Press Emergency workers attended the scene as a building burned after an explosion in Oslo, Norway, Friday.



Witnesses told Norwegian national public radio, NRK, that the suspect was dressed as a policeman and told the teenagers he wanted them to gather before opening fire. Many ran for the waters and tried to swim away from the shooter.
"He walked around the island, pretending to give information. When people came closer he shot them," Dana Barzingi, a young man attending the camp, told NRK. "People tried to hide among the trees and in the water."
Mr. Stoltenberg, the prime minister, after visiting the victims said one teenager swam some 500 meters across to the mainland with his wounded friend, calling the act "heroic."
Oslo police inspector Einar Aas told Norwegian daily VG that police are currently investigating the possibility of a second shooter on the island. According to media reports, witnesses said a man who wasn't wearing a police uniform also fired shots.
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European Pressphoto Agency Megan Will (right) from the U.S. and Santina Crolla (left) from Norway visit the Oslo cathedral to light candles to show respect to those killed at the July 22 shooting spree at Utoya island.







The 32-year old man on May 4 bought fertilizers in Hedmark in southeastern Norway from Felleskjopet Agri, a cooperative that provides agricultural equipment, company spokeswoman Oddny Estenstad said.
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\tNorway's capital was shaken Friday by a powerful explosion at the government headquarters that left at least seven dead and several injured, an incident that was followed by an attack at a youth camp outside the city. Charles Duxbury has the latest.


Felleskjopet Agri recognized the name of the 32-year old's company, Geofarm, Ms. Estenstad said, adding that it was the first time he had bought supplies from them.
Ms. Estenstad said her company has provided Norwegian police with information about the purchase. She wouldn't speculate on whether the 32-year-old may have used the fertilizers to construct the explosives used in Friday's attack.
The fertilizers were standard products commonly used by vegetable farmers, which can be sold without any restrictions, she said.
Downtown Oslo

Oslo police official Johan Fredriksen told Dow Jones Newswires that the 32-year-old man had more than one weapon on him when arrested by Oslo police special task forces. He declined to say when authorities received the first alarm from Utoya or how quickly they were able to apprehend the suspect. The Oslo explosion was reported at 3:30 p.m. local time, and police said it took about two hours before they could conclude that a bomb caused it.
The task force traveled by car and boat to Utoya, which is about a 30-minute car ride from Oslo and roughly 0.6 mile off the coast northwest of Oslo. It remains unclear how the suspect traveled to the island, but according to police, he was observed in the Oslo area earlier that day.
Youth camp leader Eskil Pedersen said that he was "in shock and sorrow" and that there was "no doubt" in his mind that AUF was the target of the attack on Utoya. Mr. Pedersen was evacuated from the island by boat shortly after police arrived.
He said AUF won't surrender its ideals and will return to Utoya in the future. "We meet terror and violence with more democracy and will continue to fight against intolerance," he said.
Norway Attacks

See the locations of an explosion in Oslo and an attack at a youth camp.
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Authorities declined to comment on the motive for the attack and said they continue to investigate whether the suspect acted alone or with others.
Prime Minister Stoltenberg, who personally knew several of the teenagers and families affected, didn't want to speculate on whether he or his party was targeted, but said it was an attack on the youth camp and political activism. Mr. Stoltenberg had been scheduled to visit the island Saturday.
Friday's events follow upon earlier attacks on Scandinavian Social Democratic politicians. Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in 2003 was stabbed to death in central Stockholm by a lone individual, Mijailo Mijailovic, who was later sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot dead by a still unidentified perpetrator.
The Scandinavian region has also recently suffered incidents of Islamic extremism. In December 2010, a suicide bomber blew himself up on a busy shopping street in the capital of neighboring Sweden, killing only himself. In September, an Iraqi Kurd, one of three men arrested in July in the Oslo area and in the German city of Duisburg, confessed to planning an attack, with the target believed to be Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper known for publishing controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. On Friday, Norway TV reported that a group called Helpers of the Global Jihad said, "This is just the beginning of what will come," though the TV station said it was unclear whether the group was taking responsibility.
Analysis firm Stratfor Global Intelligens said the wider implications for the rest of Europe will depend on who stands behind Friday's attack.
If the attack is the work of a disturbed individual acting alone, the events will have few long-ranging repercussions beyond a reworking of domestic security procedures in Norway, Stratfor said.
If a person or group with far-right or neo-Nazi leanings was behind the attack, the incident could lead to a temporary loss of popularity for the far right across Europe, though long-term repercussions are unlikely, it added.
Members of government are assembling Saturday to discuss emergency coordination as well as the threat level, which has so far been left unchanged.
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\tAt least two people are dead after a massive bomb shatters Norway's main government building in Oslo.


"The debate about the threat level is ongoing. When the threat level isn't changed, it doesn't mean that we haven't implemented security measures. The definition is not relevant for what sort of measures we are carry through," Norway's Justice Minister Knut Storberget said.
Despite the Oslo blast that blew out the windows of the high-rise where the prime minister and his administration work and damaged government offices such as the oil ministry, Mr. Stoltenberg said the functioning and the preparedness of the government hadn't been impaired.
Police said a car bomb may have been used in the blast along with other explosives, although details weren't confirmed.
Television images showed a body lying in a street of Oslo littered with broken glass and a charred upturned vehicle.
Military forces troll the deserted streets of Oslo to back up police and provide additional security to buildings and sensitive infrastructure. Most roads remain closed to and from the government quarters in Oslo, but police Saturday withdrew their recommendation that people stay indoors."