July 23, 2011

Police: Oslo bomb, camp shootings domestic terror

A home-grown terrorist set off an explosion that ripped open buildings in the heart of Norway's government Friday, then went to a summer camp dressed as a police officer and gunned down youths as they ran and even swam for their lives, police said Friday.

The attacks killed at least 16 people in this peaceful nation's worst violence since World War II.

A police official said the 32-year-old ethnic Norwegian suspect arrested at the camp on Utoya island appears to have acted alone in both attacks, and that "it seems like that this is not linked to any international terrorist organizations at all." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because that information had not been officially released by Norway's police.

"It seems it's not Islamic-terror related," the official said. "This seems like a madman's work."

The official said the attack "is probably more Norway's Oklahoma City than it is Norway's World Trade Center." Domestic terrorists carried out the 1995 attack on a federal building in Oklahoma City, while foreign terrorists were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The official added, however, "it's still just hours since the incident happened. And the investigation is going on with all available resources."

At the youth camp, where the prime minister had been scheduled to speak Saturday, a 15-year-old camper named Elise said she heard gunshots, but then saw a police officer and thought she was safe. Then he started shooting people right before her eyes.

"I saw many dead people," said Elise, whose father, Vidar Myhre, didn't want her to disclose her last name. "He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water."

Elise said she hid behind the same rock that the killer was standing on. "I could hear his breathing from the top of the rock," she said.

She said it was impossible to say how many minutes passed while she was waiting for him to stop.

The shootings occurred after the bombing in Oslo, Norway's capital and the city where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. The police official who spoke on condition of anonymity said there was at least one unexploded device at the youth camp, and that a police bomb disposal team was working on disarming it with support from military experts.

The Oslo blast left a square covered in twisted metal, shattered glass and documents expelled from surrounding buildings in a dust-fogged scene that reminded one visitor from New York of Sept. 11.

Ian Dutton, who was in a nearby hotel, said people "just covered in rubble" were walking through "a fog of debris."

"It wasn't any sort of a panic," he said, "It was really just people in disbelief and shock, especially in a such as safe and open country as Norway. You don't even think something like that is possible."

Police said seven people died in the Oslo blast, and another 9 or 10 people were killed at the camp, which was organized by the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party. Rescuers were to search to blast wreckage through the night for more victims, and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said police fear there could be more victims at the camp as well.

Elise, the young camper, said she believes she saw more than 10 people killed.

Acting national Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim said a man was arrested in the shooting, and the suspect had been observed in Oslo before the explosion there. Police did not immediately say how much time elapsed between the bombing and the attack at Utoya, about 20 miles (35 kilometers) northwest, but reports of the shooting began appearing on Twitter about two and a half hours after the bombing.

Sponheim said the camp shooter "wore a sweater with a police sign on it. I can confirm that he wasn't a police employee and never has been."

Aerial images broadcast by Norway's TV2 showed members of a SWAT team dressed in black arriving at the island in boats and running up the dock. Behind them, people who stripped down to their underwear swam away from the island toward shore, some using flotation devices.

Sponheim said police were still trying to get an overview of the camp shooting and could not say whether there was more than one shooter. He said several people were injured but he could not comment on their conditions.

In Oslo, most of the windows in the 20-floor high-rise where Stoltenberg and his administration work were shattered. Other buildings damaged house government offices and the headquarters of some of Norway's leading newspapers.

Oslo University Hospital said 12 people were admitted for treatment following the Utoya shooting, and 11 people were taken there from the explosion in Oslo. The hospital asked people to donate blood.

Stoltenberg, who was home when the blast occurred and was not harmed, visited injured people at the hospital late Friday. Earlier he decried what he called "a cowardly attack on young innocent civilians."

"I have message to those who attacked us," he said. "It's a message from all of Norway: You will not destroy our democracy and our commitment to a better world."

Sponheim would not give any details about the identity or nationality of the suspect, who was being interrogated by police.

Stoltenberg said "we don't want to speculate" on whether a terror group is responsible, and said some groups may take responsibility "to appear to be more important than they are."

The attacks formed the deadliest day of terror in Western Europe since the 2005 London bombings, which killed 52 people.

Police said the Oslo explosion occurred at 3:30 p.m. (1330 GMT) and was caused by "one or more" bombs.

Public broadcaster NRK showed video of a blackened car lying on its side amid the debris. An AP reporter who was in the office of Norwegian news agency NTB said the building shook from the blast and all employees were evacuated. Down in the street, he saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.

An AP reporter headed to Utoya was turned away by police before reaching the lake that surrounds the island, as eight ambulances with sirens blaring entered the area. Police blocked off roads leading to the lake.

Emilie Bersaas, identified by Sky News television as one of the youths on the island, said she ran inside a school building and hid under a bed when the shooting started.

"At one point the shooting was very, very close (to) the building, I think actually it actually hit the building one time, and the people in the next room screamed very loud," she said.

"I laid under the bed for two hours and then the police smashed a window and came in," Bersaas said. "It seems kind of unreal, especially in Norway. This is not something that could happen here."

One of the youths at the camp, Niclas Tokerud, stayed in touch with his sister through the attack through text messages.

"He sent me a text saying 'there's been gunshots. I am scared (expletive). But I am hiding and safe. I love you,'" said Nadia Tokerud, a 25-year-old graphic designer in Hokksund, Norway.

As he boarded a boat from the island after the danger had passed he sent one more text: "I'm safe."

The United States, European Union, NATO and the U.K., all quickly condemned the bombing, which Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague called "horrific" and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen deemed a "heinous act."

"It's a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring," President Barack Obama said.

Obama extended his condolences to Norway's people and offered U.S. assistance with the investigation. He said he remembered how warmly Norwegians treated him in Oslo when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

Nobel Peace Prize Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said it appeared the camp attack "was intended to hurt young citizens who actively engage in our democratic and political society. But we must not be intimidated. We need to work for freedom and democracy every day."

Norway has been grappling with a homegrown terror plot linked to al-Qaida. Two suspects are in jail awaiting charges.

Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported from the Scandinavian country. The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar — the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam — made to various news media, including American network NBC.

Terrorism has also been a concern in neighboring Denmark since an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad six years ago. Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons that triggered protests in Muslim countries. Last month, a Danish appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Somali man to 10 years in prison for breaking into the home of the cartoonist.

Many intelligence analysts said they had never heard of Helpers of Global Jihad, which took initial credit. Ansar al-Islam also took credit on some jihadist web sites.

The Guardian

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

Remember the Oklahoma bombing and how that was blamed on Muslims in the immediate aftermath?

Anonymous said...

Suspect tied to "right-wing extremist groups"

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/suspect-in-horrific-norwegian-attacks-tied-to-right-wing-extremist-groups/

Anonymous said...

Maybe we should demand that the EDL and BNP issue a statement denouncing rightwing extremism. After all if they want to live in our law abiding society they should live by our rules.

And if they don't like it they can build a time machine and fuck off back to Nazi Germany.

Anonymous said...

You would think the deranged right would have found a little humility this morning. Apparently not. @wearethebrits on Twitter, as divorced from reality as always, is blaming the LEFT for the actions of a RIGHT wing lunatic.

Anonymous said...

As soon as it became clear mass murderer in Oslo was not Muslim media instantly stopped using terrorist and instead used madman.

Sun splash blames Al Qaeda for Oslo atrocity. Can this month get any worse for News International?

And here's a massive irony.. the Daily Mail blames the suspect's muslim hate views for him doing what he did.

Anonymous said...

Interesting post on this rightwing blog - claiming that Anders Breivik was in contact with the EDL.

http://tinyurl.com/3ekqegs

NewsHound said...

BREAKING NEWS: BEHRING WANTED TO SET UP NORWEGIAN EDL: -

http://hurryupharry.org/2011/07/23/anders-behring-breivi-worried-that-muslims-were-threatening-norways-youth-wanted-to-establish-norwegian-edl/

NewsHound said...

NORWEGIAN NEO-NAZI TERROR SUSPECT LOOKED TO THE EXAMPLE OF THE EDL: -

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=25501

Anonymous said...

As a snapshot of the kind of Islamophobic hysteria that's been whipped-up in Norway recently, on 1 June 2011 the BNP website published an article based on a Norwegian Police report saying "All Rapes in Oslo Committed by Immigrants", the article links to a You Tube video of a Norwegian TV news clip that appears to support this claim, although, on investigation, the real Norwegian police report said exactly the OPPOSITE of what these reports claimed it had....

www.indymedia.co.uk/en /2011/06/480503.html

jon said...

Rupert Murdoc blames Al Quaida for the attack: -

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/The-Papers---National-Newspaper-Front-Pages-On-Saturday-July-23-2011/Media-Gallery/201107416035837?lpos=UK_News_Left_Promo_Region_0&lid=GALLERY_16035837_The_Papers_-_National_Newspaper_Front_Pages_On_Saturday%2C_July_23%2C_2011

See for yourselves, and screencapture the moment when the Sun, Murdoch's remaining tabloid dustbin, blamed Muslims for the attack carried out actually by an EDL sympathiser and neo-nazi gun-toting, Muslim-hating fanatic.

Rupert Murdoch isn't just a sleazy, dirt-digging scumbag. He's a racist cunt also, and he was well and truly jumped the "Muslamic Ray Gun" here!!!!!!!!!

I hope MPs raise this Sun headline in parliament, and the sun now disappears like the News Of The World.

Anonymous said...

If there is an EDL link, pictures of the norwegian neonazi need to be on public display everywhere the fascists march, including Tower Hamlets, if the EDL are not quickly banned.

Insider said...

Suspect tied to "right-wing extremist groups"

He was in regular contact with Tommy Robinson, who was giving him advice on setting up a Norewgan EDL.

NewsHound said...

NORWEGIAN SPREE KILLER HAS EDL LINKS: -

http://libcom.org/blog/norwegian-spree-killer-had-edl-links-23072011

Anonymous said...

Behring helped the EDL get their video on Norwegian TV this January: -

http://theenglishdefenceleagueextra.blogspot.com/2011/01/edl-on-norwegian-tv-video.html

Anonymous said...

Anyone notice stormfront is down? Apparently this guy had an account there.

gtm

Anonymous said...

This is link is dead :

www.indymedia.co.uk/en /2011/06/480503.html

John P said...

The correct link is http://www.indymedia.co.uk/en/2011/06/480503.html

Anonymous said...

Cheers John P

Anonymous said...

If this right-wing Christian terrorist was in contact with Robinson - the authorities here should arrest Robinson for questioning and find out exactly what Robinson 'advised' him.

Anonymous said...

In fairness to the Sun, the edition they had out by 10:24 am when I was in a shop had removed all reference to AQ from its front page.

jennie said...

F-List racist "celebrity" football thug Jeff Marsh who wrote a book glorifying how he loved attacking Black Londoners with street furniture, has been poo-pooing proven Facebook links between the neo-nazi mass murderer and the EDL on his fascist Casuals United and EDL Extra blogs, even though the evidence is out there on the net for all to see.

When you have swastika-tatooed friends with the Cardiff WDL, and mods like Luke Pippen as your bestest mates, everything points to Jeff Marsh being as hardcore neo-Nazi as they come!

John P said...

I've uploaded The Suns front page from earlier today http://www.imagebam.com/image/3dc233141818561

NewsHound said...

ANDERS BEHRING VERSUS THE ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE: -

http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=26153

Anonymous said...

Yes indeed! Jeff Marsh is a neo-nazi scumbag through and through despite his denials.

Cardiff Soul Crew? WTF? Should have been Cardiff W.A.S.P Crew!!

Anonymous said...

Jeff Marsh is a cowardly fash wanker who hides behind his keyboard.

You don't see him at EDL marches any more.

Anonymous said...

The killings were carefully co-ordinated political acts of murder, the victims, young Socialists.

Anonymous said...

"In fairness to the Sun, the edition they had out by 10:24 am when I was in a shop had removed all reference to AQ from its front page."

Well that's alright then. After all it's okay to blame muslims for a bit of mass murder they didn't do if you only do it once. Idiot.

Anonymous said...

In West Yorkshire, the openly racist 9/11 edition of the Sun is still on sale in news standss.

I saw it at a newsagents five minutes ago.

NewsHound said...

LATEST NEWS: NEO-NAZI EDL THUGS SMASH WINDOWS AND SPRAY PAINT RACIST ABUSE AND SWASTIKA ON A LUTON MOSQUE: -

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=25503

PLEASE REPOST!

Anonymous said...

Let's hope some good comes out of this tragic event.

People like Geert Wilders (PVV), EDL/Robinson, BNP/Griffin, P. Geller and other facist right wingers should share the blame for creating this Norwegian monster. All the vile and hateful anti-muslim rhetoric no doubt has contributed to this man's brain being washed into eventually acting the way he has done. That US politician that got shot by a similar nut job was influenced by the rhetoric of the T-Party and that bozo Palin (ala Cross Hairs diatribe). It shows how words of hate can put any mad man over the edge.

RIP the Norwegians that lost their lives.. and sincere condolences to their families and all Norwegians. Largest number of lives lost in that country since WW2.

Anonymous said...

The Norwegian Nazi wrote on his Facebook he could read and write.

Well that makes a change from the usual illiterate goose-stepping, paper hanging cunts!

Anonymous said...

"That US politician that got shot by a similar nut job was influenced by the rhetoric of the T-Party and that bozo Palin.."

I think you mean the person who did the shooting was influenced by the Tea Party, not that the politician, congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was influenecd by them.

At the moment the latest death count I've heard is 92. The last time the Sun did a front page headline about a similar tragedy and got those responsible completely wrong, the death toll was 96. To paraphrase Marx, the Sun is a farce.

Anonymous said...

@ 4:46 PM, July 23, 2011

Yeh, that's what I meant. Thanks for the correction.

John P said...

Some interesting background info here.
http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2011/4/14/norwegian-defence-leagues-anti-islam-demonstration-flops.html

Anonymous said...

There's a claim on TellYouGov - and I stress, this is NOT yet corroborated - that there has been an attack on a mosque in Luton. Couldn't find any other details such as exactly when it's alleged to have happened but worth investigating?

John P said...

Anonymous said...

There's a claim on TellYouGov - and I stress, this is NOT yet corroborated - that there has been an attack on a mosque in Luton. Couldn't find any other details such as exactly when it's alleged to have happened but worth investigating?

5:13 PM, July 23, 2011

There has but I'm not clear if it happened last night or the night before. I'm waiting for clarification before I post a story.

Anonymous said...

John P :

“We locked up the mosque at 11.30pm on Thursday night, everything was fine. When I returned at 4am for morning prayers I found the windows smashed. The words ‘EDL’ were painted on both sides of the mosque and a symbol [swastika] was also painted on one wall.”

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=25503

La Di Da Gunner Graham said...

"He(Breivik)was also a member of a Swedish neo-Nazi Internet forum named Nordisk.":

Norway suspect "fundamentalist Christian":
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/norway-suspect-fundamentalist-christian-20110724-1huqg.htm

John P said...

NewsHound said...

LATEST NEWS: NEO-NAZI EDL THUGS SMASH WINDOWS AND SPRAY PAINT RACIST ABUSE AND SWASTIKA ON A LUTON MOSQUE: -

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=25503

PLEASE REPOST!


“We locked up the mosque at 11.30pm on Thursday night, everything was fine. When I returned at 4am for morning prayers I found the windows smashed. The words ‘EDL’ were painted on both sides of the mosque and a symbol [swastika] was also painted on one wall.”

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=25503

Thanks, I will add the links to the article.

Anonymous said...

EDL's Darren Lee was speaker at recent Norwegian Defence League rally:

https://twitter.com/#!/lynseybarber