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Norway suspect sought anti-Muslim crusade
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
People react at the end of a service at Oslo Cathedral Sunday July 24, 2011, in the aftermath of the Friday terror attacks on Norway's government headquarters in Oslo and a youth retreat on Utoya island. Police said Sunday they are conducting an operation in a residential neighborhood of Oslo, and police spokesman Anders Fridenberg would give no other details about the action. Survivors of the massacre have said there were two assailants, and police have said they were looking into those accounts and had not ruled out a second suspect. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Associated Press
OSLO, Norway
The man blamed for the terrorist attacks on Norway’s government headquarters and an island retreat for young people that left at least 93 dead was motivated by a desire to bring about a revolution in Norwegian society, his lawyer said Sunday.
A manifesto he published online — which police are poring over and said was posted the day of the attack — ranted against Muslim immigration to Europe and vowed revenge on “indigenous Europeans,” whom he accused of betraying their heritage. It said that they would be punished for their “treasonous acts.”
The lawyer for the 32-year-old Norwegian suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, said Sunday that his client wrote the document alone. While police said they were investigating reports of a second assailant on the island, the lawyer said Breivik claims also claims no one helped him.
The treatise detailed plans to acquire firearms and explosives, and even appeared to describe a test explosion: “BOOM! The detonation was successful!!!” It ends with a note dated 12:51 p.m. on July 22: “I believe this will be my last entry.”
That day, a bomb killed seven people in downtown Oslo and, hours later, a gunman opened fire on dozens of young people at a retreat on Utoya island. Police said Sunday that the death toll in the shooting rose to 86.
That brings the number of fatalities to 93, with more than 90 wounded. There are still people missing at both scenes. Police have not released the names of any of the victims.
Police said Sunday that a police officer had been hired to provide security on the island on his own time. It was not clear who hired him or if he was on the island at the time of the attacks.
Dr. Colin Poole, head of surgery at Ringriket Hospital in Honefoss northwest of Oslo, told The Associated Press the gunman used special bullets designed to disintegrate inside the body and cause maximum internal damage. Poole said surgeons treating 16 gunshot victims have recovered no full bullets.
“These bullets more or less exploded inside the body,” Poole said. “It’s caused us all kinds of extra problems in dealing with the wounds they cause.”
Ballistics experts say the so-called dum-dum bullets also are lighter in weight and can be fired with greater accuracy over varying distances.
Six hearses pulled up at the shore of the lake surrounding the island on Sunday, as rescuers on boats continued to search for bodies in the water. Body parts remain inside the Oslo building, which housed the prime minister’s office. In a chilling allusion to the fact that the tragedy could have even been greater, police said Sunday that Breivik still had “a considerable amount” of ammunition for both his guns — a pistol and an automatic weapon — when he surrendered.
Police and his lawyer have said that Breivik confessed the twin attacks, but denied criminal responsibility for a day that shook peaceful Norway to its core and was the deadliest ever in peacetime. Breivik has been charged with terrorism and will be arraigned today.