http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/07/terrorist-bomb-attack-in-oslo-norway.html

Collection of articles.

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/07/22/breaking-multiple-bombings-olso-n...

OSLO — Twin shooting and bomb attacks left at least 87 dead in western Europe's deadliest carnage since the 2004 Madrid bombings as a Norwegian gunman opened fire at a youth camp and a bomb tore through central Oslo.

The suspect was a 32-year-old Norwegian who posted anti-Muslim rhetoric online, police commissioner Sveinung Sponheim told the NRK television channel, but added: "It's too early to say if this was a motive behind the act."

Police voiced fears that the toll could rise as they searched for victims of the shootings at a summer school meeting organized by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's ruling Labour Party on Utoeya, an island outside the capital.

Security was meanwhile tightened across potential target sites in the capital, police said Saturday, but they lifted an advisory that had urged residents to stay home.

"We have confirmation that at least 80 people are dead. We do not exclude a higher toll," police spokesman Are Frykholm told AFP, speaking of the shooting spree at the island.

Police had earlier confirmed that seven people were killed as a powerful bomb ripped through central Oslo — where the prime minister's office and several government buildings are located — and nine were critically injured.

According to the TV2 channel, the arrested suspect has links to right-wing extremists and possessed two weapons registered in his name.

Prime Minister Stoltenberg said the culprits would not intimidate one of Europe's most peaceful countries.

"People have lived through a nightmare that very few of us can imagine," he said. "The coming days will show who is responsible and what kind of punishment they will get.

"The message to whoever attacked us, the message from all of Norway is that you will not destroy us, you will not destroy our democracy and our ideals for a better world."

Western leaders denounced the attacks and vowed solidarity with NATO member Norway — an enthusiastic participant in international military missions that has forces in Afghanistan and is participating in air strikes in Libya.

Stoltenberg had been due to give a speech on Saturday to the 560 people attending the youth camp on the island.

Witnesses described scenes of panic and horror after the gunman, who police said was disguised as a police officer but had never worked for the police force, opened fire on the youth gathering.

"I saw a lot of people running and screaming, I ran to the nearest building and hid under a bed," Emilie Bersaas, 19, told Britain's Sky News.

"It is kind of unreal, especially in Norway . . . This is something we hear about happening in the U.S.."

Another young survivor, Jorgen Benone, said: "People were hiding behind stones. I saw people being shot . . . I felt it was best to stay quiet, not to run into the open.

"I saw (the gunman) once just 20 to 30 metres away from me," Benone said, adding that he then swam to safety and was rescued by a boat.

Norwegian police said they feared there could also be explosives on the island.

Reports of the island shooting emerged shortly after a blast tore through the government quarter in central Oslo. Police said a "bomb" had been behind the "powerful explosion".

"There are good reasons to believe that there is a link between the events," police commissioner Sponheim told reporters in Oslo.

Mayor Fabian Stang said the capital was struggling to come to terms with the idea that it had joined the list of cities targeted by bombers.

"Today we think about those people living in New York and London who have experienced this kind of thing," he told Sky.

The prime minister's office and other buildings were heavily damaged, while pavements were covered in broken glass as smoke rose above the wreckage.

A police spokesman said a vehicle had been seen driving at high speed in the area just before the explosion, but did not confirm that the blast had been caused by a car bomb.

Police had sealed off the area and urged residents to stay in their homes.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the EU condemned the attacks and the NATO chief denounced them as "heinous".

U.S. President Barack Obama called the attacks "a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring."

The Norwegian capital is a well-known symbol of international peace efforts, home to the Nobel Peace Prize and the birthplace of the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords.

The attacks were the worst in western Europe since the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, which left 191 dead and nearly 2,000 injured.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Oslo+bomb+wrecks+govt+offices+dead/5143941/...

Police chief Sveinung Sponheim said his internet postings "suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views".

"But whether that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen," he told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

Mr Breivik appears to have created entries on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, though the accounts were set up just days ago on 17 July.

On the Facebook page attributed to him, he describes himself as a Christian and a conservative. The Facebook page is no longer available but it also listed interests such as bodybuilding and freemasonry.

A Twitter account attributed to the suspect has also emerged but it only has one post, which is a quote from philosopher John Stuart Mill: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests."

In a post in Norwegian in an online forum on December 2009, a user named Anders Behring Breivik claims there is not one country where Muslims have peacefully lived with non-Muslims, stating that instead it has had "catastrophic consequences" for non-Muslims.

Mr Breivik was a member of a Swedish neo-Nazi internet forum called Nordisk, according to Expo, a Swedish group monitoring far-right activity.
Fertiliser

The gunman was described by witnesses who saw him on Utoeya island as tall and blond - and dressed in a police uniform. The image of him posted on Facebook depicts a blond, blue-eyed man.

The Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang quoted a friend as saying that the suspect turned to right-wing extremism in his late 20s.

He had no military background except for ordinary national service and no criminal record, it seems.

Police say he is co-operating with them, answering questions.

On Saturday it was confirmed that Mr Breivik was previously a member of the right-wing Progress Party (FrP), the second largest party in Norway's parliament.

A statement on the FrP website said he became a member in 1999 and paid his last membership fee in 2004. He was deleted from the member registry in 2006.

He was a member of St Hanshaugen FrP, a local party chapter in a borough of Oslo, in 2001-2003.

He was also a member of the FrP youth wing from 1997 to 2006/2007. He deleted his membership in 2007.

Mr Breivik is believed to have grown up in Oslo, and studied at the Oslo School of Management, which offers degrees and postgraduate courses.

He later appears to have moved out of the city and established Breivik Geofarm, a company Norwegian media is describing as a farming sole proprietorship set up to cultivate vegetables, melons, roots and tubers.

A supply company has come forward to say that it delivered six tonnes of fertiliser to this company in May - an ingredient used in bomb-making.

The FrP statement said "those who knew the suspect when he was a member of the party say that he seemed like a modest person that seldom engaged himself in the political discussions".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14259989