Oslo terror suspect: Anders Behring Breivik, 32, links to right-wing extremism

The suspect arrested in today's bombing and shooting attacks in Oslo is 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik, who is believed to have links to right-wing extremist and anti-immigrant (read: anti-Muslim) organizations. (source: Sky News). And now, he has a Wikipedia page. The Daily Mail has photos.

Here's what Norwegian media are reporting as his Facebook page, and Twitter account. Looks like they were both just activated within the past week, which is all very suspicious.

Aftenposten notes that he is said to be a conservative Christian and a Mason, and into hunting and bodybuilding. He owned a farming company that had access to chemicals believed to have been used for bomb-making.

According to comments attributed to him on various Norwegian right-wing/anti-immigrant forums, he was a fan of an array of white supremacist and anti-Muslim pundits—including some from the US. Assuming it's legit, all of this makes early reports that Muslims were responsible for the attacks all the more regrettable.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Anonymous

EDL forum forum slowly realises what’s up in Norway.

http://englishdefenceleague.org/forum/showthread.php?7864-*Breaking*-Explosion-Rocks-Oslo-Centre
Mister44

You know, the initial knee jerk reaction this was perpetrated by Islamic terrorists is an understandable one.

1) Various Islamic extremest groups have made threats against the west.

2) Both the US and Europe have experienced attacks performed by Islamic terrorists in the past 10 years – and many more that were foiled while still in the planning stages.

Of course they are not unique in their ability to commit heinous crimes, but they are more vocal as a group than the lone nut jobs such as this guy and Jared Loughner.
Lobster

“Regrettable” is a very nice word for it.
Anonymous

I read his FB page while it was still up. He liked Winston Churchill, didn’t like Nazi’s, and was into “Worlds of Warcraft” and another shoot-em-up game. I’m speculating that his biz wasn’t doing well, and he felt the gov responsible. Just a wild guess.
petitveritas

His Facebook page has been taken down. Here is a PDF archive of the page: http://www.solidprinciples.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Anders-Behring-Breivik-FACEBOOK.pdf
Avram / Moderator

“But he’s an anti-Muslim!”
“I don’t care what kind of Muslim he is….”
lava

so let me get this straight. Right wing social conservatives look just as likely to be terrorists as any other ethnic profile?

I hope the TSA is adding all their names to the DNF list.
Joseph Hertzlinger

According to Richard Pape, terrorist actions are frequently in response to a perceived occupation by foreigners. This fits the pattern, although it was someone from a different ignorant army this time.
gwailo_joe

Unfortunately, we live in a world when if anything should blow up, the first thought of the majority of people will be “It’s. . .The Muslims!”

It’s sad and it’s stupid. On the other hand, if the incident of terrorism is domestic: you don’t want to be the fat wanna-be cop white guy who lives with his Mom: remember the Atlanta Olympics?

Richard Jewell was innocent, and hounded to his grave. Now: THIS crazy Nordic fuck, he really went all out. 80 people he shot? Eighty?!? That’s…I almost want to say impressive: it’s not of course: it’s goddamn horrible and tragic. But eighty people means he had tons of bullets, was a crack shot and most importantly. . .had all the time in the world. Eighty…

But. . .that’s so many. From the point of view of firearm advocates I’d have to think that, well, if the camp counselors had some locked Glocks in the headmasters cabin, somebody could have shot that fool.

Yet, guns and children: not a good mix. Sigh. Was it Gandhi that said ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’? Seems this world gets a little less 20/20 every passing year…

Most people are good and most crazy people are not killers: but there will always be murderous madmen. Let’s be careful out there…
utharda

I’m still in a fair amount of shock. Glad the family is ok, weirded out at being in the us at a time like this. As some others have mentioned, its really disturbing to see this playing out through an american media/political lens. I’ve hear more insane gun law comments from Texans who think Norway has restrictive gun laws. I’m still hearing well meaning Americans telling me that the problem is letting Muslims immigrate. Mostly I’m just tired, and sad, and watching my faith in god and man fray.

/sigh

This world isn’t at all like the travel brochure said. ;)
- CognitiveDissident
  
  I guess that you’re from Norway, my condolences for the tragic events in your country.
  On a much more minor note, my apologies for your awful experiences with the American Brain-Wash.., I mean American Corporate News Media. Some of us Americans roll our eyes daily as they attempt to feed us drivel.
  
  (start sarcasm)
  Did you know that us Americans are amazingly exceptional? We are the best….AT EVERYTHING! Yes, God Himself said so! We’re especially the best at thinkin’ things! Yes, we are SO smart, it will be a cold day in July before they can pull the wool over OUR eyes! The Talking Head in the TV taught me that the other day, and he was wearing a American flag on his lapel so I know that he wouldn’t lie.
  (end sarcasm)
  
  I hope that cheered you up.
Stefan Jones

Have the Fox News talking heads blamed the massacre on gun control yet?
- Joseph Hertzlinger
  
  Rand Simberg blamed gun control.
- http://robhoey127.blogspot.com Flopwood Turley
  
  Fox? I would sooner think MSNBC and Chris Oddball Matthews would have jumped on that bandwagon. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear him say that if Breivik were an American rather than a Norweigan, he would be a Republican. Truth is, if he somehow got off, he would be working with CNN to take Spitzer’s spot.
deckard68

That’s how irony works. He became like his enemy.
Anonymous

He might not be a nazi, as Norwegian nationalists often are not, as the Nazis did attack the nation. But he seems to be a far-right, muslim hater who probably thought the Labour party (mainstream, moderate center-left party that gets around 30 % in elections and is credited with rebuilding the nation post WW2) was “ruining Norway with socialism and letting the muslims take over”, as their moronic credo goes.

He seems to have been a fan of the FrP party (second largest, right wing populist, politically circa on par with republicans, likes to get votes by scaremongering with muslims and blacks). Also, he was a Christian.

I’m a Norwegian on vacation in the US. I watched news here and was appalled about the kneejerk talk of muslim terrorism. Two hours (!) after it seemed very unlikely to be muslim terrorism (the guy was arrested and was ethnic Norwegian, targeting UtÃ¸ya strongly indicated a right-winger, and there was no hint of Islam) CNN, FOX et al banged on like they knew it was jihad. They didn’t even seem to have anybody keeping up on Norwegian news, and often reported very old or discredited facts, while the local press was on the ball. All they would need was a Norwegian/English speaker (which is almost every Norwegian), but they kept speculating instead.

Yeah, somebody on some jihadist internet forum took credit, but somebody always does that, and nobody had ever heard of the group. It is of course worth mentioning, but instead it was the only show in town, and we heard repeatedly about cartoons/Afghanistan/Libya and Oslo’s 150.000 strong muslim community, people who were victims of todays attack, and had absolutely nothing to to with it. Pathetic “journalism”.
- Anonymous
  
  Well put. I am a Swedish American and agree with your comments on the US news.
Anonymous

Was he mad or bad, i.e is he responsible for his actions? It hard to believe anyone could shoot kids in cold blood like that – truely terrible
afs97209

This massacre is the end result of all the Murdoch Publishing and Fox News broadcasting hate 24/7/365.

All that hate needs an outlet.
Nick D.

In every picture, he looks like he’s made of plastic. Am I the only one who sees that? Total uncanny valley…
- Jack
  
  I actually have to agree with this. It almost looks like the two sides of his face were Photoshopped from one side and then further enhanced? Something creepy here.
Anonymous

Condolences to the Norwegian people! I was just wondering why was the Police and/or Special forces reaction to this situation at the Labour Party camp soo slow? This might sound bad but he did happen to murder over 80 people there. So if you think about it he must of went through at least 3 clips of Ammo (considering it was a automatic with 30 bullet clips). Plus he had to chase his victims down as they were fleeing to swim out of the island. In all he had to spend a lot of time to do this, in which Police or special forces definately had the time to eliminate this bastard.
- Jack
  
  â€¦in which Police or special forces definately had the time to eliminate this bastard.
  
  Yes, this is 100% true in a movie or TV show. Real life is not clear cut. Real life is messy.
- emmdeeaych
  
  Chilling coverage on the BBC world service. Some firsthand accounts. You might check them out before telling us what must have happened.
- PugC
  
  The bomb went of at about 15:30 local time. The shooting started at about 17:00 local time at a small island in a lake aprox. 35-40 minutes drive from the bomb. Lots of police were called in to help secrure downtown Oslo, and were rerouted out to the lake, where they had to get boats and stuff to get to the island. The reason the shooter had time, was because he planned it well.
  
  Let us not play the blame game on the police. They did everything they could to limit the fallout and i am pretty impressed by their handling of an unprecendeted attack.
  - turn_self_off
    
    thanks, i was going to post much the same thing.
Anonymous

I must say that it has been a privilege to read so many informative comments. I have learned much more associated material from these posts than any news outlet. Good work, guys, and thanks.
emmdeeaych

The murder of 80 individuals in a nation of 4.5 million would be roughly equivalent to the death of 6,000+ individuals from a nation of 350 million. In terms of shock value.
- trondmm
  
  To put it further into context. In Norway, In the last few years, there has been about 30 people murdered each year. So just on the massacre on the Utøya island, he probably murdered more people within an hour, than all other murderers put together for the last three years.
- http://robhoey127.blogspot.com Flopwood Turley
  
  interesting math, but I don’t think it’s about math–it’s about mental illness and soon it’s going to be about blame–you know the left will blame the right, and also blame the bloggers like Robert Spencer, as if he advocates this crazy behaviour.
Magnus Redin

9:49, regarding it taking time to get to the murderer on the iceland. I would guess that every police officer were on his way to central Oslo to handle the aftermath of the massive bombing and the shooting were on an iceland and that makes it harder to get there quickly.
- Jack
  
  You mean â€œislandâ€ and not â€œ icelandâ€ correct?
misho

Has anyone read the Faux News article? It’s amazing, really amazing how desperately they’re trying to link the terror attacks to Islamists. I quote from the bottom of the article, concerning the bombing:

“Norway has been grappling with a homegrown terror plot linked to Al Qaeda. 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 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.”
Magnus Redin

Sorry for the spelling mistake.

The best thing I did during this flood of news and rumours were to take a four hour break in following it when it peaked and it were clear that it was horrible. Now is there a press conference in about 10 minutes and I realy hope that the number of murdered people wont increase again.
dmonbot

*** Breaking News! ***

Egg shortage around the world due to so much of it covering people’s faces….
Anonymous

“And now, he has a Wikipedia page. ”

This reminds me of the ancient Athenian asshole who destroyed one of the world wonders. The citizens agreed to never mention or write his name to force him out of history as reprisal, but his name is still known.

Assholes should not get an instant wikipedia page.
- hameed
  
  It was Temple of Artemis and the man who destroyed it was Herostratus.
Patient

I debated posting this, but this is rumored to be a post by him on the Official World of Warcraft forums, which he has cited as an interest on his Facebook page.
Anonymous

The best thing I’ve read on this so far: http://www.oysteinrunde.no/#post18
Patient

His facebook page.

Chilling.
- flipa
  
  These guys “favourite books” lists are always copied from high school reading lists (see also: Jared Lee Loughner.) Attention, would-be Ã¼bermensch murderers everywhere: namedropping Plato and Tolstoy on FB does not make you appear superior to other humans.
Anonymous

vocal trance! chilling indeed..
Fnarf

Bruce Bawer is going to be quite peeved.
Bergjylt

Food for thought; this guy’s ideology is basically the norwegian version of the Tea Party. Do not turn your back on those clowns.
- Mister44
  
  Oh – give me a break. Way to take a tragedy and then extrapolate it into US political punditry. He has as much in common with the tea party as Jared Loughner has in common with the US left wing.
  - Bergjylt
    
    No idea who you’re talking about; not that familiar with US politics.
    
    I’m norwegian, and like most politically aware norwegians who spend some of their online time on political discourse, I have become aware of a new brand of xenophobia. As this position or loose collection of positions do not have any parallels or precedents in the norwegian public discourse, but do have very strong similarities with the US discourse, it seems natural to assume that they have been introduced, accidentally or deliberately, by contact between conservative, liberalist or extreme-right groups in the two countries.
    
    This new norwegian nationalist rhetoric clearly draws on that of the Bush era, of Palin and friends, and on the worst of the US pundits. The claims made by these individuals, groups, bloggers, foundations and think-tanks, from which the shooter drew his justification, match those found in the US political debate. The ideological complexes characterized by terms such as “clash of civilizations”, “end of history” and “war on terrorism” have given rise to a new kind of dangerous nutcase, by providing justifications for xenophobia and political extremism which are not yet sufficiently tainted by history to bring down the shunning that nazism and racism used to. That seemed to warrant a warning.
    - Mister44
      
      So you admit you don’t know a lot about US politics, but that doesn’t stop you from comparing this guy to the tea party. 0_o
      
      FYI Jared Loughner was the nut job who shot a US Senator and a bunch of bystanders early this year. He was very liberal in his politics, but I wouldn’t accuse any other liberal of having the capacity or similar intentions.
      
      Conversely, I wouldn’t accuse your run of the mill ‘conservatives’ as being likely to repeat a crime like what just occurred. By most measures, the tea party isn’t even that extreme. These sorts of things are done by fringe groups, and in most cases, by nut jobs who take things too far. Most people are grounded in reality, and even if they have extreme views, they rarely act on them. Xenophobia or anti-immigration has been a topic that has been around for a long time – both here and in Europe.
      - Navin_Johnson
        
        He was very liberal in his politics
        
        lol. No he wasn’t. His politics were completely incoherent. If anything his comments and delusions were “anti-government”
    - ultranaut
      
      America exports a terrorist ideology.
      - Mister44
        
        Puhleeze. Europe has had a long and healthy tradition of xenophobia and nationalism. It wasn’t until recently that they couldn’t go 10 years with out killing one another.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        They’re not quite out of the woods yet. Or have you not been reading the news from Northern Ireland?
poleo

Wrote this to some friends of mine earlier;

This thing is incredible. You have no idea what is going on. The international media is reporting just as if we knew that it’s some sort of Al Qaeda, simultaneously as the Norwegian press is basically discovering that it’s a single Norwegian guy, 32-years old, maybe neonazi, possible that he has some friends, but no way an international terrorist or terrorist at all.

At the same time a friend of mine posted an incredibly interesting article from Aftenposten, dated 2001, about a 23-year old neonazi that was caught with, hold on tight, guns, explosives, AND POLICE UNIFORMS. He was 23 in 2001 by the way, doing some sums considering the current year to be 2011??? Well, I am not saying that it was him, but this is absolutely incredible, he blew up the centre of Oslo, got in his car, drove to the summer camp of a pretty mainstream political party and shot up their youth. A jihadist wouldn’t have done that?! Shoot children, executing them?

Interesting to see the connection to Timothy McVeigh as well, if you remember him, that killed nearly 200 people in Oklahoma with a car bomb. He was American, a right wing extremist, and the book he was caught with at the time apparently contains scenes of car bombs and inciting of racial war, concetrating ON ATTACKING POLITICIANS AND THE POLITICAL ELITE.

They’re searching his flat now, the 32-year old NORWEGIAN, and they’re gonna find out something interesting soon I BET!!! Here is the theory, from the police, that one guy did it, they just showed a picture from his Facebook now, of course smudged, that shows an undeniable skinhead, and that he first blew up the bomb, then got in his car and went to shoot the youngsters.

At the youth camp he was met by a “guard” of the ferry that takes people to the island. The “guard”, really just any of the kids, organizing the ferry trip, didn’t think it was strange that a policeman wearing a not standard police uniform, arrived in a gray van, was carrying a handgun and a rifle with a scope, wanted to go for a “routine check” on some summer camp. I don’t know if I would have picked up on it, but I do hope I have a slightly more finely tuned bullshit sensor than that guy.

Anyway, everyone outside Norway is talking, EXPECIALLY, yes that’s with an x, the US, just as if it’s a group, some sort of terror cell, when in reality they don’t realize that politicians walk around in the streets in Norway and can be approached pretty much any day and killing them is actually not hard at all if you really wanna. Just that people don’t really wanna generally. This is also proven by occasional politician killings in both Sweden and Denmark, without that leading to any considerable changing in their habits.

I’m going to send this text to any international fucking three letter acronym that wants it or post it somewhere.
- Anonymous
  
  Just to pick up on the point mentioned about the security guard being naive, there was a bomb set off 20 miles away from the island just a couple of hours before… if thats not a legitimate reason for someone to trust a police officer with a rifle I don’t know what is.
- Anonymous
  
  Could you please direct me to that Aftenposten article :)?
- anharmyenone
  
  Thank you for your report from inside Norway, Poleo. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Anonymous

His friends list is strangely empty, hmm.

On a related note – who wants to click on the “Add as a friend” button and time how long until the authorities show up on^W^W^W kick down his door?
- Anonymous
  
  Just sent a friend request on facebook. Doubt I’ll get a reply.
Heavy Metal Yogi

I thought that it would be a right wing extremist from the first report. There is so much of a neo nazi uprising in Scandinavia and other parts of Western Europe right now.
Anonymous

There’s a backup of the Facebook page here: http://irc-urls.net/anders_behring_breivik-facebook/
Pink Tutu

According to Norwegian media, Breivik labelled himself a Nationalist, and expressed hatred for WW2 Nazism (and Marxism, social democrats, Muslims and sorta most of other people too).

Norwegian tabloid VG is now reporting that a possible second shooter may still be on the loose.
cmr

One thing Poleo forgot to mention, which might make the shooterâ€™s entry to UtÃ¸ya more probable, is that the ones responsible for the ferry were aware that the bombings had taken place in Oslo – he couldâ€™ve used an excuse like â€˜it is a routine procedure that a policman is sent to UtÃ¸ya and other big gatherings in the event of a terrorist attackâ€™ or something along those lines.
Jack

The guy is a creep, but since there is no place to say it but the Flash ads for â€œAnother Earthâ€ are crashing my browser everytime I visit the site.
Anonymous

Breivik’s postings on the Internet translated through Google: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=no&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.document.no%2Fanders-behring-breivik%2F&act=url
capl

For those who want more data… 2010 European Terror Report.
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/TE-SAT%202010.pdf

There are numerous sections related to Islamic terrorism, I found this part informative.

“Islamist terrorism is still perceived as the biggest threat to most Member States, despite the fact that only one Islamist terrorist attack – a bomb attack in Italy – took place in the EU in 2009. Islamist terrorists have threatened EU Member States with perpetrating attacks aiming at indiscriminate mass casualties. The number of arrests relating to Islamist terrorism (110) decreased by 41 % compared to 2008, which continues the trend of a steady decrease since 2006. The threat emanating from Islamist terrorism inside the EU is influenced, to a certain extent, by devel- opments in conflict zones and politically unstable countries such as Afghanistan, the Afghanistan/Pakistan border area, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen. At the same time, the EU is used as a platform to prepare and initiate terrorist attacks elsewhere in the world.”
- emmdeeaych
  
  you are offensively off topic, sir.
  - capl
    
    Perhaps you are missing my point. That report says that in cases of EU terrorism, it is most likely to be home grown and not Islamic in nature.
    Most in the EU perceive the threat to be much greater than it is and the reality is more terror attacks from local, nationalist sources.
    EU newspapers jumped all over the assumption that it must have come from Islamic sources.
    See http://images.derStandard.at/2011/07/23/1310544425592.jpg for a dandy headline with a bonus advertisement above it.
    - emmdeeaych
      
      And perhaps you were making your point so poorly that you honestly came across as making some other point. Are you familiar with the phrase tl;dr?
      
      Brevity is the soul of more than just wit.
      - capl
        
        Take some time and read the report. It is not tl.
- ill lich
  
  *sigh*
  
  Sucker for punishment that I am, I went to freerepublic to see what the unhinged are saying, and sure enough they are spinning this guy as an innocent bystander/patsy and his arrest as part of a vast left-wing propaganda plot, and the “real terrorists” must be Muslims, of course.
  
  When you are a conservative, there is no such thing as cognitive dissonance, you always have an “out”– you blame liberal conspiracies.
  - millie fink
    
    Words out of my mouth, sir. Thank you.
ncinerate

I actually think he’s trying to say something in the vids he has linked on his wall. Look at the titles in order (removing the conan soundtrack ones):

Freefalling
Holding Onto Nothing
Hold On to Me
Fireworks
Faithless
Ere the World Crumbles
Sound of Goodbye
Big Sky
After All
Faithless
Let It All Out
Out of the Sky
Fireworks
- ultranaut
  
  Interesting catch. Any ideas on what is being expressed?
awjtawjt

@AndersBBreivik: It doesn’t take 100,000 people to kill 84 others. Just one loon.
Anonymous

Here you can view his Facebook Page via a Youtube video someone posted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBKmHRZM-94
prentiz

His facebook page indicates that he was a director at Breivik Geofarm. What’s the betting that the explosive device was nitrate fertiliser and diesel oil, exactly like McVeigh.
Anonymous

Not sure why people think it’s suspicious that his facebook page was so new. Clearly he created it in an effort to build up a certain image of himself. He’s probably a narcissist psychopath with laughable notions about his future leadership role in Norway. He’s going to be sorely disappointed when he utterly fails to spawn a mass movement.
evakatrina

Since my father was a Norwegian Freemason I expect — nay, demand — to be put on a no-fly list and renditioned to Flekkefjord.
millie fink

Looks like the killer was in touch with the EDL. When, oh when! will the threat of right-wing fascist actions be considered “terrorism”? It’s a much more realistic threat than Islamic terrorism is.

“There have been many, many foiled terror plots by far right activists in the UK alone. This has failed to receive the sort of attention that similar attempts by Islamists would generate. With the spread of fascism across Europe, these people are beginning to receive a degree of ideological and organisational sustenance that they might previously have lacked. It’s no good looking to security measures or intelligence-led operations to deal with this problem. It is a political problem, and it has to be combatted politically through the assembly of anti-fascist coalitions capable of frustrating and isolating the organisational bases of fascism in the continent. This is a task that becomes all the more urgent in the high stakes battles over austerity.”

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2011/07/that-viking-jihad-again.html
tboy

Okay, you know what’s the saddest part?

That I was bracing for a another round of Islamophobic bullshit painting us Muslims all as “terrorists”, and the first feeling I got when I saw this piece was… relief.

That’s fucked up and sad.
- Anonymous
  
  @tboy Hahaha! Me too. The world is seriously fucked.
- ewoksoup
  
  whoa there buddy don’t get ahead of yourself… if there weren’t any Muslims this poor aryan wunderchild wouldn’t of been driven to such desperate action… or some other nonsense to that effect
  - sphinxwire
    
    Sorry; had me sarcasm meter turned off.
  - sphinxwire
    
    Huh?
- pitkataistelu
  
  You’re not the only one, tboy. All this is very tragic, but I for one am really glad that the suspect is (a) an ethnic Norwegian and (b) not an environmentalist. When I heard he was white, my first response was relief; but my next thought was, “oops, the explosion was near the Ministry of Oil and Energy—I hope it wasn’t someone with noble intentions gone wrong, like Volkert van der Graaf.”
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Allen-Pearce/1604427371 Michael Allen Pearce
  
  It is at least a relief that you recognized it as sad. Never forget that.
Teller

The relief and joy that a mass murderer was white and not Muslim is fucking pathetic.
- millie fink
  
  That’s pretty cryptic.
  
  Who’s expressing “relief and joy”?
  
  If I were a peace-loving Muslim, especially one trying to get by somewhere in the xenophobic, harshly anti-Muslim West, I’d be relieved (though not “joyful”).
- sum.zero
  
  christ, what an asshole. way to misrepresent what is actually occurring so that it fits with your internal narrative.
- mn_camera
  
  Perhaps it is relief that any member of a massively slandered group, suspected before any facts are known in just about any mass casualty incident, is not in fact responsible.
  
  Can you not see that?
- Cowicide
  
  The relief and joy that a mass murderer was white and not Muslim is fucking pathetic.
  
  You’ve reached a pathetic low with that statement. How would you feel if I stated that I think you jump for joy every time a Muslim commits an act of murder? Hmmm… actually, based on the rotten thing you said above… maybe you do?
  - failix
    
    Cowicide, many here have expressed relief about the fact that the murderer wasn’t Muslim. Just read some of the comments above. Teller is right, it’s a pathetic feeling to have in such circumstances, it’s even worse to express. Does that mean that each time a muslim commits mass murder (and that’s very often) they’re sad not because of the victims but because a muslim did it?
hicks

Let’s see if any of this gets through the reality-distorting field of cognitive dissonance right-wingers live in.
- CognitiveDissident
  
  Well, assuming that this guy Anders Behring Breivik IS the sicko-murderer…
  
  Bob Altemeyer – The Authoritarians
  http://www.theauthoritarians.com
  (Free book, but VERY GOOD free book, buy an on-demand physical copy.)
  
  Right-Wing Authoritarians don’t take kindly to other people doing something that THEY find objectionable, hence, the God complex.
  Whatever happens, it is still a very good book.
  
  P.S. Boing Boing, why are you constantly refreshing during my comment editing? (If I write something offensive, I will be SURE to post it!)
acb

but no way an international terrorist or terrorist at all.

Surely planting a car bomb, and then gunning down some strangers because of what they represent rather than who they are, counts as terrorism, don’t you think?
Utenzil

This is where twitter/social media falls down. There were several tweets that indicated a middle eastern extremist group was claiming responsiblity. The NY Times mentioned this, but could not corroborate. So when powerful “blame-ist” agendas come into play, and the people who want to advance these are single-minded and ruthless, dis-information is injected into the stream. So the same “spirit” that is applied by terrorists to deconstruct order in real-space is applied by those who would leverage the event deconstruct order in info-space: they are morally equivalent.
Taymon

In fairness to early reports, an Islamist terrorist group did attempt to take credit for the attack.
- Ugly Canuck
  
  You mean that somebody claiming to represent an Islamic terror group attempted very quickly to take responsibility for this outrage, and that that claim got wide publicity.
  
  I wonder who it was precisely that answered or received that particular message initially – the Norwegian Police? Or a newspaper? One of Murdoch’s papers?
  
  No matter, really.
  But it’s telling that such a claim was made – and reported – so quickly.
  - Bevatron Repairman
    
    @UC – But the newscycle has gotten so short that partisans on all sides (this, certainly, but see MSNBC’s take on Jared Loughner) can’t wait until the first facts on the ground are sorted out on the ground. I was incommunicado on this until about two hours ago and am so much better off for having not had to process the first six or eight hours. I knew what had happened *and* who had been arrested before feeling the need to opine on the whole dreadful business.
- knappa
  
  From the NY Times: “American officials said the group was previously unknown and might not even exist.”
starfish and coffee

I was watching BBC world news for a few hours today. They kept going on about Islamic terrorism and even got into details about difficulties with the Pakistani community in Norway (hardly true).
All the while the footage on the screen was showing a well functioning multi-ethnic community looking after each other in downtown Oslo. I saw non-white Norwegian police officers and non-white Norwegian ambulance personnel, and a good 20%-30% of the bystanders in Oslo were not ethnic Norwegians. There were pictures of ordinary people tending to wounded strangers of all ethnicities. No one commented on that.
- Xeni Jardin
  
  Yes, we published photos that suggested this earlier today. Very true.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CXAGKCURWGPYAHMALOEEORHXTE Maya Log
  
  Sure, the BBC is spreading propaganda against muslims. Just look at all their headlines with the words Twin attack in them, either in the title itself or inside the story. Twin attack! What happened to double attack! Maybe they can just say Twin tower next time.
Anonymous

Shooter supposedly published a 1512 page manifesto + video which you can read here:

http://www.2shared.com/file/M-s-2fBD/2083-AEuropeanDeclarationofInd.html

Basically he was not a big fan of Muslims in europe.
JayByrd

The public does not yet know the real political persuasions (if any) of Jared Loughner, who murdered six people at a Jan. 8 rally for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
The right wing has labeled him a liberal, and yes he looked like a hippie one day; like a skin head the next.
We do know that he targeted a Democrat, amid Tea Party rhetoric of “Second Amendment remedy” and “don’t retreat, reload.”
Unless and until responsible conservatives begin speaking out against such hate speech and threats of violence when they are uttered, most Americans are going to lump you all into the same cesspool.
Nedril

People criticizing the police response time have probably never put a foot into a crisis or emergency control center. This situation was an absolute nightmare for the people in command as well as for the people in the ground. You have your resources fully deployed and are attending to a major national crisis when you start getting sketchy reports of shots fired somewhere, are forced to make a decision based on confusing and probably contradicting reports in a situation of total information overload,decide to pull a full 180Âº, locate, redeploy and coordinate the resources, plan on the fly, suddenly find out it’s a fracking island… find a boat for the assaulteers… Jesus! I am just happy I wasn’t that guy.
emmdeeaych

People who jump to such conclusions are also regrettable, but not often capable of being regretful. Also regrettable.
SB-129

No, No, this is all wrong….

Murdoch’s (UK) *The Sun* boldly claimed “‘Al Qaeda’ Attack” on it’s front page this very morning! Note the ‘Scare Quotes’ around ‘Al Qaeda’ meaning that it actually wasn’t them at all, but 8 million idiot brits reading this is all they need to know to reinforce the beliefs Murdoch wants them to maintain.

He just can’t help himself, can he?
Anonymous

I am in Norway.

The guy has nothing to do with terrorism or Alqaida and he is not muslim. He is a conservative Christian. He is blond, he is tall, he is white. He is A white Norwegian man. The international media is very manipulative. They associate it purposely with terrorism. As soon as they say terror, THE IMAGE OF A MUSLIM MAN WITH LONG BEARD APPEARS IN THE HEADS of those are watching the news. Specially in the heads of Americans. And that is exactly what they want. This is an excellent opportunity for them to get more support from the people so they can go and attack more muslim countries.

On monday 25.July.2011, he will explain to the court why he did it. http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/07/23/nyheter/massedrap/terrorisme/17434563/

Oh, and the maximum penalty here in Norway is 21 years prison. He will probably get out after 15 years.
- Anonymous
  
  Nope, he’s truly in for life. Norway has a law permitting indefinite incarceration of extremely dangerous criminals.
- Bergjylt
  
  Unlikely. Criminals may be and have been sentenced to involuntary commitment beyond the 21-year limit; he’s unlikely to see the street for a long, long time, if ever.
- cheem
  
  Wow, it’s going to be an interesting day when he delivers his manifesto… I wonder what the audience in the courtroom is going to be like that day. What will come out of the woodwork?
  
  I don’t suppose they can dole out sentences to be served consecutively in Norway, can they? I just don’t relish the thought of this dude planning his next move and acting on it in 15 years…
  - dnebdal
    
    No, you just get charged for the one act. However, I seriously doubt they’ll just let him go.
    What I really wonder is which source tells people about the 21 years limitation, but not the possibility of indefinite psychiatric detention – it comes up so. many. times. and I’m getting tired of responding.
    
    Basically: You can get sentenced to 21, then psychiatric detention until you’re found to no longer be a danger to society or yourself. In this case, they’ll probably keep ticking the “psychopathic lack of empathy”-box every five years for a very long time.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Erik-Næsby/607133909 Michael Erik Næsby
  
  So what you’re saying is that only Muslims can be terrorist?
flipa

The Norwegian police say there are over 80 dead on Utoya.
Mister44

Hmm – do I keep skipping over it – or have they not said how they arrested the shooter at the island?
Anonymous

The facebook profile has been deleted.
That’s weird!
Flying_Monkey

The alleged Facebook page has now been taken down.
- ewoksoup
  
  the alleged facebook page was upon later investigation found to be a militant myspace
Mushimatosis

Am I the only one who sees the resemblance to Joseph from the movie contact?
hungryjoe

This guy’s ideology is an artifice. This is a deeply flawed human being, driven to kill. People like this typically adopt an ideology that justifies their actions, but that ideology could just as easily be anything else.

Long before he had any thoughts of white supremacy or even knew what Islam was, this man probably tortured and murdered animals.
- http://tomxvesely.blogspot.com/ thomas vesely
  
  i think that if you read his manifesto you may change your mind.
  bit like saying “suicide bombers…….”
ill lich

Conservatives in the US have a mantra: not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim. If it turns out that this man was indeed the lone perpetrator it should put that mantra to rest, but it won’t– they have already found ways to ignore or disqualify Timothy McVeigh, the IRA and KKK, among others. When you’re a conservative there is no such thing as “cognitive dissonance”, the world is as you say it is, evidence be damned.
- Mister44
  
  Mmm – I think you are off. They are just as aware of possible ‘domestic’ terrorists – hence the broader reaching surveillance than just “Muslims”.
  
  In general – the threat of terrorism is overblown, no matter what the source.
Anonymous

This guy butchered more than 80 people (likely many of them barely more than kids) in cold blood seemingly because of their political party.

I think you’re fairly safe in calling him a terrorist.
- SpeckledJim
  
  I don’t think that’s a safe assumption at all. The killing of people is done for many reasons, by many means, and the scaring of other people in the process may be incidental.
  
  You can’t say he’s a terrorist without knowing his motivation. He could simply be a murderer.
  - Anonymous
    
    “I don’t think that’s a safe assumption at all. The killing of people is done for many reasons, by many means, and the scaring of other people in the process may be incidental.
    
    You can’t say he’s a terrorist without knowing his motivation. He could simply be a murderer.”
    
    A spree killer who picked (at random?) two associated political targets?
    Picky murderer…
    
    All of the currently released facts point to someone attempting to affect some kind of political change through fear of violence (against what amounts to children).
failix

“right-wing extremist and anti-immigrant (read: anti-Muslim)”

Uh, why not simply “read: racist”? For instance; I’m pretty sure he was anti-hindu too…
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Erik-Næsby/607133909 Michael Erik Næsby
  
  Hinduism is a religion I believe?
  Actually he claims to be against racism. He presents himselgf as a rightwing fundamentalist Christian who claims to be a free mason and has written a manuscript about the independence of Europe.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002302864891 Fatima De Mel

I think, the terrorist has a schizophrenia. The Christians, the Antiislamics, the socialists and any politic mainstream may not use this terrible killing for their political PR.

http://www.donaufalter-zeitung.de/friends/parser.php?artikel=1458
- Brainspore
  
  Over and again in the media i read references to Breivik being a
  ‘Christian’ fundamentalist. And once again i find myself making the
  tedious argument that there is NOTHING truly Christian, Christ-like or
  Godly in his conduct. So you might say, ‘well isn’t that obvious?’
  Apparently not, according to many people. They seem to assume that just
  because a guy calls himself Christian that he really is one.
  
  Kind of like how when terrorists who call themselves “Muslims” are labeled “Muslim Fundamentalists” by the media and public at large, even though mainstream Muslims claim their religion specifically prohibits such behavior?
Ken Ungar

Over and again in the media i read references to Breivik being a ‘Christian’ fundamentalist. And once again i find myself making the tedious argument that there is NOTHING truly Christian, Christ-like or Godly in his conduct. So you might say, ‘well isn’t that obvious?’ Apparently not, according to many people. They seem to assume that just because a guy calls himself Christian that he really is one. Interesting how to be considered Jewish one must be able to prove that his or her mother and her ancestors were all Jewish either by birth or conversion. And yet it seems all one has to do is go around saying he is Christian and ta-da! he is a Christian. Jesus Christ Himself says the dead opposite in Matthew 7: “Wherefore by their fruits shall ye know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” He also had this to say to His disciples regarding murder: ‘Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.’–(Matthew 5:21-22). So give it a rest already. If this dude, anyone else like him, and entire ‘churches’ full of Neo-Nazi white supremacist hatemongers are Christians, then the moon really is made of green cheese after all.
- dnebdal
  
  Are you familiar with the No True Scotsman – fallacy?
  
  If he can check off the points in e.g. the Nicene creed, then doing something atrocious doesn’t meen you get to define him as “not a Christian”. His acts go against core values, sure – but that just means he’s a bad Christian.
Gulliver

Why do so many people treat tragedies as opportunities to go at each others’ throats?

More than 90 human beings’ lives were taken by this lunatic and the media and blogosphere are filled with commenters of all ideological stripes blaming his actions or their success on whomever their chosen enemies are. Are we as a planet so far gone from compassion that our only response to hate is its magnification?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RHG2QORT54PKZY4LHHVHBOZBZY Abe Lincoln

I just don’t get this kind of behavior. We all like the idea of smacking the sh*t out of someone who pisses us off… but really… how can ANYONE think “Hey.. if I do this… It will make people sympathetic to my cause.”? I just dont’ get it.
- Gulliver
  
  Of course I get pissed off. When I quote a whole phrase, I’m replying to
  the whole phrase, not just the part of it you choose to assume I am. You said “We all like the idea of smacking the sh*t out of someone who
  pisses us off”. I do not like the thought of smacking
  the sh*t out of someone who pisses me off. And I seriously doubt Ghandi
  ever liked the idea either, at least not as an adult, but that’s
  speculation.
  
  I meant to voice my dissent with your assertion that smacking the sh*t
  out of people who piss of off was something “we all like the idea of”. I
  intended no offense, but if you think that’s a judgement on you, that’s
  your problem. But you do not speak for me. Have a good day, Mr.
  Lincoln.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Gulliver,
    
    Please stop adding extra line breaks in your comments.
    - Gulliver
      
      Sorry :(
      There was only one break between paragraphs in my HTML editor, but it added more when I pasted into the comment box. I’ll err on the side of caution and just forgo em until I figure out why my editor can’t handle the upgraded site.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Weird. There were LOTS of extra lines.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RHG2QORT54PKZY4LHHVHBOZBZY Abe Lincoln
    
    “I do not like the thought of smacking the sh*t out of someone who pisses me off.:”
    Then you, sir, are a liar. Or, at the very least, you are seriously delusional. We all have brainstem responses to that kind of stimulus. It doesn’t mean we have to act on them or that we can’t regret them after we act. And while I applaude your sense of duty to your fellow man you might just as well try to argue that you don’t get sleepy or hungry. If it makes you feel better (you are capable of feeling better aren’t you?…or no?) feel free to substitute the phrase “we all like” with “we all find satisfying”. If you want to be a pedantic nit picker… be my guest. But no one will or should believe that you’re so saintly that you never get mad at people or enjoy watching some a**hole get his just rewards. Otherwise I suggest you approach the Vatican and request Canonization for yourself with all haste.
    - Gulliver
      
      Look, Abe, believe whatever you want.
      
      I find the prospect of initiating coercive violence against another
      person nauseating. I have no qualms about self-defense or defense of
      others, and I have no problem with consensual violence (I’ve sparred in
      martial arts tournaments since I was a kid). If you’re talking about the
      flight or fight reflex, mine is triggered when I feel physically
      threatened, which is a much higher threshold than was it takes to piss
      me off. Physical violence, in my strong opinion, is never a just reward
      for nonphysical aggression.
      
      This does not make me a saint, or even altruistic. A person who
      initiates brawls over words (or others’ lifestyles) makes their path in
      life needlessly more difficult for what I believe is no worthwhile
      reason. This choice, made out of enlightened self-interest, has
      long-since become habit strong enough that I experience anxiety at even
      the idea of engaging in physical coercion.
      
      If you prefer to believe that I am a liar or deluded, be my guest. I’ve
      made my point that your statement about the sentiments of pissed off
      people one and all do not speak on my behalf (nor, I suspect, a great
      many other people). It is unfortunate for you if this bothers you and,
      if so, I hope you find a way not to be bothered by the personal moral
      compasses of others. How I live my life is not a judgment on you or anyone else.
Guest

Firstly my sympathies are with everyone who has been affected by this. It’s hideous.

The point I wanted to make was that noone seems to have mentioned yet that the group on the island where the boys were murdered was holding a protest two days earlier asking for a boycott of Israel.
Good on them for exercising their democratic right to protest.

Anders Behring Breivik has been reported as having anti-Muslim, and pro-Israel views.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=230762

Anti Muslim, and Pro Israel…why does that sound so familiar?
PugC

This is how the citizens of Oslo responds to violence: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14281494 with flowers. aprox. 150.000 to 200.000 people showed up today to defy the violence and hatred.
- Gulliver
  
  It’s strangely inspiring that such hateful evil can be met with such peaceful solidarity. It bolsters my hope for us as a species.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_L4GGDT5SK7I6I4IOGZAJXJELHA TomasF

“That’s because the majority of terrorist attacks in the past years have been committed by MUSLIM MEN WITH LONG BEARDS (okay not always with the beard actually…).”

Actually, in Europe for the last 10 years that’s not the case. Internal European and non-islamic actions have been more frequent and caused more deaths than islamic terror attacks. Spread between ETA, TRIRA, left and right wing extremists, etc. Or, to put your indignation on its head, are you insinuating that they are more “major” when they’re performed by islamic extremists?
Or are you simply using data for your own little backwater and extrapolating it on the entire world?