Massacre in Oslo, Norway

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Massacre in Oslo, Norway

Postby Bakajo Nono » Sun Jul 24, 2011 3:46 am

Anders Behring Breivik: A lone — meticulous — attacker

In a moment of national tragedy, people tend to huddle together. That instinct, the need for community to gather and console one another in a moment of collective shock and pain, was Anders Behring Breivik's most insidious weapon in the arsenal he carried onto the tiny island Utoeya, a wooded retreat in Tyrifjord lake about an hour's drive from Oslo.

Breivik, a handsome 32-year-old Norwegian with blue eyes and a short crop of blonde hair, arrived at the lakeside pier dressed as a Norwegian police officer. Hours before, a car bomb that police believe Breivik planted and detonated in the heart of the Norwegian government quarter ripped through the neighborhood, killing at least seven people and injuring many more. It now seems that the Oslo bomb was a murderous distraction, a meticulously planned bit of midsirection. The apparent attempt on the life of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, at first thought to be the work of Islamist extremists, kept Norway's crack anti-terror squad pinned down in Oslo while Breivik drove to Utoeya. He flashed his ID — fake, but good enough to fool the security guards at the lake. And they wave him in. "He gets out of the car and shows ID, says he's sent there to check security, that that is purely routine in connection with the terror attack (in Oslo)," Simen Braenden Mortensen, one of the camp guards, told the daily Verdens Gang. "It all looks fine, and a boat is called and it carries him over to Utoeya. A few minutes passed, and then we heard shots," he said. (See the aftermath of the shooting and bombing in Norway.)

When he arrived at the island, Breivik found people hurrying into the main house at the retreat. Some were crying, walking arm-in-arm as they tried to make sense out of the images of devastation filling TV screens in the aftermath of the Oslo bombing, which by now was being described as Norway's 9/11 moment. The guests on the island had particular reason to be rocked by the events in Oslo's government quarter. Each year for as long as anyone can remember, the youth wing of the Norwegian Labor Party has gathered here. Founded in 1887, Labor is Norway's largest political party and has been the major force in the country since the Second World War, giving up power for only brief periods to the Conservative Party. Gathered at the retreat of the Labor Party's youth wing were the country's future leaders, the teenage children of the ruling elite. By the time Breivik approached the main house, witnesses recall, about 80 people had gravitated there. "We had all gathered in the main house to talk about what had happened in Oslo," a survivor, a 16-year-old called Hana, told the Aftenposten, an Oslo daily.

Breivik, in his policeman get-up and and now wearing earplugs, urged the people to move into the main house. "I'd like to gather everyone," he said, according to Hana. Then, Breivik, brandishing an automatic machine gun, ran into the main house and opened fire on the crowd.

With the eyes of the world on Oslo, it took more than an hour for Norwegian police to comprehend and respond to the massacre that was unfolding at this idyllic island retreat. Children ran screaming out of the house and across the grounds, only to be gunned down in their tracks. Breivik, according to witnesses, remained calm, methodically seeking out his victims as they ran, into the hollows and behind the stones and bushes where they attempted to hide. He chased them to the shores of the island, a thin, 500-yard strip of land in a gray lake in the Norwegian woods. Children jumped into the water, attempting to swim away. Some managed to reach boats that began to appear to rescue survivors. (See how police determined the two events were linked.)

Khamshajiny Gunaratnam, a 23-year-old student who survived the Utoeya attack, wrote about the incident on her blog. She describes being terrified, crouching on the floor of the toilets in the main house to hide from the killer who was busy hunting down her friends who were still out in the open. Seizing an opportunity, Gunaratnam and a few of her friends made a dash for the lake, jumped into the icy water and swam frantically to a waiting boat. "Even when we had reached the boat, I could not relax," she wrote on her blog. "He could still hit us with his machinegun!"

People who live near the island describe horrific scenes as scores of teenagers rushed for the water in an attempt to swim to safety as the shooter fired on them. "They were so young, between 14 and 19 years old," said Anita Lien, a 42-year-old resident who lives near the lake.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... z1Sx39wAjw
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Bakajo Nono
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Re: Massacre in Oslo, Norway

Postby Moh » Sun Jul 24, 2011 4:36 am

I hate that a person would do such a thing. What a monster. My heart really goes out to Norway.
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Re: Massacre in Oslo, Norway

Postby Bakajo Nono » Sun Jul 24, 2011 5:43 am

Apparently he was able to shoot for an hour and a half... I understand that the officials were distracted by the bomb, but... an hour and a half? Really?

My heart goes out to them and I pray for everyone for Norway :'(
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Re: Massacre in Oslo, Norway

Postby Moh » Sun Jul 24, 2011 2:02 pm

SUNDVOLLEN, Norway (Reuters) - A suspected right-wing fanatic accused of killing at least 92 people deemed his acts "atrocious" yet "necessary" as Norway mourned victims of the nation's worst attacks since World War Two.

Police were hunting on Sunday to see if a possible second gunman took part in the shooting massacre and bomb attack on Friday that traumatized a normally peaceful Nordic country.

In his first comment via a lawyer since he was arrested, 32-year-old Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik expressed willingness to explain himself in court at a hearing likely to be held on Monday about extending protective custody.

"He has said that he believed the actions were atrocious, but that in his head they were necessary," lawyer Geir Lippestad told independent TV2 news.

Police said Breivik gave himself up after admitting to a massacre in which at least 85 people died, mostly young people attending a summer camp of the youth wing of Norway's ruling Labour Party on an idyllic island.

Breivik was also arrested for the bombing of Oslo's government district that killed seven people hours earlier. Norway's toughest sentence is 21 years in jail.

Source.


Atrocious is right, but necessary? No. Not in the least.
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