Norway suspect: Serbia bombing 'tipped the scales'
Anders Behring Breivik
said he was a boy when his life's path began to turn. It was during the first
Gulf War, when a Muslim friend cheered at reports of missile attacks against
American forces.
``I was completely ignorant at the time and apolitical but his total lack of
respect for my culture (and Western culture in general) actually sparked my
interest and passion for it,'' the suspect in Norway's bombing and mass
shooting wrote in his 1,500-page manifesto.
The 32-year-old Norwegian said it was the NATO
bombing of Serbia in 1999 that ``tipped the scales'' for him because he
sympathized with Serbia's crackdown on ethnic Albanian Muslims in Kosovo. A
year later he said he realized that what he called the ``Islamization
of Europe'' couldn't be stopped by peaceful means.
Police and Breivik's lawyer says he confessed to, but
denied criminal responsibility for, Friday's bombing at government headquarters
in Oslo and the mass shooting later that day at an island summer camp organized
by the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party. At least 93 people were killed in
the attacks.
Breivik's manifesto chronicled events that deepened
his contempt for Muslims and ``Marxists'' he blamed for making Europe multicultural.
He suggested his friends didn't even know what he was up to, and comments from
several people who had contact with the quiet blond man indicate he was right.
Jack Levin, a professor at Northeastern University who has written a number of
books on mass murderers, said the manifesto helps Breivik
show himself as more human.
``It makes the killer look like a victim rather than a villain,'' Levin said.
From September 2009 through October 2010, Breivik
posted more than 70 times on Dokument.no, a Norwegian
site with critical views on Islam and immigration. In one comment, he
entertained the idea of a European Tea Party movement.
In December of 2009, Breivik showed up at a meeting
organized by the website's staff.
``He was a bit strange. As one could see from his postings, he had obviously
read a lot but not really digesting it,'' said Hans Rustad,
the editor of the website.
But Rustad said he ``hadn't the faintest idea'' about
Breivik's murderous plans.
``Other people have the same views on the Net and they don't go out and become
mass murderers. So how can you tell?'' Rustad told
The Associated Press.
In the document Breivik styles himself as a Christian
conservative, patriot and nationalist. He looks down on neo-Nazis as
``underprivileged racist skinheads with a short temper.''
Part of Breivik's manifesto was taken almost word for
word from the first few pages of the anti-technology manifesto written by
``Unabomber'' Ted Kaczynski, who is in federal prison for mail bombs that
killed three people and injured 23 others across the U.S. from the 1970s to the
1990s.
Breivik did not cite Kaczynski, though he did for
many other people whose writings he used.
Breivik changed a Kaczynski screed on leftism and
what he considered to be leftists' ``feelings of inferiority'' _ mainly by
substituting the words ``multiculturalism'' or ``cultural Marxism'' for
``leftism.''
For instance, Kaczynski wrote: ``One of the most widespread manifestations of
the craziness of our world is leftism, so a discussion of the psychology of
leftism can serve as an introduction to the discussion of the problems of
modern society in general.''
Breivik's manifesto reads: ``One of the most
widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is multiculturalism, so
a discussion of the psychology of multiculturalists can serve as an
introduction to the discussion of the problems of Western Europe in general.''
Breivik called his upbringing in a middle-class home
in Oslo privileged even though his parents divorced when he was 1 and he lost
contact with his father in his teens. His parents split when the family lived
in London, where his father, Jens Breivik, was a
diplomat at the Norwegian Embassy in London. A spokesman for the embassy, Stein
Iversen, confirmed that Jens Breivik
was employed at the embassy in the late 1970s, but wouldn't discuss his
relationship with the Oslo suspect.
Breivik said both parents supported Norway's
center-left Labor Party, which he viewed as infiltrated by Marxists.
His mother won a custody battle, but Breivik said he
regularly visited his father and his new wife in France, where they lived,
until his father cut off contact when Breivik was 15.
The father told Norwegian newspaper VG that they lost touch in 1995, but that
it was his son who wanted to cut off contact.
``We've never lived together, but we had some contact in his childhood,'' the
older Breivik, who VG said is now retired in France,
was quoted as saying. ``When he was young he was an ordinary boy, but
reclusive. He wasn't interested in politics at the time.''
He learned about Breivik's massacre on the Internet.
``I was reading online newspapers and then I suddenly saw his name and picture
on the net,'' he told VG. ``It was a shock to find out. I haven't gotten over
it yet.''
Breivik's mother lives in an ivy-covered brick
apartment building in western Oslo, currently protected by police. Neighbors
said they hadn't seen her since a few days before the shooting. Police said
they've spoken to her and that she didn't know of her son's plans.
In his manifesto, Breivik said he had no negative
experiences from his childhood, though he had issues with his mother being a
``moderate feminist.''
``I do not approve of the super-liberal, matriarchal upbringing though as it
completely lacked discipline and has contributed to feminize me to a certain
degree,'' he said.
But Breivik claims he never lacked courage: ``If
anyone threatened me or my friends, regardless if we were at a disadvantage, we
would rather face our foes than submit and lose face.'' He said that attitude
was atypical among ethnic Norwegians, who had a tendency to ``sissy out.''
In Internet postings attributed to Breivik on
Norwegian websites, he blamed Europe's left-wing parties for destroying the
continent's Christian heritage by allowing mass immigration of Muslims.
He said he came in contact with like-minded individuals across Europe, and
together they formed a military order inspired by the Knights Templar
crusaders. Their goal was to seize power in Europe by 2083 in a string of coups
d'etat. Norwegian police couldn't say whether the
group existed.
Two European security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because
they were not authorized to speak about the investigation said they were
familiar with increased Internet chatter from individuals claiming they
belonged to a group called the new Knights Templar.
Breivik said he also tried to get engaged in domestic
politics, in the Progress Party, an a populist
opposition party which calls for stricter immigration controls. He claims he
was a popular party member who almost got elected to the Oslo City Council
seven years ago.
``That's just something he imagined,'' said Joeran Kallmyr, whom Breivik described
as his ``rival'' in the party.
Breivik attended only five or six party meetings
during those two years and left the party quietly, said Kallmyr,
now a vice mayor of Oslo.
"He was very quiet, almost shy. He seemed like a well-educated man. He was
very well dressed and very polite. He wore a tie all the time,'' Kallmyr said. ``I couldn't see any signs that he was coming
apart.''
Kallmyr said he only had one conversation with Breivik, a forgettable chat about Breivik's
business. According to Breivik's manifesto, he was
the director of Anders Behring Breivik ENK at the
time, a business he describes as a ``front'' and a ``milking cow'' to finance
``resistance/liberation related military operations.''
He describes elsewhere in the document how he used his own companies to secure
bank loans and credit to fund his attack.
Breivik, who detailed his preparations for the
attacks in eerie detail, also anticipated the hostility he would face, even
from his friends and family, if he survived his ``mission'' and was brought to
trial.
Levin said that part could be part of the motivation for the manifesto.
``He talks about visiting prostitutes and taking steroids. Why would he say
such negative things about himself? I think what he's doing is _ this humanizes
him,'' Levin said. ``He's trying to tell people he's not a monster, that he's a
person with frailties and weaknesses like everybody else.''
Source: The Korea Herald