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    Lawyer: Norway suspect wanted anti-Muslim crusade

    OSLO, Norway (AP) — The man blamed for attacks on Norway's government headquarters and a youth retreat that left at least 93 dead said he was motivated by a desire to bring about a revolution in Norwegian society, his lawyer said Sunday.

    A manifesto 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" who he accused of betraying their heritage. It added that they would be punished for their "treasonous acts." Police have not confirmed that their 32-year-old Norwegian suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, wrote the document, but his lawyer referred to it and said Breivik had been working on it for years.

    The treatise ends with a detailed description of the plot, ending 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 young people on Utoya island. Public broadcaster NRK reported Sunday that the death toll in the shooting rose to 86.

    That makes 93 people dead, and more than 90 wounded. There are still people missing at both scenes. 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.

    Police and his lawyer have said that Breivik confessed to the twin attacks, but denied criminal responsibility for a day that shook peaceful Norway to its core and was the deadliest ever in peacetime. He has been charged with terrorism and will be arraigned on Monday.

    Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim said a forensics expert from Interpol would join the investigation on Sunday.

    In the manifesto, Breivik referred to the Knights Templar group. European security officials said Sunday they were aware of increased Internet chatter from individuals claiming they belonged to the group, but were still investigating claims that Breivik, and other far-right individuals, attended a London meeting of its members in 2002. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the investigation.

    The officials would also not immediately confirm that Breivik had come on to their radar as a potential threat.

    As authorities pursued the suspect's motives, Oslo mourned the victims. Norway's King Harald V and his wife Queen Sonja and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg joined mourners on Sunday at Oslo Cathedral, where the pews were packed, and the crowd spilled into the plaza outside the building. The area was strewn with flowers and candles, and people who could not fit in the grand church huddled under umbrellas in a drizzle.

    The king and queen both wiped tears from their eyes during the service for "sorrow and hope."

    After the service, people sobbed and hugged one another in the streets as they streamed out of the cathedral. Many lingered over the memorial of flowers and candles.

    More was coming to light Sunday about the suspect of Friday's attacks, who chose targets linked to Norway's left-leaning Labor Party, and authorities have said Breivik held anti-Muslim views and posted on Christian fundamentalist websites.

    "He wanted a change in society and, from his perspective, he needed to force through a revolution," Geir Lippestad, his lawyer, told public broadcaster NRK. "He wished to attack society and the structure of society."

    Lippestad said Breivik spent years writing the 1,500-page manifesto entitled, "2083 - A European Declaration of Independence," that police were examining. It was signed "Andrew Berwick." The date was referred to later in the document as the year that coups d'etat would engulf Europe and overthrow the elite he maligns.

    Sponheim, the police chief, said there was no indication whether Breivik had selected his targets or fired randomly on the island. The manifesto vowed revenge on those who it accused of betraying Europe.

    "We, the free indigenous peoples of Europe, hereby declare a pre-emptive war on all cultural Marxist/multiculturalist elites of Western Europe. ... We know who you are, where you live and we are coming for you," the document said. "We are in the process of flagging every single multculturalist traitor in Western Europe. You will be punished for your treasonous acts against Europe and Europeans."

    The use of an anglicized pseudonym could be explained by a passage in the manifesto describing the founding, in April 2002 in London, of a group he calls a new Knights Templar. The Knights Templar was a medieval order founded to protect Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land after the First Crusade.

    A 12-minute video clip posted on YouTube with the same title as the manifesto featured symbolic imagery of the Knights Templar and crusader kings as well as slides suggesting Europe is being overrun by Muslims. Police could not confirm that Breivik had posted the video, which also featured photographs of him dressed in a formal military uniform and in a wet suit pointing an assault rifle.

    The video was a series of slides that accused the left in Europe of allowing Muslims to overrun the continent: One image showed the BBC's logo with the "C'' changed into an Islamic crescent. Another declared that the end result of the left's actions would be an "EUSSR."

    Police spokesman John Fredriksen confirmed that the essay was posted the day of the attacks. The document signaled an attack was imminent: "In order to successfully penetrate the cultural Marxist/multiculturalist media censorship, we are forced to employ significantly more brutal and breathtaking operations, which will result in casualties."

    In the last 100 pages, the manifesto apparently lays out details of the author's social and personal life, including steroid use and an intention to solicit prostitutes in the days before the attack.

    Also Sunday, police conducted raids in an Oslo neighborhood on Sunday. Some people were briefly pulled out of buildings to allow for the search of explosives, but were later released. Police spokesman Henning Holtaas said no explosives were found.

    Witnesses at the island youth retreat described the way Breivik lured them close by saying he was a police officer before raising his weapons. People hid and fled into the water to escape the rampage; some played dead.

    While some on the island reported that there was a second assailant and police said they were looking into that, Lippestad, the lawyer, said his client claims to have acted alone.

    Police took 90 minutes from the first shot to reach the island — delayed because they did not have quick access to a helicopter and struggled to find boats once they reached the lake. Breivik surrendered when they reached him, but before slaying at least 85 people. Another seven were killed in the bombing.

    Divers continued to comb the lake waters around Utoya Island where some 600 young people were attending a Labor Party summer retreat when it came under attack, amid fears people may have drowned while trying to swim to safety.

    Police said the bomb used in the Oslo blast was a mixture of fertilizer and fuel used to blow up a federal building in the U.S. in 1995. A farm supply store said Saturday they had alerted police that Breivik bought six metric tons of fertilizer, which can be used in homemade bombs.

    The twin attacks have rattled largely peaceful Norway, home to the Nobel Prize for Peace and where the average policeman patrolling in the streets doesn't carry a firearm.

    Norwegians pride themselves on the openness of their society and cherish the idea of free expression. In recent years, the prosperous Nordic nation has opened its arms to thousands of conflict refugees from Pakistan, Iraq and Somalia.

    ___

    DiLorenzo reported from Stockholm. Associated Press writers Ian MacDougall and Derl McCrudden in Oslo, and Louise Nordstrom and Karl Ritter in Stockholm, and Paisley Dodds in London contributed.

     

    725 comments

    • We Rule  •  7 mths ago
      its a cowardly act to kill innocent people for any cause
    • Habeeb  •  7 mths ago
      Iits ashame, in a world that's torn apart with famins and natural disasters we still talk about religions, can't we be just human beings, I'm a muslim and I'm against all the extremists from any religion, this incidense is aproof that terrorist has no God!
    • Joe  •  7 mths ago
      A lot of these extremists are simply angry people. The people at whom their anger is directed are merely scapegoats for their anger.
    • Richard  •  7 mths ago
      EXTEMISM at it's worst! Either from the right or left, these are people frustrated that they are unable to make change in a reasonable manner. So, resort to violence. We all need to be very vigilant and mindful of such extremists. At times, they can mask themselves as being part of the mainstream (see USA, for example), but take some time to listen to what they are saying and you'll easily ID that they are a danger to a civil society...
    • Luvthiscountry  •  7 mths ago
      News flash Anders - Killing a bunch of innocent people is not the way to sell your agenda
    • achmed  •  7 mths ago
      beware of all extremists, islamic, christian, communist, capitalist, black, white, hatred is becoming more embraced by all groups. we killed Jesus for his love, we killed Ghandi for his love. we wil never learn.
    • Captain Spaulding  •  7 mths ago
      Losers always blame others for their own shortcomings.
    • authorNreader  •  7 mths ago
      A tragedy for sure...words cannot begin to express how I feel. Yes I am American and felt the same grief when 911 occured. I am also an African-American Muslima. I actually took the time to read some of these threads and am so repulsed by the responses. Terrorism is terrorism, murder is murder no matter what religious, cultural or ideological banner it flies under. Yes, I know plenty of sad cowards will respond to my post with negativity...feel free I will just include you in my prayers. One thing we all need to understand is true history and the campaign of sanctioned murder against so many throughout the world. We cannot condone it for some groups and protest for others.
    • Galaxy Gator  •  7 mths ago
      Could a Muslim comment on how they feel about the deaths of 85 white christian children who only crime was loving(Muslims) them. Do you still think all Christians are the infidel?
    • EARTH  •  7 mths ago
      Tired of this corralation as to Christain Terrorist vs. Muslems. Lets see, 2 major attacks in how many years, this & Oklahoma by a couple of nuts, can in no way be compared to the organized 1,000's of Muslim attacks.....not even close. I have not seen little girls beheaded, for going to school, or heads cut off while being video'd? The failure to understand that islamic terrorist are organized world wide groups, bent on World dominence to force their religious ideals & laws upon all, would be a huge mistake.
    • observation  •  7 mths ago
      Just how would his horrible acts spark a Norwegian revolution against Muslim immigrants?
      People are repulsed by his evil acts. They are not likely to follow him.
    • wow  •  7 mths ago
      It does not make any sense to me! Crusade against Muslims by killing Christians?
    • maryjanesuncle  •  7 mths ago
      The only religion the insane worship is Chaos..
    • Carlo  •  7 mths ago
      Sick basterd. Innocent people kids at that Murdered and Mained. prayers for the dead and injured..
    • EARTH  •  7 mths ago
      Any culture that condones 70 year old men taking 10 year old brides, forcing these young girls into servitude, I have little use for. We put people in prison for such actions.
    • Gary M  •  7 mths ago
      feel sorry for the people who died or were injured here and put you hate away
    • Glen W  •  7 mths ago
      Interesting that he didn't target those he hated.
    • robert f  •  7 mths ago
      NOT the way to effect change. This is a wonderful country and the kids did nothing to deserve this.
    • Alaa  •  7 mths ago
      Most people here seem to agree that it would have been acceptable if he had killed 92 Muslim children in a camp or a wedding! It is not the killing they are against, it is the religion/color/race of the killed. Then they ask" What's wrong with the world these days?"
    • A Yahoo! User  •  7 mths ago
      To those with dark hearts who are posting sick statements, I say it is time for prayers in respect of the dead. To those who are cheering, just research the hate message that has been transmitted from Rupert Murdoch's media outlets, including our own FOX, that caters to these lunatic thugs. Wake up folks. Rupert Murdoch's plan is part of a grand conspiracy to derail stability in this entire world. Just think.
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