Norway suspect sought anti-Muslim crusade

A picture taken on July 22, 2011 from a helicopter flying over Utoya island shows an attacker walking with a gun in his hands among bodies on the island (pixellated by the image's source), during the shooting spree at a youth summer camp that left at least 86 dead. Police have arrested Anders Behring Breivik, a man with ties to far-right groups, for the shooting and also for the bomb attack which struck downtown Oslo earlier the same day. / Marius Arnesen/AFP/Getty Images

OSLO, Norway — The man blamed for killing at least 93 people during terrorist attacks on Norway's government headquarters and an island retreat for young people wanted to trigger an anti-Muslim revolution in Norwegian society, his lawyer said Sunday.

A chief surgeon treating the wounded from Friday's mass shooting, meanwhile, said he believes the attacker used special "dum-dum" bullets that cause massive internal injuries.

The doctor told The Associated Press that the killer's chosen ammo "exploded inside the body."

The manifesto that 32-year-old suspect Anders Behring Breivik published online ranted against Muslim immigration to Europe and vowed revenge on those "indigenous Europeans" whom he deemed had betrayed their heritage. The document said they would be punished for their "treasonous acts."

Police said they were analyzing the approximately 1,500-page document. They said it was published Friday shortly before the back-to-back bomb and gun attacks.

Breivik's lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said his client wrote the document alone. While police said they were investigating reports of a second assailant on the island, the lawyer said Breivik claims no one helped him.

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The treatise detailed plans to acquire firearms and explosives, and even appeared to describe a test explosion: "BOOM! The detonation was successful!!!" It ends 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, about 90 minutes later, a gunman began opening fire on about 600 young people at a retreat on Utoya Island. Police said the death toll in the shooting rose by one Sunday to 86.

That brings total fatalities to 93, with more than 90 wounded. People remain missing at both scenes. Police have not released the names of any victims.

Authorities revealed Sunday that one of the attacker's first victims on the island was an off-duty police officer who had been hired by the camp directors to provide private security in his spare time. Oslo Police Union Chairman Sigve Bolstad declined to identify the victim.

That detail sheds new light on the confusion many survivors described during the 90-minute massacre. The attacker arrived dressed as a policeman, and some campers were killed when they approached the killer thinking he was there to save them.

Dr. Colin Poole, head of surgery at Ringriket Hospital in Honefoss northwest of Oslo, told The Associated Press the gunman used special bullets designed to disintegrate inside the body and cause maximum internal damage. Poole said surgeons treating 16 gunshot victims have recovered no full bullets.

"These bullets more or less exploded inside the body," Poole said. "It's caused us all kinds of extra problems in dealing with the wounds they cause, with very strange trajectories."

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Ballistics experts say the so-called "dum-dum" bullets also are lighter in weight and can be fired with greater accuracy over varying distances. They commonly are used by air marshals and hunters of small animals. Such characteristics potentially would have allowed the gunman to carry more ammunition and fire his weapons at varying targets without adjusting his sights.

Officials at the lakeside scene of the island shooting spent Sunday continuing to account for the dead.

Six hearses pulled up at the shoreline as orange-jacketed Red Cross searchers on small boats slowly explored the extensive shoreline.

Body parts remain inside the Oslo building, which housed the prime minister's office. In a chilling allusion to the fact that the tragedy could have even been greater, police said Sunday that Breivik still had "a considerable amount" of ammunition for both his guns — a pistol and an automatic rifle — when he surrendered.

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. Breivik has been charged with terrorism and will be arraigned Monday.

Lippestad said his client has asked for an open court hearing "because he wants to explain himself."

Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim said a forensics expert from Interpol was joining the investigation Sunday.

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

The officials would not confirm whether they had identified Breivik 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 crowded into Oslo Cathedral, where the pews were packed, and people spilled into the plaza outside. The area was strewn with flowers and candles, and people who could not fit inside the grand church huddled under umbrellas amid drizzling rain.

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

29 Photos

Norway mourns massacre victims

Afterward, people sobbed and hugged one another in the streets. Many lingered over the flowers and candles. The royal couple and prime minister later visited the site of the bombing in Oslo. The royals then visited shooting survivors at Ringriket Hospital.

The attacker picked targets linked to Norway's left-wing Labor Party. Breivik's manifesto pilloried the political correctness of liberals and warned that their work would end in the colonization of Europe by Muslims.

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[diana britz]

21 years is not justice for what he did. He'll get out when he's almost 50 this is ********. What kind of justice is that?

[DinkWinkerton]

Why isn't anybody pointing a finger at Sarah Palin, why isn't anyone yelling about hi capacity magazines and gun control, where are the real Americans?

[lilbear925]

Which sounds worse? "Dum-dum" bullets or hollow point ammunition? If they said he used "full metal jacket" bullets, it would sound just as evil, since hardly any .223 ammunition is ever recovered intack, strictly because of the high speed with which they hit the target. It was never appropriate or relevant to try to name the type of bullet used, since it is impossible to even buy "dum-dum" ammunition. Of course, hollow points are widely used for personal protection and small game hunting.

[vielmann]

No different than teabaggers calling for second amendment solutions. Extremism at its best. Sadly enough.

[RespectOthersAlways]

Norwegians, we love you! Today, we are all Norwegians!! Your loss is our loss because we know that whatever diminishes the lives of some diminishes the lives of all.

As the home of the Nobel Peace Prize, we appreciate the great contributions you have made to the cause of global peace and human understanding. Norwegians, Stay strong. Millions of mainstream Americans and others around the world sympathize with you and offer their heartfelt condolences.

The time has come to re-focus our energies on tolerance and the Doctrine of Love. The time has come to heal the adults. The time has come to raise a new generation of young men and women not so impaired by the deadly and radioactive virus of semi-consciousness about the humanity of others.

Impaired by ignorance, doctrine and/or drugs, this right wing extremist has killed almost 100 innocent people and injured as many in Norway. With a supremacist manifesto in hand, terrorism is only a thin line away. It matters not what their religious persuasion.

We have seen this form of extremism and callous disregard for the humanity of others in Oklahoma, on 9-11, Ted Kaczynsky the Unabomber and a whole slew of home grown Klansmen, militias and extremists in the United States who think nothing about trivializing, minimizing or devaluing the lives of others.

Shortsighted extremists, regardless of their political or religious persuasion, cannot fully visualize the humanity of others. Constantly, they measure their own success by the failure of others. In their perverted world view, there is no fully developed concept of justice or fairness for others outside of their own narrow and selfish interests.

So, we must ask: Where are the condemnations of this right-wing extremism from the darlings of the right--Michelle Bachmann, Texan Rick Perry, Islamophobe and right wing pontificator-in-chief Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, cross-hairs lady Sarah Palin and other Tea Party extremists in the United States? Where are the condemnations from Senators John McCain, Jon Kyl, James DeMint, Congressmen Cantor, Boehmer and other Tea Party apologists and enablers in the United States? Where are their unequivocal condemnations of the intolerant and sickening devaluation of the lives of others by the Tea Party extremists? Bachmann, Perry, Palin, Romney, DeMint, McCain, Kyl, Gingrich?we can't hear you! Your silence is deafening!!!!

[AnnieDanny]

There are no words to describe someone who deliberately and ruthlessly kills children. And for such stupid, senseless reasons?? Some things are so evil they can't be described. I've heard that hell is adequate though: hell knows how to describe it in terms that this guy will understand.

Not that I'd wish anyone there. But sometimes I think we'd go insane if we didn't know that God can take care of it, and He will. Human forms of justice will not do it for this one.

[nomosk]

Shades of Charlie Manson, Helter-Skelter and the Unibomber combined. But why didn't he just go kill a bunch of muslims?

[username555-2009]

The Norwegians, like the Americans on 9/11, must be bludgeoned to sympathize with Israel. Attacking Muslims would not stir the pot.
Mossad attacks the innocent to keep them in fear.

"Norway, host of the 1993 Palestinian-Israeli peace accords, said on Monday it was "perfectly legitimate" for Palestinians to take their case for statehood to the United Nations for voting in September."

[Seanyke]

nomosk.
I can't believe that you're suggesting him to actually kill Muslim instead of random targets. You sounded like an associate of racist killer Breivik. Whether he's killing Muslims or the public, it does not matter. I'm very concern about your mental state mate.

Background check on this guy please. We don't want this sort of thinking to keep playing in your head, you RACIST.

[slappy_mcjohnson]

Too bad they don't have the death penalty.

[liselle3]

Who cares what he has to say, why give him a forum to speak. Nothing he can possibly say will ever justify taking the lives of innocent people. No religion, no political views ever justify killing and bruality. If anyone thinks they do... they need serious help.

[train99]

I guess the policies in Norway are destroying the country's traditional culture, as is happening in so many other countries. This creates isolated, frustrated individuals who become dangerous in their loneliness. Those who attack traditional way of life and belief in God are the ones that create the very rare occurrence where someone will go haywire like this.