The Prime Minister David Cameron has issued a statement on the events in Norway.
The Prime Minister said:
“I was outraged to hear about the explosion in Oslo and attack in Utoya today that have killed and injured innocent people.
“My thoughts are with the wounded and those who have lost friends and family, and I know everyone in Britain will feel the same.
“These attacks are a stark reminder of the threat we all face from terrorism.
“I have called Prime Minister Stoltenberg this evening to express my sincere condolences and to let him know that our thoughts are with the Norwegian people at this tragic time. I have offered Britain’s help, including through our close intelligence cooperation. We will work with Norway to hunt the murderers who did this and prevent any more innocent deaths.
A hunt for possible British accomplices of the mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik is under way after it emerged that he began his deadly “crusade” after meeting other Right-wing extremists in London.
Before he carried out Norway’s worst terrorist atrocity, Breivik typed out a chilling 1,500-page description of his plans, written entirely in English and datelined “London, 2011”.
He signed the document “Andrew Berwick”, an Anglicised version of his name, and described his “mentor” as an Englishman he identified as Richard.
Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officers are now trying to establish whether Breivik visited London in recent years and whether he was part of a wider network preparing to carry out similar attacks.
The 32 year-old boasted that he was just one of up to 80 “solo martyr cells” recruited throughout Western Europe who were ready to follow his example of trying to overthrow governments tolerant of Islam.
He said he regarded himself as a successor to the medieval Knights Templar, and claimed to have been recruited at a meeting in London in April 2002, which was hosted by two English extremists and attended by eight people in total.
Any member of a political group that has allowed Muslims to migrate to their country is regarded as a “target” who deserves “the death penalty”, according to his writings.
He also spoke of being in touch with the far-Right English Defence League and made repeated references to British politicians, including Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, who were blamed for making London a global hub of Islamic terrorism.
In other developments yesterday:
• The death toll in the twin attacks on Oslo and the island of Utoya rose to 93, with five others still missing.
• Breivik’s father, a retired diplomat who once served in London, spoke of his “absolute horror”.
• Norwegian police were caught out despite having issued a warning in March of the danger that far-Right groups could be planning an attack.
• It emerged that the police response to the massacre on Utoya was hampered when a boat was overloaded with equipment and its motor stopped
• Breivik’s lawyer said his client regarded his actions as “atrocious but necessary”.
At a memorial service yesterday, Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian prime minister, was joined by the country’s king and queen in mourning the “national tragedy”.
Breivik spent nine years planning Friday’s atrocity, and spent three years writing his manifesto A European Declaration of Independence, which was emailed to 5,700 people hours before he detonated a bomb in Oslo.
The bomb, he made clear, was merely a diversion designed to draw police away from the real target, the Labour Party summer camp on Utoya. He even discussed his reason for disguising himself as a policeman — to cause “confusion and hesitation”.
But it is his detailed descriptions of meetings with British accomplices that has led to fears he may be part of a network of Right-wingers intent on mass murder.
Scotland Yard’s domestic extremism unit is trying to identify the seven other people who attended the inaugural meeting of the “European Military Order and Criminal Tribunal” of the “Knights Templar” in London in April 2002.
He wrote: “The order is to serve as an armed Indigenous Rights Organisation and as a Crusader Movement” and said the session was hosted by an English Protestant. Another English extremist was also present as well as French, German, Greek, Dutch and Russian delegates.
He also said an Englishman became his mentor. “He was the one who first described the ‘perfect knight’ … let’s call him Richard.”
He added that most of those at the meeting “were successful entrepreneurs, business or political leaders”.
A Scotland Yard source said Breivik was not thought to have visited Britain this year, but police were “making inquiries into any possible links to British extremists and liaising with the Norwegian authorities”.
MI5 is not currently involved in tracking down Right-wing extremists but sources admitted the attacks could force a change of tactics. One of the largest arms caches found in recent years in England was in the possession of a Right-wing terrorist in Yorkshire two years ago.
Breivik claimed to have had online conversations with members of the English Defence League and urged “them to use conscious strategies”. However, he dismissed the group as “naive fools” for refusing to sanction violence.
The EDL issued a statement saying: “We can categorically state that there has never been any official contact between him and the EDL.”
Breivik also wrote of using dum-dum bullets to cause maximum injury, and surgeons confirmed so many of his victims died because he had used similar ammunition.
Dr Colin Poole, from Ringriket Hospital in Honefoss, north-west of Oslo, said: “These bullets more or less exploded inside the body.”
Breivik even harboured ambitions of acquiring a nuclear weapon to hold Western governments to ransom and discussed the merits of using biological and chemical weapons to kill up to two million people.
A Knight Templar rides into battle in this 1847 engraving. Photograph: Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Li/Alamy | guardian.co.uk, 24 July 2011 "Pass notes No 3,014: The Knights Templar – A Mexican drug gang has assumed a name last heard during the Crusades"
by Sarah Carabott
Anders Behring Breivik, the 32-year-old man behind the Norwegian massacre that left at least 92 people dead on Friday, claimed Malta was among the countries “he had the privilege to experience”.
Included in his list of 24 countries, mainly northern European states, are a few “exotic” destinations such as Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, China, Mexico, Cyprus and Malta.
It is unclear, however, whether Mr Breivik, described as a far right, Christian fundamentalist, visited Malta as part of his fascination with the knights.
In a 12-minute YouTube video, “Knights Templar 2083”, which was posted along with a 1,500-page manifesto six hours before the massacre, Mr Breivik recycles the iconography of the crusades into a vision of the future that sees Christians having to fight Muslims once again.
He now faces charges related to the killing of at least 85 young people attending a summer camp organised by the ruling Labour party on Utoeya island and the simultaneous bombing of the government quarter in downtown Oslo which left another seven people dead.
The YouTube video is a rant on the rise of cultural Marxism and Islamic colonisation.
The video includes quotes by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the Norwegian based “Jihadi ideologue” Mullah Krekar, while another shot depicts a bloody profile of a fair-haired girl, captioned: “Has your daughter, sister or girlfriend experienced cultural enrichment by the local Muslim community yet?”
In section three, Hope, a clip reads “Onward, Christian Soldiers! Because in only 14 years, by 2025, a majority of our Western European capitals will be Muslim cities, just as Marseille became majority Muslim in 2010! And in only 39 years, by 2050, this will be the fate of our countries as well! Unless we manage to defeat the ruling Multiculturalist Alliance!”
The video ends with images of knights during battle and a photo of Mr Behring Breivik himself in military uniform decorated with badges of merit including one that looks like a Maltese cross.
On the local far right site vivamalta.org, the Norwegian massacre attracted a lot of criticism.
The group’s leader, Norman Lowell, dismissed the gunman as a “poor patsy Jew lover. He is Zionistically, fanatically anti-Muslim”. He said the whole manifesto was “nauseatingly pro-Israel”.
Asked whether Mr Behring Breivik had made contact with him while in Malta, Imperium Europa’s founder said he had not.
The rest of the group seemed to toe Mr Lowell’s line, describing the man as “a pawn in a game bigger than he can ever imagine,” while others criticised the media for portraying the killer as a Neo-Nazi or a National Socialist.
Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party disassociated itself from a claim within the manifesto which included a list of European organisations and political parties which the author said were anti-immigration or far right.
The list includes Malta’s Nationalist Party, Imperium Europa, Viva Malta and Azzjoni Nazzjonali.
In a statement, the PN said its “position on immigration is clear — people’s life and dignity supersedes any other interest. The PN celebrates diversity in customs, cultures and skin colour and does not punish them.
“The Nationalist government implemented and will continue to implement this in practice especially when faced with situations of human tragedies, of people fleeing terror, wars and famine.”
Perhaps it is time for the Telegraph to issue a retraction to its kneejerk publication in which it automatically cast blame on Islamists and other “eastern” terrorists-by-default.
Because according to just released info, they could not have been more wrong, and it is the reaction to precisely this type of prejudice that will never facilitate bridging frayed relations between disparate cultures. Anyway, so much for prejudiced speculation and/or lies about some Islamist organization taking the blame for the events in Norway today.
Here is the truth:” VG has received confirmation from several independent sources that it was Anders Behring Breivik, who was arrested by armed police after the mass killings of Utøya Friday. VG was also present when the emergency squad took action against the flat 32-year-old susceptible west of Oslo. Several foreign media have also named Breivik as the perpetrator.” More on his motives: “A childhood friend of Breivik says to VG Nett that he should have been right-wing in the late 20’s, and posted a series of controversial opinions on Facebook.” And the kicker, for all the bigots out there: he was an ultra nationalist who hated Islam. Today’s tragic events were merely the outburst of deranged and very much troubled Loughner, McVey-like psychophath. And nothing more.
In online debates he makes his mark as a well-read, and one with strong opinions about Norwegian politics. He promotes a very conservative opinions, which he also called nationalist. He expresses himself strongly opposed to multiculturalism – that cultural differences can live together in a community.
He has had many posts on the site Document.no, an Islam-critical site that publishes news and commentary.
In one of the posts he states that politics today no longer revolves around socialism against capitalism, but that the fight is between nationalism and internationalism. He expressed clear support for the nationalist mindset.
He also commented on the Swedish news articles, where he makes it clear that he believes the media have failed by not being “NOK” Islam-critical.
There is more in the full article here but the gist is clear: this is a case where blaming Islamist or Jihadist jingoism is about as far from the truth as possible.
Does anyone know what Operation Sunshine is, or was? It is, or was, an MI6 operation in Cyprus back in 1959. The details are revealed in the enlightening research of Stephen Dorril under the title “MI6-Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service.”
The summary is as follows: Cyprus was drawn into ethnic conflict in the late 1950s. Armed, right-wing Greek bands were carrying out attacks against British rule on the island and against Turkish civilians – something that would be named as an attempt at ethnic cleansing in today’s world. In response, Turkey secretly helped an embryonic resistance among Turkish Cypriots, organizing and arming them.
The Brits decided to take effective steps. MI6 started to tap some VIP telephones, relying on the cutting-edge technology of the day in order to prevent further killings and provide a basis for a settlement between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The names included the Greek leader, Archbishop Marakios III. While eavesdropping on Makarios’ lines in order to obtain some political and military information, they recorded some other stuff by mistake – “Rather unusual homosexual proclivities,” as described by the book.
That was in 1958 and when Makarios resisted signing an agreement with Turkish Cypriots under the guarantee of Britain, Turkey and Greece in 1959 in Zurich, he had a visitor in his hotel room with some information to share. Makarios changed his mind overnight, came down to the hotel lobby where his Turkish counterpart Fazıl Küçük was waiting and signed the first treaty on Cyprus which lead the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960.
That was Operation Sunshine. That is a part of the background story about how the Republic of Cyprus with Makarios as the president and Küçük as the deputy president was established.
That British-made fragile structure began to fall apart a few years later, ultimately leading to theTurkish military intervention which divided Cyprus into two in 1974.
Being happy with the status quo, Ankara did almost nothing other than support the declaration of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, of which only Turkey recognizes.
Turgut Özal was the first Turkish leader who talked about a “bi-zonal, bi-communal, federal system” in the 1980s. In the mid-1990s, Turkey silently distanced itself from that formula, which was not adopted by the Greeks anyway.
Under the Justice and Development Party, or AK Parti, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan adopted a U.N.-backed reunification strategy, which was rejected by the Greek Cypriots in 2004. The European Union’s subsequent admittance of the Republic of Cyprus (officially representing the separated Turks in the north as well), made Erdoğan upset, like many of the Turks.
Now Erdoğan is going back to Özal’s federal model and is threatening whomever by starting to support two separate states on the island, risking Turkey’s relations with the EU.
That brings us to the threshold of a series of very interesting events in the coming months in the eastern Mediterranean.
The Prime Minister David Cameron has issued a statement on the events in Norway.
