Anders Behring Breivik acquired the knowledge to carry out a bomb and shooting rampage on the internet, he told a Norwegian court in 2012. He studied case studies of al Qaeda and other attacks and read more than 600 bomb-making guides.
On day five of his trial in Oslo, the confessed mass killer said he studied the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and Timothy McVeigh’s Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 in particular.
Breivik has admitted to the July 22 attacks that killed 77 in Norway, but pleaded not guilty to criminal charges, saying his victims had betrayed Norway by embracing immigration.
His lack of remorse and matter-of-fact description of weapons and tactics during his testimony have deeply disturbed families of the victims, most of whom were teenagers.
The 33-year-old Norwegian said he was deliberately using “technical” language as a way to keep his composure. These are gruesome acts, barbaric acts he admitted.
A lawyer representing the bereaved, who are watching the proceedings in the Oslo court and in 17 other courtrooms in Norway, asked Breivik why he did not show any empathy for his victims.
I can choose to remove the mental shield, but I am choosing not to do it … because I would not survive. Breivik has admitted to the bombing in Oslo that killed eight people and the shooting massacre at the Labour Party youth camp that left 69 dead.
He claims to belong to an alleged anti-Muslim “Knights Templar” network. Many groups claim part of that name, but prosecutors say they do not believe the group described by Breivik exists.
The main goal of the trial is to figure out whether Breivik is sane or insane. If found insane, he would be committed to psychiatric care for as long as he is considered ill.
If declared sane, Breivik could face a maximum 21-year prison sentence or an alternate custody arrangement that would keep him locked up as long as he is considered a menace to society.
Squirming mass killer Anders Breivik’s links to an extremist Christian order called the “Knights Templar” began to unravel today.
Prosecutors quizzed Breivik on an English mentor who he claimed he met at a founding meeting of the shadowy organization in London.
The killer and three other right-wing fanatics – including a Brit called “Richard” – allegedly met up in the capital in May 2002 – and founded an anti-Muslim network.
It was Richard, known as the lionhearted, who Breivik says inspired him to slaughter 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in Norway on July 22 last year.
But prosecutors, who believe Breivik is insane, rubbished his claims in an Oslo courtroom, challenged him on the group’s existence and questioned whether any such meeting took place. Yes, there was a meeting in London, Breivik insisted.
It’s not something you have made up? prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh countered. I haven’t made up anything. What is in the compendium is correct, he said.
The prosecution did concede that credit card receipts prove he was in London at the time, but maintained the whole episode is a figment of his warped imagination.
He has been held in isolation ever since he killed eight people with a car bomb and shot dead another 69, most of them teenagers, at a summer youth camp on the island of Utoeya on 22 July 2011.
He is currently serving a 21-year sentence, the maximum a court in Norway can impose, though it can be extended for as long as he is deemed a threat.
His lawyers claimed he had been living in a completely locked world and did not wish to be alive any more. They had asked the court to lift restrictions on his correspondence with the outside world.
Mirror / Magnum Libya Intelligence News 2012.
Was Breivik an Libyan agent, counter attacking Europe is revenge of the brutal murder and destruction on Libya by UN/NATO military forces?