Norway suspect wanted European anti-Muslim crusade

OSLO, Norway – The man blamed for the terrorist attacks on Norway's government headquarters and an island retreat for young people 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 he 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," whom he accused of betraying their heritage. It added that they would be punished for their "treasonous acts."

The lawyer for the 32-year-old Norwegian suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, said Sunday that 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 also claims no one helped him.

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, hours later, a gunman opened fire on dozens of young people at a retreat on Utoya island. Police said Sunday that the death toll in the shooting rose to 86.

That brings the number of fatalities to 93, with more than 90 wounded. There are still people missing at both scenes. Police have not released the names of any of the victims.

Police said Sunday that a police officer had been hired to provide security on the island on his own time. It was not clear who hired him or if he was on the island at the time of the attacks.

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. 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 weapon — 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 on Monday.

Geir Lippestad, Breivik's lawyer, 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 would join the investigation on Sunday.

European security officials said Sunday they were aware of increased Internet chatter from individuals claiming they belonged to the Knights Templar group that Breivik refers to 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 also not immediately confirm that they had been aware of 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 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."

Afterward, people sobbed and hugged one another in the streets, as many lingered over the memorial of flowers and candles. The royal couple and prime minister later visited the site of the bombing in Oslo.

More was coming to light Sunday about the man who police say confessed to a car bomb at government headquarters in Oslo and then, hours later, opening fire on young people at an island political retreat.

Both targets were linked to Norway's left-leaning Labor Party. Breivik's manifesto pillories the political correctness of liberals and warns that their work will end in the colonization of Europe by Muslims.

Such fears may derive, at least in part, from the fact that Norway has grown increasingly multicultural in recent years as the prosperous Nordic nation has opened its arms to thousands of conflict refugees from Pakistan, Iraq and Somalia. The Labor Party retreat — which Prime Minister Stoltenberg fondly remembered attending summer after summer himself — reflected the country's changing demographic as the children of immigrants get more involved in politics.

The assaults 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.

"He wanted a change in society and, from his perspective, he needed to force through a revolution," Lippestad, the 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." 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 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 created 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 referenced the former Soviet Union, declaring that the end result of the left's actions would be an "EUSSR."

In London, the leader of Ramadhan Foundation, one of Britain's largest Muslim groups, said mosques are being extra vigilant in the wake of the attacks. Mohammed Shafiq told The Associated Press he was talking to other European Muslim leaders and British police about the need to increase security.

The last 100 pages apparently lay out details of Breivik's social and personal life, including his steroid use and an intention to solicit prostitutes in the days before the attack.

Also Sunday, police carried out raids in an Oslo neighborhood on suspicion of explosives. Police spokesman Henning Holtaas said no explosives were found and no one was arrested.

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

Divers continued to comb the lake waters around the 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 Oklahoma city 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.

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