Norway attacks: what happened and the implications (new title)
Moderator's Note: Original thread title was 'Oslo explosion: dozens injured, buildings damaged after Norway city blast' and amended next day.
Quote:
A massive explosion rocked central Oslo on Friday, injuring dozens of people and severely damaging government buildings including the Prime Minister’s office.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ity-blast.html
Could it be 'X', 'Y' or 'Z' ?
Two analysts comment on the bombing, without assigning blame: Starts
Quote:
The targeting of Norway should not be a surprise. In 2003, Al Qaeda --- through its current leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri --- first threatened Norway, possibly because of the involvement of Norwegian special forces in Afghanistan. Since then, the Norwegian role in Afghanistan has expanded, although its troops are to be withdrawn later this year.
Ends:
Quote:
Whatever the cause of the explosion, the attack will have widespread ramifications in terms of Norway’s security policies, domestic politics, and in relation to broader European security issues. If Al Qaeda is shown to have some connection to the attack, or even it claims a connection, it will represent at least a small resurgence of the organization under its new leader and potentially a shift to attack more “soft target” countries that are less protected than high profile targets such as the United Kingdom and the United States.
Link:http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/...-al-qaeda.html
In a comment, so not verified by research:
Quote:
On German TV a terrorism expert pointed at an explosion at the Saudi Embassy in Oslo last year, to Norway's participation in the forces fighting against Qaddafi, and to the fact that one of the attacked buildings is Norway's Oil Ministry.
That link refers to a SAAG analysis, a year ago:http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5C...paper3915.html
A different angle, Norway & CT:
Quote:
Norway’s intelligence service had previously been criticised for its failure to keep track of suspected terror cells and the country was felt to be complacent about the prospect of a terror attack, secret cables from the WikiLeaks files reveal.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...or-attack.html
Bombing in Oslo and Massacre on Utoya
I notice that there is no thread on this yet, probably because it is a little too close to home for many of us. Or even home for some of us. The idea of the threat is not to turn what is a tragedy into a case study but to look at what these events mean.
I think this attack in Norway is relevent to this board. A couple of observations while watching the events unfold on tv was that the immediate response was that this was AQ or an AQ linked group. Suggestions were then made that it might be an attack my right wing elements. Knowing very little about white supremacy in Norway and with a quick search on wikipedia yielding nothing, I thought this would be a good place for people to compile info and thoughts. This is indeed a worrying development, far right views and politics have been on the rise in Northern Europe over the last decade but even so such an event was unthinkable.
Are the far right the new threat? Will we see other states cracking down on far right groups, the EDL in England or the various militias in the States.
EDIT: Thanks for the merge.
Wikipedia's aggregate story
Wikipedia seems to be evolving into a rather efficient news aggregator:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks
Implications of Oslo: today's thoughts
Grim day yesterday for Norway, which continues today. It is almost a throwback to the invasion by Hitler's Germany in 1940 for the violence and the realisation when Quisling and his followers came to the fore, assisting the occupation that there was an 'enemy within'.
Much has been written about 'Lone Wolves', notably by Raffaello Pantucci and his website is: http://raffaellopantucci.com/tag/terrorism/ He is ex-IISS and now aligned to Kings College London. He has wisely not yet commented.
The potential for 'Lone Wolves' to develop has always been there, which the USA is more familiar with than Western Europe. Today the speed of moving to planning an attack is faster and the knowledge required easier to find. The extreme right has it's "lunatic fringe", rarely aggressive in Western Europe I say and despite all the bluster it is usually defensive posturing.
The BBC's Oslo correspondent has added a comment on the Norwegian extreme right:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14260195
I am sure many politicians across Europe, particularly where there is an extreme right fringe, will be asking their security agencies for a review of their own national / regional position. There is no reason why that should not be done in the UK, maybe in the USA & Canada?
Governments will normally conduct such a review behind a wall of secrecy. I see no reason why, in the UK, the Home Affairs Select Committee should not hold an open hearing nor that US Congressman who holds hearings on the threat from Muslims.
...and then there's his manifesto...
More precisely, the Israeli press' take on it...
Quote:
Norway massacre suspect aired anti-Muslim, pro-Israel views
(...)
Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian who killed nearly 100 people in a combined terror attack Friday that included car bombings in Oslo and a shooting rampage at an island summer camp, held fiercely anti-Islamic and pro-Israel views, according to a 1,500 page manifesto he uploaded before his killing spree Friday.
(...)
In a jab at left-wing Jews, Breivik writes that pre-war German Jews were disloyal to their country, “at least the so-called liberal Jews, similar to the liberal Jews today that oppose nationalism/Zionism and support multiculturalism. Jews that support multiculturalism today are as much of a threat to Israel and Zionism (Israeli nationalism) as they are to us. So let us fight together with Israel, with our Zionist brothers against all anti-Zionists, against all cultural Marxists/multiculturalists.”
(...)
The manifesto also serves as a call to arms of sorts, in which Breivik lays out his reasons for launching the attack, focusing on what he describes as the importance of nationalism and the growing scourge of Islam in Europe.
Full article found here: http://www.jpost.com/International/A...aspx?id=230762
A good compilation of Brievik's internet ramblings