Norway attacks: what happened and the implications (new title)

[AdamG]

The Norwegian police have detained one man who is believed to have shot at a youth camp of the Labor Party on the island of Utoya 50 km away from Oslo after the capital was rattled by a bomb attack.

The man is said to have been dressed and to have opened fire with a machine gun; his arrest has not been confirmed by the police.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=130504

[davidbfpo]

Two analysts comment on the bombing, without assigning blame: Starts

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 Since then, the Norwegian role in Afghanistan has expanded, although its troops are to be withdrawn later this year.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:

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:

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:

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

[Bill Moore]

Just because the Jihad websites are excited about the attack doesn't mean they were conducted by Islamists. They may have been two separate groups for each attack with an unlikely synchronization in timing, or both attacks may have been conducted by domestic political extremists. Too early to say at this point. First reports are almost always incorrect.

http://news.yahoo.com/undetonated-ex...213754348.html

Undetonated explosives were found on an island where a gunman killed at least 10 people at a youth camp near Oslo, Norwegian police said on Friday.
Explosives were found on the island," deputy Oslo police chief Sveining Sponheim told reporters. He said a man detained by police was aged 32 and "ethnic Norwegian."