Anders Behring Breivik – ostensibly writing under the name “Andrew Berwick, London” – demonstrated in a manifesto disseminated electronically shortly before the bombing and shootings in Norway took place, on July 22, 2011, that he holds extremist right-wing views and that multiculturalism and the spread of Islam are issues of primary concern to him.
The manifesto is entitled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, and appears to have been written from the outset in English. Its presumed author writes: “I have spent several years writing, researching and compiling the information and I have spent most of my hard-earned funds in this process (in excess of 300,000 Euros). I do not want any compensation for it as it is a gift to you, as a fellow patriot.”
The "process" includes preparations for the attacks.
A person commenting on the blog posted July 23, 2011, by Blake Hounshell on “Passport, A Blog by the Editors of Foreign Policy” notes that the year 2083 would mark the 400th anniversary of the date (1683) that the Ottoman Empire was pushed back from further incursions into Europe at the Battle of Vienna.
Whether this reflects the comment-maker’s knowledge of history or courage to wade through the 1516-page 2083 document where this may perhaps be stated, is not explained. Page 1295 of the document does mention that phase three of a European Civil War will play out between 2070 and 2083, after which a new European Federation could be constructed.
Andrew Berwick is ostensibly an anglicized version of Anders Breivik, who, according to the UK Daily Mail, spent his early childhood in London and, in 2002, met up there (he says) with fellow members of a newly-founded "Knights Templar" order.
Breivik Court Hearing on July 25, 2011
Reuters reports that Breivik’s lawyer, Geir Lippestad, told Norway’s TV2 news: "He [Breivik] has said that he believed the actions were atrocious, but that in his head they were necessary," adding that his client had expressed willingness to provide further elucidation at a court hearing scheduled for Monday, July 25, 2011.
Breivik, who had been saying via his lawyer that he acted alone but at the court hearing on July 25 spoke of receiving help from two other "cells," detonated an apparently self-fabricated car bomb in front of the downtown Oslo government building which houses the office of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, killing what the police are saying on July 25, 2011, are eight people and injuring more. Stoltenberg, a member of the left-leaning Labor Party, was Prime Minister in 2000-2001 and now again since 2005. He was not in the building at the time.
The island, Utoeya, not far from Oslo, where Breivik went after the bombing and shot dead what Norwegian police are presently saying is 69 people (originally announced as 86; adjusted thereafter) mostly aged 14 through early twenties, was the site of a Labor Party summer camp.
A specific target apparently was former Labor Party Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who visited the camp that day, but she had left by the time the suspected killer arrived.
The Labor Party actively supports multiculturalism, and Norway is considered an example of a relatively successful multicultural society. The backgrounds of many of the youth camp attendees reflected that. In his manifesto, Breivik calls multiculturalists "Marxists" and "traitors."
Breivik Photographs Yield Clues
Further insight into what was going on inside Breivik’s head is provided by a series of photographs appearing at the end of the manifesto. They have been widely reproduced, but the large-size versions on the site of the International Business Times offer compelling detail.
Breivik is shown wearing Masonic dress, including apron and white gloves, and a gold-braided military uniform with various crosses on collar insignia and medals, and shoulder sleeve insignia of a sword with a hilt shaped like a cross piercing through a skull.
He is also shown pointing a gun and wearing a Skins brand compression suit to which he has added an arm patch flanked by the words “Marxist Hunter” and reading in part: “Multicults Traitor Hunting Permit.”
It shall be up to experts in military, other paraphernalia, and distinctions to identify the components of these get-ups, but suffice it to say that the costumes are clearly intended to cast Breivik in the light of top honcho—a blend of king, dictator, general, knight of grand and ancient orders cum contemporary action hero.
In any case, Breivik was no stranger to dressing up, and witnesses report that he was wearing a policeman's uniform during the Utoeya shootings.
Other photos making the media rounds show the blonde, blue-eyed 32-year-old in civilian garb. In one shot, he wears the casual elegant look of an apparently affluent man, his shirt collar up under a Lacoste sweater. His pose is self-conscious, reminiscent of a bodybuilder’s pose geared to show off to best advantage his fit, 183 cm (6 foot) physique.
In another portrait, he wears a formal dark suit under a camel-colored overcoat – a look ubiquitous with successful businessmen worldwide, and here accessorized by a silver/grey tie with a black motif that looks as if it might be from the Freemason Store.
An Independent Businessman
That it was important to Breivik to create the image of a successful businessman we also know from the manifesto: 300,000 euros, or the equivalent of $431,000, is not an insignificant sum (although in detailed cost run-downs in that document of the expenses involved in preparing for the July 22, 2011, operation, he points out he also had to sell personal belongings to help finance the venture).
In a Breivik Facebook profile—now taken down, but available at this writing in PDF on a New Zealand site—he is listed as the director of his own business, Breivik Geofarm. The German newspaper Die Welt reports that Breivik claimed in an Internet forum to have made his first million by age 24, with his own computer company.
The UK newspaper The Telegraph points out, however, that: “[Norwegian] government records suggest that despite his management qualifications, [Breivik’s] early attempts at business were a failure until he established Breivik Geofarm in eastern Norway for the cultivation of ‘vegetables, melons and tubers’." Breivik attended Oslo Commerce School.
He also took courses online. On the Facebook page purporting to be Breivik's, his college qualifications are listed as: “MPSC, B.B.A,” with the explanatory note: “Approximately 14,500 hours of study equivalent to B.B.A, M.P.S, MHist + approx. 3000 hours in micro and macro finance, religion+.”
Registration of a farm business, and buying or renting a farm, meant that Breivik could order relatively large quantities of fertilizers and chemicals that can be used to make bombs. Although at least one of the orders did flash across the authorities' radar screens, it did not send off alarm bells because of the nature of Breivik's business.
Facebook and Twitter Accounts Opened Just Days Before the Rampage
Breivik supposedly opened a Facebook account, and a Twitter account, just five days before the events of July 22, 2011. On Facebook, where some of the same photos of him as appear in the manifesto are also posted, he is described as a political conservative, a Christian, single. Gladiator is among his favorite movies, World of Warcraft and Modern Warfare 2 are his preferred computer games, he likes books by William James, Franz Kafka and George Orwell. His interests: political and stock analysis; his activities: founding and developing organizations, reading and writing.
There is but one tweet in Breivik’s purported Twitter account, supposedly containing a quotation from 19th century British philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill: “One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests.” (The version used by Breivik, however, apparently replaced 99 with 100,000.)
More About Breivik the Person
So just who is Anders Behring Breivik, born on February 13, 1979 to a diplomat father with the title “civil economist” and a nurse mother? Various media accounts (which tend to reverse themselves frequently as more facts come to light) say that his parents divorced when he was a baby, that he has four half-brothers and sisters, that after an early childhood in London he was raised in an up-market neighborhood in Oslo, and attended schools in Oslo including one attended by a member of Norway’s royal family. He apparently was exempt from military service, and according to his own manifesto holds a firearms licence. It is said that he enjoys hunting and bodybuilding.
Many reports state that until a short time ago, when he spent more time at his farm, Breivik lived with his mother (other reports suggest he also had a separate Oslo apartment.)
Interviewed by The Telegraph, a British forensic psychologist, Dr. Ian Stephen, highlights the fact that Breivik’s targets on the day symbolized authority, on the one hand, but also: "It is very striking that he chose a children's camp to attack - it may be that he despised or envied the children ... and felt like an outsider, who did not have that aspect to his life." Stephen also says: "There is a sense of a kind of 'mummy's boy' - someone who perhaps couldn't form relationships, and felt set apart from the rest of the world."
One thing is certain— blogger Hounshell is right on when he calls the closing words to the 2083 manifesto “chilling.” So is the build-up to them: from page 1415, the author provides extensive personal information and a log of preparations for the big day, set out in painstaking detail. He seems to have thought he might die in the attacks ("I don't know if martyr counts as a profession," he writes). He ends the document with:
“I believe this will be my last entry. It is now Fri July 22nd, [2011], 12.51.
Sincere regards,
Andrew Berwick
Justiciar Knight Commander
Knights Templar Europe
Knights Templar Norway.”
The bomb exploded about two and a half hours later. Then the killing spree began.
Sources
- Andrew Berwick manifesto, www.zerohedge.com
- www.foreignpolicy.com
- www.reuters.com
- www.ibtimes.com
- www.telegraph.co.uk
- www.dailymail.co.uk
- July 25, 2011, live Oslo police press conference, CNN International
Gail Mangold-Vine - Based in Geneva, Switzerland, Gail Mangold-Vine is the author of two books. Her work as a journalist is published worldwide.
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