What happened in Norway today? The answer is still not clear. Several government workers died in a bomb explosion at the main government office buildings in downtown Oslo; several teenagers were apparently shot to death at a Labor Party youth camp on an island called Utøya. The initial assumption by many was that this was an act of Islamic terrorism. Then the police announced that they had arrested a 32-year-old suspect who, they emphasized with what seemed like relief or even joy, was a tall, blond ethnic Norwegian (one police spokesman even called him an “ethnic Norwegian Norwegian,” a turn of phrase that Norwegians would describe as “smør på flesk” – i.e., putting butter on bacon, or, as we’d say in English, gilding the lily). They insisted that the suspect (although they described him not as a suspect but as a “perpetrator”) had no connection to a terrorist group, though when asked about other connections he might have, they seemed to dodge the question. Is this Norway’s Oklahoma City rather than its 9/11? Or is this tall blond 32-year-old, say, a Muslim convert whose religious affiliation Norway’s leaders would prefer not to divulge so quickly?
We’ll have to wait and see…
ALSO READ: Perpetrator IDed in Norway attacks?
He may be a man tired of the socialist political correctness and immigration policies of his gov’t.
I know I am and I’ve never been there.
I get you there, “Dial C” — I’m worried Obama’s going to let the government take over my Medicare. Still I think you might want to rephrase a tad — you nearly sound like you’d blow up Oslo too. Leave nuttiness for the nuts.
“let the government take over my Medicare.”
Um, you’re a little late there. By about 45 years.
“let the government take over my Medicare.”
Not sure if serious… Classic line for mockery of rightwingers, but then you appear to identify yourself as an actual rightwinger later.
I bet 100 carbon credits (that’s hot air worth nothing) the perpetrator is formerly connected to the political party, and that his motives are personal. Maybe his family is connected. Wouldn’t be surprised he attended that camp in the past. There may be politics involved, but they will be as murky as those of Jared Loughner. If he is anti-Labor party the proof of it will be more conspiracy thinking than upset at specific policies.
Could be a “blue eye” for AQ. Could be somebody important’s son.
Or perhaps it’s more like Norway’s Beslan–at least the incident with the camp and the children.
Appearances not withstanding if this guy isn’t Towelish I’ll eat my hat.
When I heard that a bombing and shooting happened concurrently I thought it would be a native or native convert because jihadis are not normally that competent.
My bet is still on him being a convert because lone killers don’t normally use car bombs. That sort of thing is almost always political and with the nature of the second target I think that much is all but confirmed. The most active political terrorist group is currently Islam so that is still where the money is.
Killers don’t usually slaughter children as if they were hunting animals, either. That is a purely islamic trait, as they believe that children of Kaffirs (sp?) are not human.
I think we should break the windows of all hallal butchers and shariah compliant financiers in this country to send a point. Ideally we could coordinate, and send a strong message by breaking windows across the country on the same day.
A lot of organization, but maybe by early November this could be arranged?
Something about this stinks.
Out of nowhere, this Norwegian uses every AQ trick, and then it gets revealed that he hits quite literally every one of the left’s buttons for who they think the real terrorists are?
I mean, a combination of Mumbai, Madrid and Beslan, and his bio is a video-game-playing conservative white nationalist christian?
The world’s officially lost it when reality sounds like a fringe conspiracy theory.
///The world’s officially lost it when reality sounds like a fringe conspiracy theory.///
Yes, some days it must suck a lot worse than others to be a pinheaded racist conspiracy theorist, mustn’t it?
And only last week, a Norwegian court ordered to deport an islamist leader. Repercussian have been threatened since then.
Another odd connection with islam. It is easy to find the story I saw (sorry — no link) about Norway being host to a large number of iranians lately, searching for materials to be used in nuclear weapon-making. Just one more islamic connection in a case that has many.
P.S. Hasn’t the threat of a “blue-eye,” as someone else said, been a constant from islamists (along with the notorious surgically-placed explosives) for awhile now?
Actually, Bruce, it looks like he’s a follower of yours. But you would never shoot a child in the water begging for his life, would you? Not a white child, certainly. http://bildr.no/view/933067
fnarf rather proves the point that this suspect gives leftists a boner
Wow, Fnarf, you have all the popular delusions in full bloom, don’t you?
Fnarf is absolutely right. Breivik wasn’t an Islamist like the 9/11 hijackers, he was a Christian. He wasn’t anti-government or anti-taxes like Timothy McVeigh (in fact, he said “the argument of socialism vs capitalism is over”). He posted all over the Internet about the dangers of multiculturalism and Islamic immigrants. If he wasn’t directly influenced by Bruce Bawer, they at least had the same worldview.
Let’s not get carried away with the media reports at the moment. Initial reports out of Arizona, Ft. Hood, and (yes) even 9/11 were very confused and contradictory. In the next few days we’ll get more reliable info– don’t be like the left and jump the gun with the blame game.
We really don’t have the necessary information right now to know much, but it’s hard to believe that one person alone could have done both the bombing (car bombing, so it seems) and the youth camp attack. Whatever this is, there are probably many people involved.
I hope he’s suitably punished, whoever he is or whatever he represents. My heart goes out to the victims.
I look forward to more reportage from Mr. Bawer, he’s the first blogger I searched for when this happened.
Besides this:
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2010/12/07/us-blasts-norways-anti-terror-efforts-justice-minister-rejects-criticism/
which I posted on another thread, I also hope we all remember (and read, if you haven’t) Jayna Davis’s “The Third Terrorist” and don’t bring out the “Timothy-McVeigh-loner” stories.
The elites in Europe DO have a lot to gain by discrediting Geert Wilders, the EDL and others who are pushing back against islamization. All my prayers to the people of Norway, but I fear that a cover-up could only hasten the demise of the freedom Europeans (relatively) enjoy. The joyful “reaching out” to muslims could be disasterous (a mega-mosque in downtown Oslo a few years ahead?)
“We’ll have to wait and see.” Why then does Mr. Bawer find it necessary to insinuate that the suspect is a convert to Islam? On what basis does Mr. Bawer claim that the reports about the suspect being from Norway are tinged with “relief” and “joy”? Is he interested in evidence?
oh. I thought this article would be about Terry Nichols and his trip to the Philippines where he met with Al Qaeda. Apparenthly the answer is, yes, this is their Oklahoma City bombing.
Neither 9/11 or OKC: Reichstag Fire. I see that Norway’s own ‘Marinus Van der Lubbe’ has been arrested. What a surprise. Our Justice Department was right: white men are the world’s terrorists.
in Oklahoma wasn’t there an arab Iraqi man who got out of the van with McVey?
apparently the justice department didn’t waNT TO FOLLOW THAT LEAD.
Or it might be Norway’s Tucson. Considering how much was misreported in the 24 hours after the Loughner shootings–where it went from ‘targets on a Palin website’ were to blame to the truth of a deeply crazy man with a gun–we need to let the dust settle (bad choice of words).
I do suspect that liberals are feeling relief that their dreaded bogeyman, the White Christian Male, was the murderer. Using McVeigh over and over, with occasional reference to a clinic bomber, was getting stale.
So true, Jim. It was getting downright embarrassing for them. They must be thrilled with the slaughter to bolster their claims.
Don’t expect any reference to Terry Nichols’ connections with Al Qaeda in the Philippines or any of the other connections of the OKC bombing that were made to Islamic terrorisism long before 911 and anyone had a clue exactly what they meant.
I do predict, though I may be wrong, that in the long run, this will shed new light on the OKC bombing rather than embolden the small minded who get a superiority boost playing the blame western civilization and white Anglos game. This kind of cruel barbarism will not be excused by silly liberal nonsense.
“So true, Jim. It was getting downright embarrassing for them. They must be thrilled with the slaughter to bolster their claims.”
What a loathesome statement. Stating the truth isn’t a celebration, no matter how much you wish to ignore and denigrate the messenger. The comments here are just mind boggling.
” Or is this tall blond 32-year-old, say, a Muslim convert whose religious affiliation Norway’s leaders would prefer not to divulge so quickly?” The state of denial Mr Bawer must be wrestling with right now. It must be quite galling for him to realize that these acts of terror were by someone who shares many of his own misguided beliefs…
What “truth” are you stating?
I rest my case.
Donolectic you say, ” Stating the truth isn’t a celebration, no matter how much you wish to ignore and denigrate the messenger.” and “I rest my case”
You claim I am loathsome because “stating a truth is not a celebration.” But the only one stating a truth in this exchange is Jim, who noted that liberals’ use of McVeigh over and over, with occasional reference to a clinic bomber, was getting stale.
What I think is loathsome is people who look away from the daily atrocities of car bombings, beheading, Beslan, 911, Cole, London, Madrid, bombing girls schools, murdering their teachers, ripping out their genitals, rape as a weapon of war, the constant murder of Christian in Muslim lands, sending children to war with plastic keys, etc., etc, etc., Atrocities are committed DAILY, several times per day, in the name of Islam. Yet liberals love to trot out the ancient OKC bombing, while ignoring Terry Nichols’ contact with Al Qaeda in the Philippines and other possible Islamic terrorist connections.
But then, you’ve made no point, stated no truths nor rested any case, so we really have nothing more to discuss.
Unfortunately, it seems to me that the Norwegian “authorities’” joy and relief at finding that Anders Behring Breivik’s an “ethnic Norwegian Norwegian” lets them and the leftist, socialist politicians continue the charade that all cultures are equal.
Allowing the portrayal of Behring Breivik as a “Christian” and a “conservative” — “a Christian fundamentalist” (who likes watching Dexter and True Blood and playing Warcraft?) — means that no Muslims will be offended. How convenient for the chattering classes. How inconvenient, even dangerous, for the citizens of Norway. To think that a blue-eyed, blond-haired ethnic Norwegian Norwegian is likely to be the only fall-guy for an evil scheme which seems unlikely to have been perpetrated by just one person seems obscene.
For the past 120 years Marxists have been murdering innocent people and destroying their countries. Right now in India Marxists are murdering Indians and destroying trains to create a “Revolution.” In Sri Lanka Marxists are suicide bombing and murdering Indians.
The scabs on the People of Cambodia have not healed from the mass murdering Marxists, the Khymer Rouge. Mass Graves still litter the wheat forests and plains of the Ukraine. Every country has Marxists destroying their property, freedoms, culture, heritage, and individual rights. Now when someone decides enough is enough the Activist Press gets in an uproar. I lost my family and friends to Marxists in the Soviet Union. Many were sent off to “prison” and never heard from again. After two centuries of mass murder plenty of people are saying enough is enough.
I’m sorry for your loss. You are right that most people can now see what is happening. Enough IS enough.
What’s the difference? Other then if it is a Christian then the narrative is “lone deranged madman” or if it is Muslim the narrative is “Global Jihad is taking over, the Muslims are coming to get ya”
Mr. Bawer, when will you ever stop?
You claim to “cry for the victims” of this massacre, and yet you double down on the insistence that muslims and the Labour Party of Norway are to blame for the actions of your idelogical twin.
You have been advocating for the Progress Party as the only viable political option for Norway in the future, because they are the only ones advocating for a “sensible” approach to immigration. Well, now your disciple has killed seventy-something of the next generation of this country´s political elite, and severely traumatised the rest, perhaps paving the way for the right-wingers ten-fifteen years from now. Aren´t you happy?
You may pretend all you want that you are as shocked and appalled as the rest of us that something like this could ever happen in this country, but your writings since the massacre occured show that you have learned nothing whatsoever.
Yesterday, 100.000 people marched past my window here in Stavanger carrying roses and torches; in Oslo the number approximated 250 000. This is us – this is how we do it. Feel free to sit behind your curtains in Oslo, cowering in fear of the Islam Menace – we prefer to meet, talk, cry and be with one another.
There is another way, and these past few days, we have found it.
You do not seem to understand anything Bruce Bawer has ever said. He would be the last person to stay home “cowering in fear”. He was telling the truth about how massive Muslim immigration is wrecking your formerly safe, tolerant, liberal, gay-friendly country (never particularly Jew-friendly though, only a lot worse now for the same reason)long before anyone else dared to. No doubt the streets of Oslo were safe that night because so many people were out mourning; cities are always at their safest after a tragedy like this (in the days follwoing 9/11 New York city was probably the most crime-free city in the world). The rest of the time women, Jews and gay people like Bawer are decidedly less secure. This tragedy changes none of that. The jihadists who burned the flag of yor country in broad daylight in the middle of Oslo and threaten violence regularly are not the ones out there in the streets now carrying candles mourning those murdered kids. They don’t give a f**k about those murdered kids, and the psycho who murdered them, who was no “follower” of Bruce Bawer, has played directly into their hands.
Mr. Bawer, I have been reading you for years, starting with your excellent books Stealing Jesus about the rise of end-of-times Christianity in the US and While Europe Slept, about the abysmal failures and damages of massive Muslim immigration to European countries like Norway. I never got the impression that you were a racist. You seemed to be writing a truth that was painful for someone like you to write. I worried even back then that sooner or later some native racist jutjob – and we all know they exist in Europe, and always have – was going to commit some horrible act of violence, and that the left-wing establishment would then blame truth-tellers like you, and use the violence as a further argument for not talking about, say, the fact that virtually all of the rapes committed in Oslo in recent years have been by non-native Muslim immigrants, or that incidents of anti-Semitic violence and gay-bashing (which I know you and your partner have personally experienced) have risen concurrently with the rise of the Muslim immigrant population and the link is not in fact coincidental – you are told that you must not say and write such things,even though they are true, because, my goodness, someone might get angry! Well, they made me angry, Mr. Bawer, but strangely I and the many hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of other people who have read your words have not committed any violent acts, nor do I have any more desire to do so than before I read your work. I understanding what a heartbreaking and agonizing thing it must be for someone like you to have your name associated with that piece of filth Brevik. But don’t let it get you down forever, and please, do not let it silence you.