A reminder of who Anders Behring Breivik is: On July 22, 2011, Anders Behring Breivik disguised himself as a police officer, planted a car bomb that exploded close to government offices in the capital Oslo, killed eight people, then still in uniform, he drove to the island of Utoeya, where a summer youth camp of Norway's governing Labour Party was being held and in a shooting spree that lasted more than an hour, he killed 69 people - mostly teenagers.
Via Gates of Vienna:
Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends a translation of the latest news on Anders Behring Breivik from the Norwegian media. The translator includes this note:
This is an important story, because it shows us that Breivik was taking advantage of various Al Qaeda methods, and that he was thinking along the same lines as other Al Qaeda operatives.
The translated article from today’s VG Nett:
Breivik behaves in accordance with Al Qaeda manuals
During his six-month prison stay, Anders Behring Breivik has behaved in accordance to his own manifesto — which was clearly inspired by Al Qaeda.
Several of the chapters in Breivik’s manifesto resemble the manuals of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.
According to Knut Bjarkeid, the chief warden at Ila Prison, Breivik behaves exactly like he described he would in his 1500-page manifesto.
“Yes, exactly to the letter,” the Ila warden says.
Meeting ban
He recognizes Breivik’s behavior from the Al Qaeda manual on how to behave in captivity, and he believes Breivik is inspired by it.
“Breivik is friendly, he’s interested in other people and he tries to establish relationships,” says Bjarkeid.
As a consequence the prison has issued instructions to its staff not to spend any time alone with him.
“Our staff never spends any time on a one-to-one basis with Breivik. There are always several guards present. All communication with Breivik is recorded, logged and analyzed.”
Breivik’s stay at Ila is regulated by basic rules for high-security prisoners, plus an additional 130 individual rules that the prison has chosen to implement.
CCTV surveillance is one of those security measures. Breivik is, however not kept under CCTV surveillance inside his cell, Bjarkeid emphasizes.
“All contact with Breivik is governed by strict rules. We have decided to set aside normal procedures that would have allowed the staff to use their own judgment. There are procedures that dictate how many guards need to be present outside his cell door whenever he’s let out, and where these guards are to be positioned. There are also procedures that dictate what Breivik can and cannot see in relation to these measures. There are written procedures that we follow when he’s having showers, and when his lawyers are visiting,” the warden says.
“In order to look after our employees’ best interests, we facilitated frequent conversations with the prisons own psychologists in the initial stages.
“The psychologists advised them on how to address Breivik, how to interrupt him and how to end a conversation,” Bjarkeid says.
Uses the network
Franck Orban, a researcher employed by the Correctional Education System, believes that Breivik must have had access to Al Qaeda manuals available on the internet.
“It is difficult to say with a hundred percent certainty whether he has read the manuals for imprisoned jihadists, but several elements of Breivik’s manifesto bears semblance to the Al Qaeda rhetoric.”
“This suggests that he has had access to them,” Orban says.
“As a result, his perception of prisons may have been influenced by that of militant Islamists, which is a paradox, since Breivik’s image of reality is completely different from theirs.”
In his manifesto Breivik describes how to use the time in prison to build an organization and how to recruit fellow prisoners for the “cause”.
This is a well-known strategy used by Al Qaeda all over the world.
“Prison plays an important part in Breivik manifesto. It is an arena where new followers can be recruited. Maybe he envisions a type of community within the prison, but there are no guarantees that he will get to spend that much time with the other inmates,” Orban says.
Two Al Qaeda manuals have been translated into English and posted on the internet.
Both are featured on websites that are hostile to Islam, and which Breivik has visited.
The well-known terrorist researcher Magnus Ranstorp also sees several similarities between Breivik’s manifesto and the strategy employed by Al Qaeda.
“It is highly likely that he has come across these manuals. We can at least conclude that there are several striking similarities,” Ranstorp says to VG.
The Al Qaeda manuals (continue reading at Gates of Vienna, fantastic article)
Interesting.
One of the commenters over at GoV pointed out that terrorist manuals of all ilks have the same basic content -- with AQ's having an emphasis on the will of Allah, of course.
Posted by: Always On Watch | February 03, 2012 at 05:42 AM