Oslo Attacks

Thoughts and prayers to the folks in Oslo. Once again the question is who and why; initial reports said the perp(s) at the youth camp attack were white and Nordic in appearance suggesting a domestic political motive but such doesn't rule out an Arab-Islamic root, perhaps using lily whites. As to claims of credit, terrorist groups have a long history of blaming themselves for various catastrophes--as they have in this one--but it's too early to tell.

Many are mentioning the terror arrests and rulings combined with the Mohammad cartoons as a possible motive but Gaddafi has also recently warned of attacks in Europe and Norway hasn't exactly been shy regarding their participation in Operation Unified Protector. Today's attack apparently affected the Oil Ministry in Oslo among other government offices, which could be interpreted as a warning there as well. An attack coming from Libya would be especially nasty because it might mean Gaddafi has contracted with AQ or similar groups to do his dirty work. Again.

MORE 7/22/11

R.S. McCain is practically live-blogging the event. Lots of info over there.

UPDATE 7/22/11

Apparently they have a suspect, a Norwegian-born white Christian who likes hunting and farms for a living (access to fertilizer). But this comment is interesting in context with Obama's initial reaction:

"it seems like that this is not linked to any international terrorist organizations at all." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because that information had not been officially released by Norway's police.

"It seems it's not Islamic-terror related," the official said. "This seems like a madman's work."

"Seems like"? Well, that's conclusive. Also, didn't know there was a distinction between a suicide jihadist and a crazy Norwegian right winger when it comes to blowing innocents up, but apparently this guy believes only the latter qualifies as 'madman'. By the way, in Obama's statement about the attack he said the following:

"I wanted to personally extend my condolences to the people of Norway. And it's a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring. And so we have to work cooperatively together both on intelligence and in terms of prevention of these kinds of horrible attacks.

"I remember fondly my visit to Oslo and how warmly the people of Norway treated me. And so our hearts go out to them, and we'll provide any support we can to them as they investigate these occurrences."

So right off the bat he made the international connection, yet now we have officials saying it 'seems like' there is no international connection. So much for the caution about jumping to conclusions. It's also nice to know Obama sends his condolences and was treated well by the white people in Norway, but what about the rest of us? The president is supposed to extend condolences from the United States government, not just himself.

Many questions, such as why a jihadi group took initial credit (the mere act of taking credit for such carnage shows just how grisly those bastards are) so this story is far from told. One effective way for Islamists to topple a government might be to recruit and/or help a lone wolf extremist from either ideological side in an effort to foment a civil divide. Just look at the USA. But on the surface it looks like a right wing nutjob.

MORE 7/23/11

The media is running with the Christianist, anti-Muslim angle. Not sure if it's due to his Facebook entry or other online conversation or something the police have released, but it probably doesn't matter. No doubt they won't point out that, unlike fundamentalist Muslims basing their attacks on passages in the Quran, there is nothing in the New Testament that would support such a heinous act. Nothing whatsoever.

Perhaps we'll soon hear his rationale--maybe he was targeting the Labour Party socialists to wake them up over immigration and the failure of multiculturalism in the EU, something also mentioned by Sarkozy, Merkel, and Cameron.

LAST 7/23/11

According to the Telegraph, from one of the island survivors:

"The first thing he did was to shoot the first cute girl he saw," he said.

And he supposedly lived with his mother. Sounds like the common thread shared with other mass-murdering maniacs has been found.