Terror Attack on Norway and the Norwegian Labour party

The situation is unfolding as we speak; the police confirms that 1-2 bombs in a / more van(s) exploded in the governmental streets of downtown Oslo. At least two killed and fifteen wounded. It was a really powerful blast judging from the number of blocks affected. Strangely enough, the bomb(s) hit(s) at a time when there’s normally few people in that particular area.

A couple of hours later we’re hearing that one or more person(s) disguised as police officers went to Utøya, an island not far from Oslo city, where hundreds of youngsters are gathered in local youth chapters of the Norwegian Labour party. Apparently, this person or these persons have opened fire on the unsuspecting kids, and four have been shot. Terrified kids are hiding in the bushes or trying to swim to the main land. Military police have entered the island, but shots are still heard on the mainland. My thoughts to the deceased and their families.

I’ve checked most of my peeps, and everyone’s alright and out of harm’s way. The police advices the Oslo public to stay indoors and avoid large masses of people. The situation may not be over, but I hope it is!

Picture from downtown Oslo, Norway, 22nd of July 2011. Courtesy of NRK.no
Picture by nrk.no

EDIT 7:10 p.m.
The police reports one person is apprehended on Utøya.

EDIT 8:30 p.m.
Unconfirmed reports from Utøya says that witnesses report 25-30 dead. There are confirmed 7 dead in the blast downtown and some 15 severely wounded.

EDIT 9:30 p.m.
Police reports that 10 people were shot and killed on Utøya, several more seriously wounded. The perpetrator has been captured and the two events have been linked. writes that he was apparently a Caucasian male, but no one has confirmed it yet. Speculations are ripe on slashdot whether it could be neo-nazis and not the immediate suspect Al Qaeda. Lady C left for work not an hour ago, tending the night shift at her hospital; but she’s on emergency call in case they have to move patients to make room for wounded at the central hospital.

While Barack Obama sends his condolences to the Norwegian people, I am truly moved by the comments from Oslo’s mayor (ordfører) Fabian Stang: «It is truly hard to believe that anyone could so completely lack respect for the sacrosanctness of human life as displayed today. But it also makes me think that ‘They will not win. We will only grow stronger.’ And while people would expect a turn for the worse in a society struck by terror, I remain an optimist.» It is important to not allow the Great Fear or Terrible Anger to poison the root of a beautifully naive and happy country, let’s keep a level head, and not lash out in anger or persecute each other from fear.

EDIT 11:20 p.m.
A press release going on right now confirms that the man captured is a 32 year old ethnic Norwegian, but no statement yet as to any motive. They suspect that there is only one perpetrator. The number of casualties from the bombing downtown was 7 killed and 10 badly wounded. The number of dead on Utøya is still unknown, and rising as dead bodies wash ashore on the main land.

EDIT Saturday, 03:00 a.m.
According to Norwegian television channel TV 2 the perpetrator is Anders Behring Breivik, member of the free mason group Søilene (the columns), and a conservative christian. He may be a member of a neo-nazi party. He’s got a supervillain thing going:

Anders Behring Breivik, courtesy of TV2
Source: TV 2

All of this reminds me of the school shooting in Finland 2007. International experts agree that the shooting on-foot does not resonate clearly with the modus operandi of Al Qaeda. They would attack the Norwegian state, but it’s pretty far fetched to believe they would attack the Norwegan Labor Party’s youth organization on foot. The way we saw tragedy unfold today is the mark of a mad man, not just a fanatical islamist, but a true conservative Christian asshole. Maybe this could be the end of the War on terror. Maybe this is the mirror, the sacrifice we need, to begin to think clearly in this mess of poverty vs. riches contrived in a soap opera of "Islam vs. Christianity".

I am an atheist.

I think Allah, God and Jehova take turns to eat severe cock. They love the cock, and their believers shower in the filth of holy scriptures. Scriptures are mere accounts and explanations, not a true image of reality. I blaspheme to invoke your hardest reaction. It is deep within you, as you are brainwashed to think a holy deity would command these atrocities. Maybe two of you will recognize truth in my words, and the rest can go fuck yourselves. With tears in my eyes for these kids today, I really don’t care.

I believe in mankind, I believe in the freedom of our existence and the ultimate responsibility that places upon us all, I believe in the universal ideas that carry us above the man-made images of gods in recognition of the truth. And if truth is a true God then I embrace this true God too, as part of the Universe or as the Universe itself. But I cannot accept religion and the gods of religions. Religion is just the excuse a state needs to go to war, it’s just the tool a poor politician needs to feed on anger or fear, it’s merely an instrument for those in power to stay in power. I wipe my sore ass with pages of the Bible, passages of the Qur’an and words of the Talmud. It is not truth, and it is not God. The incredibly endless value of human life far exceeds the barren words of priests, imams and rabbis, not to mention the far outdated and ignorant phrases thereof. They are not eternal, they do not live on, they are mere words of the past remembered. I mourn the young lives lost in Norway today, and all the lives lost world-wide these last twelve hours. Don’t twist it into politics, when we know that madness is the cause behind it, terrorism or otherwise.

EDIT Saturday, noon
There was a press conference after I went to bed, and the sheer scale of these horrific acts of violence has yet to dawn on most of us. There are so far 84 confirmed killed on Utøya, mostly young people and children, 91 killed in total. The police are confident they have caught the perpetrator, but the investigation has just started. It’s just terrible.

EDIT Saturday 2:50 pm
The police has arrested a second man who was hiding among the survivors at a hotel, possibly a second gunman. I’m thinking about going downtown to see for myself, but please don’t interrupt the ongoing investigation of the police and fire men of Oslo.

12 thoughts on “Terror Attack on Norway and the Norwegian Labour party

  1. It is heartbreaking and senseless. I would like to drop kick all fundamentalist wackos (christians, jews, and muslims alike) into a big pit and bury them, let the rest of us get on with living and loving and learning. So sorry that all the innocent lives were lost today. I followed it all day… it almost feels like 9/11 in the strangeness and tragedy of it all.

    Lest you lose all hope, there are those among us who believe there is no higher god than Love, and this man did not have love in his heart. Religion, yeah, I guess take it or leave it. Religion is an affectation that, if subverting its true purpose, should be thrown away, discarded. Love is where it’s at, and if you ain’t got it, you’re wrong.

  2. Yes, that’s true. Love is what we need now more than ever. I was writing in response to a lot of hypocritical debates going on in Norway right now, and was really frustrated.

    This is not about religion or politics. It’s the act of one or two fascists. It doesn’t matter if they are Christian, Muslim or Jewish; they are simply fascists.

  3. I’m an agnostic, and I believe religions should be abolished mainly because people tend to think that theirs is the “true” religion. Besides, they do more than good.

  4. I should explain what I meant here. It is not somebody’s personal deity I attacked but the construct of the systematic church bureaucracy and its rightly ascribed monstrous qualities. Of course, both having the same three-letter name doesn’t make that easy to remember always..

    I wanted to say FU to all those who’d try to capitalize “religiously” on the dreadful event. My teacher’s son was shot down in cold blood on Utøya for chrissakes.

  5. Does it imply that people have waged wars for Santa Claus or does it only concern Middle-Eastern mono-theistic and pre-capitalistic faiths? I mean, the war on terror (War in Afghanistan) is it fought for the Middle Eastern God that is equal to the Jewish and Muslim God, or is it a special Santa Claus deity of Capitalism, hence the military industrial complex?

  6. Perhaps that’s the problem.. perhaps we should build a new, better (and portable!) religion that far outruns the old three monotheist faiths without a sweat, so we could just declare war on those three until death.

    That way, the monotheistic faiths would have a common enemy, and thus find it better to overcome their petty differences..?

    It’s been tested in American foreign policy since the 2nd world war!

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