Oslo bombed

[Tooj 17]

The news coverage of the Norway mass-killings was fact-free conjecture

 

I went to bed in a terrible world and awoke inside a worse one. At the time of writing, details of the Norwegian atrocity are still emerging, although the identity of the perpetrator has now been confirmed and his motivation seems increasingly clear: a far-right anti-Muslim extremist who despised the ruling party.

 

Presumably he wanted to make a name for himself, which is why I won't identify him. His name deserves to be forgotten. Discarded. Deleted. Labels like "madman", "monster", or "maniac" won't do, either. There's a perverse glorification in terms like that. If the media's going to call him anything, it should call him pathetic; a nothing.

 

On Friday night's news, they were calling him something else. He was a suspected terror cell with probable links to al-Qaida. Countless security experts queued up to tell me so. This has all the hallmarks of an al-Qaida attack, they said. Watching at home, my gut feeling was that that didn't add up. Why Norway? And why was it aimed so specifically at one political party? But hey, they're the experts. They're sitting there behind a caption with the word "EXPERT" on it. Every few minutes the anchor would ask, "What kind of picture is emerging?" or "What sense are you getting of who might be responsible?" and every few minutes they explained this was "almost certainly" the work of a highly-organised Islamist cell.

 

In the aftermath of the initial bombing, they proceeded to wrestle with the one key question: why do Muslims hate Norway? Luckily, the experts were on hand to expertly share their expert solutions to plug this apparent plot hole in the ongoing news narrative.

 

Why do Muslims hate Norway? There had to be a reason.

 

Norway was targeted because of its role in Afghanistan. Norway was targeted because Norwegian authorities had recently charged an extremist Muslim cleric. Norway was targeted because one of its newspapers had reprinted the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

 

Norway was targeted because, compared to the US and UK, it is a "soft target" – in other words, they targeted it because no one expected them to.

 

When it became apparent that a shooting was under way on Utoya island, the security experts upgraded their appraisal. This was no longer a Bali-style al-Qaida bombing, but a Mumbai-style al-Qaida massacre. On and on went the conjecture, on television, and in online newspapers, including this one. Meanwhile, on Twitter, word was quickly spreading that, according to eyewitnesses, the shooter on the island was a blond man who spoke Norwegian. At this point I decided my initial gut reservations about al-Qaida had probably been well founded. But who was I to contradict the security experts? A blond Norwegian gunman doesn't fit the traditional profile, they said, so maybe we'll need to reassess . . . but let's not forget that al-Qaida have been making efforts to actively recruit "native" extremists: white folk who don't arouse suspicion. So it's probably still the Muslims.

 

Soon, the front page of Saturday's Sun was rolling off the presses. "Al-Qaeda" Massacre: NORWAY'S 9/11 – the weasel quotes around the phrase "Al Qaeda" deemed sufficient to protect the paper from charges of jumping to conclusions.

 

By the time I went to bed, it had become clear to anyone within glancing distance of the internet that this had more in common with the 1995 Oklahoma bombing or the 1999 London nail-bombing campaign than the more recent horrors of al-Qaida.

 

While I slept, the bodycount continued to rise, reaching catastrophic proportions by the morning. The next morning I switched on the news and the al-Qaida talk had been largely dispensed with, and the pundits were now experts on far-right extremism, as though they'd been on a course and qualified for a diploma overnight.

 

Some remained scarily defiant in the face of the new unfolding reality. On Saturday morning I saw a Fox News anchor tell former US diplomat John Bolton that Norwegian police were saying this appeared to be an Oklahoma-style attack, then ask him how that squared with his earlier assessment that al-Qaida were involved. He was sceptical. It was still too early to leap to conclusions, he said. We should wait for all the facts before rushing to judgment. In other words: assume it's the Muslims until it starts to look like it isn't – at which point, continue to assume it's them anyway.

 

If anyone reading this runs a news channel, please, don't clog the airwaves with fact-free conjecture unless you're going to replace the word "expert" with "guesser" and the word "speculate" with "guess", so it'll be absolutely clear that when the anchor asks the expert to speculate, they're actually just asking a guesser to guess. Also, choose better guessers. Your guessers were terrible, like toddlers hypothesising how a helicopter works. I don't know anything about international terrorism, but even I outguessed them.

 

As more information regarding the identity of the terrorist responsible for the massacre comes to light, articles attempting to explain his motives are starting to appear online. And beneath them are comments from readers, largely expressing outrage and horror. But there are a disturbing number that start, "What this lunatic did was awful, but . . ."

 

These "but" commenters then go on to discuss immigration, often with reference to a shaky Muslim-baiting story they've half-remembered from the press. So despite this being a story about an anti-Muslim extremist killing Norwegians who weren't Muslim, they've managed to find a way to keep the finger of blame pointing at the Muslims, thereby following a narrative lead they've been fed for years, from the overall depiction of terrorism as an almost exclusively Islamic pursuit, outlined by "security experts" quick to see al-Qaida tentacles everywhere, to the fabricated tabloid fairytales about "Muslim-only loos" or local councils "banning Christmas".

 

We're in a frightening place. Guesswork won't lead us to safety.

[Smooth Operator 10]

Death toll has been cut to 76...

 

Ressurections in full swing in Norway?

 

How could they be 20 out on who died on the island? Bizarre

 

Counted some bodies twice apparently.

[Tom 14013]

Ghoulert check your messages please!

[Tooj 17]

http://gunkies.org/blog/?p=91

 

[Tom 14013]

Christ

[Park Life 71]

On a sidenote many of those youngsters killed were part of Norwegian boycott Israel group.

 

 

 

 

"Two days before the Utoya Island massacre, AUF’s (Labour Party’s youth movement) leader Eskil Pedersen gave an interview to the Dagbladet, Norway’s second largest tabloid newspaper, in which he unveiled what he thinks of Israel.

 

In the course of the interview, Pedersen stated that he “believes the time has come for more drastic measures against Israel, and (that he) wants the Foreign Minister to impose an economic boycott against the country.”

 

Pederson went on to say, “The peace process goes nowhere, and though the whole world expect Israel to comply, they do not. We in Labour Youth will have a unilateral economic embargo of Israel from the Norwegian side.”

The AUF Labour Party Youth Movement have been devoted promoters of the Israel Boycott campaign, The Dagbladet newspaper reporting that “The AUF has long been a supporter of an international boycott of Israel, but the decision at the last congress, demands that Norway imposes a unilateral economic embargo on the country and it must be stricter than before.”

[WordPlay 0]

http://www.politicususa.com/en/glenn-beck-...ay-hitler-youth

Certainly frowned upon - bit too far to call it The Hitler Youth/Gestapo considering what the Nazis did to Norway

Edited July 26, 2011 by WordPlay

[sniffer 0]

I was wondering if this so-called camp was just a front for left-wing brainwashing. I wonder if that was why he chose it?

[The Fish 10876]

I was wondering if this so-called camp was just a front for left-wing brainwashing. I wonder if that was why he chose it?

Probably not the best thread for this, sniffer.

[sniffer 0]

I have no idea if that is the case or not.

 

Is it a bit too close to the truth?

[The Fish 10876]

I think your choice of language is slightly inflammatory. The kids that were murdered were the children of members of the left wing party, but I don't think that you should toss phrases like "so-called camp" and "brain washing" else you begin sounding a little like this guy

 

[Meenzer 15561]

Not (just) "the children of", but youth members of the Labour party. Wor lad Eikeland was already a regional youth leader within the party who'd been predicted great things, for example.

 

sniffer's comments aren't even worth stooping to, obviously.

Edited July 27, 2011 by Meenzer

[McFaul 35]

I was wondering if this so-called camp was just a front for left-wing brainwashing. I wonder if that was why he chose it?

I didn't think it possible for you to be any more of a doilum to be honest till I read the above. Perhaps you should query this with one of the parents of the 76 kids eh, see what response you get.

[Guest alex]

Really sniffer, now you've sobered up, have a word with yourself, eh? Are you really that desperate for bites on here?

[sniffer 0]

I was wondering if this so-called camp was just a front for left-wing brainwashing. I wonder if that was why he chose it?

I didn't think it possible for you to be any more of a doilum to be honest till I read the above. Perhaps you should query this with one of the parents of the 76 kids eh, see what response you get.

 

Interesting take. Nobody ask questions about the motives of this madman. Just pull out another box of paper hankies.

 

I'm as horrified as the next man, I'm asking a simple question of why this camp as it was clearly well planned. Did he perceive it as indoctrination? Do these supposed other cells have a similar plan?

[Guest alex]

Slightly more moderate choice of words there. Much more like it

[McFaul 35]

I was wondering if this so-called camp was just a front for left-wing brainwashing. I wonder if that was why he chose it?

I didn't think it possible for you to be any more of a doilum to be honest till I read the above. Perhaps you should query this with one of the parents of the 76 kids eh, see what response you get.

 

Interesting take. Nobody ask questions about the motives of this madman. Just pull out another box of paper hankies.

 

I'm as horrified as the next man, I'm asking a simple question of why this camp as it was clearly well planned. Did he perceive it as indoctrination? Do these supposed other cells have a similar plan?

Still a doilum.

[sniffer 0]

I was wondering if this so-called camp was just a front for left-wing brainwashing. I wonder if that was why he chose it?

I didn't think it possible for you to be any more of a doilum to be honest till I read the above. Perhaps you should query this with one of the parents of the 76 kids eh, see what response you get.

 

Interesting take. Nobody ask questions about the motives of this madman. Just pull out another box of paper hankies.

 

I'm as horrified as the next man, I'm asking a simple question of why this camp as it was clearly well planned. Did he perceive it as indoctrination? Do these supposed other cells have a similar plan?

Still a doilum.

 

Means nowt coming from the likes of you McFool.

[Billy Castell 0]

Sniffer=99p Store LeazesMag.

 

Is it just me or does the loony bloke look a little like that blond wide-faced doctor who does that supersize vs. superskinny, embarrassing bodies etc.?

[WordPlay 0]

Sniffer=99p Store LeazesMag.

 

Is it just me or does the loony bloke look a little like that blond wide-faced doctor who does that supersize vs. superskinny, embarrassing bodies etc.?

Dr Christian Jessen?

 

I think Breivik is more Tim Vine

[Gemmill 44996]

Julian Sands imo.

[Guest alex]

Sniffer=99p Store LeazesMag.

 

Is it just me or does the loony bloke look a little like that blond wide-faced doctor who does that supersize vs. superskinny, embarrassing bodies etc.?

My lass said the same thing, funnily enough.

[Happy Face 29]

I thought he was one of Kraftwerk.

[Billy Castell 0]

I can see the Julian Sands/Tim Vine thing too. Anyone else think Julian Assange (the wikileaks founder) has a slight resemblance to Julian Sands? Something about his eyes.

[sniffer 0]

You'd know all about 99p stores.

 

Isn't that where you do a full shop in blackburn?