Background on the island camp

From a Norwegian news service.

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2011/07/22/labours-summer-camp-turns-deadly/

LABOUR’S CAMP TURNS DEADLY

July 22, 2011

Unconfirmed reports were streaming in Friday evening that as many as 30 young members of the Norwegian Labour Party were gunned down and feared dead, victims of a suspected terrorist dressed as a police officer. The shootings began at the party’s annual summer camp on an island in the Tyri Fjord, just a few hours after the Norwegian capital was also struck by a massive and deadly explosion.
[....]
There were more than 600 members of Labour’s youth organization AUF on the island at the time.
[....]
The annual summer camp is viewed as a breeding grounds of sorts for future Labour Party leaders, attracting young and often ambitious future politicians. It also attracts current leaders of the party, known as Arbeiderpartiet (Ap) in Norwegian, and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was scheduled to visit the camp on Saturday. Former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland had been scheduled to visit the camp on Friday, but her status was unclear. Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was at the camp on Wednesday.

Sanders: Primary Obama for Social Security

BERNIE SANDERS:
I think there are millions of Americans who are deeply disappointed in the president, who believe that with regard to Social Security and other things, he said one thing as a candidate and is doing something very much else as a president. Who cannot believe how weak he has been for whatever reason in negotiating with Republicans, and there’s deep disappointment. So my suggestion is, I think one of the reasons the president has made the move so far to the right is that there is no primary opposition to him and I think it would do this country a good deal of service if people started thinking about candidates out there to begin contrasting a progressive agenda as opposed to what Obama believes he’s doing. [...] I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.

Greenwood on the Norway story

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html

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My summary of some of Greenwood's points:

First everyone assumed it must be those Muslims again, because "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims."

The man was caught in the act, the police almost immediately released his name and background, and his internet postings were broadcast. Christian Rightwing anti-immigrant.

But the Islam bashing went on in the US media. As Greenwood shows well in his Salon article.

The reaction reminds me of 1963, when everyone assumed that the assassination must have been by Dallas rightwingers — and kept on bashing them even when it turned out to be a communist.

Norway bombing / shooting: why this date?

On the same day, he bombed offices of the Labour PM in Oslo and a summer camp event of a Labour Youth Group at an island owned by the Labour Party.

Here's more background on the youth camp -- apparently pretty activist on the liberal side.
http://seeker401.wordpress.com/2011/07/23/norway-attacks-motives/

I've just been posting facts here and there (and a comparison of the media coverage here with that of the assassination in 1963). But here's a speculation from me.

People have been puzzled as to why anyone would target a youth camp. Also, though Breitvik had been planning this action for at least a couple of years (getting explosive supplies etc), he set off his bomb in the capitol during summer vacation, while the Labour politicians were out of their office which he bombed. If he were really after the politicians, he could have chosen a better time.

What makes sense is if his priority was the camp, which was a once a year event. (Or maybe he didn't want to get too many bystanders in Oslo.)

Possible leads on Breitvik's motives

Links, I haven't checked them out. Includes some material CLAIMED to be from Breitvik. I expect a high percentage of hoaxes.

( Read more... )

View from a Norwegian newspaper editor

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/massacre-in-norway-hatred-s-very-last-stop-1.374914