From the article:
"Breivik has had almost free rein to issue warnings against immigration and explain how he scoured the Internet for bomb-making recipes while writing a 1,500-page document declaring himself part of a secretive group that is Europe's answer to Al Qaeda - a group the police have said likely does not exist."
A 1,500 page document that, most likely, no one will actually read unless they are a part of this group that "likely does not exist". Consider all of the various right-wing militia groups, in America alone... there are many thousands of members and over a million sympathizers. I suspect that these movements and their members spread far and wide throughout Europe, where they will find some (fortunately, relatively few in comparison to the overall population) sympathizers and recruits. An interesting question to ask is why the police think this group does not likely exist.
Are they afraid of international humiliation? Perhaps some ranking members of the government or high powered citizens have been named as members. Far fetched? Not really, consider the American tea party. Here, we're crazy enough that they're out in the open, a public menace, a disturbing movement of far right wing voters and even power brokers. Other Countries have had centuries of practice with hiding things that embarrass them. Indeed, the Nazi party initially was considered a tiny group of lunatics who had no real influence or power.
Is this man insane? I don't know... was every individual member of the Nazi movement insane? Were the citizens who admired them insane? He seems cold, clinical, without remorse yet also without obvious emotional rage... it's as if the man's ideology (to him) gave him enough reason to slaughter over 70 people. There are many like him who are not as murderous.. but share many of the same views. We hear it from Limbaugh, Savage, Carr, on the radio. We see it in Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Sara Palin. The Koch brothers, their followers... the Tea Party. That's in America alone, world-wide there is a huge right wing base. Should they ever be effectively organized into an international movement... the possibilities are disturbing, to say the least.
I feel for the people of Norway... this is one instance in which I wish the death penalty was a viable solution. There can be no peace, no compromise with men such as Brevik. You fight them, you destroy them... or you pay the price, as the world paid for underestimating an evil madman known as Adolf Hitler, or Jozef Stalin, or Emperor Mao.
What happened here is beyond terrible, it is a grievous wound that may never fully heal. Yet if we don't remain vigilant in denouncing this wicked ideology, in confronting it at every turn and revealing it for the sickness it is... we will in time face far worse.
Do not write Brevik off as a simple madman. He is one of many like him and there is real reason for concern.
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