Breivik studied al-Qaida attacks before rampage
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Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik acquired the knowledge to carry out a bombing and shooting rampage on the Internet, studying case studies of al-Qaida and other attacks and reading more than 600 bomb-making guides, he told a court on Friday.
On day five of his trial, the confessed mass killer said he studied the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and Timothy McVeigh's Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 in particular.
Breivik also insisted to an Oslo court that he is sane. "I am not a psychiatric case," Breivik told the court, adding, “I am criminally sane."
"When you see something so extreme, you could think that it is insanity, but you have to differentiate between political extremism and insanity in the clinical sense of the term," he said.
About al-Qaida, Breivik said: "I have studied each one of their actions, what they have done wrong, what they have done right."
He called the Islamist group ‘the most successful revolutionary movement in the world’ and said it should serve as an inspiration to far-right militants, even though their goals are different.
"We want to create a European version of al-Qaida," Breivik said.
Breivik has admitted to the July 22 attacks that killed 77, but pleaded not guilty to criminal charges, saying his victims had betrayed Norway by embracing immigration.
His lack of remorse and matter-of-fact description of weapons and tactics during his testimony have deeply disturbed families of the victims, most of whom were teenagers.
Questioned by his defence lawyers on Friday, the 33-year-old Norwegian said he was deliberately using ‘technical’ language as a way to keep his composure.
"These are gruesome acts, barbaric acts," he said. "If I had tried to use a more normal language I don't think I would have been able to talk about it at all."
Breivik has admitted to the bombing in Oslo that killed eight people and the shooting massacre at the Labor Party youth camp that left 69 dead. He claims to belong to an alleged anti-Muslim ‘Knights Templar’ network. Prosecutors say they don't believe it exists.
If declared sane, Breivik could face a maximum 21-year prison sentence or an alternate custody arrangement that would keep him locked up as long as he is considered a menace to society. If found insane, he would be committed to psychiatric care for as long as he's considered ill.
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