Thursday, July 28, 2011

A Not So Beautiful Mind

In the aftermath of the Oslo atrocities the usual braying from conservative bashers was to be expected. After all, the chance to score political points in this country usually trumps everything else, up to and including common human decency. Still if one bothered to look at the "manifesto" published online by Anders Breivik (or even a selection of "highlights") one could get a feel for the perpetrator of these heinous acts of barbarism.

My take, for the outset, was that this man was completely delusional.

Here is a snippet:



Q: Why haven’t we heard anything about PCCTS, Knights Templar before, considering the fact that the organization was formed in 2002?

A: That’s a good question. I am surprised why EU countries haven’t labeled our organization yet. Perhaps it is politically motivated psychological warfare, who knows? First of all, I only met 4 out of the 9 original founding members due to security precautions and I only know the identity of 5 of them (4 of them know my identity). There might be tens, even hundreds of Justiciar Knights now spread all across Western Europe as far as I know. I haven’t heard anything from the media about PCCTS, Knights Templar operations before either which indicates the following; either some of the original cells have not activated yet, which is not very likely considering the fact that the military order was formed more than 8 years ago. Or a couple of the cells may have perished or have been arrested in the planning phase before they even activated. Or perhaps they did activate and went through with their operation but did not manage to penetrate media censorship. A successful operation might have been labeled as an “accident” or otherwise censored by the media/regime. Perhaps a couple of them simply didn’t want to proceed alone or in a party with 1-2 other individuals but needed or wanted the support from a larger traditional hierarchy and joined another organisation instead. A few might have gotten cold feet and went about their usual business and abandoned our struggle and campaign altogether. It is really hard to tell.

For myself, it was hard to read this and not think we are dealing with a situation such as was depicted in the film A Beautiful Mind about the real life struggles of mathematician John Nash. As depicted in the film Dr. Nash in the grips of a terrible mental disorder begins to believe he is part of a secret code breaking operation bent upon unmasking dangerous agents communicating by code in newspapers and magazines. In order to flesh out his "world" Nash's diseased mind invents enemies and friends to populate it.

It seemed pretty obvious reading Breivik's ravings about "Knight Templars" and the like, that we were dealing with something similar here. Breivik seems to actually believe he went to London to be part of a meeting of a new Templar order hellbent on reviving anti-muslim crusades throughout Europe. It also is becoming increasingly clear it was all in his fevered imagination:



OSLO, Norway (AP) — The Norwegian right-wing extremist who killed 76 people in a bombing and youth camp massacre appears to be a lone-wolf sociopath who kept his plans to himself for more than a decade, a top security official said Thursday.

"It's a unique case. It's unique person. He is total evil," Janne Kristiansen, the director of the Norwegian Police Security Service told The Associated Press.

Anders Behring Breivik claims he carried out the July 22 attacks as part of a network of modern-day crusaders plotting a revolution against a multicultural Europe, and that there are other cells ready to strike.

But investigators have found no signs — before or after the attacks — of a larger conspiracy, though it's too early to rule it out completely, Kristiansen said.

"On the information we have so far, and I emphasize so far, we have no indication that he was part of a network or had any accomplices, or that there are other cells," Kristiansen told AP.

She said Breivik doesn't appear to have shared his plot with anyone, and lived a lawful and moderate life before carrying out the attacks with "total precision."

Breivik has admitted that he set off a car bomb in the government district of Oslo, killing at least eight people, then drove several miles (kilometers) northwest of the Norwegian capital to an island where the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party was holding its annual summer camp. He arrived at Utoya island posing as a police officer, then opened fire on scores of unsuspecting youth, executing them one after the other as they tried to flee into the water. Sixty-eight people died, many of them teenagers.

Kristiansen said that Breivik's case presents a new challenge for security services, different from a "solo terrorist" who receives training and instructions from a terror network and is then left to pick out a target and attack it on his own. Breivik appears to be a true lone wolf, who conceived and executed his plot without help or coordination from anyone.

"This is a totally different challenge," Kristiansen said. "This is all in his mind."

Judging by a manifesto he released just before the attacks, he started "preparing himself to do something big, shocking and spectacular" some 10-12 years ago, she said.

Breivik's lunacy, then, could predate even the 9/11 attacks.

Yet, still the moral degenerates among us will want to use Breivik's madness to their own advantage, which in itself is a form of evil difficult to fathom.

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