Experts investigate code in Breivik manifesto

A group of computer security experts are working to decode what they believe could be hidden messages in the Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik's manifesto.

Brievik emailed the 1500-page document to hundreds of online contacts less than 90 minutes before he

detonated a bomb in Oslo city centre last month and shot dozens of young people at a summer camp.

It contained links to newpaper articles, blogs and other material that the killer used to make claims about the threat he perceived from multiculturalism.

But analysis of the document by Rolf Frøysa, the chief technology officer of a Norwegian broadband firm, revealed a series of links that did not lead to any website.

”I was on vacation in Turkey when I heard about Breivik’s bombing,” he told The Telegraph.

Large parts of the document were plagiarized from the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, an American mail bomber who raged against “Industrial Society and Its Future” in his own manifesto in 1995. When he was eventually captured, authorities found reams of notes Kaczynski had written in a code that was not cracked for 10 years.

“I was horrified and read about how Breivik may have taken inspiration from the Unabomber,” said Mr Frøysa.

”I started to wonder whether Breiviok’s manifesto could also contain similar codes.”

Mr Frøysa wrote a computer programme to test the links within the document, and found the 46 apparently broken links. All efforts to make them work, such as trying them out on so-called ”darknets”, which are private and typically anonymoyus filesharing networks with different protocols to the public internet, were unsuccessful.

But further study of the numbers within them revealed a worrying pattern.

”I suddenly saw that some of the work I had been doing suggested they could be GPS coordinates,” said Mr Frøysa.

The first ”coordinates” he tried out on Google Maps pointed directly at a train station in central Liverpool. The rest of the numbers also appeared to correspond to major sites across Europe.

Given Breivik’s claims to Norwegian authorities that he was part of a larger network of right wing extremists, Mr Frøysa and some friends who were by now working with him became concerned and reported their findings to police. They also opened up the project to a wider online community of around 300 people, including experts on encryption and mathematics.

”It could just be a hoax or part of his [Breivik’s] PR strategy,” said Mr Frøysa. ”but we need to investigate this document.”

The idea that the numbers represent GPS coordinates is currently the group’s leading theory, but Mr Frøysa said he they were keeping an open mind and invited others to join in the analysis.

”The Norwegian police are busy dealing with their biggest case since World War Two. When we’re finished this document should be seen as total rubbish,” he said.

Coming to terms with 'Christian terrorist'

When the "enemy" is different, an outsider, it's easier to draw quick conclusions, to develop stereotypes. It's simply human nature: There is "us," and there is "them." But what happens when the enemy looks like us - from the same tradition and belief system?

That is the conundrum in the case of Norway and Anders Behring Breivik, who is being called a "Christian extremist" or "Christian terrorist."

As Westerners wrestle with such characterizations of the Oslo mass murder suspect, the question arises: Nearly a decade after 9/11 created a widespread suspicion of Muslims based on the actions of a fanatical few, is this what it's like to walk a mile in the shoes of stereotype?

"Absolutely," said Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. "It clearly puts us in a position where we can't simply say that extreme and violent behavior associated with a religious belief is somehow restricted to Muslim extremists."

During the first reports that someone had detonated a car bomb and then opened fire at a youth camp in Norway, many assumptions clicked into place.

"In all likelihood the attack was launched by part of the jihadist hydra," Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote within hours on the Weekly Standard website.

The massacre was actually committed, police say, by a blond Norwegian. As Breivik's 1,500-page manifesto emerged, calling for violence to rid Europe of non-Christians and those he deemed traitors to Christian Europe, some seized on the religious aspect of his delusions.

Mark Juergensmeyer, editor of the book "Global Religions: An Introduction" and a sociology professor at UC Santa Barbara, wrote an essay likening Breivik to Timothy McVeigh, the American who killed 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. It was the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil until 9/11.

McVeigh and Breivik were both "good-looking young Caucasians, self-enlisted soldiers in an imagined cosmic war to save Christendom, and both were Christian terrorists," Juergensmeyer wrote.

In a column for Salon.com, Alex Pareene said Breivik is not an American-style evangelical, but he listed other connections to Christianity. "All of this says 'Christian terrorist,' " Pareene wrote.

Such claims drew strong resistance. "Breivik is not a Christian. That's impossible. No one believing in Jesus commits mass murder," Bill O'Reilly said on his Fox News show.

That makes sense to Joyce Dubensky, CEO of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. She said it also makes sense that "millions of Muslims say Osama bin Laden is not a Muslim, that no one who believes in the prophet Muhammad commits mass murder."

"We need to hear Bill O'Reilly, but we also need to hear and understand the voices of the overwhelming Muslim majority around the world who condemn those who are terrorists in the name of their faith," she said.

Arsalan Iftikhar, an international human rights lawyer and author of the upcoming book "Islamic Pacifism: Global Muslims in the Post-Osama Era," said the Norway attacks "proved that terrorism can be committed by a person of any race, nationality or religion."

Remembering Norway's 'lost generation'(Photo-Video)

Norway seemed to stand still, not once, but several times today. Exactly a week after Anders Behring Breivik first bombed government buildings in central Oslo, then shot at youngsters on the island of Utoeya, the nation took the chance to reflect.

At 1300 local time (1100 GMT), at the "folkhus" or people's house, Norway's prime minister joined members

of the Labour Party to remember the dead.

Colleagues and friends of those who died hugged each other after moving readings and songs, a single rose held by each.

The prime minister spoke for many who feel that it is determination that will get them through the grief.

"It is impossible to comprehend what these young people went through during these gruesome hours. But we have to go on and live with the burden of the 22 July. It will be hard. It will be difficult. But together in unity, we will manage," he said.

'Even more love'

At the same time, a short ferry ride away, another life was remembered. In a leafy and idyllic setting, the small wooden church in Nesodden saw its first-ever Muslim burial, Christian pastor and Muslim imam united to lead the remembrance of Bano Rashid, a popular and outgoing 18-year-old of Kurdish decent.

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I hope Bano can be a symbol for Norway's youth, for Christian youth, for Muslim youth, for Kurdish youth - to show everyone that they can follow their dreams”

Siva Jagdar

Childhood friend of Bano Rashid

Shot at her annual summer camp on Utoeya, she was a popular, lively young woman who worked as an activist for the Labour Party here, and had ambitions to be a politician.

Her bright and optimistic face smiled out of the photo held aloft at the front of her funeral procession. With dignity through tears, her sister walked with her coffin - she too was at the camp, but survived Mr Breivik's massacre.

Ms Rashid's family followed behind. Onlookers confirmed that they are part of a well-integrated Kurdish community here, who left Iraq over 15 years ago. "The answer must not be hatred, but even more love," her mother Beyan told the attending media afterwards.

The doors of the church were left open, and the crowd outside stood in the fierce sunshine to hear the service. Many had to leave the service at times to sit under nearby trees, as the heat and emotion became too much. The message here too was that Norwegians do not want to meet intolerance with intolerance.

"An imam and a pastor side by side for this funeral is a very powerful message," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said after the service.

Not bowed

Traditionally reserved, the Norwegians have met the tragedy with dignity - almost everyone here refers to meeting Mr Breivik's hate "with love". One student who didn't want to be named told us that she felt sorry for him. "He's obviously a very sick man," she said.

Mr Breivik was questioned again today, and police confirmed they do not think he is linked to a network of terrorists, as he has proclaimed in his "manifesto", a 7,000-word document published on the internet shortly before his rampage.

Police lawyer Paal Frederik Hjort Kraby said he was calm and controlled during his interview, which today went through his last statement of around 50 pages.

"He was more than willing to explain himself about the things he had done," Mr Kraby said. Mr Breivik's lawyer has already said publicly that he thinks his client is insane.

Police released a new death total of 77 today, up from 76, each death part of what has been described as a "lost generation" of would-be politicians and activists.

Back at the funeral of Ms Rashid, however, her friends would not be bowed.

"Her death won't scare Muslims like me away from politics," said her childhood friend and fellow Kurd, Siva Jagdar.

"If anything she has been an inspiration in life, and I hope she will be an inspiration still, to show Norway what we can be... I hope Bano can be a symbol for Norway's youth, for Christian youth, for Muslim youth, for Kurdish youth. To show everyone that they can follow their dreams."

Osama Bin Laden: Al-Qaeda releases posthumous message

A recording purported to have been made by Osama Bin Laden shortly before he died has been released by al-Qaeda.

In the message, he praises the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and speaks of a "rare historic opportunity" for Muslims to rise up.

The 12-minute audio message appeared on a video posted on Islamist websites, and has been translated by the US monitoring group SITE intelligence.

Bin Laden was shot dead by US Navy Seals at a Pakistan compound on 1 May.

In the recording, Bin Laden refers to the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt but makes no mention of the uprisings in Syria, Libya and Yemen.

"I think that the winds of change will blow over the entire Muslim world, with permission from Allah," he says.

"There is a serious crossroads before you, and a great and rare historic opportunity to rise up with the Ummah (Muslim community) and to free yourselves from servitude to the desires of the rulers, man-made law, and Western dominance," he also says.

"So, what are you waiting for? Save yourselves and your children, because the opportunity is here".

Al-Qaeda is generally perceived to have been caught off guard by the Arab Spring uprisings that began in January in Tunisia and swiftly followed in Egypt - toppling the long-time leaders of both countries.

Analysts say that while both al-Qaeda and the West back the uprisings sweeping across several Arab nations, they seek very different outcomes. The West hopes they will lead to democratic reforms, while al-Qaeda wants to see new governments based on their interpretation of Islamic law.