German counter-intelligence: Breivik might inspire other extremists

The 22 July massacre in Norway during which the terrorist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people could serve as an inspiration to other anti-Islamic extremists. Alexander Eisvogel, Vice President of German counterintelligence, gave that analysis in an interview for the German weekly Der Spiegel.

“The attack might serve as a model for others, who will do their best to copy it,” Eisvogel believes. “From a terrorist point of view, [Breivik] cautiously and meticulously considered how to avoid detection by security services. That is what is most disturbing to us,” said a worker with Germany’s Federal Authority for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).

Sigmar Gabriel, head of the German Social Democrats, has called on security service and website operators to take a harder line against right-wing extremism. “If someone in Germany were to say on the street that he wanted to persecute others or even attack them, the public would report it to the police,” Gabriel believes. “However, on the internet the situation is surprisingly different. Offensive language and even calls for murder are considered just an eccentric byproduct of freedom there.”

Breivik detonated a bomb on 22 July in the center of Oslo. He then traveled to nearby Utöya island, where he started shooting people attending a camp for Social Democratic youth, murdering a total of 77 of them. He has claimed to be fighting immigration and multicultural society.