Breaking the Codes In Oslo Terrorist's Manifesto

repvik writes "The 1500-page manifesto of the terrorist who killed 77 people in Oslo and on Utøya two weeks ago contains a series of seemingly encrypted URLs. There are 46 of them, and the initial part of the URLs appear to be GPS coordinates. An effort to analyze the codes have been launched."

Comments

inevitably

[Anonymous Coward]

they all lead to goatse

Re:inevitably

[Sun]

All URLs lead to goatse just as all Wikipedia links lead to "philosophy"

There, fixed it for you.

Re:inevitably

[Anonymous Coward]

Only since idiot xkcd fanboys read the strip which declared it and now change every page which someone has pointed out doesn't comply.

Re:inevitably

[Dunbal]

No, some of them lead to Rick Astley.

Also, crack the codes, win a free trip to Norway as an "expert witness" amirite?

Re:inevitably

[PopeRatzo]

they all lead to goatse

The guy was Norwegian. They all lead to goats.

Re:inevitably

[gplus]

Here's a direct link to the actual codes, from TFA.

Re:inevitably

[Sun]

I actually tested it pretty close to when the strip was released, and it worked then as well on several random pages.

The moment "person" leads there as well as "science", it's very hard not to reach there.

But I'll bite. Can you (easily) provide me with a page that, as of the date the strip was published (around May 25th, 2011), did no go into this loop, but today does, then I might concur.

On a side note, every rule has an exception. You might find a rule that does not have an exception, but that would just make it the exception of this rule.

Shachar

Why is this being made public?

[Music2Eat]

Why is this being made public? If this points to conspirator's or other sensitive information, shouldn't this have been quietly handed to the police so that they don't tip their hand?

Re:Why is this being made public?

[jeffasselin]

The alleged perpetrator of the terrorist attack posted the manifesto online himself before going on his rampage, and everything in there is on the internet and people have been reading and analyzing it since.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Ironhandx]

Most likely its being made public just in case this is some sort of instruction system for various cells.

I imagine the reasoning behind it is to let anyone who might be thinking of following the instructions know that they're onto the fact that there is something here.

There is also benefit to crowd sourcing it this way in that someone may have been involved and may be able to use "figuring out the code" as an excuse without incriminating themselves to come forward and help prevent whatever these codes may set into motion.

Keeping it secret and trying to solve it with limited resources isn't going to do much good. So, rather than being idiots, they've taken the logical route.

The goal here is to prevent any further atrocities. They may not catch the cells this way, but they may dissuade them from acting at all, or they may catch a guilty conscience that helps solve the whole thing for them rapidly.

If the whole point is saving lives, then I feel, as they obviously do, that this is the best way to go about it.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Music2Eat]

I'm not questioning why the manifesto was made public, but why people would go public with the fact they may be onto hidden information contained within that manifesto.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Vryl]

You're new round here, aren't you?

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Music2Eat]

Except, instead of dissuade them, it would more likely force them to speed up their plans. You really think crowd sourcing this would get better/quicker results then the dedicate code breakers at some place like the FBI or MI6? You really think, "possibly", dissuading them is better then actually catching them?

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Ethanol-fueled]

Most likely its being made public just in case this is some sort of instruction system for various cells.

By that admission, the Christians running the Western governments are as dangerous as the so-called "terrorists" they demonize in Rupert Murdoch's media.

In other words, not only are Christians idiots, but easily manipulated idiots in high places with the power to influence what people do with their lives. That's why larger and larger numbers of people are seeing them for what they really are -- idiots. The party of "can't do." You can't enjoy premarital sex. Marginalize homosexuals. You can't do this, you can't do that, or else you're going to hell. Which proves many times over what people from civilized countries have been saying about us the whole time: Americans are fucking morons. Put off that stem-cell research, god (as interpreted by half-ass churches) doesn't want humans to live.

Fuck you, assholes.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[tpstigers]

Wow. You never actually listen to a word anyone else says, do you?

Re:Why is this being made public?

[cgenman]

Considering the FBI and MI6 don't have jurisdiction in Oslo, very probably.

Also, why would terrorist cells communicate via secret text in 1,500 page manifestos? It just doesn't make any sense. Encode some data into witty photos posted on Reddit photoshop contests. Mix some in torrents. Or, gasp, talk to people. Let's be honest here, most terrorists don't communicate by massively arcane technological methods. Most just talk on forums, make phone calls, or chat through chat programs.

Anything embedded secretly in a 1500 page highly public manifesto is basically advertising intended to keep people excited and talking about the manifesto. And at that, the nutjob wins. But the idea of some form of meaningful project-based communication between terrorists happening secretly via 1500 page manifestos is ascribing a degree of power to them that I personally have trouble stomaching.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Most likely its being made public just in case this is some sort of instruction system for various cells.

Bullshit. Utterly uninformed, speculative, fear-mongering bullshit.

It's being "made public" because Breivik emailed his manifesto, including all of the codes, to over 1,000 people on the day of his attacks.

That's it. No grand plan by the government to roust other cells through the threat of code-breaking. Just a bunch of people who downloaded a copy of the manifesto just like anyone else in the world could do if they so wanted.

I'm all for a good conspiracy theory but, damn, at least do some basic research before starting in on the wild ass stories.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Mr. Freeman]

Because anyone who is going to use this information to do harm already knows it. The thing people seem to forget whenever something scary happens is that the "bad guys" aren't stupid. Terrorists know how to use a computer. It's better that everyone knows the information so that everyone can use it to prevent whatever attack it might indicate.

The two choices are NOT:
1. Keep the information secret and the bad guys will never find it
2. Release the information and the bad guys will use it to do bad things

The choices ARE:
1. Keep the information secret and everyone is caught with their pants down when the bad guys, who figured all this out on their own, do bad things.
2. Tell everyone the information so that any Tom, Dick, and Harry knows what the bad guys are going to do and they can take appropriate measures.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[flimflammer]

Why not? Anyone who wants the information for nefarious purposes would already have it.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Urkki]

shouldn't this have been quietly handed to the police so that they don't tip their hand?

How would one go about quietly handing this kind of info to the police so, that anybody there would give rats ass about it?

Re:Why is this being made public?

[cathector]

cells ? what cells. you say it like it's a fact, but it's a speculation at best. sure, there may be accomplices. but "they may not catch the cells" ? what source of info are you privy to ?

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Runaway1956]

You seem to be making an assumption, that the "authorities" have released this information. If I were to research that possibility, I may very well find that your apparent assumption is correct. However, when I read TFS and TFA, I see no such indications. Unless you are familiar with the author, and/or the website(s) involved, I can't see that your assumption is warranted.

What I believe has happened is, some pretty sharp people have read that manifesto, and some random people noticed what looks like an encryption scheme. Some of those people may or may not be acting in some "official" capacity - or not. It's quite possible that the governments and/or authorities failed to notice any encryption scheme used in the manifesto.

I'll confess that I read over the manifesto, and I tried to use the "links". It never occurred to my feeble mind that those links might represent anything other than outdated links. And, of course, I'm a bit lazy - I never searched for alternative routes to those links, or searched the wayback machine, or anything else to resolve what those dead links might represent.

Based on my own limited, personal experience - they don't even LOOK like encryption, so I would NEVER have started looking for ideas, without prompting from someone else. Of course, I'm no cryptographer. Codes tend to kick my ass, no matter how simple.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[PCM2]

The weird URLs are hidden in with the regular URLs. I never tried to click on any of the URLs, so I never even noticed it before it was mentioned here. There are spots in the manifesto where he will have a "references" section, with a list of URLs, numbered 1-26 or whatever. Only there's two #13's -- the first one is the real reference 13, and the second one is one of these weird URLs (which technically aren't URLs at all, because they don't seem to use any known addressing scheme). So they are not only obscured or obfuscated in some way, but they are also deliberately hidden in the document, presumably to be discovered by somebody at some time.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[physicsphairy]

Your points remind me of a fortune I read recently:

"A commercial, and in some respects a social, doubt has been started within the
  last year or two, whether or not it is right to discuss so openly the security
  or insecurity of locks. Many well-meaning persons suppose that the discus-
  sion respecting the means for baffling the supposed safety of locks offers a
  premium for dishonesty, by showing others how to be dishonest. This is a fal-
  lacy. Rogues are very keen in their profession, and already know much more
  than we can teach them respecting their several kinds of roguery. Rogues knew
  a good deal about lockpicking long before locksmiths discussed it among them-
  selves, as they have lately done. If a lock -- let it have been made in what-
  ever country, or by whatever maker -- is not so inviolable as it has hitherto
  been deemed to be, surely it is in the interest of *honest* persons to know
  this fact, because the *dishonest* are tolerably certain to be the first to
  apply the knowledge practically; and the spread of knowledge is necessary to
  give fair play to those who might suffer by ignorance. It cannot be too ear-
  nestly urged, that an acquaintance with real facts will, in the end, be better
  for all parties."
-- Charles Tomlinson's Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks,
      published around 1850

Re:Why is this being made public?

[myurr]

I actually mostly agree with you but there is another scenario. Keep the information secret so that the bad guys don't know that you know.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[DarwinSurvivor]

That must have been one big cookie!

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Hazel Bergeron]

I wish people still expressed themselves with such eloquence. This used to be one of the first skills taught to a young gentleman - now it is rarely taught at all.

Perhaps the problem is lack of gentlemen (and ladies).

Re:Why is this being made public?

[ravenshrike]

The thing people seem to forget whenever something scary happens is that some "bad guys" aren't stupid. .

FTFY..

Re:Why is this being made public?

[enosdan]

Terrorists populate both sides of the law.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Anonymous Coward]

man 6 fortune

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're missing a key point in basic police work though:

Unreleased information can be used to positively identify collaborators. Either by asking them to recount details never made available to the public, or by laying a trap by which they inadvertantly out themselves.

It's sort of like when someone goes to claim a lost cell phone from the lost-and-found desk. I the person just says I uh... lost a phone, can you show me the ones you guys have, they might just be phishing for a free phone. But if you make them describe their lost phone, by providing distinctive details like make, model, color, and perhaps distunguishing accessories or markings like cases, face-plates and stickers, before showing them anything (or maybe have them make it ring, or unlock it in front of you, if the battery's on and there's a signal), then you know your returning it to the rightful owner.

Only collaborators would have been most likely to repeatedly access the content or make use of those URLs, butnow, any visits after today, could literally be anyone. Additionally, if someone is suspected, and a confession is not forth-coming, it can no longer be said that a suspect is implicated if there is any involvement of thoseurls with their activity.

Keeping them secret isn't so much about protecting people from booby traps, or ambushing a suspect at a location. Stakeouts and wiretaps would have been the more likely opportunities for use but involve a cost/benefit analysis against release of the information.Which is probably what lead to it's release.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Dunbal]

Tip their hand? There's pretty good "smoking gun" evidence considering he was seen shooting people, filmed shooting people, left many survivors who can identify him, was arrested at the scene and also admitted to doing it. The trial is pretty much a formality at this point. You know that the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" should not erase your ability to think. The "police" or the prosecutor would have to work very hard indeed to destroy the case against this man.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Vinegar Joe]

Keep the information secret so that the bad guys don't know that you know.

Julian Assange amd Wikileaks might disagree with you on that.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[00_NOP]

As a "gentleman" was someone who did not have to work for a living, I shall not mourn their passing: though actually there are plenty of idle rich in this world.

"When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then a gentleman?"

Re:Why is this being made public?

[dbIII]

Mmmmm, fortune pizza.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[TheRaven64]

As a "gentleman" was someone who did not have to work for a living

Not true. The term has had a lot of meanings over the centuries, but the common use in the late 1800s and for the last century was related to behaviour, not to income. This usage goes back to about 1400, although other uses (e.g. implying nobility by birth or the ownership of land) were common until about the time of the industrial revolution. Most gentlemen who did have to work would have been members of the professions (as opposed to the trades - a profession largely being defined as a job suitable for a gentleman) and would have included teachers, doctors, and lawyers, for example.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Ironhandx]

While I agree with much of your sentiment you must understand why you got modded down.

That said, I agree to the extent that Christians are no different from most other religions. Most religions are bad, and I'm actually 100% on board with one particular infringement of what many consider a human right that China has attempted to instigate, which is a banning of most forms of religion.

In reality I consider it another form of human right. The right not to be brainwashed in the name of "god" or "allah" or whoever else.

Its universal too. I've met some of the nicest christian people that were trying to start up a church and were actually doing some good for their community. However even they are so brainwashed into believing the rhetoric that while most of their moral code is fairly admirable, and they are admirable people in their own right.... they also say things like "We have to teach the children, we have to get to them while they're young." with a sort of complacency and sometimes even fervor that to be perfectly honest, frightens me.

If, in reality, any of these theories or systems of belief were any better than any other, there would be no need for all of the ceremony and pomp that goes around indoctrinating the children into the same system. Most of the children would eventually come to realize that it was just the right thing to do and end up believing the same.

Some of these Bible Camps in the southern and western US frighten the shit out of me. I saw a video documentary of one that was supposed to be promotional and except for a lack of AK-47s and better looking clothes it looked like one of those Islam child training camps that they put videos of on the news to frighten people with.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[equex]

Norwegian govt are totally butt buddies with any intelligence service. When the KGB comes, they pretend to be a little bit communist. When the CIA comes, they pretend to be a little bit capitalist. Don't forget, Norway was (is?) one of the countries where the CIA was caught trafficking detainees to Guantanemo from. We don't have secret torture prisons (afaik), but you know, some secrets are still just a secret. The US was also caught having a spy base downtown Oslo, as our government was caught knowing about it.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[peragrin]

I learned a long time ago where lawyers are involved, hard work to fuck things up isn't needed.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Anonymous Coward]

You've omitted a third possibility: That there exist other crazy people, not part of the conspiracy nor smart enough to decode secret information, who may be inspired to copycat actions.

Still, I think, better to have it public and open than to stick our collective head in the sand and try to forget the atrocity. Publication lets people see the dude is crazy, paranoid, and deviant from social norms. A secret 1500 page manifesto lets people think he had real commitment to his cause and that "They" think it contains enough truth to be dangerous.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[WrongSizeGlass]

I'm not questioning why the manifesto was made public, but why people would go public with the fact they may be onto hidden information contained within that manifesto.

Basically, they are crowdsourcing with the hope that someone can solve it (you know, just in case those links turn out to be warnings that other attacks may be planned or scheduled). It's better to know this kind of thing sooner rather than later.

There are a lot of people who aren't professionals in particular fields but excel in them far beyond others. If only 1,000 people around the world give this a shot (even if only a small percentage actually excel in this type of thing) their chances of solving it go up drastically. Since this (domestic) terrorist was a tad crazy it may take someone who's a little 'out there' to solve it. We generally don't want those types of people working in the military or law enforcement (no mater what TV's & movies say) but they certainly have something to offer (especially in this type of situation).

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Lord Balto]

No, actually the reason people get moded down for casting aspersions on the Church is that many technophiles are still "drinking the kool-aid" vis-a-vis the dominant religion in the West, mainly because they have never taken a hard look at the historical facts of the matter that have been available to specialists in the field for a good century now.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[omglolbah]

Even A.B.B's own lawyer has publicly (in a newspaper interview) said that this is not a case of IF his client is convinced but what the outcome of said conviction will end up involving.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[shoehornjob]

Obviously they thnk he was the lone gunman so therefore there is no reason not to seek outside help.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[gl4ss]

well, which part of Breiviks stuff makes sense? just about none, the manifest just underlining how out of touch he was with realities, knights templar and all.

which is why the manifesto HAS TO BE spread widely, because it doesn't stand on it's own - because it's stupid shit, it underlines how stupid shit his strike was. If you book burn it from existence then some nutjobs could start arguing that it had some merit to it, when it doesn't. But if it wasn't available at all, it would gain a mythic aspect to it.

if it has bomb building instructions is irrelevant to that, that part is just chemistry. the reason why he had been let bought all that stuff is that he had been a good boy before that - in fact, with his record, he could have gone to an explosives course and bought some TNT, so that is no reason for deleting every copy of it either.
.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[zippthorne]

"Speeding up their plans" is also a good thing. It's the same thing as saying, "hastily come up with a new plan and execute that instead."

The new plan likely to be far less robust than the old plan (that, obviously, has been going well enough that we haven't discovered it yet..). It exposes the bad actors to more risk of discovery and/or failure.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[GameboyRMH]

Reading that "eloquent" English slowed me down far more than reading a foreign language, and possibly even more than reading legalese. I'd hate to read such "eloquent expression" in everyday correspondence.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[dakohli]

I don't know about MI6 but the FBI has jurisdiction everywhere.

As much as any foreign police service would have in another country: "The FBI’s jurisdiction in crimes or attacks against Americans abroad dates back to the mid-1980s, when Congress passed laws authorizing us to investigate hostage-taking and kidnappings of Americans and terrorist acts against U.S. nationals or interests overseas. Of course, we don’t go uninvited into another country—we get permission from the host government and always work with that nation’s law enforcement and security personnel, in concert with the U.S. Embassy and the Ambassador."

The difference here is, MI6/CIA and other Foreign Intelligence Services can go in without permission, however if they are caught........

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Opportunist]

Crazy people will act crazy. It's not like they need a plan from someone else for that. Actually, it's more likely that they won't use it because it now seems "tainted" to them.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Hazel Bergeron]

Reading that "eloquent" English slowed me down far more than reading a foreign language

Really? The older style is more Latinate and a Western polyglot ought to be familiar with it.

and possibly even more than reading legalese

A small proportion of legal documents are deliberately written to confuse but the greater proportion of legal writing is clear and unambiguous. Understand:

(i) There is a handful of rules which apply to interpreting sentence structure, conjunctions, pronouns, etc., some of which may be specified in legislation (e.g. the Interpretation Acts of the UK Parliament);

(ii) Specific terms often have meanings established through legislation and case law: consider in your own profession how many words carry more detailed meaning to you than they would to the layman and what would happen if you always used a layman's interpretation;

(iii) Intent (of Parliament) and compatibility (esp. with the ECHR - sorry, Toryboys!) rules are applied where ambiguities remain.

Put another way, the rules for interpreting legal language are much more clearly defined and methodical than the rules for interpreting everyday language. It just requires a bit of learning and practice to know what those rules are. This is absolutely necessary when attempting to define a fair, unambiguous system using an ambiguous human language. This is, or ought to be, schoolboy stuff.

Perhaps it is simply language which is specific and does not admit easy reinterpretation which bothers you? Modern language is all about not committing yourself lest you be held responsible for your work.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Hazel Bergeron]

Is teaching by example not teaching?

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Smekarn]

Excuse me, but "alleged"? In what fucking sense of the word is he ALLEGEDLY the perpetrator?

Re:Why is this being made public?

[mjwalshe]

um Norway isn't a former colony so it is a SIS Patch

Re:Why is this being made public?

[budgenator]

Well certainly the "Authorities" wouldn't nmap the whole world looking for DNS servers that resolve,
http://52.068.4.309plusf24kwimfhh436383717863/
http://59.334.18.097plusf87rqqljii569218397413/
http://48.200.16.356subf37ilmeavp123271869374/
http://51.051.3.731subf16mdolluo971717348139/
http://51.927.4.463subf18eflqxma713369592384/
http://51.517.-0.083plusf95qeopjnn365893154526/
http://53.415.-2.973plusf37ohawrpc639174173148/
http://48.134.11.570plusf64woswdtr416413867193/A
http://51.883.-0.407subf41leocmje681673499621/
http://53.554.10.022plusf75dtpqdck196754674448/A
http://51.489.-0.140plusf35oqrekqx638547721565/
http://52.087.5.054plusf94pbmluvt813218971489/
http://48.864.2.327subf37ktynmwf396737684766/
http://59.911.10.738subf36emlpoga918318646547/
http://59.346.18.048plusf36pjwojkw568423541554/
http://45.768.4.830plusf32qiokyis489273561938/
http://52.374.4.873subf93xomlosa487987172719/
http://57.703.11.966subf55oslecqs136548171343/
http://50.854.4.346plusf08mfmtwzl673468422/
http://52.367.9.741subf39mfthkko981463710363/
http://40.375.-3.768subf62okblmcw394717197273/
http://52.528.13.393plusf91aismuck789717881861/
http://59.911.10.748plusf67pskrhkc631974631849/
http://52.491.13.351subf93xllymxo638971763265/
http://51.501.-0.096subf94owgwvkp618746656659/
http://50.868.4.329subf52ispllev132873183786a/
http://52.571.13.320subf02lrdpxjk781698196548/
http://48.866.2.306subf54lwpprvt125662489953/
http://47.372.8.539subf94lcngckt463136616341/
http://50.832.4.364subf48kemhitf867483597136/
http://51.914.4.452subf33osxikih662187178719/
http://48.210.16.369plusf72cufmled614187191364/
http://50.123.8.666plusf42rsckyns849828171339/
http://59.337.18.056subf19rcpljub684165144671/
http://51.195.4.424plusf14qkioces813876008242/
http://40.452.-3.709plusf58lezpkor7378742439

Re:Why is this being made public?

[budgenator]

I assume in Anders Breivik,'s version of reality there are numerous cells of kindred spirits waiting with baited breath to do his bidding.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[cowboy76Spain]

From a purely legal viewpoint, until there is a sentence he is "alleged perpetrator".

Note that (in this case) it is probably just a formality (he won't be released under bond or whatever). But it is good to use the distinction so we can remember it in other, less clear cases that arise. It will be also useful in those cases where the press shows the public lots of circunstancial evidence with just the "right" spin while forgetting of the allegations of the defense.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Ironhandx]

I'll reply to this, and the other commentors "this is bullshit" comment in one swoop.

Brevik himself speaks briefly of cells of other operatives for which he is to be the firing pin in his own manifesto. He's possibly insane, however he's doesn't appear to have hallucinations, which would mean that there is at least SOME truth to what he's saying, and means its plausible that he was in contact with others.

I worded some things a bit poorly, because theres no hard proof of these cells other than Breviks own writings. However there IS evidence for it.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[cathector]

> He's possibly insane, however he's doesn't appear to have hallucinations,
> which would mean that there is at least SOME truth to what he's saying

what ??

that holds zero water, amigo.

re "evidence", sure. by that criteria there's evidence that jesus rose from the dead, and that xenu brought thetans to earth, too.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Smekarn]

Yes, that I'm aboard with.
It's just that the point he's making is not strictly legal and therefore I thought it sounded overly PC in the context.
But I guess it's a lot more responsible to use the term one too many times as opposed to the other way around though, so yeah. Good point.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[xenobyte]

It has been seen that people have been caught with the smoking gun in their hands, covered in the victims blood, having been filmed committing the murder, reliable witnesses present and so on, and yet still walk away acquitted.

It may be human to make errors, but it takes lawyers to seriously fuck things up...

Re:Why is this being made public?

[xenobyte]

Oh, and I'm NOT talking about the O.J. Simpson case here... That one was fucked up by incompetent police work and pathetic attempts at 'making sure' O.J. was convicted, which of course resulted in an acquittal due to reasonable doubt - the correct verdict given the circumstances.

Re:Why is this being made public?

[RivenAleem]

Oh, you knave!

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Muad'Dave]

Actually, until there's a conviction, not a sentence (at least in my jurisdiction).

Re:Why is this being made public?

[Ironhandx]

He believed there were cells. That means there were people he was communicating with who, in this context, can be referred to as members of the cells.

Whether or not they actually are cells in the popularized terrorist sense or whether or not they would actually DO anything he told them to is another story entirely, and I did not make the assumption that they would.

Given that the possibility exists that they would do something on his behest however, it would be irresponsible to ignore that possibility.

Manifest?

[DriedClexler]

The 1500 page manifest of terrorist

Wow, that must be a lot of terrorists if it takes a 1500 page manifest to list them all!

Re:Manifest?

[camperdave]

... and remember, that's just Manifest O. There's 25 other letters in the alphabet.

Re:Manifest?

[LynnwoodRooster]

Actually, there are 29 letters in the Norwegian alphabet - therefore there are 28 more manifestos to concern ourselves with.

Re:Manifest?

[PCM2]

Ah, but the manifest[o] was entirely in English. (Interestingly enough, I thought.)

Re:Manifest?

[arth1]

For generous values of "entirely".. There are a couple of "Norwegianisms", and, of course, the last two letters of the URLs we discuss here are in Cyrillic (Serbian variety).
From what I can guess, these two letters denote a number, in a variety of the Cyrillic number system.

Re:Manifest?

[Rei]

Meh, everyone speaks English nowadays; it's the universal language for international communication. It's actually kind of frustrating when you're trying to learn someone else's language. I was in Iceland recently, and whenever I opened my mouth to practice my Icelandic, as soon as they heard my poor beginner Icelandic, they automatically switched to English. Thus preventing me from actually getting any better at the language through practice with them. :P Essentially everyone there between ages 14 and 70 speaks excellent English -- some so well that they could blend right in in America (apparently the TV show "Friends" functioned as a great learn-accent-free-English instructional video set ;) ). And I encountered people from all sorts of other countries on my trip; all spoke English, most very well.

Re:Manifest?

[PCM2]

All true, and has been so for some time. But for a guy who seemed to think "fixing" the Norwegian political system was important enough to murder 76+ kids, you'd think he might want to reach Norwegians first. I mean ... even if he succeeded at his "fix," how important is Norwegian politics to you?

HTTP added by wordprocessor

[Dan East]

My guess is that when he entered strings like this into his wordprocessor
52.068.4.309plusf24:KWimfhh436383717863

That it interpreted the numbers as IPv4 addresses and prepended http:/// onto it. If someone can verify then that part of the "mystery" is solved. It has nothing to do with URLs.

Re:HTTP added by wordprocessor

[PCM2]

Good theory, so I just checked in Word. It will automatically hyperlink a DNS-looking URL, but it will not automatically hyperlink a numeric address. Also, although you don't need to type the http:/// Word just applies the correct hyperlink as a style; it does not add the http:/// to the text you typed.

Re:HTTP added by wordprocessor

[Z00L00K]

And another factor is that the geographic locations listed in the manifesto may just be approximate, or just pointing to a keyword that points to the real target or information source.

But it's interesting that the position in Gothenburg, Sweden points to a block containing a movie theater and the location in Vienna isn't far from the Scientologists there.

And it can also be meeting locations agreed upon for different potential contacts or mailbox drops.

Or it's just a few random locations to threw the investigation off track.

Re:HTTP added by wordprocessor

[Narcocide]

What about if you then file->save as plain text? I'm just curious.

Re:HTTP added by wordprocessor

[rtb61]

More likely the code, just like the rest of the manifesto, are all just elements to feed the ego of a psychopath whose singular motivation was to ease his frustrations by inflicting pain and suffering upon as many people as possible. Everything now is about ego inflation of a homicidal maniac, about gaining further attention, about driving conspiracy theories and about forcing his frustrations upon others.

The more it drifts from reality, the reality of a sad pathetic individual suffering from a genetic birth defect that absented him from interacting normally, basically lost in a empty world devoid empathy, conscience and a whole range of human emotions, including happiness and joy. His world of frustration, driven largely by the envy of seeing normal people sharing real emotions whilst he could only ape them so that he could appear normal and gain advantage in what ever self serving schemes and plots he had going to assuage his frustrations and feed his ego.

His greatest fear, to be treated as a pathetic nothing, a victim of a genetic birth defect whose manifesto is as meaningless and empty as his life was. The manifesto being nothing but fantasy and lies to feed his ego and make him the centre of attention. The is only one lesson to be drawn from his life, the importance of testing for psychopathy in order to prevent the huge of of victims those that suffer this genetic disorder create. Those that go insane with a gun have nothing on those that gain positions in government or those that run corporations.

Re:HTTP added by wordprocessor

[PCM2]

What about if you then file->save as plain text? I'm just curious.

Strips the hyperlink. You just get the text you typed. And of course, we all know what happens when you save a Word document as HTML.

Breivik's manifesto was originally a .docx file, though, complete with styles, tables, bullet points, embedded images, etc.

Why give it the time?

[Nyder]

Here's the problem:

If i had a grudge against humans, or a certain set of humans, or something really stupid like that and I wanted to do something that will get me remembered, for whatever reason, in the history of man, I'd do some crap just like this. Make up a "manifesto" of probably gibberish, encyrpted and whatnot, so peeps would spend many hours of discussion and get me remembered.

So do we think we'll get a better understanding of the dude who killed those people by figuring out his stupid manifesto? And that will help his victims how exactly? I mean, i'm sure their families are probably helping figure this manifesto out and twitting it to all their friends. (yes, i'm being fucking sarcastic here).

Crazy people are, well, crazy. It doesn't matter their reason for doing stuff like killing people. That shit ain't cool, and shouldn't be going on, no matter the reason. But very little we will do, will stop the crazies from doing the crazy shit.

Sometimes there are signs, and sometime we recognize crazy before crazy gets killing. But most the time, we don't. We don't realize that crazy is just under the skin of that person we talk shit to all the time. We don't realize that everyone has crazy in them, and sometimes, the littlest things set crazy off.

Of course, i could be wrong. This murder might have the answer to life, the universe and everything in his manifesto. And even if it did, it's not worth our time trying to find out. Dude went out and killed a bunch of people to get attention for his manifesto and here people are, giving it attention.

what dude did worked, and your showing that to every wanna be "terrorist" with a grudge against something and a chip on their shoulder, that if you want attention, kill some peeps and you'll get it.

Re:Why give it the time?

[cathector]

+1.
we should not give the manifesto of a failure of humanity the time of day.
this is obvious.
w/r/t the folks trying to decode locations and messages in the document, i can only presume that they're acting with the idea that perhaps Nutzo has accomplices or has already planted bombs in those locations or etc, and are working to prevent further killing. if there's evidence in that direction, then great. but if not then it seems like maybe another case of us technically-minded folks getting obsessed with solving a technical problem without pausing to consider whether it's good work to be doing in the bigger picture.

Re:Why give it the time?

[jamesh]

we should not give the manifesto of a failure of humanity the time of day.

IMHO, such a document could give an insight into what went wrong here. Was the guy just crazy? Did something happen in his life that made him this way or was he going to go off the rails no matter what? Was he brainwashed by some cult? What, if anything, could have been done differently to make sure this can't happen again? I'm guessing the answer may well turn out to be "we just don't know", but I think think it deserves some analysis, in the same way that the writings of various other nutjobs from history have been recorded. Lessons from the past etc.

And you can be sure that if you ban it, it's suddenly going to become a whole lot more interesting to people.

Re:Why give it the time?

[kent_eh]

If i had a grudge against humans, or a certain set of humans, or something really stupid like that and I wanted to do something that will get me remembered, for whatever reason, in the history of man, I'd do some crap just like this. Make up a "manifesto" of probably gibberish, encyrpted and whatnot, so peeps would spend many hours of discussion and get me remembered.

That's sort of what Dexter did, though his motivation was to mess with the investigators.
Then again, Dexter is a fictional character...

This guy probably is deluded enough to believe he was doing the world a favour, and that the world would see his writings as a sensible "way forward" now that he has set the ball in motion.
I'm sure it's perfectly sensible in his mind, if only everyone else would just listen to him.

----

I have had to deal with a family member who was eventually hospitalized with Delusional Disorder.
Lemme tell you, they can be absolutely convinced that they alone know the truth of things, and that pretty much any action is reasonable to get the rest of the world to see things "for what they really are"
It's damn scary watching it happen to someone you know. I hope none of you have to experience it first hand.

Re:Why give it the time?

[cathector]

ban it ?
of course not. that's both impossible and counterproductive, as you say.

you make a valid point that it's valuable to understand what went wrong with the killer.
i feel that the decoding effort at hand isn't really interested in that.

Re:Why give it the time?

[ketilwaa]

Funnily enough, the terrorist nutjob was a big fan of the Dexter series. That has been reported many times. Judging by the copy/paste nature of his so called manifesto, I would not be suprised if he lifted plots from his favourite TV shows as well.

Re:Why give it the time?

[Z00L00K]

I did notice that at many of the locations there have been a gym not far from the location.

And he has been exercising heavily in prison, so maybe those are locations of preferred gyms.

Re:Why give it the time?

[ravenshrike]

Which is kinda bizarre since he would definitely qualify as a target under Dexter's schemes.

Re:Why give it the time?

[jamesh]

you make a valid point that it's valuable to understand what went wrong with the killer.

i feel that the decoding effort at hand isn't really interested in that.

Probably not. A puzzle is neither good or bad, it's just a puzzle, and a puzzle exists to be solved :)

Re:Why give it the time?

[sg_oneill]

Having read thru parts of it, I could certainly understand the polices motives if they tried to ban it. Its a terrorism manual, and some of its a little more sophisticated than the spazzy "how to blow up bins at highschool" pap you used to see on the bbs .txt collections.

Its actually a fairly horrifying document, the guy has some seriously evil mental wiring. He's not planning just a war on muslims, he's rooting for the whole nuclear holocaust scenario, discusses in details things like anthrax attacks and useage of other WMDs. He's basically created in his mind a sort of white supremacist version of Al Quaida.

Whats a little scary, is that statistically speaking, white supremacists have a far more comprehensive history of terrorist attacks (The most successful terrorist organization in US history was never al quaida, but the ku klux klan) but have generally not been that successful, barring perhaps Timothy McVeighs bombing and the KKK attacks on blacks and republicans earlier in US history, and the reason for the lack of success is simply most white supremacists are frankly dumber than a bag of rocks. A manual like this however seems to be quite well researched and potentially places the ammo in white supremacists hands to become a lot more successful in their attacks on left wingers, muslims and ironically (as ABB was actually pro israel, somewhat unusually) against jewish folks.

It should't be banned, as the info is already out there, but if I where the authorities, I'd be rather worried.

Re:Why give it the time?

[drolli]

Yes. Its funny.

This guy everthing he wanted. Cameras, and millions of people wondering about his paranoid bullshit - and some people even believing they must make a live blog on what their "analysis" of this shit is. Believe me, this thing is, including all possible codes, sorted out right now by professionals, without any additional attention.

Re:Why give it the time?

[Sepultura]

At least some of the people working on decrypting these "messages" are interested in it for the challenge. They're not deluded into thinking the answer will have any real significance.

And IMO their work no more glorifies this guy's violence than the scientist's who worked on Joe Jernigan's body for the Visible Human Project glorified his murder.

Re:Why give it the time?

[Yvanhoe]

You can't fight the ideology without understanding it. Reading Mein Kampf would have saved European politicians a lot of hesitation before they declared war on Germany.

The most serious error we can make is to dismiss this guy as a nut. He was not, he was a smart man who gave into a toxic ideology. I mean, he learned how to manage dangerous chemical processes in a DIY fashion, he carefully planned a lot of dangerous material acquisition, he has a coherent prose, and sadly, he made a very smart choice in the people he chose to kill.

Understanding why he chose to follow the most extreme opponents of multiculturalism is important. Right now, some people are reading his prose like a manual. We know about the streisand effect : trying to force people to not talk about something doesn't work. Right now, every sympathizer of far right ideology has read it. Understand the effect it will have, understand what to expect.

After reading it, I was convinced that it will encourage other people to act in a similar way. It is very seducing for people with the right background. Fight it by addressing the questions it poses about multiculturalism. His arguments need to be addressed and answered instead of being silenced.

Re:Why give it the time?

[Snaller]

They only way to get rid of media attention is to ban media.

Re:Why give it the time?

[budgenator]

My suspicion is he was a mixture of sociopathy, zenophobia and more than a touch of paranoia, all most certainly the brainwashing was self-inflicted.

Re:Why give it the time?

[jamesh]

zenophobia

Fear of enlightenment? Maybe you mean Xenophobia

(you probably knew that already and just made a typo... i'm just releasing some built up stress by wearing my grammar/spelling nazi hat :)

Re:Why give it the time?

[makomk]

Pro-Israeli sentiment is quite common amongst the far-right these days from what I can tell, especially in Europe - Muslims are the current populist target of hate. (Though it's anyone's guess whether this is what they actually believe or just a matter of political convenience.) "White" has a very flexible definition...

Re:Why give it the time?

[jamesh]

If they were armed, he would have been shooting for oh . . . say. . . 20 seconds

Can't argue with that... a bunch of 15 year olds with guns would have well and truly finished him off in that time.

And then the police arrive, and the kids - scared out of their minds - figure that if one cop was shooting at them, the rest are probably coming to do the same, so they'll probably take a few police out too (better not give the chance for the police to shoot first). Then more police arrive to sort out the cop-killing kids.

Sounds like a great solution!

Mailing list?

[lucm]

From the link:
> Send an email to manifest-analysis-request@analysis.no.net with the word "subscribe" in the body text (not subject) to participate.

I guess the good ol' Majordomo is being revived. Can't wait to see if they also setup a webring or at least put up a guestbook that I could sign!

Don't believe it

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Microsoft's file formats are well-known for being very messy and hard to parse.
2. Word itself is known for strange, bizarre, and undesirable things to your formatting.
3. The killer wasn't smart or sensible enough to convert his manifesto to .pdf or .html or something more reasonable to help ensure a wider readership / distribution.
4. The killer didn't know how to use BCC to hide the addresses of his ~1000 or so recipients (Possibly he WANTED his recipient list public, but I see no reason why in particular he would. If anything, he ought to have hidden it, if any members of his 'cell' were among the recipients).

So my own personal armchair analysis of all this is that they're chasing phantoms here.

Re:Don't believe it

[SuricouRaven]

Or perhaps he just knew there would be no need to BCC it - publish it widely enough that the general public can get it (ie, us) and so can anyone he intended to decode the message.

I think I got most of it decrypted

[93 Escort Wagon]

B.E.S.U.R.E.T.O.D.R.I.N.K.Y.O.U.R.O.V.A.L.T.I.N.E.

and, to accommodate Slashdot's filters...

b.e.s.u.r.e.t.o.d.r.i.n.k.y.o.u.r.o.v.a.l.t.i.n.e.

Re:I think I got most of it decrypted

[Nimey]

That was about as predictable as the fanboys who tag stories with "thatsnomoon".

1500 Pages?

[Lanteran]

I'll wait for the movie.
Too soon?

Re:has

[cgenman]

The lost race of the Grammar People.

The project appears to be in good hands.

[An Ominous Cow Erred]

Looks like it's Oystein, (a.k.a. edison) in charge of the operation. He's one sharp cookie and has been in the Norweigan scene for decades. I remember how fun we he was 20 yrs ago. xD I'm sure it will be solved soon.

Re:The project appears to be in good hands.

[xnpu]

Not that sharp. Anyone who can use Google will find that "Ducky" comes with some Adobe file format, not some mysterious company editing these pictures.

What we need to do

[Ryantology]

is collect a group of xkcd readers and "House of Leaves" obsessives. They'd figure it out in about three days.

Lost time

[mseeger]

I am sure that this will be lost time. Worse. Spending time with his manifesto is exactly the thing, the killer wants us to do. He is not worth the time and effort, his manifesto is also not worth it.

The murders were his PR campaign. Don't fall for it. I know that a "damnation memoriae" will not work, but don't help a killer with additional attention.

I don't want to know about his childhood, i am not interested in his home stories, i don't want to see his pictures or see his manifesto publicly discussed.

If you want to spend time, do it for his victims. What where their dreams, ideas, visions? Try to use your words to keep their memory alive, not some sick bastards.

Yours, Martin

Re:Lost time

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't uproot ideas, even very silly and mad, by just ignoring them, and supression is actually the breeding ground for them. Maybe it's boring to refute every one of them indefinitely, when you can spend that time watching Glee or chewing food, but this kind of education by discussion is, in my humble opinion, much, much better than 76 persons dead in one day. It seems like his killing spree was not the aim but due to negligence of society to discuss some (yes, dubious) political ideas. You see? Once you supressing the question, you can get things going ballistic.

Re:Lost time

[arth1]

I am sure that this will be lost time. Worse. Spending time with his manifesto is exactly the thing, the killer wants us to do.

He wants us to read the manifesto and be swayed by his supreme understanding of how Europe and Norway are going to hell in a handbasket unless we turn Xenophobic.
He doesn't want us to read the manifesto to understand how a person could crack so completely in order to prevent it from ever happening again.

The evil deed can never be undone. The best that can be done for the victims is a resounding "never again", and become a society where no one can become this crazy and discuss their conspiracy theories on sites like "Gates of Vienna" without anyone noticing or caring. Preventing it from ever happening again and showing the perpetrator and his ideological friends how wrong they are is the only rational response that honors the victims.

Re:Lost time

[mseeger]

As i said, i don't want a "damnatio memoriae", because it wouldn't work. I want his ideas and himself to be snubbed. Even the worst paper is to valuable to print his face upon. You can report on him without having to plaster his face in the front page, mentioning his name or quoting his manifesto. And i can promise you one thing: This would be hurting him a thousand times more than any trashing prison guards could give him. I want him to die of old age in prison, realizing nobody cares a damn about him.

If you look at his kind, the attention he is getting, is to them like a bright light to a moth. If we give him attention, others will think they will get it too, if they just kill enough people.

I don't want to mask out the news, just cut the sensationalism down. Terrorists don't achieve their goals on the damage they inflict. They need those sympathetic detonations in the media to succeed.

Terrorism is a war fought more by perception than by bombs. Even the horrendous damage 911 delivered was dwarved by the psychological impact. Perhaps it is more obvious to an foreigner, how much the U.S. has changed afterwards. That spirit i loved and admired is nearly completely gone. This is, were the real hammer fell :-(.

Yours, Martin

Re:Lost time

[mseeger]

He doesn't want us swayed by his supreme understanding. He wants attention and currently he is getting it :-(.

Re:Lost time

[deblau]

My /. fortune with this article: "Abandon the search for Truth; settle for a good fantasy."

Re:Lost time

[mseeger]

My /. fortune with this reply: "Learn reading before writing" ;-)

Re:Lost time

[FoolishOwl]

If you want to spend time, do it for his victims. What where their dreams, ideas, visions? Try to use your words to keep their memory alive, not some sick bastards.

Well said.

Re:Lost time

[Terrasque]

My personal pet theory is that it's stuff he's stashed in case he escaped. Or, if he got companions (some of those on Utoya have reported two shooters, but it's not confirmed by the police, and they were in a really stressful situation).

Think about it. Store some fake papers, money, maybe some clothes, food, weapons in many of the large cities in Europe, and store it in his manifest in a cryptic way. To get it, all he need is to walk into an internet cafe, download the manifest (which is all over the net right now, impossible to check who's accessing it), and plot the nearest ones on Google maps. Go fetch.

Even if he only escaped with the clothes he wore, he'd still have rather easy access to it.

And it does fit the way he's done everything else so far (almost every action he's done in the attack have been serving at least two goals).

Re:Lost time

[mseeger]

Sorry, sounds more like a C action movie script than a theory. And even a sound theory would be a waste of time where this person is concerned.

Re:Lost time

[Terrasque]

The whole thing sounds like a C action movie, buddy.

Re:Lost time

[mseeger]

Yeah, not the first time i want to hit the guy who wrote the script.

Codes are a distraction

[kanweg]

Breyvik is a guy with a grudge, who clearly is capable of planning ahead. He is oh so cooperative, tells the police about another cell (didn't say there are many, because that would be unbelievable). He was also willing to do another thing, but a few requirements would have to be met. Most of them were very reasonable, but one of them the police could/would not accommodate for. How inconvenient! Breyvik smart; police stupid. He has a manifesto with codes in them. The manifesto is 1500 pages or so. That will keep the police occupied! And there are codes in them. Oh, brilliant, that will keep the police occupied even longer. And the police is blamed already for not preventing all this, they are not going to leave stone unturned. Blaming the police is stupid. It is like those slashdotters that pride themselves in having a gun to defend themselves, but wouldn't go home to get it if a felon stabbed a knife in their back on the street to get their wallet. The police could never have prevented it. Politics could have closed the alley. That's it. And he would have found another target. Don't give Breyvik power even while he's in custody, so don't spend time on the codes. At best they are real but just tell something mysterious that can be interpreted in more ways, costing more police effort. Just punish him for the terrorist act and the murders.

Bert

Re:Codes are a distraction

[arth1]

And the police is blamed already for not preventing all this,

No, they are not. Norway is not USA or the UK. Norwegians don't expect the police to monitor dissenters, they expect society to do so - a society of which they themselves are a part.
The lack of openness and discussing radical views, thus allowing it to fester unnoticed by the public radar is getting the blame.

I think I already broke this guy's code

[BitHive]

Some excerpts from this nauseating, yet derivative, "manifesto":

Time is of the essence. We have only a few decades to consolidate a sufficient level of resistance before our major cities are completely demographically overwhelmed by Muslims. Ensuring the successful distribution of this compendium to as many Europeans as humanly possible will significantly contribute to our success. It may be the only way to avoid our present and future dhimmitude (enslavement) under Islamic majority rule in our own countries.

If a man of the 1950s were suddenly introduced into Western Europe in the 2000s, he would hardly recognise it as the same country. He would be in immediate danger of getting mugged, carjacked or worse, because he would not have learned to live in constant fear. When the children came home in the afternoon and told them they had to go through a metal detector to get in the building, had been given some funny white powder by another kid and learned that homosexuality is normal and good, the parents would be uncomprehending.

Ladies should be wives and homemakers, not cops or soldiers, and men should still hold doors open for ladies. Children should not be born out of wedlock. Glorification of homosexuality should be shunned. Jurors should not accept Islam as an excuse for murder.

Don't even need to read the rest, really.

Re: I think I already broke this guy's code

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not going to read the rest really because I already know all this.

He is right of course, humanity needs a wake up call; society cannot possibly go on like this. It is all about backstabbing each other and bending over in fear in the name of multiculturalism.

Re: I think I already broke this guy's code

[Slashdot Assistant]

Daily Mail readers have already been getting the manifesto in serialized form for over a hundred years. Were house prices and vaccinations discussed at all in the manifesto?

Re: I think I already broke this guy's code

[ScentCone]

nauseating

The really nauseating thing is that he is, of course, exactly right about some of what's in there. That the truth is mixed up in crazy land is part of the problem with guys like this - because when they're calibrating their world view, even their irrational minds can find some confirmation of their suspicions/projections, and it happens just often enough to keep them going on the loonier stuff.

Re: I think I already broke this guy's code

[gl4ss]

I don't think he had a too clear idea of actual crime levels in western europe from ww2 to today nor does he seem to have any clue about the decade before fifties(or much about anything before or after that). It's pretty apparent that he didn't, for a terrorist it's kind of strange that he in that way doesn't seem to be too familiar with political groups in europe which used terror a lot from fifties to nineties. the rhetoric is just your usual lies of old people that go "young whippersnappers these days are no good at all, when we were young we had manners and nobody raped anyone ever and we married before we had sex and no divorces!" and attaching that to foreigners being around.

Re:Cut to the chase

[arth1]

Sheesh, don't bother going to the trouble. You've got the killer, just try a little waterboarding and save the time and money.

That is not the Norwegian way. Norwegians are a people of honor, who won't stoop to the level of the evildoers in order to fight evil. The reaction to the deed was one of sorrow, reflection and (and this is hard to understand for outsiders) love and openness instead of hatred and retaliation. In the days after the attack, the prime minister and mayor of Oslo walked around in public with less protection than before, precisely to show that the terrorist would not win by changing Norway for the worse.
In polls, Norwegians are overwhelmingly against the death penalty, torture and revenge, and more so now after the UtÃya tragedy. Norwegians want to distance themselves from everything the perpetrator stood for, and retaliate by doing the opposite of what Mr Breivik thought he would achieve.
The great majority of Norwegians want him to have the same rights as any other accused, and be judged and sentenced for what he did in a fair trial, and not risk jeopardizing justice by the police overstepping their limits. If the police can torture Mr Breivik today, they can torture you tomorrow. Punish him by exposing him to a fairness he never showed others. He will have plenty of time to reflect on how what he did hurt his cause, due to Norwegians being Norwegians, and not Americans.

Know your enemy

[Anonymous Coward]

I've read some of his book. I won't finish it (not enough time in my life), but it's worth reading at least the first couple chapters and skimming the rest. It's scary to do because you'll find that it's not "incoherent ramblings" as the media tells you - quite a bit of it is eloquently written (I suspect it's stitched together from multiple sources) and presents some decent arguments. I'm pretty far to the socialist side, and he's hard-right, but I agree with some of what he's saying, even if I think the conclusion that he reaches (that it's time for Europe to rise up against the oppression of the current ideological regime) is bunk.

This tragedy isn't caused by simple Crazy. An important ingredient is Ideology. To prevent future killings in this form - lone wolf, keeping a low profile - you have to fight the ideological reasons that drive them to do such a thing.

The amount of Crazy this takes is not Batshit Insane. It's a lack of critical thinking about the flaws in their ideology, the conclusions they've reached, and the worth of the actions they will undertake; nurtured a supportive environment which will encourage his thoughts; but still enough sanity for long-term planning and preparation without raising red flags.

Police work does not find these types. Some idiots will fuck up and get caught, but there are lots of people out there who are lacking in the critical thinking department. Some will always slip through.

The way you defend against this is not to brush him off as Crazy; but rather to dive into his mind and try to understand what drove him to kill 77 people. And once you do, you, a rational thinker, need to talk with other people who may hold radical ideologies and help them to understand where the flaws in their beliefs are before the real Crazy takes hold and they start shooting.

And you can't until you let yourself really understand his ideas, rather than just getting the two sentence blurbs. Know - deeply, intellectually - your enemy.

Re:Know your enemy

[ravenshrike]

The Unabomber(The American terrorist most similar to this nutjob) also had a very eloquent manifesto. Doesn'tt change that he was just as fucking crazy.

Re:Know your enemy

[Terrasque]

I 100% agree with what you say. And I've seen very few people sharing that view.

This is not some nutcase going batshit crazy, this is a *relatively* sane person following a (weird / ) set of logic to conclude it's the only rational thing to do.

The right thing to do is understand why he came to that conclusion, analyze where he decided that that was the only thing he could do, and then find out how to prevent that from happening in the future.

Of course, when I try to explain that concept to people (1. he's not the average El Insano Rabiato, and 2. to prevent this we must understand it), I always get the "How can you defend this monster??" and so on.. Basically everyone seem to go for the "Lala not listening" defense option.

If he was insane, its unlikely he'd have done such an effective job, seeing as every step of the plan had multiple effects.

Example: The bomb in Oslo did not only distract the police, but gave him an excellent excuse to go to Utoya as a fully armed police man (he even got the people there to get the boat by radio and drive him out there). Normally, Norwegian police don't carry any weapons at all (not even a gun), and it would have been extremely suspicious. However, after the bomb, the special units were sent out fully armed, and some police carried guns and automatic weapons. In addition, by attacking the political headquarters it seemed even more reasonable to send an armed cop to a political gathering close by.

Not only did he plan it extremely well, he also kept it completely secret. As head of Kripos (Norwegian national police force for fighting organized and heavy crime) said, not even Stasi-Germany would have picked this guy up. A dedicated, smart lone wolf is almost impossible to stop (you'd be relying on luck, basically), once they get that far. The best defense would be to stop them from ever getting that far.

And to prevent that, we need to find out why he, in the end, felt that he had to do such a terrible thing.

Re:Know your enemy

[capedgirardeau]

You know he plagiarized portions of it from the Ted Kaczynski manifesto, the so called Unabomber right?

Who knows where else he copied from. I wouldn't give him any credit for any of the writing.

This guy is a murderous loon. He strikes me as nothing more than a wanna be something, I suspect his "codes" will turn out to be nothing just like him.

Re:Know your enemy

[cowboy76Spain]

It is not that a person uses a wrong logic and then ends "logically" killing tens of people.

It works the other way around... a person that wants to kill lots of people finds a way of twisting the logic to justify their acts. Most of the less educated people of this class will just need to convince themselves with simple reasonaments ("I deserve more respect"/"They are making fun of me"/Whatever). More educated people will be able to forge more comprehensive looking constructs, complex enough to fill in a manifesto.

The more I think of it, the more I am convinced that intelligence is just another tool for our purposes, not a way of guiding them. Note that I am not talking only about criminals but everyone there, criminals get singled out because:

• they get lots more of attention than, say, a sadistic boss or a sleazy coworker or a cheating husband/wife.
• as their purposes are far more uncommon than those which I mentioned above, their logic is more "strange" to the common people.

Re:Know your enemy

[GuldKalle]

One thing I do not understand about this guy, however, is why he didn't predict the backlash his actions have given. In scandinavia at least, there are a lot of eyes on the right wing, both extremist and otherwise. The political party that he attacked has had a huge surge in popularity. He must have known that his actions would not be approved by the public, so why didn't he see this?

Re:Know your enemy

[Anonymous Coward]

You write off Kaczynski as fucking crazy, but he clearly inspired Breivik, who copied several passages. The difference between a controversial but insightful op-ed in a right-leaning newspaper and what these guys wrote is they concluded with "... and so it's time for a revolution, and I'm going to start it."

More will follow. Will you continue to ignore them? I plan to understand them, converse with them, and hopefully broaden their view before they conclude that their only option is mass murder.

Re:Know your enemy

[rastoboy29]

You say this as if all people can be reasoned with.

Many cannot.  Ever.  You obviously haven't met one of them, yet--but you will.

And I'm pretty sure I recognize this guy as one of those.  The answer to this conundrum is "fuck him".

Re:Know your enemy

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is the problem. Insane people don't nessisarily come accross as rambling. Some insane psychopathic killers came off as very elequent and intelligent. Look at Ted Bundy. He was known as a pillar of the community, he was going for a law degree, was a volunteer for a rape hotline, and was looking to run for political office. He was very well spoken, charming, and well dressed.

I have done a little bit of research on serial killers, and Breivick reminds me more of him than any other psychological profile. I think that his motivations were not as much political as he likely even thinks. The political BS was likely how he worked through it in his mind (research into criminal psychology shows that as a common pattern amongst high functioning psychopathic killers) There is no doubt that he IS crazy. He is not the kind of crazy that see's someone shouting at themselves, crapping themselves on a street corner. He's the kind of crazy like a Ted Bundy, who is a high functioning psychopath serial killer. There are people like this guy in all sorts of positions of power and noteriety. Some of them do what this guy did, and some don't. Psychologists can explain this behavior when extreme narcisism meets an extreme lack of empathy (sociopathy). People of such makeups are drawn to positions of authority, and are often very successful in those positions because of their conditions.

I would be very interested to hear if this guy had a bit of a hidden trend of violence in his life against animals and possibly has even murdered people and never gotten caught. He has the classic psychological traits from one of these types: A father who is either not there at all, or overly abusive, but openly hates his own offspring (interviews with his father in recent news confirm all of it), an overbearing mother (check), delusions of grandeur (check), a complete desensitization and enjoyment of violent/murderous acts (check), and an overwhelming need to justify his tendencies via some sort of religious/political or social excuse (check. . . hence the "manifesto"). I'm not convinced his ideas (which I happen to disagree with) are the causal link we're looking for. I think they were the excuse he made to himself for his tedencies that were likely present since childhood.

He definately is crazy. . . just in a Ted Bundy sort of way. Google: "High Functioning Psychopath."

Re:Know your enemy

[Terrasque]

He must have known that his actions would not be approved by the public

From the manifest:

I have been thinking about my post-operational situation, in case I survive a successful mission and live to stand a multiculturalist trial. When I wake up at the hospital, after surviving the gunshot wounds inflicted on me, I realize at least for me personally, I will be waking up to a world of shit, a living nightmare. Not only will all my friends and family detest me and call me a monster; the united global multiculturalist media will have their hands full figuring out multiple ways to character assassinate, vilify and demonize. They will possibly do everything they can to distort the truth about me, KT and our true objectives, and attempt to make even revolutionary conservatives detest me. They will label me as a racist, fascist, Nazi-monster as they usually do with everyone who opposes multiculturalism/cultural Marxism. However, since I manifest their worst nightmare (systematical and organized executions of multiculturalist traitors), they will probably just give me the full propaganda rape package and propagate the following accusations: pedophile, engaged in incest activities, homosexual, psycho, ADHD, thief, non-educated, inbred, maniac, insane, monster etc. I will be labeled as the biggest (Nazi-)monster ever witnessed since WW2.

As for the backlash.. I think he predicted it (anything else would be stupid, and so far I've seen little evidence of him being stupid), but maybe he considered it a short-lived boost, and/or considered the psychological damages to the future leaders of that party to "win out" - it's possible he managed to change the future politics of that party pretty drastically with that attack. Some of the survivors tell of problems trusting people, especially police after the incident. And Utoya was basically the gathering of the biggest young ideologists of that party's policy. Who knows what long term damage he actually managed to inflict there?

So once again, he might have two goals for his action. Both changing the politics of the most immigrant-friendly party, and get attention to his own ideas.

Re:Know your enemy

[xenobyte]

The Unabomber (Ted Kaczynski) wrote a very well written manifesto, full of brilliant work and logic - that just happen to be complete bullshit from end to end. Breivik copied quite a few passages verbatim, changing only a few words to make it fit his message. Most of Breiviks text is also complete bullshit, and I'm sure those codes are as well. Same thing applies to to other manifesto-like texts written by madmen, like "Mein Kampf" or the Quran for that matter.

We shouldn't be as afraid of the lone nutjobs like Kaczynski or Breivik as we should of any collective if people like them ever manage to collaborate. If they complement each other perfectly, their work might be flawless and actually make sense in a broader sense. There are after all tiny points of sense and reason in both manifestos and it would scare me shitless if someone should turn up with a manifesto that was right all the way.

Re:Dangerous contents

[maxwell demon]

A quick glance showed a lot of information on topics that I would consider to be terrorist related activities. I seen mention of making bombs, hiding stuff, and even mention of ricin, which my understanding is a poison. So I wonder, is it really safe to make information like this publically available knowing full well that hundreds of thousands of people will potentially download this information and use it for god knows what purpose?

While we're at it, also get rid of the thrillers. After all, they tell us various ways of how to commit crimes, including lots of clever ways to kill people.

Simple Solution

[Froeschle]

https://www.xkcd.com/538/

Re:Simple Solution

[TeknoHog]

I was thinking more along the lines of http://xkcd.com/426/ as there are GPS coordinates involved.

Re:Cut to the chase

[ravenshrike]

Well, except for all those calling for more gun control, even though given how methodical this ratfucker was all the gun laws in the world wouldn't have changed the outcome. Although to be fair from what I've found on the matter more calls for increased gun control seem to be coming from Sweden than Norway, which is rather amusing.

Wifi

[Anonymous Coward]

They are wifi hotspot coordinates with login info. Are they really that dumb to not see this?

88 * rot13

[wesleyjconnor]

obviously

Eusa save us

[Hognoxious]

[If] I wanted to do something that will get me remembered, for whatever reason, in the history of man, I'd do some crap just like this. Make up a "manifesto" of probably gibberish, encyrpted and whatnot, so peeps would spend many hours of discussion and get me remembered.

It's a fair time ago, but IIRC some rabble-rouser took time off from fitting kitchens to try that. And then a few hundred years later some camel-riding bandit did a similar thing. People are still arguing about what they meant, and whether they were part of the same organisation.

Re:has

[repvik]

Meh. I really could care less. I happen to be norwegian, and there's no doubt that the meaning came across perfectly fine.

Ask GeoCachers to help

[Fuzzums]

It took 0 seconds to realize ip-numbers were out of the question and another 2 seconds to realize it could be coordinates and 5 more to see they map to urban areas.

But ask geocachers to take a look at it. They're quite good with coordinates and obfuscating them.
Since some of the locations are in the middle of the street, it would make sense that the coordinate also needs to be translated.
The Cyrillic for instance could contain information for this translation. Try adding the 0x402-0x428 to the coordinates. See if you end up with more "logical" locations.

What do these footnotes belong to? Quotes? Could they refer to people? Would be rather stupid, but then again, killing 77 people is also insane, so who knows.

Re:Dangerous contents

[SuricouRaven]

It always amuses me to see them making thermite on Mythbusters. To satisfy their legal team, they cover up all the labels are are careful never to identify the secret ingredients used - even going so far as for Jamie to at one point refer to them as 'blur' and 'blur.' Yet I was taught how to make thermite back in AS-level chemistry classes - not merely told the secret incredients (iron oxide and aluminium powder, hah!) but how to calculate the correct mix ratio and how to ignite the thermite using a magnesium ribbon fuse. The lawyers are so cautious about containing information about the manufacture of dangerous chemicals, they don't even allow out the information taught openly in public schools.

Umm... not quite.

[denzacar]

A PROBLEM is there to be solved.
A puzzle is there to confuse and distract.

Sometimes, puzzles are good training for problem solving, more often than not they are simply a time-killing device.

Crazy?

[splutty]

Be very very careful with thinking this guys was 'crazy' or a 'loon' or 'insane'...

He was anything but. He was very convinced about being right, highly intelligent, well read, and well versed.

Dismissing him as a 'crazy person' is extremely dangerous, since that will never allow you to actually find out why he did this.

There are a lot of people that have the same ideas he has, a lot of them even publicly. The fact he decided to take violent action based on that idea is something to reflect on, not something you should push aside as 'crazy'

Re:Crazy?

[CitizenJohnJohn]

None of that stops him from being crazy.

The reluctance to classify Anders Breivik as mentally ill comes from the problem we'd then have differentiating people like him from, say, regular soldiers.

For me, it's simple: if you are prepared to kill voluntarily for an ideology, you're mentally ill.

Re:Cut to the chase

[JonJ]

I've yet to see any significant amount of people calling for gun control, we already have a pretty efficient system.

wondering

[ripdajacker]

What ever happened to crazy? Maybe the clues in the manifesto are gibberish.

If I killed a bunch of politically engaged young people my blogs, interests and probably even the code I write would be analysed. And they would probably link my nazi-like code-style and warnings template to sociopathic behavior and end up stating that everyone who read whatever I wrote should have seen it coming.

Come on people, he's crazy and we are wasting valuable resources on looking at his work. Let the people do their moarning in peace.

the plusf, and subf is high, for 3d.

[Anonymous Coward]

how high the position is. meaning, in the area that is given in the gps, they should check if there is a building at the specific height, and that is the building that is marked.

this way ,they could mark specific buildings , to get accuracy of building and not 100*50 meters.

or may be sea level height.

Re:Cut to the chase

[Anonymous Coward]

The reaction to the deed was one of sorrow, reflection and (and this is hard to understand for outsiders) love and openness instead of hatred and retaliation.

I lol'ed at the irony of there being overt racism in this sentence.

Re:Cut to the chase

[Nimey]

It's sad and disgusting[1] that we Americans didn't learn the same lesson from our troubles that you Norwegians did.

[1] Especially given that the same people who want torture and more "security" are often the same ones who wharrgarbl about the USA being a Christian country, or at least call themselves Christian and make a big deal about the Constitution.

Following the killer's "clues" may cause harm

[h1q]

Actually, throwing this poisoned meat out to the dog may be further destruction, not that it is simply a killer-sourced "narrative" established that people will re-ignite interest for many years, but the act of digging up "clues" may disrupt innocent people's lives. For example, what if I named unspecified correspondence with Michele Bachmann as the main reason why I justified going berserk? Her privacy would be invaded and her name besmirched all as a continuing attack by me for years, if not decades. I would lol all the way through prison and you would be my simple tools.

Obligatory xkcd

[CyberDragon777]

My chemo has worked

https://www.xkcd.com/931/

Re:Cut to the chase

[IllForgetMyNickSoonA]

I'd even thought it was meant like "people not living in Norway" (regardless of whether Norwegian or not)

Theories

[black soap]

in no particular order:

• Author was batshit crazy. Codes do not translate into reality.
• Formatting error. Was he copying links that had been shortened, perhaps by a search engine or browser cache?
• Monkey Trap. Remember the classic prank of releasing goats on a campus, numbered "1," "2," and "4?"

Don't the investigators have access to the computer he assembled his "Breivick's Big Book of Crazy - (With Pictures!)"?

Re:Dangerous contents

[black soap]

Yeah, but how many people actually remember all the things they learned in school?