Breivik planned to behead Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former prime minister of Norway, and kill every one of the 500 youths attending the summer camp on Utoya island, the killer disclosed.
Andres Behring Breivik planned to behead Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former prime minister of Norway, and kill every one of the 500 youths attending the summer camp on Utoya island, the killer disclosed on Thursday.
On the fourth day of his trial in Oslo, Breivik laid out the scale of his plans in cold, excruciating detail. This testimony, perhaps the most disturbing he has yet given, caused some in the court to weep.
Speaking in calm and controlled tones, the far-Right killer said his first aim had been to detonate three car bombs, two of them weighing a ton. But obtaining the requisite chemical fertiliser had proved impossible, forcing him to plant a single device before executing the gun attack on July 22 last year.
Breivik had hoped that Brundtland, who led Norway as a Left-wing prime minister three times between 1981 and 1996, would be attending the Labour party's summer camp on Utoya on the day of the massacre.
"I fixed a bayonet to my rifle and I also had a knife with me," Breivik told the court. "The plan was to chop her head off while filming it."
Breivik explained: "Decapitation is a traditional European death penalty method practised in France until 1960 and it was also practised in Norway. So it was not only al-Qaeda who used this method as a very strong psychological weapon."
Breivik, who was carrying handcuffs, aimed to shackle Mrs Brundtland before decapitating her. She was, he explained, a category A traitor because of her support for multi-culturalism. Everyone at the youth camp shared her guilt, added Breivik, describing them as political activists. In the event, he shot 67 people on Utoya while two more drowned after plunging into the sea in terror. Breivik added, "The objective was not to kill 69 people on Utoya island, the objective was to kill all of them." His gun attack was designed to detonate panic that would cause all his targets to flee into the sea and drown.
Some 500 people were taking part in the camp and Breivik's youngest victim was only 14. "I knew that to kill a person under the age of 18 would be controversial," he said.
"But my starting point was that everyone was over the age of 16 and I would be able to distinguish those who were under 18. But it turned out to be impossible."
In fact, Breivik killed 33 teenagers under the age of 18. He continued: "I'm not a child-murderer. I believe that all political activists who choose to fight for multi-culturalism and work for that and have leadership positions in a political party are legitimate targets."
Breivik added: "I would still have done it again."
As a shocked hush fell over the court, he announced there was "no better political target" than Utoya's summer camp.
But he had assessed other options, including attacking the Labour party conference with "biological bullets" filled with toxin. He had bought 15ml of pure nicotine from China, with 0.1ml being a lethal dose.
He also examined building a "poor man's atom bomb" by hijacking a petrol tanker and igniting its payload with explosives. This would have killed "several thousand" people at the annual Labour Day parade.
Yet building these weapons had been beyond him. He also considered attacking Oslo's royal palace, but he would have picked a day when King Harald V was absent. "In my opinion, it would be unacceptable to attack the royal family," said Breivik. He is pleading not guilty, saying he carried out the killings in self-defence. The case continues.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}