Oslo: In the photographs now circulating around the world, Anders Behring Breivik looks almost preppy.
Neatly parted blond hair frames a boyishly handsome face. The upturned collar of a peach-coloured polo shirt pokes through a dark Izod sweater.
It's hard to reconcile the softly smiling young man in these professional studio shots with the monster who witnesses say donned a police uniform and ruthlessly hunted down scores of young Norwegians, firing at those who jumped into freezing water in a desperate bid to escape.
"I'll kill every one of you," he shouted at victims, witnesses recalled.
Now it is up to investigators to fit the two seemingly incongruous images together in an effort to comprehend what motivated the man believed to be behind the attacks.
As more details emerge, Norwegians are coming to terms with the fact that rather than some radical foreign agenda shattering the idyllic society they sought to create here, the twin attacks appear to have been orchestrated by a lone home-grown terrorist — raised and educated in a middle-class family and who never had problems with the law before.
Breivik was motivated by a desire to bring about a revolution in Norwegian society, his lawyer said yesterday. A manifesto that he is believed to have written ranted against Muslim immigration to Europe and vowed revenge on "indigenous Europeans" who he accused of betraying their heritage.
In all, 93 people were killed and 97 wounded. There are still people missing at both scenes.
Six hearses pulled up at the shore of the lake surrounding the island yesterday, as rescuers on boats continued to search for bodies in the water.
Body parts remain inside the Oslo building, which housed the prime minister's office. A chilling 1,500-page political manifesto, titled A European Declaration of Independence, posted on the internet earlier this year appears to lay out Breivik's world views.
Sections of the online book include "Documenting EU's deliberate strategy to Islamise Europe" and "How the feminists' ‘War Against the Boys' paved the way for Islam".
The book describes "attack strategies", including assassinating professors and carrying out coordinated assaults on multiple targets at the same time.
In a passage that appeared to predict the tactics in the twin attacks on Friday, the manifesto advises: "You will usually always be caught, so instead of going home and waiting for someone to knock at your door, move to your second target, then the third, etc."
Avoiding suspicion
The treatise suggests wearing a police SWAT uniform as a disguise to avoid raising suspicion while moving around with weapons. And it specifically mentions targeting annual political meetings, barbecues and gatherings that draw hundreds of people, using flame-throwers or assault rifles on the crowds.
The manifesto — which police are poring over — ranted that the European elite, "multiculturalists" and "enablers of Islamisation" would be punished for their "treasonous acts."
Police have not confirmed that Breivik wrote the document, but his lawyer referred to it and said Breivik had been working on it for years.
Suspect's father reacts
The father of a Norwegian man charged with attacks that killed at least 93 people says he is in shock and only learnt of his son's involvement via online newspapers, a Norwegian daily said.
"I was reading the online newspapers and suddenly I saw his name and picture on the net," the father told the daily Verdens Gang of his son, Anders Behring Breivik.
It said the man was interviewed "somewhere in France", where he is a pensioner.
"It was a shock to learn about it. I have not recovered yet," he said.
The man is a pensioner who lives in France and said he has had no contact with his son since 1995.
