Anders Behring Breivik emailed his 1,500-page “manifesto” to 250 British contacts less than 90 minutes before he detonated a bomb in Oslo.Continue reading.
Scotland Yard’s domestic extremism unit, which is investigating Breivik’s British links, has been sent a list of UK-based email addresses among 1,003 recipients of the document.
Breivik joined online conversations with members of the Right-wing English Defence League, telling them to “keep up the good work” in the months before he killed 76 people in Norway’s worst terrorist outrage.
He was told he would be welcome at EDL demonstrations, and wrote about visiting Bradford and London. He is also reported to have attended an EDL rally in Newcastle.
Using the name Andrew Berwick, Breivik emailed out his manifesto, and a link to a YouTube video showing him holding a gun, at 2.09pm on Friday, one hour and 17 minutes before his bomb detonated in Oslo. He addressed each recipient as a “Western European patriot” and wrote: “It is a gift to you … I ask that you distribute this book to everyone you know.”
Also at The Daily Mirror, "Anders Breivik told English Defence League members to 'keep up the good work'."
And at London's Daily Mail, "Police probe claim Norwegian gunman marched with English Defence League." And The Independent, "Endorsement by mass murderer exposes EDL to fresh scrutiny":
Detectives are probing Breivik's boasts that he met "tens of EDL members and leaders" in the decade leading up to Friday's massacre. He claimed in his 1,500-page "manifesto", posted online, to have visited Britain twice since 2002 to attend EDL rallies and had more than 600 EDL supporters as Facebook friends.That's the interview at top. The Independent probably gives as good a summary as we'll get, although I'd like to see proof of the emails allegedly sent by Breivik.
Police in Britain and Norway are also investigating his claims to have met a group of ultra-nationalists in London nine years ago at which they vowed to resist the spread of Muslim influence across Europe.
Scotland Yard is understood to be probing whether he met former members of the Neo-Nazi groups Combat 18 and Column 88 – both now considered defunct – at that time.
However, security sources believe that Breivik is most likely to have been a lone wolf similar to David Copeland, the London "nailbomber" who killed three people in 1999, and suspect that his assertion to have been part of a far-Right uprising is fantasy.
But the resultant publicity has left the EDL – which is known to be infiltrated by Special Branch and the security services – in an unprecendented media spotlight. With its links to football hooliganism, it had been previously most associated with street protests sometimes degenerating into violence.
Founded in 2009 by Stephen Lennon, who was this week convicted of leading a group of Luton Town supporters in a massive street brawl, the EDL repeatedly stresses it is only concerned with fighting "militant Islam".
Its leading figures, none of whom have experience in mainstream politics, operate as a loose network.
On Monday, Mr Lennon made a rare foray before the television cameras to ridicule suggestions of links with Breivik, suggesting the EDL is changing its strategy in dealing with the media.
A tetchy encounter with Jeremy Paxman on BBC2's Newsnight left him forecasting that similar attacks could take place in the UK if the right of peaceful protest was taken away: "You need to listen because, God forbid, this ever happens on British soil... it's the time coming... you're probably five or 10 years away."
RELATED: It's a far left-wing website, but they've got screencaps. See: "English Defence League in denial. In more ways than one."