Norway Shooter Demands 'Medal of Honor' for Killings - East Idaho News
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Norway Shooter Demands ‘Medal of Honor’ for Killings

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Getty W 080211 OsloSuspect?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1328572375289AFP/Getty Images(OSLO, Norway) — The man accused of killing dozens of people — many of them teenagers — in dual terror attacks in Norway gave what was described as a fascist salute in court Monday before saying he deserves a “medal of honor” for the 2011 massacre.

Anders Breivik, a 32-year-old right-wing extremist who has repeatedly confessed to the July 22 bombing in Oslo followed by a shooting spree at a nearby youth summer camp that killed 77 people, reportedly smirked as he appeared in a Norwegian court Monday for a scheduled detention hearing. Approximately 100 survivors and family members of victims of the attacks were in the court audience.

During the hearing, Breivik told the judge he should be released from custody and said he deserved the military medal for his work against his country’s “traitors” in the fight against the “Islamic colonization of Norway.” Breivik claimed that the terror attacks were “preventative” moves and said he acted in cultural self-defense.

“Ethnic Norwegians will become the minority in 10 years in Oslo,” Breivik reportedly said.

Despite his confessions, Breivik has said he is not guilty of any crime. Breivik’s attorney, Geir Lippestad, said such statements could foreshadow what’s to come when Breivik goes on trial for terrorism charges in April.

In a 1,500-page online manifesto posted just before he launched his attacks, Breivik apparently wrote that he was just one operative in the beginning of a violent Christian conservative revolution in Europe led by a group called the new Knights Templar. Breivik had planned on a 60-plus-year struggle against mutliculturalism until the Knights would take control over Europe, the manifesto said.

The meticulous manifesto detailed Breivik’s years-long preparations for the attack and presents an academic-style argument against what he called multicultural Marxism and Islamic colonization. In it, he says being arrested is all part of the plan.

“Your arrest will mark the initiation of the propaganda phase,” Breivik writes. “Your trial offers you a stage to the world.”

Breivik was declared mentally insane by court-appointed doctors in November. A second evaluation was ordered, but Breivik reportedly refused to cooperate with the psychiatrists.

Previously, Breivik had demanded to be examined by Japanese specialists because they “understand the idea of values of honor.” He has also demanded from jail the complete overthrow of the Norwegian government and a key role in the reconstruction of society.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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