Tougher regulations for fertiliser manufacturers after Norway attack
The EU is expected to fast-track the formulation and rollout of measures to monitor the manufacture and sale of fertiliser and any other materials which can be used to produce homemade bombs.
This decision was taken at an extraordinary meeting in Brussels of the EU’s anti-terrorism working party, TWP, the counter-terrorism group COTER, as well as Norwegian authorities and other key member states.
This response to the July 22 murder spree has been preceded by a wide-ranging debate, with inputs from the likes of Europol, the European External Action Service, the European Commission and a selection of counter-terrorism groups.
The new measures to monitor fertiliser distribution are likely to be followed by further clampdowns on the sale and distributions of other materials used by Breivik.
Janne Kristiansen, the director of Norway’s national security agency, PST, said: “Can we do something differently? We will do that with our sister agencies all over Europe. I’m certain that my colleagues want to talk to me about ‘what can we do if we are in the same position’.”
Prior to his mass murder campaign, Breivik ordered six tonnes of fertiliser.
To disguise his intentions, he also rented a farm and had prepared a sizeable written document on his plans to grow sugar beets.
In a similar vein, he bought large quantities of aspirin, purchasing three boxes on each separate visits to 20 or more pharmacies.
He used the aspirin to obtain acetylsalicylic acid, which he then combined with other chemicals to build the truck bomb he planted in central Oslo.
In unveiling the planned security regulations, the EU group called on fertiliser manufacturers to conduct close monitoring of orders placed with them by new clients.
However, it seems that one aluminium order placed by Breivik with Polish supplier Keten Chemicals was among more than 50 orders flagged for attention by the French-based police agency Interpol in a communication to Norwegian security authorities.
The Norwegian agencies did not find any reason to investigate.
European farmer groups have not made any com-ment on the regulations. However, EU officials sought to ward off any objections by noting that the US authorities are planning to introduce restrictions on the distribution of fertiliser, ammonium nitrate and other agri-chemicals.
US authorities are also planning stricter mon-itoring of the use of chemicals and explosives in industries such as mining.
The US crackdown on agri-chemicals has been on the table for the past 16 years, ever since the 1995 Oklahoma bomb attack by Timothy McVeigh.
Ammonium nitrate was the key ingredient in the bombs of both McVeigh and Breivik. The US-based National Academy of Sciences has long recommended tighter controls on the sale and distribution of ammonium nitrate.
Professor Edward Arnett of Duke University, the co-chairperson of the Sciences committee, recently said: “What you’re up against is the fact that ammonium nitrate is a major agricultural chemical.
“I think the various lobbies that represent agriculture didn’t want to have anything stand in the way of buying it,” he added.
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