Norwegian security forces ‘could have prevented Breivik attack’

Norwegian security services could have prevented all or part of an attack by far-right militant Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bombing and gun massacre last year, a government commission said yesterday.

Intelligence services could have learned about Breivik’s plans months before the attack made him the worst mass killer in Norway’s peacetime history, the commission’s report said.

The government building he bombed should have been better protected and he should have been stopped before he shot dozens of victims on an island as police struggled to find a working helicopter and a suitable boat.

“All in all, Jul 22 revealed serious shortfalls in society’s emergency preparedness and ability to avert threats,” the commission said. “The challenges turned out to be ascribable to leadership and communication to a far greater extent than to the lack of response personnel.”

Breivik first detonated a fertiliser car bomb outside government headquarters in Oslo, killing eight people, then travelled to the ruling Labour Party’s summer camp on Utoeya island where he gunned down 69 victims unimpeded.

Authorities had become aware of his suspicious activities months before when he bought items that could be used to make bombs but intelligence service failures meant he was not put on a watchlist, the commission said in the 482-page report.

The government building had been identified as a security risk years before, but government squabbling over minor details of the security measures needed meant little was done.

Once the bombing took place, a witness’s description of Breivik, which was phoned into police, was not passed on to officers in the field for 20 minutes.

The military was not immediately informed, police could not find the helicopter, and its boat, intended to transport special forces to the island, could not carry the necessary load.

The commission said a “more rapid police operations was a realistic possibility” and that Breivik “could have been stopped earlier” on the day.

Breivik admits the attacks but denies criminal guilt, claiming to be a political activist who attacked the ruling party for its support of Muslim immigration.

His 10-week trial ended in June and a court is expected to deliver its verdict on Aug 24.

If deemed insane, he faces indefinite mental care If ruled sane, he faces 21 years in prison with the possibility of indefinite extensions.