US ambassdor: - You've had terror in Norway

[mogster]

From the paper Dagbladet


- Somebody has gone past the border for terror in Norway, says the US ambassador to Norway, Benson K. Whitney in an interview (NO) with dagbladet.no, where he also mentions worries about Norway's police work in the war against terror.

But why is it so important to the US ambassador that we've had terror in Norway?

- Ever since September 11, 2001, all democracies has been trying to understand how this battle is to be fought, and tried to balance freedom against security. The US had to learn it after it had happened. Norway has a possibility to learn before a serious act of terror occurs, says the ambassador and adds:
- Somebody has gone past the border for terror in Norway. Somebody shot 18 shots at a synagogue. That is terror.

The ambassador makes it clear that he does not pre-judge the four accused for planning terror attacks at his own embassy.

- I can't say that the accused are terrorists, because they're not convicted in a court of law. But they are on trial for real threats against our embassy and the Israeli embassy.

Last week, Norwegian police screw ups was mentioned in the US State dept. annual report «Country Reports on Terrorism 2006».

In the report, the US diplomats uses words as 'miscommunication' and 'mishandling' about the ongoing terror investigation in Oslo, where a Norwegian-Pakistani (29) and three others are charged with planning terror attacks against the US and Israeli embassies.

The paragraph in full
"Norway
Norway took steps to improve its counterterrorism capabilities but more work remains to be done. The government's efforts to address serious shortages in equipment, training, and capabilities were complicated by the widespread belief among the general public that no one would attack Norway. In October, the Ministry of Interior conducted a large-scale exercise in Oslo designed to test emergency response capabilities to a London and Madrid-type terrorist attack on transit infrastructure.

In October 2005, Norway passed an antiterrorism law that gave the police greater leeway to investigate and prosecute terror suspects. The September 2006 arrest of four individuals suspected of shooting an Oslo synagogue and planning attacks on the U.S. and Israeli embassies was the first test of this law. Some of the new investigative tools were used in the case. However, the prosecution of the case highlighted concerns that the law's definition of a conspiracy to commit a terror act was restrictive and could limit its usefulness. Reported miscommunication among various police offices and mishandling of information and suspects illustrated the need for improvement.

Alleged Ansar al-Islam leader Mullah Krekar, an Iraqi Kurd listed in December 2006 under UNSCR 1267, continued to reside in Norway but was unable to travel abroad, as his travel documents were confiscated and he remained under a government expulsion order. In the fall of 2005 the Oslo City Court rejected Krekar's suit against the government's expulsion decision. His subsequent appeal was rejected one year later. Despite the failure of his appeal, Krekar remained in Norway because the government was unable to receive sufficient human rights assurances from Iraq to proceed with deportation."

Read the long and winding story about the synagogue shooting last autumn that receded into the background as the need for a real terror threat emerged, a plan to attack the US and Israeli embassies was discovered, then dissolved into an ordinary planned robbery of a grocery store called 'Bottom Price'. And then it became a terror threat again. The ambassador may be right, the synagogue shooting certainly felt like terror in a calm and peaceful society like ours. But did the people involved really do it, and did they threaten to blow up the embassies?

http://www.iterapi.com/index.php?cat=60&art=332

[ProgressiveFool]

1. wow, they don't even have their own word for "terror"

Must be nice to be Norwegian.

[kenny blankenship]

2. Linguists claim that American English has 41 different terms for frozen terror

[Parche]

3. This Is Frozen Terror

:rofl: :rofl: