ABSTRACT
Friday afternoon July 22, 2011, a homemade bomb made with fertilizers, fuel, and chemicals detonated in the complex of buildings housing the Norwegian government in downtown Oslo. Placed in a rental truck parked outside the office of prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, head of the Social Democratic Labour party, the bomb devastated the first floor and blew out the windows of adjacent government buildings. Had the assailant not been delayed that morning, the bomb would have detonated before most people left the office for the weekend. Yet, eight people died and 11 more were critically injured by the blast and flying debris. The assailant then took the ferry to Utøya, a small island a short drive from Oslo annually hosting the summer camp of the Labour Party’s Youth League. Having shot the camp guard, the killer, who wore a police uniform, entered the camp centre. Pretending to bring news about the terror attack in Oslo, he summoned the youth, and opened fire. For more than an hour, he calmly circulated the island; systematically executing the
youngsters he found hiding or trying to escape by swimming away from the island. At Utøya, he murdered 69 people and wounded 41, including 18 hospitalized in critical conditions. When finally an armed unit from the national counterterrorism task force arrived, the killer laid down his arms, raised his hands, saying ‘‘I’m done here.’’1
