Norway reveals plot to blow up US, Israeli embassies

US Embassy, Oslo Norway


I didn't choose to report on this, but early last Sunday morning automatic weapons were fired at Oslo's only Jewish synagogue, the latest in a series of attacks on the Jewish community there. Four men have since been taken into custody, and now Norway has revealed there was a plot to blow up the U.S. embassy as well as the Israeli embassy by the same men implicated in targeting the synogogue.

Norwegian Prosecutor Unni Fries told a court the Norwegian secret services had bugged the car of the main suspect and recorded conversations between the men planning the attacks.

"They spoke in detail about how to attack the synagogue and the U.S. and Israeli embassies," Fries said.

Fries said the main suspect was also recorded saying he wanted to use explosives to blow up the synagogue because such an attack would be more deadly than a drive-by shooting.

The Norwegian police have been very careful not to identify the subjects ethnically, identifing them only as men between the ages of 20 and 30. The suspects lawyers,however said their clients were innocent and that one suspect was of Turkish origin, two had Pakistani backgrounds and one was a native Norwegian.

Fancy that. I have a feeling an `Islamophobia' defence is in the making.

Fries, the prosecutor said the main suspect had "expressed extreme Islamist views" and was briefly detained during this summer's World Cup by German police, who found drawings of rockets in his car.

"The charge is based on circumstantial, not hard evidence," John Christian Elden, the lawyer of the main suspect, told reporters. "My client expressed frustration ... about the situation in the Middle East. He has freedom of speech and freedom of religion like everybody else in this country."

The U.S. embassy said in a statement it was watching developments closely.

"We are deeply concerned about the emerging information on these planned terrorist attacks," ambassador Ben Whitney said. "This situation reflects the importance of having the necessary legal tools to prevent terrorism."

Hmmm.