Norway gunman says acted alone
Police say Anders Behring Breivik admitted to both bombing and shooting, but not to criminal guilt. Lawyer says client willing to explain himself in court, said killings were 'atrocious but necessary'
A right-wing zealot who admitted to bomb and gun attacks in Norway that killed 92 people on Friday claims he acted alone, Norway's police said on Sunday.
"He has admitted to the facts of both the bombing and the shooting, although he's not admitting criminal guilt," acting police chief Sveinung Sponheim told a news conference about detained suspect Anders Behring Breivik.
"He says that he was alone but the police must verify everything that he said. Some of the witness statements from the island (shootings) have made us unsure of whether there was one or more shooters."
Breivik believes his acts were atrocious but necessary, his lawyer said.
Geir Lippestad says his client wanted to attack Norwegian society in order to change it and spent years writing a manifesto about his views.
In his first comment via a lawyer since he was arrested Breivik expressed willingness to explain himself in court at a hearing likely to be held on Monday about extending his custody.
"He has said that he believed the actions were atrocious, but that in his head they were necessary," lawyer Geir Lippestad told independent TV2 news, adding that his client admitted to both the shootings and the bombing.
Police said Breivik gave himself up to armed officers when they arrived on the small island of Utoeya in a lake about 42 km (26 miles) northwest of Oslo where at least 85 people were gunned down. Most were teenagers and young adults attending a summer camp of the youth wing of Norway's ruling Labor Party.
About 650 people were on the island when the gunman, wearing a police uniform according to witnesses, opened fire. Police said it took them one hour to stop the massacre from when they first received information about the shootings, the worst by a single gunman in modern times.
Breivik was also arrested for the bombing in Oslo's government district that killed seven people hours earlier. Norway's toughest sentence is 21 years in jail. Police believe Breivik drove to Utoeya after the explosion in the capital. Survivors, relatives of those killed and supporters planned a procession to mourn the dead at Sundvollen on Sunday, near the island where the massacre took place.
Lippestad, speaking late on Saturday, did not give more details of possible motives by Breivik.
Breivik hated "cultural marxists", wanted a "crusade" against the spread of Islam and liked guns and weightlifting, web postings, acquaintances and officials said.
'Better to kill too many'
A video posted on the YouTube website showed several pictures of Breivik, including one of him in a scuba diving outfit pointing an automatic weapon.
"Before we can start our crusade we must do our duty by decimating cultural marxism," said a caption under the video called "Knights Templar 2083" on the YouTube website, which took down the video on Saturday.
A Norwegian website provided a link to a 1,500 page electronic manifesto which says Breivik was the author. It was not possible to verify who posted the video or wrote the book.
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"Once you decide to strike, it is better to kill too many than not enough, or you risk reducing the desired ideological impact of the strike," the book said.
The document also mentioned former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The author slams Norway for awarding Atafat the Nobel Peace Prize.
Breivik, tall and blond, owned a farming company called Breivik Geofarm, which a supply firm said he had used to buy fertilizer - possibly to make the Oslo bomb.
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