Stone Cold Killer: 'One of Us'

Review by Bill Doughty

Former Marine, Army National Guardsman and now Coast Guardsman Hasson w/ weapons cache.

Captured U.S. Coast Guardsman Lt. Christopher Hasson said he was inspired to plan mass murder and mayhem after reading the manifesto of Anders Breivik. Hasson was arrested last month for allegedly plotting mass murder as well as targeted killings of elected officials and members of the U.S. media who had done critical reporting about President Trump.

Hasson is one of the most recent terrorists or would-be terrorists to be inspired by Breivik, a self-declared Norwegian white nationalist who killed or injured hundreds of men, women and especially children nearly eight years ago in the bombing of a government building and shootings at a youth camp on Utoya Island.

Breivik also apparently influenced Newtown shooter Adam Lanza before Lanza shot and killed twenty children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School. We see similarities in the terrorist actions and/or plans of Dylann Roof in Charleston, South Carolina; Robert Bowers in Pittsburgh; and Nikolas Cruz in Parkland, Florida, with some direct ties to white supremacism and anti-semitism.

Who was Breivik, why did he shoot dozens of helpless young people, and how could people choose to follow in his footsteps.

Breivik's life, behavior and crime are thoroughly documented in "One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway" by Asne Seierstad (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013).

This is a true crime account of an evil act by an author who is experienced reporting from war zones, especially Iraq and Afghanistan. 

It's nearly inconceivable how Breivik could influence others, especially a career U.S. Coast Guard officer. Reading it may help show how this kind of violent philosophy and hate-filled mindset can take root.

Seierstad's book also presents a history of cultural change in Norway beginning in the 1970s, including the impact and consequences of immigration, rise of women's equality and backlash by right-wing extremists. We get deeply affecting portrayals of the lives of some of the victims and their families.

"I offer heartfelt thanks to those who shared the most," Seierstad writes. "Bayan, Ali, Mustafa and Lara Rashid. Gerd, Viggo and Stian Kristiansen. Tone, Gunnar and Havard Saebo. And Viljar Hanssen and his family. They have told me about the worst thing of all: losing someone they loved."

Remembering the victims of Utoya shooting.

At the center of the story, of course, is the killer Breivik. We learn of his bullying, ostracism, cruelty to animals, lack of parental discipline and the effects of being virtually abandoned and then disowned by his father.

Seierstad documents Anders Breivik's "career" as a graffiti tagger (under the moniker of Marvel Comics's executioner, the Morg). She reveals details about his quasi-legal and failed business providing fake diplomas, his debt to financial institutions and tax evasion, and his obsession with violent video games such as "World of Warcraft."

Anders Behring Breivik, in uniforms, from his manifesto.

In WoW, he was "awarded the title of Justitiarius. It was a title that took a long time and a lot of killing to achieve." In the real world he became obsessed with guns, uniforms and how he was perceived by others.

He was inducted into the Freemasons, and he considered himself a Christian "crusader" against Muslims and Marxists. He believed Christianity should be taught in school.

Breivik he saw the news media as enemies of the people. In Breivik's words, "The media dehumanizes the conservatives. They've been doing that ever since the Second World War: continuous abuse of the cultural conservatives," Breivik said.

From his addiction to violent video games, he fell into the world of "white pride, world wide" supremacy and right-wing extremism. He was anti-political-correctness, anti-feminism, anti-immigration and anti-socialism. For Breivik, it was "us against them."

Breivik said he was inspired by Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, who deployed a fertilizer bomb to kill 168 men, women and children in 1995.

Petty Officer Timothy McVeigh?

According to "American Terrorist," Timothy McVeigh, who served in the U.S. Army, nearly joined the Navy to become "one of us." He impressed recruiters, as reported in "American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & the Oklahoma CIty Bombing" by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck (HarperCollins, 2001):  

"In May 1988, McVeigh decided to join the military ... On the math exam in business school, he missed only one question on the military vocational aptitude test that recruiters use to screen walk-in candidates. Recruiters from the Navy, Air Force, Marines and Army all showed interest in him. With that kind of test score, the Navy man told him, he could become a nuclear-propulsion specialist, working on a nuclear submarine or a carrier. That offer interested him, but McVeigh chose the Army."

McVeigh

Coast Guardsman Hasson previously served in the U.S. Marine Corps and on active duty in the Army National Guard.

So, is there a legitimate concern that members of the military, including veterans like McVeigh and Hasson, are prone to kill civilians and conduct mass murder because of their military training? Are we right to be concerned there are other many white nationalists or "crusaders" in uniform committed to bringing about civil war or armageddon?

Not according to Lt. Col. Grossman, author of "Assassination Generation: Video Games, Aggression, and the Psychology of Killing" (Hachette Book Group; Little, Brown and Company, 2016). Grossman, a former West Point psychology professor, references the Norway killings and speaks directly about Army veteran Timothy McVeigh's military experience and its relevance to his heinous crime:

Grossman says, "The retiring veteran is less likely to use his skills inappropriately than a member of the same age and sex."

"Bureau of Justice Statistics' data demonstrating that our returning veterans from World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War were less likely to be incarcerated than nonveterans ... The same is true of our veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These soldiers put the leadership, logistics and maintenance skills they learned in the military to good use in the civilian world, and they give up their deadlier skills as soon as they return home."

According to Grossman, "The finest killers who ever walked the face of this earth were the soldiers who came home from these major wars, and yet they were less likely to use those skills than nonveterans. The reason is clear: combined with learning to kill, they acquired a warrior discipline – and that is the safeguard in a soldier's life."

Breivik taunts with his white power salute.

Breivik never served in Norway's military. He obtained an exemption.

Modern history shows: Those who are quick to send men and women to war have never been there, while combat veterans cooperate to defend peace.

It's worth studying how Coast Guardsman Hasson could apparently lose his core values and turn from protector of peace to projector of hate and violence.

Asne Seierstad, shows us how a person without honor can become enthralled with a belief system that dehumanizes others and promotes killing.

"One of Us" starts at a pace exceeding the speed limit and barely slows down. We get the heartbreaking perspective of the victims. The violence is told in excruciating forensic detail.

"For me," Seierstad writes, "it was important to describe for posterity exactly how that day was."

Deliver Us from Evil

In "One of Us" there is room for beautiful prose, too, as Seierstad paints a scene at the remote farm in Osterdalen where Breivik processed ingredients for his fertilizer bomb and prepared weapons for the attack in the summer of 2011.

"Below the farm, the cold waters of the Glomma rushed onward. The river had a powerful force to it, swollen by the meltwater it was carrying down from the mountains. Wherever you were on the farm, you could hear it roar. When he took over the place at the start of May there were still a few chunks of ice sailing by, having broken off from the ice fields north of Glombrua. The spring flood usually lasted far into June. It would be July before the river calmed. Then it grew idle and drowsy, scarcely bothering to flow at all in the summer heat.But it was still a long time until July."

Gloma River, Norway

Also, in the midst of the horror of Breivik's killing we get this unexpected and beautiful "found" haiku – a verse from an unnamed bedtime story. The words came to a young victim as she was about to be shot by Breivik.

Our dear little moon

shines down on those who have no

bed and have no home

Stoltenberg

Another unintended haiku is from Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who called for more democracy, freedom and national unity in the aftermath of unrepentant Breivik's attack:

Evil can kill a

human being but never

conquer a people

On many levels, "One of Us" reveals the power of books and words.

Lessons Considered

Some of the themes explored in this book: the effects of World War II on Europe and Asia; the impact of al-Qaida, both to immigrants and nationalists; the cost of family separations to the psyche of children; the impact of the media; and the connection between extreme violence in video games and real life. We read and wonder how Breivik's strange and suspicious behavior leading up to July 22, 2011 wasn't reported to authorities.

Journalist/writer Seierstad

Seierstad shows the failures by officials in the minutes and hours after Breivik's attacks began – errors in communicating, responding and conducting command-and-control in an emergency. In part, the poor response contributed to the huge number of casualties that day: 77 killed and at least 209 wounded.

Breivik believed white Europeans were victims, threatened by socialist/Marxist immigrants. He comes across as a narcissist who confounded psychiatrists and psychologists at his trial, where "flattery was the style he adopted," according to Seierstad.

Stone-cold killer Breivik, who referred to himself as "Commander of the Norwegian anti-Communist Resistance Movement," demanded martyrdom in the hope he would inspire others.