Norway killer: 'I would have done itagain'

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Anders Behring Breivik on
Tuesday defended his massacre of 77 people, insisting
he would do it again and calling the bomb-and-
shooting rampage the most "spectacular" attack by a
nationalist militant since World War II. Reading a prepared statement in court, the anti-
Muslim extremist lashed out at Norwegian and
European governments for embracing immigration
and multiculturalism. He claimed to be speaking as a commander of an
"anti-communist" resistance movement and an anti-
Islam militant group he called the Knights Templar.
Prosecutors have said the group does not exist. Maintaining he acted out of "goodness not evil" to
prevent a wider civil war, Breivik vowed, "I would
have done it again." Breivik has five days to explain why he set off a bomb
in Oslo's government district, killing eight, and then
gunned down 69 at a Labor Party youth camp outside
the Norwegian capital. He denies criminal guilt saying
he was acting in self-defense. "The attacks on July 22 were a preventive strike. I
acted in self-defense on behalf of my people, my city,
my country," he said as he finished his statement
Tuesday. "I therefore demand to be found innocent of
the present charges." Breivik's testimony was delayed after a citizen judge
was dismissed for his comments online the day after
the attack that Breivik deserves the death penalty.
Lawyers on all sides had requested that lay judge
Thomas Indreboe be taken off the trial. He was replaced by backup lay judge Elisabeth
Wisloeff. Breivik is being tried by a panel of two professional
judges and three lay judges, local politicians who are
appointed for four-year terms and participate on an
equal basis as the judges in deciding guilt and
sentencing. The system is designed to let ordinary
people have a role in the Norwegian justice system, though the lead judge still runs the trial. As at the start of the trial on Monday, Breivik entered
the court smirking before flashing a clenched-fist
salute. Survivors of the massacre have worried he will use
his testimony as a platform to promote his extremist
views. The key issue for the court to decide is
whether Breivik is psychotic. Judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen repeatedly
interrupted Breivik asking him to keep his statement
short. "It is critically important that I can explain the reason
and the motive" for the massacre, Breivik said. According to Breivik, Western Europe was gradually
taken over by "Marxists and multiculturalists" after
World War II, because it didn't have "anti-communist"
leaders like U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy. The senator
dominated the early 1950s by his sensational but
unproved charges of Communist subversion in high government circles in the U.S. His probes gave rise to the term McCarthyism, which
describes the persecution of innocent persons on the
charge of being Communists. "But even McCarthy was too moderate," Breivik said. On Monday, Breivik rejected the authority of the court,
calling it a vehicle of the "multiculturalist" political
parties in power in Norway. He confessed to the
"acts" but pleaded not guilty. Even his lawyers concede his defense is unlikely to
succeed, and said the main thing for them was to
convince the court that Breivik is not insane. One psychiatric examination found him legally insane
while another reached the opposite conclusion. It is up
to the panel to decide whether to send him to prison
or compulsory psychiatric care. Breivik could face a maximum 21-year prison
sentence or an alternate custody arrangement that
would keep him locked up as long as he is considered
a menace to society.

Associated Press writers Bjoern H. Amland and Julia
Gronnevet in Oslo and Malin Rising in Stockholm
contributed to this report.