On Monday 20 June, the Police Security Service (PST) received a so-called “request for information” from the Intelligence Service (E-service). This is what has previously been referred to as the warning. This is the way the secret services communicate with each other in writing. The warning stated that a Norwegian Islamist had told about a terrorist attack being planned. The Islamist is in the circle around Arfan Bhatti, and the E-service had a secret operation in which an agent sent messages with the Islamist. The information that the E-service shared with PST originates from these conversations, but PST did not know about this when they were notified. news’s crime commentator, Olav Rønneberg, thinks this does not look good for PST. Both VG and news have discussed the content of these messages. As a result of the information the E-service provided, meetings were also held between them and PST this Monday, news is informed. The e-service believed the attack was “imminent” and considered that the “brother” mentioned was Arfan Bhatti. The e-service also believed that Norway was the target. PST could not access the chat itself. Get on the list PST has previously said that the notification of a possible terrorist attack contained too little information for the service to take measures and has called it a “bare notification”. Based on the information they received, both the E-service and PST worked to find a possible perpetrator. PST worked with a list of possible candidates. Zaniar Matapour was among them. ON THE LIST: Zaniar Matapour is said to have been on the list of possible candidates. These surveillance images of him were taken before and after the shooting last summer. Photo: POLITIET As news has previously mentioned, the Norwegian Police Service did not start a preventative investigation. That means they did not monitor, control communications or take any other action against Matapour or others. At PST, they believed, according to what news understands, that they did not have enough information to go to court to get approval for the use of such hidden methods. The notice from the E-service also did not contain a time or what was the target of the attack. Arfan Bhatti is now in custody in Pakistan. Norway has asked to have him extradited. Bhatti is charged with five matters after the mass shooting in Oslo. The most serious charge is complicity in serious terrorism with a penalty of up to 30 years in prison. Photo: Waqar Gillani / news This is Bhatti charged with complicity in serious acts of terrorism, section 132 of the penal code. Penalty limit 30 years. Complicity in murder, section 275 of the Criminal Code. Penalty range 8 to 21 years. Complicity in attempted murder, section 275. Terrorist association, section 133, first paragraph. Penalty limit 10 years. Murder association, section 279 of the Criminal Code. Penalty limit 10 years. Found Facebook post On Friday 24 June, PST and the E-service met again. This meeting took place in the afternoon just a few hours before the shooting in central Oslo. The intelligence service had found a Facebook post by Arfan Bhatti the same day. The post was on a profile that the well-known Islamist had used for many years. This was the profile picture of Bhatti. In the quote it says that one must kill “the one who does as Lot’s people”, and the one to whom it is done. Photo: Skjermdump / news The post was published during Pride month, on 14 June last year, and showed a burning rainbow flag with quotes about the murder of homosexuals. The quotes are part of a hadith, which is used as a basis for the death penalty against homosexuality in Islam. Neither the Oslo police, who were responsible for security around the Pride events in the capital, nor other police districts in Norway were notified. news has known about the profile for a number of years and mentioned the flag a few hours after the attack. None of the secret services have any good answers as to why they didn’t discover this post earlier. PST is said to have tried to find the Facebook post on the Friday before the shooting happened, but was unsuccessful, according to news’s information. The e-service does not wish to comment on the matter now. Senior advisor in PST, Eirik Veum, tells news that they currently do not want to comment on this case. – Our comment to the information and claims put forward by news is that we want to wait to respond until the evaluation report arrives next Thursday. Then we will be available and will answer questions from the press, he says. Matapour’s defender: Marius Oscar Dietrichson, Matapour’s defender, wonders why the attack was not averted. – At the same time, it is a bit pointless to talk about avoiding something that you yourself have put in place. The authorities, dressed as the E-service’s agents, accelerated the attack and praised the perpetrators for “what you are about to do”. Dietrichson calls it “disappointing” that PST had what he describes as “all the necessary information” to stop the attack. – I repeat the summary that it is disturbing and terrible to see that the civilian monitoring service was unable to stop what the military put in place. It is disappointing when the military has made contact about this very thing, he says. Sitting together in the PST building In 2013, a joint counter-terrorist center was established in the PST building in Nydalen. Employees from both PST and the E-service were to work more closely together. In 2021, the mandate was extended and the center changed its name to the Joint Intelligence and Counterterrorism Center (FEKTS). In an interview with VG, intelligence chief Nils Andreas Stensønes stated that he believed the new center would increase the flow of information, reduce decision-making times and ensure that the services do not “stumble over each other”. Investigation On 8 June, the report will come from an external committee which, among other things, has investigated what happened in the run-up to the terrorist attack last summer. The role of PST and the police has been scrutinised. CAPTURED: Zaniar Matapour was overpowered by private individuals after the shooting. Photo: Private The National Intelligence Service is not part of the investigation, but has written a long statement which has been sent to the committee. In the Storting, several people have advocated that the E-service should also be scrutinized externally. It is expected that the trial after the terrorist attack can only start in the first half of 2024. In a recently handed down ruling, the court also took into account further postponements, if Arfan Bhatti is not extradited from Pakistan by that time. – Very interesting John Christian Elden defends terrorist accused Arfan Bhatti. This is how he responds to the information that the E-service notified PST that they believed Bhatti was a possible mastermind of an “imminent attack” on 20 June last year. – In that case, it is also very interesting why the E-service should have believed that Bhatti had something to do with this, taking into account that the police and PST did not consider him a suspect until well into the month of August, writes Elden in an e-mail, and adds to: – I take the Svarteper game with a pinch of salt for the time being, and expect that the role of the E-service and PST will be a central part of the police’s investigation into the mass shooting. 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The e-service believed the attack was “imminent” – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
