From a source in Washington:
More intelligence is emerging about Breivik and his foreign connections, and here’s an update with the important caveat that none of it is completely confirmed at this time. However, the interim reports are compelling reading. At least a couple layers of operations are beginning to emerge connected to Breivik and to the Oslo intelligence milieu. Oslo, Norway in the last decade begins to look more like a John le Carre spy novel every day.
More to the story?
These sources are emerging to link Breivik to both Belarus and Russian connections. See here, a Polish site linking the Belarus visits by Breivik to possible Russian links. In an allegation attributed to Belarusian opposition figure Mikhail Reshetnikov, Anders Breivik underwent paramilitary training in a camp organized by retired KGB colonel Valery Lunev. Reshetnikov says Breivik came to Belarus 3 times; others say Breivik came only once. More detail is provided by Discovery Institute’s “Real Russia Blog”:
While U.S. news feature information that Breivik purchased ammo from a U.S. supplier, Eastern European feeds are full of details of Breivik’s multiple trips to Belarus, changes in his behavior and wealth, and the training he underwent in Belarusian militant camps. In fact, Belarus’ tight government regime and active intelligence have served a great purpose this time around. Even though Breivik didn’t do anything suspicious at the time, Belarusian KGB kept precise records on Breivik, who was called “Viking” in the intelligence reports.
First time, Anders Breivik visited Minsk on March 4, 2005. He flew Vienna-Minsk-Vienna roundtrip, departing from Belarus on March 11, 2005. At the border, Breivik told customs officials that he came to visit the Vikings’ graves. Centuries ago, Vikings went through the region multiple times, and there are indeed multiple ancient graves visited by the Vikings’ ancestors. Thus, the first visit didn’t trigger any suspicion. It is still unknown whether Breivik visited the graves, but he did investigate Belarus’ governance, political structure, and the results of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The tour guides, who chaperoned Breivik in 2005, remember that he was afraid of poisoning with radioactive food products – a normal, they say, tourist behavior for a Western tourist. Now, that the stuff hit the fan, Belarusian KGB looked closer into what Breivik was really doing in their country.
It appears that the Norwegian terrorist underwent the militant-terrorist training under the guidance of 51-year-old Valery Lunev, a former colonel of Belarusian special forces, who now lives in Netherlands but regularly visits Belarus. According to Mikhail Reshetnikov, the Head of the Party of Belarus Patriots who is familiar with the intelligence records, “Breivik visited Belarus three times. Last Spring, while actively preparing for the terrorist attacks, he entered Poland with his own passport, and then travelled to Minsk under a passport of another European country. He recently got a Belarusian girlfriend and obtained access to significant amounts of money.” It would be long stretch to say that Belarus can be held somehow responsible for the attacks, but the facts are troublesome. How do modern countries prevent terrorism, if the attackers are blonde and blue-eyed Western Europeans who train under Eastern European retired colonels?
Five years after these trips to Belarus, sources identify a separate link between Breivik and the Russian Slavic Union, according to Chechen Islamist propaganda sites :
Russian authorities in Oslo ( being naïve, we always thought that in Oslo, there Norwegian authorities, and the Russian ones stay in Moscow, but Norway is a Marxist country, ruled by closet Communists, so there is nothing strange in it – KC) previously warned the Norwegian state security police PST that Vyacheslav Datsik and his followers from the Slavic Union were preparing a terrorist attack (it now seems that the Russians did it on purpose to divert police attention from Breivik – KC).
We would dismiss that as Chechen propaganda but it appears to be treated seriously by local television broadcaster TV2 according to this report:
Broadcaster TV2 has reported that it has emerged that Breivik had met Russian neo-Nazi Vjatjeslav Datsik in Oslo, who was previously rejected when he attempted to apply for asylum in Norway after running away from a Russian psychiatric institute. Datsik was jailed in Norway and eventually deported for various offences. Breivik has reportedly had close links with Datsik’s organization, Slavic Union, who were found to possess knives, guns and firebombs when police raided an Oslo tattoo enterprise operated by the group. Breivik is believed to have bought much of his equipment from Russia.
Actually, what TV2 wrote about this Breivik Russian acquaintance Datsik and his time in Norway leads to another interesting path of inquiry for investigators:
Russian neo-Nazi wanted longer jail term
December 23, 2010
Vjateslav Datsik, a Russian neo-Nazi arrested in Oslo after fleeing a psychiatric ward in St Petersburg, was sentenced to eight months in prison on Thursday for violating weapons laws. He was heavily armed when he tried to seek asylum in Norway earlier this year.
Datsik, age 29, had declared himself guilty on all counts. He has earlier claimed that he wants to stay in Norway as long as possible, and equated the prison where he’s being held to “a luxury hotel.”
Also known as “Red Tarzan,” Datsik has said he rowed over the Baltic Sea after running away from a Russian psychiatric hospital where he claimed to have been tortured. He also has told reporters and the court that he had been sent to Norway by federal agents in Russia who wanted him to kill Chechyan separatist leader Akhmed Zakajev.
Russian authorities have sought his extradition back to Russia. Justice Minister Knut Storberget has told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that he was working so that Datsik wouldn’t be staying long in Norway. Datsik’s defense attorney, however, was trying to block extradition, claiming his client would face torture if sent back to Russia.
Investigators are also looking to Breivik’s finances (over $700,000 earned through his investments), possibly in Bermuda or other Caribbean tax havens, but those investigations seem to be in early stages.
At the same time as Datsik was allegedly meeting with Breivik and reportedly attempting to kill Chechyan separatist leader Akhmed Zakajev, we know from wikileaks that the US intelligence services (which for brevity’s sake we’ll refer to as the CIA, but it could include a few other cooperating US agencies as well) had put an unusually large presence into Oslo in the last ten years, reportedly in order to conduct surveillance and counterterrorism activity against Norwegians or visitors and immigrants to the country. Norwegian officials were reported either to have known of the large CIA presence in Oslo, nominally associated with protecting the embassy, or were “shocked, shocked” to hear of it once wikileaks made it public. The UK Telegraph newspaper has published a story with numerous references to US criticism of Norway’s passive-to-incompetent responses to possible terrorist threats, reportedly based on wikileak cables.
With a Russian assassin (with whom Breivik reportedly met) allegedly in Oslo to kill a Chechyan leader, and a large CIA presence also in Oslo attending demonstrations, photographing potential terrorists and cooperating with at least some branches of Norwegian law enforcement, surely it is worth investigating whether some hint of Breivik’s planning for the attack hadn’t been detected by one or the other of these intelligence services.
On Norway’s outrage over the CIA presence, and the changing CIA story as their sizeable presence became known, see:
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2010/11/04/officials-howling-over-us-embassys-secret-surveillance-in-norway/
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2010/11/08/still-no-answers-from-the-embassy/
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2010/11/09/surveillance-probe-well-underway/
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2010/11/10/surveillance-concerns-spread/
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2010/11/11/police-knew-about-surveillance/
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2010/12/05/silence-disrupts-surveillance-probe/
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2010/12/07/us-blasts-norways-anti-terror-efforts-justice-minister-rejects-criticism/
That last link from December, 2010 – (US Blasts Norways Anti-terror efforts…) – includes this mention of yet another intelligence service trying to focus the Norwegian government on the terrorist threats in their midst:
VG also reported, however that the Americans were also upset that PST refused to put a fourth terror suspect under surveillance and turned down offers of help from 24 British agents to do so.
As to Valery Lunev, whom Breivik allegedly visited in Belarus (remember – that’s not confirmed info but there are now a couple sources) – he’s a very interesting fellow, an officer in the Far West company in Dubai, if this translated Russian report on the Far West LLC company can be confirmed, because it appears not only is he “reserve” Belarus intelligence, but his Russian intelligence colleague’s brother was assassinated in Dubai . And he is a convert to Islam, as this additional report details:
Burtsev.ru has learned that Prince Turki al-Faisal had a conversation with the Emir of Dubai Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum soon after the Dubai investigators paid visit to the local office of the private intelligence company Far West LLC, located in the Jumeirah area, where they talked with the president of Far West LLC Prince Rasheed aar Rasheed and Mr. Valery Lunev, the executive director and the head of the Dubai office.
Prince Turki asked Sheik Maktoum “not to touch Kadyrov and Saidov.” Sheik Maktoum apparently gave his consent on the condition that no more murders would be attempted in Dubai.
Our comments and background information
The information about Prince Turki’s interference on the part of Saidov and Kadyrov does not come as a surprise, given the extensive business and political relations between Turki’s family and the group of former Soviet intelligence officers, Ruslan Saidov among them, who are usually designated in Russian press under the collective name “FarWest.”
The Turki family owns 37 percent of the private intelligence company Far West LLC, formally registered by several Bakhrein offshore companies. Turki’s relative Prince Rasheed aar Rasheed is the company’s president (since the end of 2007). Ruslan Saidov controls 25 percent stake in FW. That includes Ramzan Kadyrov’s share and that of Vladislav Surkov, the ideological chief of Putin’s and Medvedev’s administrations. The rest of the company is controlled by General Vladimir Filin of Ukrainian military intelligence (25%) and the US company KBR (formerly KBR Halliburton – 13 %), represented by the British military intelligence officer Ruslan Berenis.
While Prince Turki is formally the president, in practice the company is managed by Vladimir Filin, Ruslan Saidov, and Valery Lunev.
An article by Andrei Petrov, published last January, provides a rare glimpse into the secret world of offshore private intelligence and military companies.
According to Petrov’s German sources, financial report of FW’s subsidiary Far West Gulf, LLC for November-December 2008 included payments for 2009 orders from four offshore companies. The Germans were able to identify the payees who stood behind these offshores.
One of them was the largest Chinese state oil company Sinopec (transfered to FW Gulf $23 million).
Another $38 million came from the informal consortium of three prominent Near East families – Saad Hariri’s (Lebanon), Turki al-Faisal’s (Saudi Arabia), and Nawaz Sharif’s (Pakistan).
The third payment of $16 million came from a group of Iranian firms exporters of high-tech equipment with connections to the Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.
The biggest payment ($19 million and 49 million euros) came from a “strange group” of Ukrainian coal mine owners in Donbass and Lugansk Region and the German manufacturers of equipment for nuclear power stations.
Petrov associated at least some of these payments with the “gas war” between Ukraine and Russia in January 2009. This hypothesis was supported by the substantial evidence that General Filin has been playing important role in the behind-the-scene orchestration of gas conflicts with Russia.
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Personalities
Ruslan Saidov (b. 1960 as Ruslan Shamilievich Sadulaev in Khasaviurt, Daghestan, USSR), half Chechen, half Spaniard. Ret. Major of the Soviet General Staff. General-Major, Ministry of Defense, Republic of Uzbekistan. Advisor to the Defense Minister Ruslan Mirzaev; head of the illegal “external intelligence service of Chechen Republic,” formerly “The Istambul Bureau.” Close associate of the former Chechen intelligence chief Khozh Nukhaev, wanted for the murder of the Forbes journalist Paul Khlebnikov.
Known cover names: Ruslan Saidov (Russian passport), Ruslan Muhammedovich Muhammedov (Uzbek passport), Nihat (Turkish passport). Resides in Istambul and Dubai. Controls (through intermediaries) a number of construction companies in the Gulf. Saidov’s companies participate in the management of Jumeirah Beach Resort and the Mall of the Emirates. Vice-President of Far West, LLC.
Saidov is thought to be a Sufi sheik and a liason between Central Asian, North Caucasian, and Jordanian tariqas. Politically, he is associated with a radical Pan-Turkist branch of the Grey Wolves underground.
According to burtsev.ru sources in CIS intelligence sources, Saidov was the mastermind of the recent assassinations of Kadyrov’s opponents in Moscow, Vienna, Istambul, and Dubai.
Valery Lunev (cover name, b. 1960, in Kuliab, Tajikistan). Officer of the Soviet General Staff. In the 1980s took part in anti-COCOM activities in the Netherlands. Has Dutch passport. Major-General of Belorussian KGB, in “active reserve” since 2007. Served in Iraq (1990-1991). Converted to Islam after marrying a relative of President Dudaev . Pan-Turkist, connected to radical branch of the Grey Wolves underground. Fluent in Arabic and Farsi. Executive Director of Far West, LLC .
Vladimir Ilyich Filin (b. 1959 in Kiev as Vladimir Ilyich Litovchenko). General-Major of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Coordinator of the intelligence consortium of Polish, Belorussian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian military intelligence services. Ideologically motivated neo-Banderovite, thought to be one of the central figures of the “Banderovite Center” in Ukraine’s army and intelligence community.
Known cover names:
Vladimir Ilyich Filin (Ukrainian and British passports)
F. P. Carvallo (Brazilian passport)
Stoikovich (Serbian passport)
Known handles: “Ilyich,” “El Buho”
Vice-president of Far West LLC
Prince Rasheed aar Rasheed (probably a cover name), 35-40 years old, assumed to be senior officer of the General Intelligence Service, relative of Prince Turki al-Faisal. Speaks fluent Russian. In 1997 was in Chechnya with Hattab. President of Far West LLC (since March 2008)
As to that other Breivik meeting with Russian Vyacheslav Datsik, who allegedly planned to kill the Chechen separatist leader, the reports seem to be confirmed with multiple news sources. Datsik, a Russian martial arts enthusiast, with whom Breivik allegedly met, reportedly escaped from a Russian psychiatric unit on his own and came to Norway to kill the Chechen leader Akhmed Zakayev – see this (very Chechen perspective) report:
Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Akhmed Zakayev, was in danger, informs press-service of Ichkeria. For the moment, Prime Minister Zakayev is doing fine and protected by the local government and the state’s national security services.
Akhmed Zakayev, right after the World Chechen Congress in Warsaw 2010, had to visit Norway. Since then, Russian agent was aiming on Akhmed Zakayev. According to ChechenCenter’s received sources, Russian agent named Viacheslav Valerievich Datsik, was sent to Norway to assassinate Mr. Zakayev three months ago.
Datsik received a gun from Russian FSB and was told to eliminate Chechen leader, the most diplomatic politician in Europe. With such information Datsik informed the Highest Court of Norway and also added that his friends forced him to give up to the local police and explain the situation.
As it is known for some authorities, Viacheslav Datsik is under arrest now and going through variety of court processes. The Highest Court of Norway is planning to jail Datsik for eight months. Datsik seems to be satisfied to spend eight months in prison and wants to get rid of Russian KGB. Datsik says that KGB (FSB) anonymously urged him of something bad.
Viacheslav Valerievich Datsik is a former kickboxer and winner of many martial championships including “ultimate fight”.
Right now, literally, all Chechen World Community is waiting for Thursday’s decision where the Highest Court of Norway will inform of its justifiable solution towards Russian killer in the most beautiful country in Europe.
Norway’s media agencies will keep you updated in the nearest future.
To summarize a bit – Breivik had reported connections to at least two Russians associated with Russian intelligence services, Valery Lunev and Viacheslav Valerievich Datsik. Both of these Russian operatives were involved in some way with the Islamist Chechen movement, and both were involved in highly public incidents involving a successful assassination by Chechens (Lunev’s colleague’s brother killed in Dubai) and a failed assassination attempted against a Chechen leader (Datsik in Oslo). Lunev had reportedly converted to Islam after marrying a relative of the former president of Chechen Republic, Dzhokhar Dudayev. The CIA (including other US intelligence agencies perhaps), Norwegian intelligence services and a matched set of 24 British intelligence officers were quite active in Norway during the same years that Breivik was operating, and during which these highly publicized Russian-Chechen incidents occurred.
Surely the Russian angle on this bears further inquiry, especially with that interesting involvement of the Dubai and Russian relationship. Also worth exploring: if Breivik did get involved with the Belarus operative as is being reported from multiple sources. And then there’s all the Chechen activity.
To repeat the caveat – all this still to be confirmed.
Nonetheless. A busy place, Oslo.
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