Breivik: I Acted Out of 'Goodness'

The second day of Anders Behring Breivik's trial began today, and the accused Norway terrorist took the stand for what was supposed to be a 30-minute statement explaining his actions. Instead, Breivik went on for 65 minutes and was interrupted four times by a judge who asked him to shorten his 13-page statement. Breivik ranted against liberalism, immigration, and multiculturalism, and compared the Norwegian Labour Party's youth camp that he attacked to the Hitler Youth, but claimed that he "lowered the rhetoric out of consideration for the victims." Excerpts, per the Telegraph and the BBC:

• "I have done the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack seen in Europe since the Second World War."
• On the US McCarthy witch hunts: "McCarthy was far too moderate. He thought about deporting all American communists to the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, he did not do so."
• "Were [Sitting Bull and other native American chiefs] terrorists because they fought for indigenous rights? Were they evil terrorists or were they heroes? In the same way militant nationalists in Europe are seen as evil because they fight for the same ideals."
• "These acts are based on goodness, not evil," he said of his attacks, adding, "Yes, I would have done it again. These were not innocent, non-political children, but these were people who actively worked to uphold multicultural values."
• "I cannot plead guilty. I acted in defense of my culture and of my people and so I ask to be acquitted."
• Later, Breivik said he admires al-Qaeda because it is the "most successful revolutionary force in the world."

(More Anders Behring Breivik stories.)