Anders Behring Breivik says he used 'Modern Warfare 2' to train for Norway shooting, murder spree

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Anders Behring Breivik, who admits killing 77 people in Norway last summer, used a video game as training for his shooting spree, he testified Thursday at his trial for homicide and terrorism.
Photographer: Courtesy CNN, Anders Behring Breivik Mani

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Posted: 04/19/2012

OSLO, Norway (CNN) -- Anders Behring Breivik, who admits killing 77 people in Norway last summer, used a video game as training for his shooting spree, he testified Thursday at his trial for homicide and terrorism.

He played the game "Modern Warfare 2" for practice, he said.

Breivik, who boasts of being an ultranationalist who killed his victims to fight multiculturalism in Norway, also went through a period of playing the game "World of Warcraft" up to 16 hours a day, he testified.

He initially planned to carry out three bomb attacks followed by a "gun-based action," he told the court, but eventually was only able to make enough explosives for one car bomb, which killed eight in central Oslo.

Asked about his intended bombing targets, Breivik said: "The first two were clear: the government quarter and the Labour Party headquarters. The third, I was not sure."

He said he at first had reservations about hitting the Labour Party headquarters because of the civilians and innocent people in offices around the building.

"But then I thought: There are not many better targets in Norway," he said.

Breivik said he had also considered bombing the Royal Palace -- but without harming the royal family -- City Hall and Aftenposten, a national newspaper.

He eventually decided to carry out a gun attack on a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya, where he shot dead 69 people, after his initial plan to target a journalists' conference did not work out, he said.

Breivik joked about the psychiatrists who have labeled him insane and shrugged off a question about how he thinks the relatives of victims feel when they see him smile in court.

"I think they react in a natural way," he said.

Breivik did not raise his fist in salute when he entered the court Thursday, respecting a request from the families of his victims.

The relatives were upset that he had been making the gesture each morning, his attorney, Geir Lippestad, said Wednesday.

Breivik said in court Wednesday that he should either get the death penalty or be acquitted, ridiculing the idea that he would be sent to prison or a mental hospital for his actions. Norway does not have the death penalty.

Breivik's trial is expected to last up to 10 weeks.

He was questioned Wednesday about having met other ultranationalists in Liberia and London up to nine years before his rampage, and was somewhat evasive, reporters who attended the trial said.

Prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh said there was evidence to prove he had visited both places.

Breivik boasted Tuesday that he had carried out "the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack in Europe since World War II" when he went on his gun-and-bomb rampage.

And he would do it again if he had the chance, "because offenses against my people and my fellow partisans are in many ways as bad," Breivik told the court on the second day of his trial. He planned his killings as a suicide attack, he said.

"I didn't expect to survive that day," he said.

Breivik faces trial on charges of voluntary homicide and committing acts of terror in the July 22 attacks. Eight people died in a bombing in central Oslo and 69 people on nearby Utoya Island.

Breivik testified Tuesday and Wednesday after declaring Monday that he had carried out the massacre but was not guilty because the killings had been necessary. He was allowed to read a prepared statement in court Tuesday, taking considerably longer than the 30 minutes he was allotted.

He rejected what he said would be prosecution efforts to portray him as a "pathetic and mean loser" and an "antisocial psychopath." He said he represented a "European resistance movement" and "Europeans who don't want our ethnic rights to be taken away."

Lippestad said Breivik's statement was "hard to hear, and it is difficult to understand." But he said it was important to the trial since his client wants people to see him as sane.

"It is probably because of his ideology and his thoughts about why he has done what he has done," Lippestad said. "He thinks that it won't have any effect if he is considered insane."

Experts have given different opinions about Breivik's sanity, which will be a factor in determining what punishment he receives if convicted. Sentencing options could include imprisonment or confining him to a mental facility.

Under examination by prosecutors, he claimed to be linked to two other individuals in Norway who are associated with the so-called Knights Templar ultranationalist movement. He said "militant nationalists" had drawn tactical inspiration from Osama bin Laden's terror network.

"We've taken a bit from al Qaeda and militant Islamists, including the glorification of martyrdom" and organization into one-man cells, Breivik said. He denied that what he called the "militant nationalist" movement was evil.

"We don't act to be evil. We're trying to save our nations, our ethnic group and our culture," he said.

His testimony is not being broadcast

due to a court ruling.

Most of the victims' relatives did not want Breivik's remarks televised, and presiding Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen rejected Breivik's claim that airing it was a human right.

Court papers indicated the five judges hearing the case did not want the trial to become a platform for Breivik to air his political views, or for them to distract from the legal issues involved.

Breivik has said his rampage was meant to save Norway from being taken over by multicultural forces and to prevent ethnic cleansing of Norwegians.

In a 1,500-page manifesto attributed to him, Breivik railed against Muslim immigration and European liberalism -- including the ruling Labour Party, which he said was allowing the "Islamification of Europe."

Journalist Olav Mellingsaeter contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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