VZCZCXYZ0003
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHNY #0783 3551425
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 211425Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY OSLO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8056

UNCLAS OSLO 000783 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR S/CT, EUR/NB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER ASEC EFIN KCRM KHLS PINS PREL AEMR NO
SUBJECT: NORWAY: 2009 COUNTRY REPORT ON TERRORISM 
 
REF: STATE 109980 
 
¶1. (U) Consistent with instructions in ref A, the following 
is Embassy Oslo's submission for the narrative of the 2009 
Country Report on Terrorism for Norway: 
 
Begin text. 
 
Norwegian authorities considered the threat of terrorist 
attacks in Norway low and the widespread belief among the 
general public was that Norway was not in danger of attack. 
In December 2008 the parliament revised its counterterrorism 
laws in order to be able to ratify the Council of Europe 
Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism.  These revisions 
allowed incitement, recruiting, and training for terrorist 
acts to become punishable offenses independent of whether an 
attack is actually carried out.  They also, however, require 
specific "intent" to commit an act that causes terrorism, 
whereas the prior standard had been "willfulness" to commit 
the act.  As of December 2009, the government still had not 
yet ratified the Convention, but was expected to do so 
shortly. 
 
In October 2009, the Norwegian Attorney General indicted 
Abdirahman Abdi Osman, a Norwegian citizen of Somali 
ancestry, for collecting in excess of $35,000 for al-Shabaab. 
 Osman was charged with knowingly collecting money for a 
terrorist organization, knowingly contributing funds to a 
terrorist organization, and violating a UN Security Council 
resolution (incorporated into Norwegian law) that forbids the 
financing of arms deliveries to Somalia.  Osman is not in 
custody and retains his passport.  Osman is the only one of 
the six persons initially arrested in this matter (three in 
Norway, and three in Sweden) who faces charges. 
 
In February 2009, the jury in an appeals court affirmed a 
lower court's 2008 conviction of Arfan Bhatti for attempted 
murder and aggravated vandalism, and affirmed the sentence of 
eight years imprisonment.  In 2008, Bhatti had been acquitted 
of terrorism in connection with a plot to attack the United 
States and Israeli embassies; the vandalism charge was for 
the 2006 shooting of an automatic weapon at the Oslo 
synagogue.  In June 2009, the Supreme Court threw out the 
February 2009 conviction for attempted murder on the grounds 
that the requirement of intent was not correctly decided by 
the appeals court.  Bhatti was released from prison in June, 
and Norwegian authorities returned his passport.  In 
November, the appeals court announced that Bhatti's re-trial 
for attempted murder was delayed from November 5 until May 
¶2010. 
 
Mullah Krekar (aka Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad), the founder of 
Ansar al-Islam, an organization on both the U.S. and UN lists 
of entities linked to terrorist activities, resides in 
Norway.  He has been arrested on several occasions by 
Norwegian law enforcement, but they have been unable to 
collect sufficient evidence to convict him.  Norway has 
frozen his assets, restricted his movement to some degree, 
and ordered his deportation to Iraq.  As of December 2009, 
the Norwegian government stated that it had not yet received 
sufficient human rights assurances from the Iraqi government 
that would allow it to carry out the deportation order 
pending against him. 
 
Norway contributed more than 500 troops to International 
Security Assistance Force efforts in Afghanistan. 
 
As a country participating in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), 
Norway continued to comply with VWP requirements, 
particularly those related to travel document standards, 
lost-and-stolen passport reporting, and counterterrorism 
cooperation.   Among the additional requirements imposed by 
the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act 
of 2007, however, Norway has yet to complete several 
data-exchange agreements. 
 
End text. 
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