– It was a warning that did not give us information about where or when a possible attack would take place and what tools or methods should be used, says the assistant chief of the Police’s security service (PST).
Thursday wrote VG that a secret agent from the intelligence service learned of plans for a terrorist attack in Scandinavia six days before the terror attack in Oslo.
– What was it specifically?
– That it was a possible planned terrorist attack. We assumed that it would be in Norway, says Moe.
PST CHIEF: Hedvig Moe is assistant chief in the Police’s security service. Photo: Petter Sørum-Johansen / TV 2
On the night of June 25 last year, 43-year-old Zaniar Matapour attacked revelers who were celebrating Pride in the heart of the capital.
Two people were killed and 24 injured. Zaniar Matapour denies criminal guilt.
“Naked” notice
The assistant PST chief will not go into what made them believe that the attack would take place in Norway. Although they assessed the warning as serious and real, she describes it as “naked”.
– In many ways, it is a race against time to get enough information so that we can either use our tools such as surveillance, telephone tapping, searches, arrests and things like that.
PST did not provide information to the Oslo police about the information they had received.
The security service believes to this day that in the days before the attack in June they did not have enough information to enable the police to react to anything.
NYDALEN: PST’s offices in Nydalen in Oslo Photo: Ole Enes Ebbesen / TV 2
– If we are to inform the police, then it is so that they can stop an attack. Then they must have information that enables them to stop an attack. At the time, we didn’t have that, says Moe.
– What kind of information should have been on the table then?
– If we know more about when an attack will happen, who will do it and where it will happen, then it will be much easier for us to find out who to inform and how to do it.
Limited opportunities
After VG’s publication on Tuesday, several have called for clearer answers to what the security service actually did with the notice.
The assistant chief of the security service believes it is good that these questions are asked.
– I think it is important that people question whether PST and other actors here have done what we should to avoid a terrorist attack. We are keen to contribute to the questions and investigations to come, says Hedvig Moe.
CHARGED: Zaniar Matapour (43) is charged after the shooting in Oslo on the night of 25 June. Photo: The police
– Were measures such as monitoring or searches initiated?
– I can say that when we receive such a notice with little information about who, what, where and when, it is very limited what measures we can implement, she says and continues:
– We must have reached a certain threshold for suspicion in order for us to be able to spy, carry out wiretapping, and also make further arrests. As of today, what PST is allowed to do is also quite limited.
Do not want new homes
Although she believes that the security service’s toolbox is often quite limited, the PST top believes that this is not something that should be changed.
– We also do not want other authorities and greater opportunities to follow individuals, because we believe there must be a balance.
Those are the consequences of living in an open democracy, Moe points out.
– There will be a risk of a terrorist attack in Norway, but we are of course aware that we as a security service were unable to prevent the attack that came last summer.
BLOMSTERHAV: After the shooting, the pride celebration was canceled and replaced with mourning and remembrance. Photo: Penelope Alida Larsen / TV 2
– It is a situation that I and the people who work in PST find difficult, without my believing in any way that it can bring back those who died or give the LGBT+ community security again.
