Norway unprepared for terror attack: WikiLeaks

Sunday - Jul 24, 2011, 03:31pm (GMT+5.5)

London - Norway is ill-quipped to stop terror attacks, a British daily said Saturday, quoting secret US cables leaked by WikiLeaks. One memo warns that "Pakistani-Norwegians" are ripe for radicalisation".

A US memo written in 2009 describes the country's security service as "in over its head" and adds that "it simply cannot keep up," The Telegraph said.

Another memo, of 2007, warns of the potential of Pakistani-Norwegian youth being radicalised and describes Norway as a "country that continues to feel immune from terrorism".

One memo described how US authorities had to "press" their Norwegian counterparts to take terrorism seriously and says there was a feeling "that terrorism happens elsewhere, not in peaceful Norway", the paper added.

US ambassador Barry White said that the Norwegian security services once lost track of bomb-making equipment which was being stored in an apartment.

The security personnel then failed to track a suspect for 14 days because the investigator assigned to him was called away on another job.