OSLO, Norway - In the world according to Anders Behring Breivik, a seat on Oslo's city council was once nearly in his grasp - until he was sidelined by a jealous adversary. Nonsense, says the so-called rival, who notes that Breivik attended just five or six party meetings and barely spoke.
In his early 20s, Breivik writes, he spent a year working alongside a mentor who schooled him in the ways of business and management. The man calls that a bizarre exaggeration, noting that the only thing he taught Breivik was how to record corporate minutes.
Those conflicts between Breivik's account and reality hint at a long thread of delusion winding throughout the 1,518-page manifesto he e-mailed to hundreds of people hours before he set out on a murderous rampage just over a week ago.
But some of the most troubling questions are the ones raised by the fragments of Breivik's story those who knew him say are closest to the truth.
The killer describes teen years infatuated with hip-hop, sneaking out at night in baggy jeans and hooded sweat shirts to spray-paint buildings around the capital with graffiti under the tag name "Morg." Then, Breivik writes, he decided to reject that life and turn himself into a selfless crusader bent on rescuing society from itself.
Former friends confirm the tales of schoolboy troublemaking. But they also recall Breivik as the one who repeatedly stepped forward to stop the most popular kids in school from teasing or bullying his classmates. He was a singular boy, reluctant to reveal his own thoughts, but one who would willingly sit for hours in the garden outside a friend's house listening to her talk about herself.
Several hundred pages of a 1,500 page "manifesto" that bears Breivik's name contain a detailed how-to guide for would-be terrorists, based on the author's own experience.
Police have not confirmed that the manifesto was written by Breivik, nor has CNN been able to confirm independently that he is the author. But, his attorney has referred to the manifesto as Breivik's and it contains not only his philosophy but looks at preparations leading up to last Friday's attacks.
Counter-terrorism specialists fear that the document, now widely accessible on the Internet, could be useful to a range of terrorist groups, including pro al Qaeda militants plotting attacks against the West.
The manifesto includes instructions on reconnaissance and counter-surveillance, and detailed instructions for buying and constructing the components of a fertilizer-based device. It even includes a detailed log describing how the author put together the device.
"Despite what others might say; you don't need any formal training in order to manufacture explosives. I have studied hundreds of various guides, recipes and instructions and can honestly say that it is a relatively safe venture as long as you take the necessary precautions and avoid the most volatile explosives," the manifesto says.
Counter-terrorism specialists believe the how-to guide would not allow a chemistry novice to build an explosive device from scratch. They do fear, however, that the manifesto might prove helpful to those planning terrorist attacks.
"Learning from other peoples' mistakes is always preferable to making them all yourself. It should be possible to drastically reduce the time spent on preparation, assembly and manufacturing based on the experiences shared in this log," the manifesto says.
A Western explosives expert who has reviewed the document told CNN that the manual was more alarming than those released in recent years by pro al Qaeda militants. "On a scale of 1 to 10 where most of the manuals released by al Qaeda and its associates score 1 or 2, this manual scores around a 6," the explosives expert told CNN.
"Although he's not a chemist, he's clearly done a lot of research and he's a careful teacher," said the explosives expert, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of his work. "It is obviously concerning that his insights are now out there given how uncomfortably successful he was.
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