BRUSSELS, July 29 (UPI) -- A European Union counter-terrorism expert says it's very difficult to detect people like the man who admitted to attacks that killed 76 people in Norway.
A freelance attacker like Anders Breivik, 32, can slip through the system, said Timothy Jones.
"We try, but we can never guarantee this will succeed," Jones, a counter-terrorism adviser to the EU, told the EUobserver.
"It's true that nobody expected what happened last Friday," Jones said.
Jones said Breivik, who is being held in the bomb and gunfire attacks in Oslo and at an island near the city, is highly educated and took measures to hide his activities.
Jones said Breivik was able to purchase the fertilizer used in the car bomb he exploded in Oslo without detection by setting up a shadow farm, and he legally owned the assault rifles later used to attack young people on the island.
The European Union, pending the outcome of Norway's investigation, could adopt stricter rules on the purchase of chemicals used to make bombs, such as ammonium nitrate and hydrogen peroxide, and it could also consider stricter restrictions on the purchase of firearms, the report said.
