Utter bastards! We knew US officials were out to get Julian Assange of Wikileaks, a hero of our sad times, but this scrapes the bottom of the barrel and breaks through to a whole new bottom we never knew existed.
One worry was that the US would kidnap Assange through the blandly named "rendition" process for his public service in exposing the murders of civilians in the Afghanistan conflict. But now the Swedes have issued a warrant for the arrest of the Australian for rape! So if they can't shut him up by fair means or foul, the authorities will smear his reputation in a plot riffing on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
John Pilger documents Assange's brave work in a recent article:
In file after file, the brutalities echo the colonial past. From Malaya and Vietnam to Bloody Sunday and Basra, little has changed. The difference is that today there is an extraordinary way of knowing how faraway societies are routinely ravaged in our name. WikiLeaks has acquired records of six years of civilian killing in both Afghanistan and Iraq, of which those published in the Guardian are a fraction.
What Pilger makes clear is that Assange held back on papers that would endanger anyone, in the absence of any help from the US authorities who refused to even acknowledge his request to say which files jeopardised people's lives. Because of this, many files are still not in the public domain and yet the very forces who have killed innocent people accuse Assange of endangering lives. How perverse is that?
Read The New Yorker's profile of Julian Assange.
UPDATE: Johan from Sweden has just left a comment here where he says something very interesting:
The two women actually went to police in order to try to make sure Assange was NOT accused of rape!
Because the prosecutors had decided to go for a rape case without asking the supposed victims! This is not the first time prosecutors in Sweden have taken orders from Americans, a similar thing happened with the famous Pirate Bay case some year ago which is a small issue for the US compared to this. What they did that time was to say that the Pirate Bay was full of child porn, even though they couldn't actually find any. Also the standards for sentencing someone for rape have often been criticized in Sweden for not really being appropriate. In many cases the accused has to prove his innocence rather than the other way around. So it's a pretty obvious choice of crime if you want to throw dirt on someone in Sweden.
UPDATE: News is breaking on CNN, Sky and others (16:30 Saturday) that the arrest warrant has been revoked and the prosecutor says there is no reason to believe Assange committed rape.
14 comments:
Hi I live in Sweden I wish to tell you a little more on this that most of the English language press seems to have left out.
The two women actually went to police in order to try to make sure Assange was NOT accused of rape!
Because the prosecutors had decided to go for a rape case without asking the supposed victims!
This is not the first time prosecutors in Sweden have taken orders from Americans, a similar thing happened with the famous Pirate Bay case some year ago which is a small issue for the US compared to this. What they did that time was to say that the Pirate Bay was full of child porn, even though they couldn't actually find any.
Also the standards for sentencing someone for rape have often been criticized in Sweden for not really being appropriate. In many cases the accused has to prove his innocence rather than the other way around. So it's a pretty obvious choice of crime if you want to throw dirt on someone in Sweden.
Many thanks for that, Johan. I've added your comment to the post as an update. It gets dirtier and dirtier.
As the old saying goes, a lie can be halfway round the world before the truth can get its boots on.
Further developments keenly awaited ...
That's really interesting Johan, but are you able to name some sources for this information please, especially the claim that the women went to the police to ensure Assange was not accused of rape. These sources would be very helpful!
This is utterly outrageous! And I'm sure they'll just continue to tighten the screws until he breaks. The only way out I believe is through mass pressure worldwide. Enough protests might force the authorities into backing down.
Johan - sources please?
Thanks JOK and Oliver. Yes, a source is necessary for this claim to be of any use. Johan's assertion does sound totally credible to me given Assange's personal politics that stem from childhood, but our side does need to be forensic in fighting this given the opposition.
Hello, Eric. Very nice to see you here. One way or another the authorities are out to get him. I guess we should look out for strange accidents.
The charges have been dropped now. The chief prosecutor says there is nothing at all to indicate a crime.
To those who were asking about my sources about the two women. Swedish newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet ran that story in more detail than most others so that's where I got it from.
Many thanks for the tip, Johan.
And brilliant news flooding the net that they've back down. For now.
@Johan
"The chief prosecutor says there is nothing at all to indicate a crime."
Incorrect. The rape arrest warrant has been cancelled. The molestation allegation appears to be outstanding.
Also, the various Swedish news reports do not appear to fully substantiate your statements.
Well, hopefully Wikileaks will publish many of the outrages and atrocities past and present in China...would you like that Anna?
Warts and all?
I'm not a big fan of the 'Yanks' but it would be interesting to name and shame the PRC also if in the wrong, which I have no doubt.
I don't think rape or molestation accusations should be dismissed beforehand simply because of the credible reputation of the accused or his controversial political work for which he might be hounded. While it is true that the whole thing is suspicious, I don't think that this fact is enough to let us conclude that these two women are lying and that the whole thing is completely fabricated. It might be, but it might just as easily be true. I don't think there's enough evidence yet to say which is it.
Oh FFS, and your point is?
Richy anonymouse, I never believed in my country or party right or wrong when it's my own country, I don't believe that with China, America or Yuruba, as you would know if you didn't project the crap inside your head instead of reading what I actually write.
If you don't want to have an honest debate around Afghanistan or China or America or wherever, then that is your problem.
ASP, I have seen no-one accusing these women of lying— we don't know the full story.
The charge of rape has been dropped so we have to see how the other once develops.
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