425 Assange accusations become a test-case of Feminism, dividing the Far Left

Assange accusations become a test-case of Feminism, dividing the Far Left

Many of Assange's strongest supporters - eg Phillip Adams and John Pilger - have a Communist background.

But Feminists and Greens are behind Sweden's law criminalizing "Sex by Surprise".

A photograph of Anna Ardin is at http://gotiskaklubben.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/3779626253_bdfa8a4095_z.jpg?w=427&h=640

(1) Swedish women who accuse Assange say they are not pawns of the CIA
(2) Julian Assange captured by the world's Dating Police - Naomi Wolf
(3) Naomi WOLF vs. Jaclyn FRIEDMAN: Feminists Debate the Sexual Allegations Against Julian Assange
(4) Sweden's "Sex by Surprise" - a sex crime, despite consent - was pushed by Feminists and Greens
(5) Anna Ardin tried to destroy her Tweets after sex with Assange - Tweets that exonerate him
(6) Anna Ardin on Revenge against a two-timing Lover
(7) Anna Ardin's 7-Step Programme for Legal Revenge
(8) Ardin threw a party in Assange's honour at her flat after the "crime" - Assange lawyer
(9) Phillip Adams: case against Mr Assange is "dubious and shonky"
(10) The Guardian publishes the full allegations against Assange
(11) Feminists support women accusing Assange
(12) Assange has not been charged with any crime; warrant is merely for questioning
(13) Sex By Surprise: Swedish Law That Makes Every Man A Rapist
(14) Charges against Assange are absurd - John Pilger
(15) Fidel Castro on Wikileaks: The empire stands accused

(1) Swedish women who accuse Assange say they are not pawns of the CIA

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/were-no-pawns-assange-accusers-20101225-197et.html

We're no pawns: Assange accusers

December 26, 2010

TWO Swedish women who accused the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of sex crimes say they are not pawns of the CIA, but just want justice for a violation of their "sexual integrity".

They were also not out for revenge or money, their Stockholm lawyer Claes Borgstrom said.

It was upsetting that Mr Assange and some of his supporters were suggesting the case was a smear campaign against the whistleblowing website, Mr Borgstrom said. "He's been spreading false rumours that he knows are untrue."

Mr Assange denies the allegations of sexual misconduct. He is on bail in Britain fighting an attempt by Sweden to extradite him. ...

Mr Assange said there was a "high chance" he would be killed in a US jail. He has said that he has received death threats.

Associated Press, Guardian News & Media

(2) Julian Assange captured by the world's Dating Police - Naomi Wolf

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/interpol-the-worlds-datin_b_793033.html

Julian Assange captured by the world's Dating Police

Naomi Wolf

Posted: December 7, 2010 09:40 AM

Dear Interpol:

As a longtime feminist activist, I have been overjoyed to discover your new commitment to engaging in global manhunts to arrest and prosecute men who behave like narcissistic jerks to women they are dating.

I see that Julian Assange is accused of having consensual sex with two women, in one case using a condom that broke. I understand, from the alleged victims' complaints to the media, that Assange is also accused of texting and tweeting in the taxi on the way to one of the women's apartments while on a date, and, disgustingly enough, 'reading stories about himself online' in the cab.

Both alleged victims are also upset that he began dating a second woman while still being in a relationship with the first. (Of course, as a feminist, I am also pleased that the alleged victims are using feminist-inspired rhetoric and law to assuage what appears to be personal injured feelings. That's what our brave suffragette foremothers intended!).

Thank you again, Interpol. I know you will now prioritize the global manhunt for 1.3 million guys I have heard similar complaints about personally in the US alone -- there is an entire fraternity at the University of Texas you need to arrest immediately. I also have firsthand information that John Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, went to a stag party -- with strippers! -- that his girlfriend wanted him to skip, and that Mark Levinson in Corvallis, Oregon, did not notice that his girlfriend got a really cute new haircut -- even though it was THREE INCHES SHORTER.

Terrorists. Go get 'em, Interpol!

Yours gratefully,

Naomi Wolf

(3) Naomi WOLF vs. Jaclyn FRIEDMAN: Feminists Debate the Sexual Allegations Against Julian Assange

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/20/naomi_WOLF_vs_jaclyn_FRIEDMAN_a

As more details emerge about the sex crimes allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, we host a debate between two feminists: Jaclyn FRIEDMAN argues the sexual assault allegations shouldn't be dismissed just because they're politically motivated, while Naomi WOLF says by going after Assange, the state is not embracing feminism, it's "pimping" it. [includes rush transcript] ...

AMY GOODMAN: The case against Assange has sparked international controversy, as well as controversy within the feminist community. We're joined by two women right now. Jaclyn FRIEDMAN is executive director of Women, Action, & the Media and the editor of the anthology Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. She's joining us from Boston. Naomi WOLF is a social critic, author of seven books, including The Beauty Myth, The End of America. She's joining us here in New York. ... ==

(4) Sweden's "Sex by Surprise" - a sex crime, despite consent - was pushed by Feminists and Greens

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/the-truth-lies-trapped-in-a-web-of-intrigue-20101223-196mv.html

The truth lies trapped in a web of intrigue

December 24, 2010

This sexual and political drama has more mysteries than any thriller, writes Guy Rundle in London.

Whatever prompted Naomi Wolf to defend Julian Assange by penning a satirical article for The Huffington Post titled "Julian Assange Captured by World's Dating Police", one assumes she is now regretting it. Ditto Michael Moore's ex cathedra statements on whether the sex crime allegations made against the WikiLeaks founder constituted rape or not: "His condom broke during consensual sex. This is all a bunch of hooey as far as I'm concerned."

Two weeks ago, when he was on remand in Wandsworth prison, it was broadly accepted that the man responsible for humiliating and challenging great powers across the world had been railroaded by a series of accusations relying on scorned female fury.

But now people more critical of the ethereal 39-year-old former hacker have hit back, as tabloid articles and a long piece in The Guardian detail the allegations against him blow by blow. The tabloid pieces in Sweden's Expressen and Britain's Mail on Sunday seemed more interested in his sexual encounters that were unquestionably consensual than in the criminal accusations. It is the report from The Guardian, one of WikiLeaks' publishing partners, that may do him more damage. Yet even this assessment is more interesting for what it left out - stories of influence, tampering, shadowy establishments and hidden agendas that leave the late Stieg Larsson out in the cold.

{photos} Alleged victims ... Anna Ardin, left, and Sofia Wilen. {end}

The story begins in early August, with the first complainant, Miss A, a woman now universally acknowledged as Anna Ardin, a rising star in the Social Democratic Party and an organiser of Assange's speaking engagement in Stockholm. Ardin had put up Assange in her apartment and organised a crayfish party for him, a traditional Swedish summer get-together attended by journalists and the leaders of Sweden's libertarian anti-censorship Pirate Party.

Assange and Ardin had begun a sexual relationship but, according to Nick Davies in The Guardian report, Ardin had told two friends that the sex had been "violent"; Assange had pinned down her arm to prevent her applying a condom. She had let him stay in her apartment, but not her bed.

Unbeknown to her, Assange was also seeing Sofia Wilen, a photographer who, by her own account to police, had become a little obsessed with Assange after seeing him on TV. Though she had told him she never had unsafe sex, she said she had woken to find him having sex with her without a condom. According to her account to prosecutors, they joked about pregnancy, had breakfast and returned to Stockholm by train, with Wilen paying for the tickets - as she had paid days earlier for the cinema, the meal and the train out.

On the Wednesday, August 18, Wilen rang Ardin, whom she did not know, to find out where Assange was. They compared notes and, on Friday, August 20, went to Klara police station to inquire how they could force Assange to take a test for sexually transmitted infections. Fifteen minutes into the interview the police decided to ask the duty prosecutor to open a rape investigation.

Though it would be months before it began to be adjudicated in The Huffington Post, the case became murky and mysterious from the get-go. Wilen's experience had been the basis for the rape accusation, Ardin's for two misdemeanour accusations. The senior prosecutor threw out the rape accusation, leaving a case barely worth pursuing.

But then Claes Borgstrom entered the scene. Battered and feisty, a real-life Kurt Wallander, Borgstrom is both a celebrity lawyer and a major figure in the Social Democratic Party, its gender equality spokesman. He petitioned the appeals prosecutor, Marianne Ny, to revive the accusations. When she did, in early September, there were four accusations, not three, the most serious being a new one - that of violent sexual coercion of Ardin.

The new accusation created a substantial difference between the first and later account of events to the police. It was at this time that material began to disappear from the internet. Two tweets were removed from Ardin's Twitter feed in early September - one saying "Julian wants to go to a crayfish party, anyone around" and another from the crayfish party Ardin organised for him that night "2am - sitting outside with the most exciting, interesting people in the world", both tweets sent in the 24 hours after the alleged violent sexual encounter took place.

Simultaneously, two items disappeared from blogs written or co-written by Ardin: a record of events making no mention of a violent sexual encounter, and a "7-step guide to revenge" on ex-lovers. All four deleted items were retrieved from internet caches by Swedish bloggers.

One of those who retrieved the deleted material was Goran Rudling, an activist involved in a campaign to revise Sweden's 2005 Sex Crimes Act, which he believes has rendered the law unworkable. No fan of Assange, whom he describes as a "villain - he wants to make himself more important by saying there is a conspiracy to get him", Rudling nevertheless points out that the investigation of his case has been hamstrung by a routine disregard for the proper procedures.

"There is, for example, no full record of the first interviews, written or audio/video. So we don't know what questions were asked, or how they were answered," Rudling says. "The arrest warrant was issued before the interview proper had even begun, and one of the complainants was only interviewed the next day, by telephone."

Why was a warrant for a serious allegation issued so quickly? One possibility is so that it could be leaked in time for the afternoon news, especially to the right-wing tabloid Expressen, which painted such a harsh picture of Assange that it prompted Ardin to give an interview to the rival paper Aftonbladet the next day, in which she said that "Assange is not violent and we do not fear him … this is about someone who has problems with women".

It is this quote that has become a headache for Borgstrom, since it contradicts Ardin's later claims. Questioned about this by reporters, Borgstrom replied that said the women "weren't jurists - they don't know what rape is". This claim was shaky. As gender equality officer at Uppsala University, Ardin had issued a new edition of the student union's gender equality procedures, including a guide to legal recourse.

By now, however, attention had turned to Borgstrom and the passion with which he was pursuing the case. His decision to take the case had been met with bemusement by many as his party was on the verge of contesting the September general election, one it lost badly.

When the Social Democrats were last in power, Borgstrom had helped draft the 2005 Sex Crime Act, which had made it possible to charge people with what has become known as "sex by surprise". Since losing power in 2006, his party has claimed that the ruling centre-right coalition has done nothing to give the new laws any force. Opponents of the law contended that it was unworkable, prompting investigations into matters that would be reduced to two conflicting stories in court and open to misuse for reputation damage and revenge.

Crucially, the 2005 law had gone beyond simple notion of consent and elaborated the idea of "violation of sexual integrity" and non-financial "sexual exploitation" - that is, psychological or situational manipulation. It thus became possible to charge someone with a sex crime even if consent was present throughout, a feature of at least two, and possibly all four, of the accusations against Assange.

The accusations against him occurred at a highly charged time, as the centre-right government received an exhaustive review of the law. The review had been prompted by bitter struggle between those who said it was unworkable - people drawn from the left and right - and those on the centre-left, feminists and greens who argued that the justice system should be further transformed to overcome the low conviction rate it achieved.

One of the players in the debate had been Gothenburg's crime development unit, a department of the prosecutor's office responsible for exploring new modes for the development of sex crime legislation, and headed by the appeals prosecutor Marianne Ny.

Does this add up to a possible hidden agenda? Yes and no. Unlike the experience of Larsson's character Lisbeth Salander, Sweden has less explicit corruption than a lot of countries. What it does have is a suffocatingly tight political elite, much of it grouped around the Social Democratic Party, which has huge cultural power even in opposition.

Some, such as the law blogger Marten Schultz, are impatient with Assange's repeated claims of especially bad treatment, arguing that the most surprising decision from the prosecutors was the second one, stating that Assange was not a suspect - without carrying out any investigation.

Others, such as Christian Engstrom, a Pirate Party member of the European Parliament, suggest that it would be difficult for Assange to get a fair trial in Sweden, as the judge and "lay examiners" who assess each case are appointed by the political parties in proportion to their numbers in parliament. "Usually Swedish justice works well," he argues. "But in cases like Julian's everything goes strange."

His chief of staff, Henrik Alexandersson, is more forthright, saying that as Assange has antagonised all major parties "there is no chance of him getting a fair trial".

Few cases in recent times have been so argued about on the basis of so much misinformation. Even Davies's account in The Guardian has been criticised as one-sided by a WikiLeaks associate in Sweden who was one of several people who tried to mediate between Assange and Ardin, before she went to the police. "I would say that it is simply the case for the prosecution," he says. "The police record contains Assange's early interview with the police on the 'misconduct' [accusations], yet none of that has been included."

Assange has at no time been charged with any crime. His arrest warrant was issued in relation to questions the prosecutors' office wishes him to answer regarding the accusations. Assange is next due in court in Britain on January 11 for the beginning of his extradition hearing.

The WikiLeaks associate suggests the case may never come to trial, noting that "one of the complainants has refused to sign off on her statement". Even if that proves to be the case, Julian Assange has entered history, though it remains to be seen whether in triumph or tragedy.

Days of his life

August 20 Julian Assange is accused of the rape and sexual assault of Sofia Wilen and of ofredande ("unfreedom" - a misdemeanour crime under Swedish law) in relation to Anna Ardin. The accusations are leaked to the tabloid Espressen.

August 21 Stockholm's chief prosecutor withdraws the arrest warrant for Assange, saying she sees no description of rape or assault. An investigation into the ofredande accusation stands.

August 31 Police in Stockholm question Assange and formally tell him of the allegation against him. He denies the accusations.

September 1 Marianne Ny, an appeals prosecutor, reopens an investigation into rape in relation to Ardin.

November 18 An arrest warrant is issued in Sweden for Assange to answer questions from the prosecutor.

November 30 Interpol issues a "red notice" for Assange's detention.

December 6 A European arrest warrant is issued.

December 7 Assange gives himself up to British police. The Crown Prosecution Service reads out four accusations: rape: that Assange had held Ardin down, forcibly parted her legs and had sex with her; ofredande: that Assange had unsafe sex with Ardin, thereby violating her sexual integrity; ofredande: that Assange had pushed his erect penis into Ardin's back, thereby violating her sexual integrity; sexual assault: that Assange had had unsafe sex with Wilen while she was sleeping.

December 16 Assange is released on bail of £200,000 ($308,000) plus several sureties. An initial extradition hearing is set for January 11. The substantive hearing will begin in early February.

(5) Anna Ardin tried to destroy her Tweets after sex with Assange - Tweets that exonerate him

http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01.shtml

Assange Case: Evidence Destroyed Over and Over Again

Sensational news: extraordinary Internet detective work by Göran Rudling. From 30 September 2010

[UPDATE: Anna Ardin did in fact make the whole story up as part of her 'seven step plan for revenge'. See here.]

One of the women who filed charges against Julian Assange is Anna Ardin. She stood in the elections to the community council for the social democrats and she is a public person who should be examined. So I'll publish her name.

Anna Ardin is christian, feminist, social democrat, animal rights activist, and opponent of abortion on the left political scene. She's previously been in charge of equality issues for the student union of Uppsala University – a job she won an award for. Today she works for the Brotherhood Movement and 'burns for peace and justice… for a just, open society of solidarity'. On her own blog she describes herself:

'A political scientist, communicator, entrepreneur, and freelance writer with special knowledge within faith and politics, gender equality issues, feminism, and Latin America.'

On Saturday 14 August at 14:00 she wrote the following on her Twitter account.

{visit the link to see a graphic of the text in Swedish}

'Julian wants to go to a crayfish party, anyone have a couple of available seats tonight or tomorrow? #fb'

Early on the morning of Sunday 15 August (02:00) she writes again at Twitter.

{visit the link to see a graphic of the text in Swedish}

'Sitting outdoors at 02:00 and hardly freezing with the world's coolest smartest people, it's amazing! #fb'

When Anna Ardin files a police complaint against Julian Assange on 20 August these tweets are removed. Why? As far as I can tell, it's not common for victims of crime to delete blogs, clean up their cellphones, and try to get witnesses to attest to things that aren't true. Why is it so important to remove these particular tweets?

If you know that the 'reported molestation' takes place on the night towards 14 August, then it all becomes easier to understand. The tweets actually indicate that Anna really liked Julian and that there had been no molestation 24 hours earlier. You can't divine in the tweets that Anna Ardin thinks Julian has a 'warped view of womanhood and can't take no for an answer'. The tweets are more an attempt by Ardin to shine in the brilliance of Julian Assange. Why else would she publish them on the Internet? The tweets don't match Anna's story given to the police on 20 August. So she simply deletes them.

Proof That Anna Ardin Is Hiding the Truth

In the beginning of September, I note that Anna Ardin has two identical 'miniblogs' – one at Twitter and the other at Bloggy.se. It looks as if Anna Ardin's tweets are posted to both blogs at the same time. The tweets that are deleted from Twitter are still visible at annaardin.bloggy.se. Anna missed the fact that she has to delete on each and every blog. Bad luck.

To see if Anna Ardin is really trying to hide her Twitter tweets, I post a comment to Sara Gunnerud's article WikiLeaks Heroes Can Also Do Stupid Things. The article is published at the Rebella blog, a social democratic feminist blog where Anna Ardin contributes and runs the website. In my comment I mention the deleted Twitter tweets. After five days, on 13 September, my comment is reviewed and removed directly. I then post a new comment where I mention that one can read the deleted Tweets at annaardin.bloggy.se. My comment is removed directly. A few hours later the entire Bloggy.se site is taken offline. When Bloggy.se reopens at 04:00 in the morning of 14 September, the tweets deleted from Twitter are also deleted from annaardin.bloggy.se.

But it's not as easy to remove things from the Internet as Anna Ardin thinks. Google takes snapshots of how web pages look – so called caches. If you search for the cached page for annaardin.bloggy.se you can see what it looked like on 19 August. (If the cache disappears, click here.) Then you can compare the page with how annaardin.bloggy.se and twitter.com/annaardin look.

As we can see, Anna Ardin is doing all she can to hide her tweets. Tweets that indicate Julian Assange is actually innocent of at least the charge of 'molestation' that he's been accused of. It looks like Anna Ardin is doing all she can to get Julian Assange convicted. By deleting and denying acquitting circumstances, she's perhaps making herself guilty of false accusation.

Penal Code Chapter 15, 7 § A person who, otherwise than in 6 §, with prosecutors, police or other authority falsely testifies of a criminal act, provides compromising circumstances, or denies acquitting or mitigating circumstances, shall be found guilty, if authority review such a case, of false accusation to imprisonment not exceeding two years or, if the crime is petty, to a fine or imprisonment not exceeding six months.

The Assange case gets really creepy if we take everything that's happened into account. Anyone wanting to read more can see this article and this article. Julian lives in Anna Ardin's flat from 11 August until 19-20 August. During this time Julian and Anna have sex. Around 18-19 August Anna gets a call from a woman wanting to speak to Julian. When Anna realises that Julian's also had consensual sex with this woman, something happens. The two women who are both christians and are connected to the Brotherhood Movement and were at the seminar at the Brotherhood Movement realise immediately that Julian doesn't have any long term serious intentions with them. They decide after discussing the matter to file complaints against Julian Assange for sexual molestation.

It might seem strange that a christian social democrat feminist would avail herself of legislation to get revenge on a man who is 'unfaithful'. When you read about Anna Ardin's post about revenge <http://www.samtycke.nu/2010/09/hamnerskn-fran-gotland/>, it's no longer strange. It's completely natural. Anna Ardin has for a long time wondered how she can exact revenge on a man who dumps her, is unfaithful. When the other woman turns up, she has the opportunity to do something about her ideas. Anna Ardin plans it all well. She gets another woman to make the actual rape accusation. A case of 'revenge by proxy'. And then she gets help from Claes Borgström who's done all he can to try to get Julian Assange put on trial, frenetically cheered on by the feminist blogs.

But the truth wins out in the end. Anna's perfect 7-Step Programme for Legal Revenge failed <http://annaardin.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/sjustegsmodell-for-laglig-hamnd/>. One deletion too few. And the Google cache. Too bad, Anna. The ways of the Lord are truly mysterious.

I'm very surprised that christian feminist 'equality' women can so idolise a WikiLeaks hero that they do all in their power to get him into bed as soon as they have the chance. And then, when they realise he's not as interested in them as they are in him, go to the police and accuse him of rape. This demonstrates an extreme contempt for the women who are real victims of violence and sexual crimes. Their behaviour is unconscionable.

If you're a groupie at heart, why not just try to keep quiet about it? It's nothing you should spread on the net or go to the police to talk about. As things look now, Anna Ardin's carefully planned character assassination and revenge on Julian Assange amounts to nothing more than a suicide bomb on her foot. A bit unlucky for Anna that Google cache keeps track of things like an Internet god. If you're going to delete, then delete good and proper.

All that remains is to see what the preliminary investigation leads to. According to the prosecutors:

'The investigation is well advanced and only a small number of investigative procedures remain to be taken before a decision.'

If the prosecutors conclude that this is a case of false accusation, then hundreds of thousands of men who claim most rape complaints are false will win their argument. This will unfortunately also lead to making it much more difficult to get justice for real victims. That would be a catastrophe.

But something good will come out of this story. We are going to learn that just because you're christian, feminist, social democrat, animal rights activist, and opponent of abortion, it doesn't mean you believe in equal rights for women and men.

Göran Rudling, born in 1951, is the editor of Samtycke Nu/Consensus Now, a site promoting sexual self-determination that uses the motto 'it is a human right to decide for oneself when and with whom we are going to have sex'. Rudling is a frequent contributor to Newsmill where he writes about the need to introduce democratic laws that are based on sexual activities needing to be consensual to not be considered criminal.

(6) Anna Ardin on Revenge against a two-timing Lover

http://www.samtycke.nu/2010/09/hamnerskn-fran-gotland/
http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01,02

Anna Ardin on Revenge

Learn your local laws. Laws vary greatly from area to area so if you have a certain revenge plan in mind make sure it is legal first. For a tricky way to find this information simply go to the police department and ask if a person can get revenge in that way without breaking the law.

Den 1 september frågar en Mik Anna på Annar Ardins blogg:
How can you claim to be a Christian when you are so obsessed with revenge? This is not the only mention of it in works you published on the Internet.

Anna Ardins svar
Some times it is difficult to go on without some kind of payback. As a human being you should be able to understand that. In this case I was very upset with a former fiancé who betrayed me for a long time. My revenge at that point consisted in posting this translation.

Now this post has gotten many good Christians to cast spells on me, told me that I am mentally insane and said that because I am a "revenger" the whole world has the right to get their revenge on me. I think that is sad, but I hope that this global anger over this blog post will cause a lot of people to think again over their own need for revenge, and the way they treat their fellow humans.

(7) Anna Ardin's 7-Step Programme for Legal Revenge

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7569087-meet-anna-ardin-photos-anna-ardins-7-steps-to-legal-revenge

Meet Anna Ardin (Photos): Anna Ardin's 7 Steps to Legal Revenge

Stockholm : Sweden | Dec 09, 2010

BY richwebnews  

Anna Ardin was the center of headlines once again since she alleged rape allegations of Wikileaks founder Assange. Anna Ardin is the political secretary and press officer of the Swedish "Brotherhood Movement," a group of Christians from the Social Democratic Party controversial for inviting anti-Semitic speakers to the country.

If you want to know more about Anna Ardin, she has social media profile. Anna Ardin frequently tweets on her Twitter. She has also set up a Facebook "tribute" page to herself called "Anna Ardin är coolast i stan (Translation: Anna Ardin is the coolest in town/Anna Ardin as role model"). The profile description reads: "Ardin is a political scientist, communicator, entrepreneur and freelance writer with profound knowledge in faith & politics, equality, feminism and Latin America. She specializes in combining politics with humor and wits. We likes."

Anna Ardin wrote on her blog about 7 steps how to take legal revenge and punish a cheating lover. Since the incident, some of her blogs were deleted but this article was reposted in the source blogger nicholasmead.com. The original text for each step is in Swedish with the English translation in bold:

7 Steps to Legal Revenge

January 19, 2010

I've been thinking about some revenge over the last few days and came across a very good side who inspired me to this seven-point revenge instruction in Swedish.

Steg 1 / Step 1

Tänk igenom väldigt noga om du verkligen ska hämnas. Consider very carefully if you really must take revenge. Det är nästan alltid bättre att förlåta än att hämnas

It is almost always better to forgive than to avenge

Steg 2 / Step 2

Tänk igenom varför du ska hämnas. Think about why you want revenge. Du behöver alltså inte bara vara på det klara med vem du ska hämnas på utan också varför. Hämnd ska aldrig riktas mot bara en person, utan även möta en viss handling.

You need to be clear about who to take revenge on, as well as why. Revenge is never directed against only one person, but also the actions of the person.

Steg 3 / Step 3

Proportionalitetsprincipen.

The principle of proportionality.

Kom ihåg att hämnden inte bara ska matcha dådet i storlek utan även i art.

Remember that revenge will not only match the deed in size but also in nature.

En bra hämnd är kopplad till det som gjorts mot dig.

A good revenge is linked to what has been done against you.

Om du till exempel vill hämnas på någon som varit otrogen eller som dumpat dig, så bör straffet ha något med dejting/sex/trohet att göra.

For example if you want revenge on someone who cheated or who dumped you, you should use a punishment with dating/sex/fidelity involved.

Steg 4 / Step 4

Gör en brainstorm kring lämpliga åtgärder för kategorin av hämnd du är ute efter. För att fortsätta exemplet ovan så kan du paja ditt offers nuvarande relation, fixa så att dennes nye partner är otrogen eller se till att han får en galning efter sig.

Do a brainstorm of appropriate measures for the category of revenge you're after. To continue the example above, you can sabotage your victim's current relationship, such as getting his new partner to be unfaithful or ensure that he gets a madman after him.

Använd din fantasi!

Use your imagination!

Steg 5 / Step 5

Tänk ut hur du kan hämnas systematiskt.

Figure out how you can systematically take revenge.

Kanske kan en serie brev och foton som får den nya att tro att ni ännu ses bättre än bara en stor lögn vid ett enstaka tillfälle?

Send your victim a series of letters and photographs that make your victim's new partner believe that you are still together which is better than to tell just one big lie on one single occasion

Steg 6 / Step 6

Ranka dina systematiska hämndscheman från låg till hög i termer av troligt lyckat genomförande, krävd insats från dig samt grad av tillfredsställelse om du lyckas.

Rank your systematic revenge schemes from low to high in terms of likely success, required input from you, and degree of satisfaction when you succeed.

Den ideala hämnden ligger givetvis så högt som möjligt i dessa staplar, men ofta kan en ökad insats av arbete och kapital ge säkrare output för de andra två, egentligen viktigare parametrarna.

The ideal, of course, is a revenge as strong as possible but this requires a lot of hard work and effort for it to turn out exactly as you want it to.

Step 7 / Step 7

Skrid till verket. Get to work. Och kom ihåg vilket ditt mål är medan du opererar, se till att ditt offer får lida på samma sätt som han fick dig att lida.

And remember what your goals are while you are operating, ensure that your victim will suffer the same way as he made you suffer.

(8) Ardin threw a party in Assange's honour at her flat after the "crime" - Assange lawyer
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/12/02/when-it-comes-to-assange-r-pe-case-the-swedes-are-making-it-up-as-they-go-along/

Thursday, 2 December 2010 / 133 comments

When it comes to Assange rape case, the Swedes are making it up as they go along

by Melbourne barrister James D. Catlin, who acted for Julian Assange in London in October.

... The women here are near to and over 30 and have international experience, some of it working in Swedish government embassies. There is no suggestion of drugs nor identity concealment. Far from it. Both women boasted of their celebrity connection to Assange after the events that they would now see him destroyed for.

That further evidence hasn't been confected to make the charges less absurd does Sweden no credit because it has no choice in the matter. The phenomena of social networking through the internet and mobile phones constrains Swedish authorities from augmenting the evidence against Assange because it would look even less credible in the face of tweets by Anna Ardin and SMS texts by Sofia Wilén boasting of their respective conquests after the "crimes".

In the case of Ardin it is clear that she has thrown a party in Assange's honour at her flat after the "crime" and tweeted to her followers that she is with the "the world's coolest smartest people, it's amazing!". Go on the internet and see for yourself. That Ardin has sought unsuccessfully to delete these exculpatory tweets from the public record should be a matter of grave concern. That she has published on the internet a guide on how to get revenge on cheating boyfriends ever graver. The exact content of Wilén's mobile phone texts is not yet known but their bragging and exculpatory character has been confirmed by Swedish prosecutors. Niether Wilén's nor Ardin's texts complain of rape.

But then neither Arden nor Wilén complained to the police but rather "sought advice", a technique in Sweden enabling citizens to avoid just punishment for making false complaints. They sought advice together, having collaborated and irrevocably tainted each other's evidence beforehand. Their SMS texts to each other show a plan to contact the Swedish newspaper Expressen beforehand in order to maximise the damage to Assange. They belong to the same political group and attended a public lecture given by Assange and organised by them. You can see Wilén on the YouTube video of the event even now.

Of course, their celebrity lawyer Claes Borgström was questioned as to how the women themselves could be essentially contradicting the legal characterisation of Swedish prosecutors; a crime of non-consent by consent. Borgström's answer is emblematic of how divorced from reality this matter is. "They (the women) are not jurists". You need a law degree to know whether you have been r-ped or not in Sweden. In the context of such double think, the question of how the Swedish authorities propose to deal with victims who neither saw themselves as such nor acted as such is easily answered: You're not a Swedish lawyer so you wouldn't understand anyway. The consent of both women to sex with Assange has been confirmed by prosecutors. ...

*James D. Catlin is a Melbourne barrister who acted for Julian Assange in London during October.


(9) Phillip Adams: case against Mr Assange is "dubious and shonky"

From: Josef Schwanzer <donauschwob@optusnet.com.au> Date: 08.12.2010 02:58 AM

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/assange-wanted-by-us-for-espionage-offences-20101208-18ouj.html

As critics protest against the "shonky" way WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been denied his freedom, diplomatic sources have reportedly revealed informal talks are under way for him to be transferred into US custody.

US and Swedish officials have already discussed the possibility of Mr Assange being delivered into the hands of US law enforcement to face potential charges over "espionage offences", Britain's The Independent reported, citing "diplomatic sources". ...

It has been revealed that the two women who accuse Assange of sexual misconduct were at first not seeking to bring any charges against him and simply wanted him to take an STD test following their unprotected sexual encounter.

Phillip Adams, an ABC radio presenter and member of the WikiLeaks Advisory Board, said in a phone interview today that he believed the Swedish sexual misconduct case against Mr Assange was "dubious and shonky".

Separately, Adams said he could not see why US politicians wanted to prosecute Mr Assange for his latest State Department cable leaks, as he was simply doing what journalists have done for years but on a much larger scale.

"Why the world is so rushing to condemn and to throw around words like 'treason', which are clearly inapplicable to a young Australian, astonishes me. I think the reaction around the world is bizarre, absolutely bizarre," he said.

Adams said that, despite being on the WikiLeaks Advisory Board, he had not had any involvement in any of the latest leaks. He said the "hysterical response" to the latest leaks from governments would only make matters worse for them.

"I think if Julian's completely taken out of the picture the organisation will grind on in its mysterious hydra-headed way. Despite all the various attempts to cut it off at the knees and legs, it will continue to flourish and embarrass, and good on it," Adams said.

"I'd be advising WikiLeaks to up the ante and to keep leaking and to demonstrate that it's bigger than Julian Assange." ...

The espionage claims relate to Mr Assange releasing hundreds of thousands of confidential US State Department cables, not the sexual misconduct accusations being investigated in Sweden.

Right-wing politicians such as former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin say Assange should be pursued in the same way as terrorist leaders. ...

(10) The Guardian publishes the full allegations against Assange

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-sweden

10 days in Sweden: the full allegations against Julian Assange

Unseen police documents provide the first complete account of the allegations against the WikiLeaks founder

Nick Davies

guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 December 2010 21.30 GMT

Documents seen by the Guardian reveal for the first time the full details of the allegations of rape and sexual assault that have led to extradition hearings against the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.

The case against Assange, which has been the subject of intense speculation and dispute in mainstream media and on the internet, is laid out in police material held in Stockholm to which the Guardian received unauthorised access.

Assange, who was released on bail on Thursday, denies the Swedish allegations and has not formally been charged with any offence. The two Swedish women behind the charges have been accused by his supporters of making malicious complaints or being "honeytraps" in a wider conspiracy to discredit him.

Assange's UK lawyer, Mark Stephens, attributed the allegations to "dark forces", saying: "The honeytrap has been sprung ... After what we've seen so far you can reasonably conclude this is part of a greater plan." The journalist John Pilger dismissed the case as a "political stunt" and in an interview with ABC news, Assange said Swedish prosecutors were withholding evidence which suggested he had been "set up."

However, unredacted statements held by prosecutors in Stockholm, along with interviews with some of the central characters, shed fresh light on the hotly disputed sequence of events that has become the centre of a global storm.

Stephens has repeatedly complained that Assange has not been allowed to see the full allegations against him, but it is understood his Swedish defence team have copies of all the documents seen by the Guardian. He maintains that other potentially exculpatory evidence has not been made available to his team and may not have been seen by the Guardian.

The allegations centre on a 10-day period after Assange flew into Stockholm on Wednesday 11 August. One of the women, named in court as Miss A, told police that she had arranged Assange's trip to Sweden, and let him stay in her flat because she was due to be away. She returned early, on Friday 13 August, after which the pair went for a meal and then returned to her flat.

Her account to police, which Assange disputes, stated that he began stroking her leg as they drank tea, before he pulled off her clothes and snapped a necklace that she was wearing. According to her statement she "tried to put on some articles of clothing as it was going too quickly and uncomfortably but Assange ripped them off again". Miss A told police that she didn't want to go any further "but that it was too late to stop Assange as she had gone along with it so far", and so she allowed him to undress her.

According to the statement, Miss A then realised he was trying to have unprotected sex with her. She told police that she had tried a number of times to reach for a condom but Assange had stopped her by holding her arms and pinning her legs. The statement records Miss A describing how Assange then released her arms and agreed to use a condom, but she told the police that at some stage Assange had "done something" with the condom that resulted in it becoming ripped, and ejaculated without withdrawing.

When he was later interviewed by police in Stockholm, Assange agreed that he had had sex with Miss A but said he did not tear the condom, and that he was not aware that it had been torn. He told police that he had continued to sleep in Miss A's bed for the following week and she had never mentioned a torn condom.

On the following morning, Saturday 14 August, Assange spoke at a seminar organised by Miss A. A second woman, Miss W, had contacted Miss A to ask if she could attend. Both women joined Assange, the co-ordinator of the Swedish WikiLeaks group, whom we will call "Harold", and a few others for lunch.

Assange left the lunch with Miss W. She told the police she and Assange had visited the place where she worked and had then gone to a cinema where they had moved to the back row. He had kissed her and put his hands inside her clothing, she said.

That evening, Miss A held a party at her flat. One of her friends, "Monica", later told police that during the party Miss A had told her about the ripped condom and unprotected sex. Another friend told police that during the evening Miss A told her she had had "the worst sex ever" with Assange: "Not only had it been the world's worst screw, it had also been violent."

Assange's supporters point out that, despite her complaints against him, Miss A held a party for him on that evening and continued to allow him to stay in her flat.

On Sunday 15 August, Monica told police, Miss A told her that she thought Assange had torn the condom on purpose. According to Monica, Miss A said Assange was still staying in her flat but they were not having sex because he had "exceeded the limits of what she felt she could accept" and she did not feel safe.

The following day, Miss W phoned Assange and arranged to meet him late in the evening, according to her statement. The pair went back to her flat in Enkoping, near Stockholm. Miss W told police that though they started to have sex, Assange had not wanted to wear a condom, and she had moved away because she had not wanted unprotected sex. Assange had then lost interest, she said, and fallen asleep. However, during the night, they had both woken up and had sex at least once when "he agreed unwillingly to use a condom".

Early the next morning, Miss W told police, she had gone to buy breakfast before getting back into bed and falling asleep beside Assange. She had awoken to find him having sex with her, she said, but when she asked whether he was wearing a condom he said no. "According to her statement, she said: 'You better not have HIV' and he answered: 'Of course not,' " but "she couldn't be bothered to tell him one more time because she had been going on about the condom all night. She had never had unprotected sex before."

The police record of the interview with Assange in Stockhom deals only with the complaint made by Miss A. However, Assange and his lawyers have repeatedly stressed that he denies any kind of wrongdoing in relation to Miss W.

In submissions to the Swedish courts, they have argued that Miss W took the initiative in contacting Assange, that on her own account she willingly engaged in sexual activity in a cinema and voluntarily took him to her flat where, she agrees, they had consensual sex. They say that she never indicated to Assange that she did not want to have sex with him. They also say that in a text message to a friend, she never suggested she had been raped and claimed only to have been "half asleep".

Police spoke to Miss W's ex-boyfriend, who told them that in two and a half years they had never had sex without a condom because it was "unthinkable" for her. Miss W told police she went to a chemist to buy a morning-after pill and also went to hospital to be tested for STDs. Police statements record her contacting Assange to ask him to get a test and his refusing on the grounds that he did not have the time.

On Wednesday 18 August, according to police records, Miss A told Harold and a friend that Assange would not leave her flat and was sleeping in her bed, although she was not having sex with him and he spent most of the night sitting with his computer. Harold told police he had asked Assange why he was refusing to leave the flat and that Assange had said he was very surprised, because Miss A had not asked him to leave. Miss A says she spent Wednesday night on a mattress and then moved to a friend's flat so she did not have to be near him. She told police that Assange had continued to make sexual advances to her every day after they slept together and on Wednesday 18 August had approached her, naked from the waist down, and rubbed himself against her.

The following day, Harold told police, Miss A called him and for the first time gave him a full account of her complaints about Assange. Harold told police he regarded her as "very, very credible" and he confronted Assange, who said he was completely shocked by the claims and denied all of them. By Friday 20 August, Miss W had texted Miss A looking for help in finding Assange. The two women met and compared stories.

Harold has independently told the Guardian Miss A made a series of calls to him asking him to persuade Assange to take an STD test to reassure Miss W, and that Assange refused. Miss A then warned if Assange did not take a test, Miss W would go to the police. Assange had rejected this as blackmail, Harold told police.

Assange told police that Miss A spoke to him directly and complained to him that he had torn their condom, something that he regarded as false.

Late that Friday afternoon, Harold told police, Assange agreed to take a test, but the clinics had closed for the weekend. Miss A phoned Harold to say that she and Miss W had been to the police, who had told them that they couldn't simply tell Assange to take a test, that their statements must be passed to the prosecutor. That night, the story leaked to the Swedish newspaper Expressen.

By Saturday morning, 21 August, journalists were asking Assange for a reaction. At 9.15am, he tweeted: "We were warned to expect 'dirty tricks'. Now we have the first one." The following day, he tweeted: "Reminder: US intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks as far back as 2008."

The Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet asked if he had had sex with his two accusers. He said: "Their identities have been made anonymous so even I have no idea who they are. We have been warned that the Pentagon, for example, is thinking of deploying dirty tricks to ruin us."

Assange's Swedish lawyers have since suggested that Miss W's text messages – which the Guardian has not seen – show that she was thinking of contacting Expressen and that one of her friends told her she should get money for her story. However, police statements by the friend offer a more innocent explanation: they say these text messages were exchanged several days after the women had made their complaint. They followed an inquiry from a foreign newspaper and were meant jokingly, the friend stated to police.

The Guardian understands that the recent Swedish decision to apply for an international arrest warrant followed a decision by Assange to leave Sweden in late September and not return for a scheduled meeting when he was due to be interviewed by the prosecutor. Assange's supporters have denied this, but Assange himself told friends in London that he was supposed to return to Stockholm for a police interview during the week beginning 11 October, and that he had decided to stay away. Prosecution documents seen by the Guardian record that he was due to be interviewed on 14 October.

The co-ordinator of the WikiLeaks group in Stockholm, who is a close colleague of Assange and who also knows both women, told the Guardian: "This is a normal police investigation. Let the police find out what actually happened. Of course, the enemies of WikiLeaks may try to use this, but it begins with the two women and Julian. It is not the CIA sending a woman in a short skirt."

Assange's lawyers were asked to respond on his behalf to the allegations in the documents seen by the Guardian on Wednesday evening. Tonight they said they were still unable obtain a response from Assange.

Assange's solicitor, Mark Stephens, said: "The allegations of the complainants are not credible and were dismissed by the senior Stockholm prosecutor as not worthy of further investigation." He said Miss A had sent two Twitter messages that appeared to undermine her account in the police statement.

Assange's defence team had so far been provided by prosecutors with only incomplete evidence, he said. "There are many more text and SMS messages from and to the complainants which have been shown by the assistant prosecutor to the Swedish defence lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig, which suggest motivations of malice and money in going to the police and to Espressen and raise the issue of political motivation behind the presentation of these complaints. He [Hurtig] has been precluded from making notes or copying them.

"We understand that both complainants admit to having initiated consensual sexual relations with Mr Assange. They do not complain of any physical injury. The first complainant did not make a complaint for six days (in which she hosted the respondent in her flat [actually her bed] and spoke in the warmest terms about him to her friends) until she discovered he had spent the night with the other complainant.

"The second complainant, too, failed to complain for several days until she found out about the first complainant: she claimed that after several acts of consensual sexual intercourse, she fell half asleep and thinks that he ejaculated without using a condom – a possibility about which she says they joked afterwards.

"Both complainants say they did not report him to the police for prosecution but only to require him to have an STD test. However, his Swedish lawyer has been shown evidence of their text messages which indicate that they were concerned to obtain money by going to a tabloid newspaper and were motivated by other matters including a desire for revenge."

(11) Feminists support women accusing Assange

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/18/julian-assange-allegations-wikileaks-cables

Julian Assange furore deepens as new details emerge of sex crime allegations

Bitter divisions open up between supporters and critics of WikiLeaks leader in wake of fresh claims by Swedish women

Tracy McVeigh and Mark Townsend

guardian.co.uk, Saturday 18 December 2010 21.30 GMT

... Dismissed by his supporters as a smear campaign, the case against Assange now threatens to move from a sideshow to overwhelm the main act – the work he has done in his public life as editor of WikiLeaks. In part, Assange, 39, who has become a figurehead for whistleblowers, can blame this on supporters who have pressed accolades on the man rather than the cause, and who range from left wing historians, feminists and human rights campaigners to misogynist right wing bloggers and a porn baron. ...

In today's Guardian editorial, the newspaper explained why it had chosen to publish the sexual misconduct allegations in detail: "It is unusual for a sex-offence case to be presented outside of the judicial process in such a manner, but then it is unheard of for a defendant, his legal team and supporters to so vehemently and publicly attack women at the heart of a rape case."

The paper is reflecting a growing discomfort among many, in both camps, at the widespread vilification – and naming – of the two alleged victims on websites and blogs, and also of the kind of language being used by people including Assange's own lawyer Mark Stephens who referred to the allegation as a "honeytrap" .

"I have never heard the like. Legal representatives do not and should not stand on the steps outside a court of law and make such comments about their clients, it is neither right nor fitting," said one outraged barrister. "It is certainly in my view deeply unprofessional." ...

• This article was amended on 20 December 2010. The original referred to Claus Borgström, Marianne Nye and Johanna Palmstom. These names have been corrected.

(12) Assange has not been charged with any crime; warrant is merely for questioning

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-q-and-a

Q&A: Julian Assange allegations

Despite three legal hearings, there remains a lack of consensus about the status of charges against the WikiLeaks founder

Esther Addley

guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 December 2010 21.50 GMT

Assange has not formally been charged with any crime. His lawyers insist the warrant against him is merely for questioning on the accusations made by the two women, Miss A and Miss W.

But Gemma Lindfield, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said in court that the European Arrest Warrant "quite clearly states [Assange] is wanted for prosecution".

Mr Justice Ouseley, the head of the administrative court who rejected the appeal against Assange's bail, acknowledged the dispute in his judgment: "There is a debate, which may yet be had elsewhere, over whether the warrant is a warrant for questioning or a warrant for trial." He was proceeding, he said, on the basis that it was an extradition warrant for trial. A charge by the requesting country is a prerequisite for a valid EAW.

What are the accusations or charges?

Four were outlined at the hearings:

• That Assange "unlawfully coerced" Miss A by using his body weight to hold her down in a sexual manner.

• That he "sexually molested" Miss A by having sex with her without a condom when it was her "express wish" one should be used.

• That he "deliberately molested" Miss A "in a way designed to violate her sexual integrity".

• That he had sex with a second woman, Miss W, without a condom while she was asleep.

None of those mentions rape, so why is Assange being described as an alleged rapist?

The accusation in the fourth point, involving Miss W, falls into the category of rape under Swedish law.

An arrest warrant, issued on 20 August, was withdrawn the following day, when one of Sweden's chief prosecutors, Eva Finné, said she did not think there was "reason to suspect that he has committed rape". On 1 September, Marianne Ny, the Swedish director of prosecutions, overturned Finné's judgment. "Considering information available at present, my judgment is that the classification of the crime is rape," said Ny.

What is the Swedish law on rape?

Three categories of rape are defined, with different sentencing guidelines. These were described in court on Thursday by Assange's barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC, as "severe rape", "normal rape" and "minor rape". While the first carries a maximum 10-year sentence, he said, the last has no minimum sentence. The accusation relating to Assange and Miss W is held to fall into the third category.

Does this mean it would not be a crime under British law?

The charge that he had sex with Miss W while she was asleep would be a clear allegation of rape in this country. Legal experts consider that the third charge would directly correlate to an accusation of indecent assault in Britain.

(13) Sex By Surprise: Swedish Law That Makes Every Man A Rapist

http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/sex-by-surprise-swedish-law-that-makes-every-man-a-rapist/

December 7, 2010 · 10:05 pm

Greek Statuary – Sarreenah's Forest

??It is now official: if you want sex, guys, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT go to Sweden.  You will have your nuts cut off for the most frivolous of reasons.  This, of course, puts to bed any references to sexy Swede women and 007 would have spent most of his career in prison in Stockholm.  To be renamed, ‘Stocks home' as men who sleep but don't marry their females are locked up in the town square. Actually, the charges of Sex by Surprise is rather surprising since it seems that sleeping with someone, having sex, then going out, eating, twittering about how great it was then going back and doing it all over again for several days…is rape.  A cold shiver should go down all men's spines if this is rape.

As a real, bonafide rape victim who had to be operated on afterwards and had years of pain from the damage to my uterus and other body parts, I greatly resent this stupid definition of ‘rape'.  Evidently, when someone has totally consensual sex and then the condom rips, this is called ‘an accident' and some people online suggest, the damsel in this case should sue the manufacturer.  It turns out one of these Victorian fainting beauties is also anti-abortion.

??Well, she could then demand 18 years of payments for any child only she isn't pregnant and since this is all on her own say-so, I really doubt the condom ripped in the first place.  The concept of ‘sex by surprise' is equally insane.  Some of the best sex I ever had including when I got pregnant, was a ‘surprise'. In that, someone visited me and we suddenly ended up in bed, having sex.  As consenting adults.  I was very much a big part of the ‘sexual revolution' and gave speeches about rape, sex, what is consent, and the joys of having fun sex.  I even had this ‘Wenches Guild' where we played sex games with happy males who were all encouraged to eventually get married.  I got married twice!  Practice makes perfect.

The sex charges, when revealed in court in London, raised gales of laughter and feelings of annoyance as men looked around and said, ‘Oh,oh, what if this goofy new form of sex laws come here????'  Indeed, this is a direct strike as bad as a nuclear bomb, lobbed at ALL men across the Free World.  In many countries, all sorts of sex is forbidden.  Men and women are stoned to death for having the wrong sex.  So what is Sweden?  Iran????  Is Europe going Taliban?

Should men wear veils and run away from sexually aggressive women who try to lure them into their homes to keep them there and then have sex and then put them in prison???? How insane is this?  Forget what Assange did to the State Department or is planning to do to the Bank of America (wish he could have DIMON arrested!  Accuse him of raping millions of people!)  ...

(14) Charges against Assange are absurd - John Pilger

WikiLeaks founder jailed in London on bogus charges

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/assa-d08.shtml

By Patrick Martin
8 December 2010

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police Tuesday morning, denied bail by a London magistrate and then jailed. Assange faces a hearing December 14 on an extradition request by Swedish authorities, who issued a warrant last week on fabricated charges of sexual misconduct. ...

John Pilger told reporters, "This is a man who's made some very serious enemies for the very best of reasons." He said he knew Assange personally and had "a very high regard for him."

Pilger added: "I am aware of the offenses and I am also aware of quite a lot of the detail around the offenses. I am here today because the charges against him in Sweden are absurd and were judged as absurd by the chief prosecutor there when she threw the whole thing out until a senior political figure intervened."

In an implicit criticism of the reporters who were questioning him about his support for Assange, Pilger said, "One only has to read the document to understand the enormous service that Julian Assange has put to us and when I say us, I mean the whole of humanity and journalism. This is the best type of journalism. It is telling the truth."

He said that he was prepared to put up £20,000 as surety "because there was a possibility of an injustice being perpetrated against Julian Assange personally. He has been a doing the job of a journalist and he deserves the support of people who believe that the free flow of information is the bedrock of a democracy." ...

(15) Fidel Castro on Wikileaks: The empire stands accused
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46402

Friday, December 17, 2010

By Fidel Castro, Havana

December 14, 2010 -- Julian Assange, a man known only to a very few in the world some months ago, is demonstrating that the most powerful empire to have existed in history can be challenged.

The daring challenge did not come from a rival superpower; from a state with more than 100 nuclear weapons; from a country with millions of inhabitants; from a group of nations with vast natural resources which the United States could not do without; or from a revolutionary doctrine capable of shaking to its foundations the empire based on plunder and exploitation of the world.

He was just a person barely mentioned in the media. Although he is now famous, little is known about him, apart from the highly publicised accusation of having sexual relations with two women, without taking due precautions in these times of HIV. A book on his origins, his education, or his philosophical and political ideas has not as yet been written.

Moreover, the motivations which led him to the resounding blow that he delivered to the [US] empire remain unknown. All that is known is that morally, he has brought it to its knees.

The Agence France Presse news agency reported today that the "creator of WikiLeaks is to remain in prison despite obtaining his release on bail ... but he must remain behind bars until the appeal filed by Sweden, the country applying for his extradition for alleged sexual crimes, is resolved.

"…the attorney representing the Swedish state, ... has announced her intention of appealing the decision to release him... Judge Riddle established as conditions for the bond of $380,000, his use of an electronic bracelet and complying with a curfew."

The same cable noted that, in the event of his release, "[Assange] must reside in a property belonging to Vaughan Smith, his friend and president of the Frontline Club, the London journalists' club where WikiLeaks established its headquarters a few weeks ago…"

Assange stated, "My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. If anything this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct…"

The valiant and brilliant US filmmaker Michael Moore publicly offered the assistance of his website, his servers, his domain names and anything else he could do to "keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars". Assange, Moore affirmed, "is under such vicious attack ... because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth...

"And regardless of Assange's guilt or innocence ... this man has the right to have bail posted and to defend himself... I have joined with filmmakers Ken Loach and John Pilger and writer Jemima Khan in putting up the bail money."

Moore's contribution amounted to $20,000.

The United States government's barrage against Wikileaks has been so brutal that, according to ABC News/Washington Post surveys, two out of every three US citizens want Assange to be taken before the US courts for having disclosed the documents. On the other hand, nobody has dared to challenge the truths that they contain.

Details of the plan drawn up by the Wikileaks strategists are not known. It is known that Assange distributed a significant volume of communications to five major media transnationals, which currently possess the monopoly of much of the information, some of them as extremely mercenary, reactionary and pro-fascist as the Spanish PRISA and the German Der Spiegel, which are utilising news items to attack the most revolutionary countries.

World opinion will continue closely following everything that happens in the context of Wikileaks.

Responsibility for being able to know the truth, or not, about the cynical politics of the United States and its allies will fall squarely on the right-wing Swedish government and the bellicose NATO mafia, who so like to invoke the freedom of the press and human rights.

Ideas can be more powerful than nuclear weapons. [Translated by Granma International.]