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Julian Assange Faces Rape Investigation In Sweden — Updated
mpawlo was one of many readers who have sent news that a warrant has been issued in Stockholm, Sweden for WikiLeaks founder and spokesman Julian Assange. The investigation apparently involves "one report of rape and one report of harassment." The story was broken by Swedish tabloid Expressen (original in Swedish), and later picked up by more reputable sources like CNN and the BBC, who say the warrant has been confirmed by Swedish authorities. The WikiLeaks Twitter feed has commented three times about the charges so far, first saying they were warned of 'dirty tricks,' then that they hadn't been contacted by Swedish police, and then a statement from Assange saying the charges are without basis.
Update: 08/21 15:58 GMT by S : Multiple sources are now reporting that the warrant for Assange's arrest has been withdrawn. Aftonbladet has coverage in Swedish. Chief prosecutor Eva Finne said, "I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape."
Update: 08/21 15:58 GMT by S : Multiple sources are now reporting that the warrant for Assange's arrest has been withdrawn. Aftonbladet has coverage in Swedish. Chief prosecutor Eva Finne said, "I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape."
The US Government plays dirty when you expose their secrets
moox. for a new generation.
Something like this was to be expected. I have read as much as there is but I cant see any details of victim(s) or of the crime itself. But surely surely surely he would have to be as stark staring mad as a bottle of chips to commit a crime like while running the worlds biggest whistle blowing web site. It stinks to high heaven.
In space no-one can hear your vuvuzela.
The US government lacks imagination and should read more spy fiction. I am sure that the could have thrown in child porn while they were at it.
Well, the BBC story says "Swedish police have been trying to contact Mr Assange, but have not yet been able to" while Wikileaks says "No-one here has been contacted by Swedish police". Pity you can't serve someone over Twitter. I agree that the timing is suspicious as hell, but after the Reiser fiasco I'm going to wait and see.
No statement is true, not even this one.
When you are hiding from FBI in another country you don't go raping and harassing people.
Maybe Julian is crazy, but he is not stupid.
What more needs to be said? And here I thought Sweden would act more neutral than this...
Gee, the timing here is rather suspicious. While it's certainly possible that the charge is substantive one immediately has to wonder about correlation with the past and impending leaks. One must be careful of post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacies, but that doesn't mean there definitely isn't a connection.
Thought thinks itself.
Assange is too high profile to kill off. Cue the rape/childporn/furry accusations.
While it could be fabricated it, could well be true. Let's see how it works out. People in touble almost always deny, deny deny, but in the end the truth wins out.
Good is never enough, when you dream of being great!
According to the article the two women did not actually accuse him of rape, only that they asked the police for guidance relating to what allegedly happened.
This point is rather interesting, as in e.g. Norway (which has very similar legal system) you can and often will get a year or more prison sentence if you knowingly falsely accuse someone of rape.
- These characters were randomly selected.
The fact that the us is playing dirty is like saying hitler was a bad man. First get him into custody then expect to hear that his trial isscheduled in the year 2150 in Syria. Bush said nevermind Osama, the pentagon admitted there were no weapons in iraq. Sleep well America, you will wake up in what's already becoming a military dictatorship. The sad part is it does nothing to arrest Julian since he doesn't know his sources and he couldn't stop wikileaks even if he wanted. The only wistleblower to expose the UBS scam is the only person doing time because the UBS CEO is playing golf with Barrack Osama. Good night America and good riddance. Anyone who wants to emigrate from that country north of a big oil leak is welcome in my home.
In some ways it doesn't matter if he's never convicted of these charges. Mouthpieces like Rush Limbaugh will be able to call him a "rapist and molester" and convince many that any information from Wikileaks is a lie.
In other news, accused rapist, Julian Assange, has released new documents on his WikiLeaks website...
That is so like him. He needs to do that really.
According to the article the two women did not actually accuse him of rape, only that they asked the police for guidance relating to what allegedly happened.
This point is rather interesting, as in e.g. Norway (which has very similar legal system) you can and often will get a year or more prison sentence if you knowingly falsely accuse someone of rape.
Looks more dodgy by the second... The word of two women against one man...
What's the bet they were put up to it by a mysterious third party...
wasnt reisers ex into sado sexual (play? violence) together with another male who admitted to killing another female some years earlier, and who had some conflict with reiser>>? i always thought that was pretty clearly someone who could be persuaded to 'help the cause' against the best opensource filesystem.
Notice that then, as now, a large number of posters have decided that there is just no way he could have done it. With Reiser when the guilty verdict was handed down there were still plenty of people who decried how stupid the jury was, how there clearly wasn't enough evidence to find him guilty and so on... Until he confessed and gave the location of the body.
Same deal here, people have presupposed Assange's innocence because they like him. I don't mean given him the benefit of the doubt and said "Well let's see what evidence comes up," I mean saying that this is clearly an evil government plot, even though there is, of course, no evidence of that at this point.
It is just how it goes here. Geek heroes can do no wrong in the eyes of some and they'll come up with any number of reasons as to why something they did clearly must be a frame job by someone else.
As for this particular case, I'll have to see what, if anything, comes out. It could be a deliberate smear campaign against him, though I'm a bit doubtful of that as the risk of backfire would be pretty large. Could just be someone making shit up, this happens even to people who aren't well known never mind people who are. Could be he actually did it, the guy has a massive ego and questionable morals and may not have even thought he did anything wrong. We'll just have to see if anything comes of this.
Of course, the utter lack of information at this point won't stop a massive number of conspiracy theories from being posted here about how this is clearly a government frame job.
I assumed they were going to nail him with child porn. But I guess when they went to put it on his computer they discovered that his computer security was off the scale.
If I were the judge on this one I would accept no evidence short of a witness such as Nelson Mandela. I hope they solidly investigate his accusers to check what they have been up to for the last while and see if they have any relations to US interests or large payoffs.
All they need to do now is Photoshop him having sex with one of the prawn and it will be the largest international manhunt in the world.
It's not true until Netcraft confirms it!
Crime needs three things: motive, means, opportunity.
Motive, no big deal, being a heterosexual male is enough.
Means, easy, every man comes equipped with that.
Opportunity, that's the big problem.
I have lived in Sweden and cannot say I had any difficulty in picking willing girls in bars there, and I'm not even famous like Assange.
A man with his record of fighting government corruption would have an idol status in Sweden, he would have to hire security guards to keep the girls away.
If there's one case where the accused should be presumed innocent, this is it.
Isn't that convenient.
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
You know -- we have to get Assange "for the children." That would be the first thought going after a web site, wouldn't it?
Seriously, wouldn't put it past the U.S. government. There is precedent from the sixties with the Marianne Faithful/Mick Jagger "Mr. Jagger was apprehended eating a Snickers bar from Marianne's pussy" incident that Faithful goes into in detail in her first autobiography. Not true and the guy who got them the acid before the raid was an American they didn't know very well. Mick was giving some thought toward politics at the time. And one can Google for Jean Seberg + FBI for that incident around the same time.
I'm just sayin'
Folks here seem to believe that rape is some item on a to-do list, waiting to be ticked off.
Not saying that whole thing is not part of a Dirty Trick, just that if there IS some truth to it, rational thought has nothing to do with it.
The leaks were found to be true not because of the credibility of its founder. In fact, the organization itself has had no credibility at all, only the material being leaked speaks for itself. I really don't care if Julian rapes women as a hobby. If he gets arrested, what is important is that someone must continue his work.
I once had a signature.
This is not limited to Geek heroes. Just look at Roman Polanski and the support got from his peers.
In Sweden you can get an rape investigation on you for nothing. Its an well known fact and well used tactic in divorce cases, where the wifes charges the husband of rape, and thus the wife get soil custofy of the child
I think I just have... you guys used to be a lot better at it. TWO girls? For ONE nerd? Who is ever going to believe that?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Any guilty verdict will be even more suspicious after stuff like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Quick as well. In Sweden, if the attorneys want someone to be guilty badly enough, they will be found guilty.
The media and us spies can't control what we decide to believe or say and write. Faces hidden behind their desks, they only control whatever truths or lies newspapers print, not the rest of us.
I smell a rat and call it BS. The original story is from a tabloid, who have no reputation or scruples. Easily corrupted.
The other papers just repeat the tabloid, risking none of their reputation.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
The translated article says, "Last night he was arrested in his absence by Swedish prosecutors..."
Is that bad translation or does Sweden possess some kind of inter dimensional nexus through which they can apply laws of physics which the rest of us are so far unfamiliar with.
what wikileaks would become like without Julian Assange? Without him, much less controlled and hence more dangerous variants of whistleblower sites may emerge. We can all just wait for the first anonymized peer-to-peer whistleblower programs to appear.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
The proper response to such allegations is not to dismiss them out of hand as a government plot. The proper response is to assume and treat him as completely innocent until such a time that he is found guilty in a court of law - at that point you may want to look into the case to see if the jury was crazy or reasonable. Until then nothing should change to the extent that a "not guilty" verdict should be as if no new information was given. An allegation should be both taken seriously and not believed until it has been verified. That's the proper response. Now of course humans just aren't built to behave like that. If you can't maintain this stance, then you have to choose between being suspicious of him or saying that you are sure the allegations are false. In that choice it's pretty clear that the preponderance of evidence so far is to dismiss the claims. We have no evidence to look at.
What can you expect? Can you really trust a guy with "Ass" in his last name?
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
I'm sort of hoping there is video, so that the denials can get really hilarious.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
JA seems really attracted to standing in the limelight. He may well have a narcissistic tendency. Just my impression from seeing him in video's and pictures. It's unusual for such people to commit rape or violence when facing rejection.
OTOH, this has to be proven first. I find it highly unlikely that these accusations have been fabricated to damage wikileaks. That would be much too obvious in such a case.
It's not the first time someone from the free software/free information movement has been accused of something like this
We need to invent a pithy expression for this sort of "I like him therefore he is right" reasoning. How about "volo hoc ergo propter hoc"?
Smart people know how to take advantage of a situation to their benefit.
UK weapons inspector commits suicide, found dead in the woods with his wrists slit.
maybe he can share a cell with Hans Reiser
I hope he gets the chair. Truth is subjective, and he subjectively pissed off the wrong people.
Who doesn't love basking in a disinformation/smear campaign? Julian Assange raped my puppies! (Ssshhhh, i'm gonna leak it) Oh, fuck me. I'm biased. I just watched The Panama Deception.
We need to invent a pithy expression for this sort of "I like him therefore he is right" reasoning. How about "volo hoc ergo propter hoc"?
It's not just rhetorical, it's a cognitive bias. And there's already a name for it and plenty of research on it: see "Halo Effect".
After the trial, the obviously falsified documents will be up on WikiLeaks anyway.
An excerpt in a quick-and-dirty translation by me:
Or maybe because it's what civilised societies do - innocent until proven otherwise.
I really don't get a sense that people here like Assange more or less than the general population. Loads of arguments were made on both sides looking at the ethics and Assange's motives (and many good points on both sides, anyone who sees only black and white in it isn't looking closely enough).
/or/ set this up as being another Reiser story about to happen.
I think we can both agree that we need to wait and see, until then people really shouldn't either come up with conspiracy theories
(And let's not forget that while the Reiser trial was still going his childhood friend who had an affair with his wife was going on about how many people he killed. He turned out to be guilty but there were reasons other than him being a filesystems developer to not rule his innocence out.)
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
You don't get it do you? It doesn't matter what the result of the trial will be. It'll stick and a big part of the population will believe he's a rapist anyway. And because ppl. aren't able to keep apart facts and feelings they'll project this onto wikileaks. As if the leaks were any less important/valuable/credible because they are published by an organisation who's "face" is a rapist.
Though I have to admit: It's too damn convenient to have these charges against him at this time for me to not believe there might be some form of character assassination going on here.
-1 Flamebait? Must've pranged your ego. Ooh, diddums.
That's what's happened every time I've taken a pop at Julian Assange but every time I've been proved right.
Keep hitting your mod button like a special needs kid if it make yah feel happy buddy!
It's just how it goes here, some people find it easier to polarize opinions on a debate into "supporting mine" and "against mine" and assume that the people in the "against mine" group are all raving lunatics.
The software and legal infrastructure may not be too hard to implement. The reviewers to separate true documents from false is harder. Perhaps the review process could be made more open and acessible, with some review-the-reviewer features.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Only in a small African country called Lesotho is more rapes reported than in Sweden. http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article7581764.ab (In swedish but number are universal) Rape reports per 100000 citizens (From 2008) Lesotho: 91,6, Sweden: 53,2, USA: 28,6, Zimbabwe: 25,6, Norway: 19,8 Israel: 17,6
This is fail since the various governments have already acknowledged that large numbers of documents on Wikileaks is true establishing them as a reliable source of information...
[The Universe] has gone offline.
Any enemy of the US is our friend.
It's not fair that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gets to post here when he keeps Iran's Internet connections locked down.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Well, swedish law classifies a lot of things as "rape" that wouldn't be rape in other countries (this can be seen by looking at swedish rape statistics before and after the relevant changes to the law).
So are you pulling a Whoopi Goldberg and saying that this isn't "rape rape"?
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
See, son? This is a troll... now let's move along before it notices us...
Not that the government cares. They just want him stopped, even if it makes that same government look like a bunch of two-bit, incompetent, ham-fisted bunglers from a cheap spy novel who couldn't solve the problem more intelligently.
Perhaps next they'll accuse him of child porn, or drug trafficing, or witchcraft.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Geek heroes can do no wrong in the eyes of some
You misspelled "greek".
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
So, howbout the password to that 'insurance-aes256' file?
.....he did rape the government secrecy bitch!!!! And he had help.
... by the way he looks after 30."
Sorry but as much as I support the "Open" community and especially Wikileaks, the guy looks like a creep.
Of course he's (in my country anyway) innocent till proven guilty but just sayin'.
people have presupposed Assange's innocence because they like him. I don't mean given him the benefit of the doubt and said "Well let's see what evidence comes up," I mean saying that this is clearly an evil government plot, even though there is, of course, no evidence of that at this point.
Yeah, well, quite possibly that is because the majority of /. readers are from the USA. You know, where you are PRESUMED INNOCENT until PROVEN GUILTY.
So until there is sufficient proof offered, Julian, in the eyes of most Americans, is completely innocent and the charges are completely bogus.
Likewise, until sufficient proof is offered, the US government is not performing a conspiracy. But /. does tend to draw out the conspiracy theories ;)
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Before the spies are done Julian will be accused of the murder of Abe Lincoln and JFK. He might even be accused of stabbing Caesar. The US government can not lie fast enough to get what they want.
And if Julian ever decides to rape someone they should be honored for pleasuring a true hero and freedom fighter!
... even Uwe Boll would not make a film out of it.
Just because the US government is pissed off at him doesn't mean we should automatically think that anything negative anyone says about him is automatically a lie, or that everything he says is the truth. The truth will come out.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
This is not limited to Geek heroes. Just look at Roman Polanski and the support got from his peers.
Assange is not unresponsive.
Someone just leaked the entire plot on Wikileaks.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
In that case it's significantly more delusional. Roman Polanski confessed to anally raping the girl and they allowed him to plead down to statutory rape for less time. He's guilty as sin and anybody that says otherwise is a tool. In this case there isn't yet any sort of smoking gun so given the implausibility that somebody that's going a target on them as big as his, isn't it somewhat convenient that the government now has charges available? Sure he could be that stupid, but people who deal with leaks tend to be very paranoid by nature, and I'd be shocked if he would honestly believe he could get away with it.
Here there were a lot of people that said "he's an annoying bastard so he must be guilty", which of course was nonsense. What made him guilty was the evidence that came after.
You have a problem with "Innocent until proven guilty"?
qntm.org
There is no parallel to the Reiser case at all. None.
The only common thread between the two is that people talked about them on Slashdot. This lack of thoughtfulness is why people are so easy to manipulate.
You'll also recall that the Swedish government last week announced that since Assange had never filled out the correct paperwork, perhaps he was not protected by Swedish whistle-blower laws. That didn't seem to work, so this week, he's accused of rape.
I'll leave you with two thoughts:
1) The U.S. Government has already said they'll do anything to stop this guy. Four weeks later he's accused of rape. The timing is suspicious to say the least.
2) Even without this backdrop of intrigue that makes the charge suspicious to say the least, in most civilized countries, you are innocent until proven guilty
Think through everything you know, understand that much of what we know is false or incomplete, realize the media is lazy and stories are mostly rehashed press released by companies and government. Then draw your conclusion
Makes you wonder if we will get the key to that insurance file now. I don't mean that in a flippant way either. Aside from that you can bet your last dollar that the US gov have offered "any assistance needed" to the Swedish government! I for one, am highly dubious of such a claim, just a personal POV.
Really? I must have crossed paths with him many times and never even heard of him until he went overseas and set up Wikileaks. He was not even a big fish in the free software movement on his home soil.
Plus, you are working this out FROM PICTURES? Are you good at determining personality from bumps on the head as well?
Manning needs to have his trial and if he is found guilty and deaths are tied to his acts he needs to be executed (after his appeal obviously). Mr. Assange needs to be indicted and tried in absentia and, if found guilty, given an ultimatum to turn himself in and if not I would make an exception to our assassination policy. Extreme? Yes it is, but this is an extreme act and this would insure due process -- by giving him a trial and an appeal. And then only if found guilty and sentenced by a unanimous jury then send out a hit squad or a drone.
That was written by an American.
Do you think this American is likely to believe that Assange is innocent until proven guilty?
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
From their blog... "We are deeply concerned about the seriousness of these allegations. We the people behind WikiLeaks think highly of Julian and and he has our full support. While Julian is focusing on his defenses and clearing his name, WikiLeaks will be continuing its regular operations." http://blog.wikileaks.org/2010/08/allegations-against-wikileaks-founder-and-spokesperson-julian-assange.html
I'm looking very closely for indications that Assange may be framed, not because I idolise him, but because I would hate for a smear campaign directed at Wikileaks to succeed.
Unfortunately Australia and his old battalion of merry men are asleep - and what with the cliff-hanger Australian Election results still undecided, every journo in Australia has their head busily up their arse searching for "meaning" in a popularity contest that is voted on by uninformed hillbilly mountain scientists. There is no meaning.
Anyhow my bet is on Assange. He has the points on the board so far, and one hell of an information gathering resource behind him. Just the 4chan crazies alone should scare anyone who wants to put a foot wrong tackling Assange. Everyone loves a hero - almost as much as they love tripping up the anti-hero.
I don't like Assange, and I still think this is a dirty trick. When a country (particularly the USA) wants your head on a stick, I'll assume you're innocent of anything they claim you did after you became most wanted. The only exception is when I see it with my own eyes, live and in person. The US employ professional liars and proof can be fabricated. Yes, that sort of gives you carte blanche, but in that position you're one of the most vulnerable people on the planet, so it's only fair.
"though I'm a bit doubtful of that as the risk of backfire would be pretty large. "
I'm not clear what the "backfire" would be. If you had terrible secrets that you didn't want exposed, you'd try anything to cast doubt on the integrity of the "leaker". The idea is that the focus of the press moves away from the leak to the charge of rape itself. If the charge is false, then the story becomes "oh, the charge is false". If someone important is involved in the false charge, the story moves to that topic. So the press never quite gets around to talking about the contents of the leak themselves.
Meanwhile, the actual story, the "secret" becomes less important than the story about the intrigue.
Let me give you a recent parallel, the BP oil disaster in the Gulf. At first, the story was about the leak and how poorly BP managed the rig and had taken shortcuts that caused the problem, but quickly moved to how the CEO and board members were insensitive, how they were taking yacht trips and called us "the little people" to finally BP has set up a $20B fund to help everyone to "BP saved the day stopping the well". The day after the well was capped, a "leaked" document from the US Government said the oil was mostly all gone. People have lost interest and that's the end of the story as far as the press is concerned.
The real story on the leak won't be known until someone is willing to dig in and write a real story in a book, but by the time that comes out, there will be new people in power in the government, in BP, and people won't care so much anymore.
Today, governments and corporations are very good at steering the media to deliver the message they want. And when the stakes are high enough, I don't think either of those institutions has any sort of moral qualms about the mechanisms used to distract us.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Why are you painting everybody with the same brush?
On the Reiser case I was very much expecting him to be the culprit, I have multiple comments here on that issue, however I have a little more insider knowledge of the family problems that were experienced there, my wife's sister was Nina's good friend.
However in this case, I have very very high doubts about Assange being guilty of rape, but I don't exclude it 100%, it's just there is very high possibility he was set up by US government, and it's no joke, they know how to handle people they hate and to turn opinion to their advantage, I am surprised the charge isn't 'Child Porn' + 'Child Rape', I guess they didn't go as far as hiring a child and raping it, and setting up Assange for doing that, but I am not sure WHY they didn't do it, I fully expect a government to do that with no moral problems whatsoever.
You can't handle the truth.
if someone were to upload an incriminating cellphone video to WikiLeaks. But seriously, the timing here is indeed very suspicious, and it makes me sick to my stomach.
:wq
Yeah, I mean no one could have possibly seen that coming.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Apparently one of the women said to Aftonbladet that "it was a man with a twisted view on women and that he couldn't take a no".
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article7652935.ab
"Assange" them, or "ChrisBrown" them. Either way they are screwed.
when I hear people use the word "titmouse" http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/homerjs/giggle.wav
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
I mean, it'll make for a good smear and a good show, but it just reeks of trolling for any kind of dirt, including something that just may not exist.
The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has just come out with an interview with the other rape victim. You can read it here. Google Translate seems struggle with the duality of the word "sex" in Swedish language (it means both the number 'six' and 'sex'). However, in both cases it is said to be about an act that began as voluntary sex, but later turned to a violent sexual assault. The other woman, the one giving the interview, is not pressing charges of rape, but "molestation" or "sexual assault". He strongly denies that the claims are orchestrated, saying that Assange's "distorted attitude to women" and "inability accept a 'No'" are to blame. The interviewee also said to have left a very detailed report of the events to the police, and wanted to correct the notion that they were afraid of Assange, saying he is not a violent person and they have no reason to be afraid.
Hmmm, I guess that gives us a tip on who pressed charges
Devorcing your wife WILL lead to a rape accusation... at least if you have kids.
Maybe it's just that on average the swedish rape victim is more likely to go to the police and report it. I don't know if this is true, it just is another possible explanation.
"Die endgueltige Teilung Deutschlands - das ist unser Auftrag." - Chlodwig Poth
Didn't Assange posted an encrypted insurance file on wikileak yesterday? It looks like he might have to use that sooner than he expected.
It will be so interesting if it happens to be a video proof of a plot to frame him.
America, you should be ashamed of the way your country wages war. Using the accusation of rape as a weapon....
The procecutor has withdrawn the warrant for arrest since there is no reason to arrest Assange and the suspicions are not of the kind that warrant an arrest.
http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/assange-anhallan-havd-1.1157250
These are not the first such allegation, just the first to get reported in the mainstream media.
Spend some time researching his time in Kenya and his divorce and custody battle with his ex-wife.
He is a misogynist.
As a Dutch citizen I remember such an incident with the Dutch vice president of the UN.
The president of the UN was Kofi Annan and he was refusing to do exactly what the good old USA told him to do.
As a result the USA withheld over 200 million in contribution funds nearly bankrupting the UN.
When that wasn't working a US women working for the UN accused the UN vice president of assaulting her.
Of course they where unfounded but the scandal eventually cost him (Ruud lubbers) his job.
The woman(Cynthia Brzak) got a new and better job in the US, and "received" funds to prosecute him up to the US supreme court, that judged her charges unfounded.
Regardless of any real CIA conspiracy in this case, the USA will take advantage of any and all weaknesses of their political opponents and if appropriate award those involved for applying the pressure.
USA have said; 'He has endangered everyone' in Afghanistan! arrest him' and the rest of the world didn't buy it.
Girls accuse him of rape
USA will say; 'the pirate party is serving this rapists his perverted website' and offer the girls a US citizenship
USA will say next; 'wow the Swedish government has buildings full of rapist we want arrested, lets just embargo them'
Sweden will say; 'no we are not, they are not even in the government but as a rapist we can't do nothing lets send Interpol after him'
Well hey, conspiracies happen every day. Two guys talk about possibly robbing a liquor store, that's a conspiracy.
The US has an intelligence agency. It's a pretty important part of our government, you might even call it a central part. Now, unless they get all of their information legally by perusing magazines, going to the library and asking people in other countries very politely "hey, are you by any chance planning to do anything that we in the US wouldn't like?" then they are in fact in the conspiracy business. Tens of thousands of conspiracies running concurrently.
Not that loony stuff like faking moon landings or hiding aliens... just mundane everyday conspiracies involving depriving people of their civil rights and occasionally their lives, along with the occasional toppling of a foreign government or two.
The Govt. probably does limit the amount of conspiracies it engages in, though... only the bare necessity, like say about the same number as pennies in circulation.
This space available.
...and hide ya husband, because they're rapin' everybody out here! You don't have to come and confess, the US Government is lookin for you!
Sorry, it had to be done.
This rape accusation stinks of government involvement, its way too convenient for this to come up now. Long live Wikileaks!
"I hope you know how very lucky you are to know me, because I am so incredibly incredible."
Breaking news on BBC... the arrest warrant has been canceled... definitely sounds like dirty government tricks now...
[The Universe] has gone offline.
As of 17:00-ish the prosecutor has revoked the arrest warrant as they dont feel the need to deprive him of his freedom at this point. The investigation is however continuing. According to a spokesperson at wikileaks, Julian is on his way to talk to the police at the moment.
http://www.dn.se/go/e/board_1;afu=www.dn.se/http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/assange-anhallan-havd-1.1157250
http://www.thelocal.se/28504/20100821/
He is no longer suspected of rape
You realize there's more than "he's unquestionably innocent" and "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt". You start at the first one before he's accused, and move from there based on what information you have. The GP is talking about people who stay at "unquestionably innocent" no matter what evidence they see. Others go all the way to guilty just on the accusation. Your statement is somewhat misleading, too: just like I might disagree with someone (based on opinion) but support his freedom of speech (based on law), I might consider someone guilty (based on opinion), but respect his presumption of innocence until the jury says otherwise (based on law).
The GP is talking about your personal opinion of the person, while you are talking about person's legal rights. I find your statement is correct, but your implication that it conflicts with the GP to be false.
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sitting here refreshing some swedish tabloids and it seems that chief proscecutor Eva Finné retracts the warrant on Assagne, supposedly the the charges wasnt serious enough to support such a warrant but ze investigation continues. http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/assange-anhallan-havd-1.1157250
http://www.thelocal.se/28504/20100821/
The warrant for the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been withdrawn, after chief prosecutor Eva Finné ruled that there were no grounds to suspect that he had committed rape, the Swedish prosecutor's office has confirmed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11049316
Jag anser inte att det finns anledning att misstänka att han har begått våldtäkt, säger Eva Finné i ett pressmeddelande från Åklagarmyndigheten.
Quick translation: I dont think there is any reason to suspect that he has comitted rape says prosecutor Eva Finné.
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/assange-inte-langre-misstankt-for-valdtakt_5167469.svd
New update - 17:26 swedish time.
http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/assange-anhallan-havd-1.1157250
"The Chief Prosecutor does not believe that there is any reason to arrest Assange".(My (bad) translation)
There is no longer a warrent out for Julian, and he no longer has to turn himself in to the police. However, the investigation continues.
looks like the chief prosecutor realized that there wasn't any evidence for the warrant. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11049316
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100821/ap_on_hi_te/eu_sweden_wikileaks
How does that not smack of a smear campaign?!
Look where all this talking got us, baby.
The latest news in all major papers in Sweden right now is that Assange has been cleared of the rape suspicion.
See http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/assange-inte-langre-misstankt-for-valdtakt_5167469.svd
http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/assange-anhallan-havd-1.1157250
Of the two reported accusations (rape and assault), investigation of the rape accusation has now been cancelled:
google translation:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http://www.lalibre.be/actu/international/article/604038/wikileaks-le-parquet-annule-l-avis-de-recherche-visant-assange.html&prev=_t
Original (in French):
http://www.lalibre.be/actu/international/article/604038/wikileaks-le-parquet-annule-l-avis-de-recherche-visant-assange.html
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Assange is no longer suspected of rape. "I do not find reason enough to suspect that he has committed rape" chief prosecutor Eva Finné told Swedish media. The arrest warrant is cancelled.
The warrant has already been withdrawn by Swedish prosecutors. Updating the Slashdot story might be a really good idea.
Swedish prosecutors have withdrawn an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying the rape suspicions against him are unfounded.
In a brief statement Saturday, chief prosecutor Eva Finne says: "I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape."
The charges have been dropped. "In a brief statement Saturday, chief prosecutor Eva Finne says: 'I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape.'" http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g8-DEMtAE9q4i4ySQ0eV_qZefmRQD9HNV4A00
JAGga.me ----> Producing video games addressing emotional health and wellness issues affecting teens.
Link
The rape charges have been withdrawn. They were declared trumped up. This was alsays a scheme to get extradition of Assange. It failed.
According to the BBC the arrest warrant has been canceled
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11049316
quoted from some Swedish guy in a forum
"he has been cleared by the attourney who charged him. There is no longer any suspicions against him."
"Also he went back to turn himself in. He's in sweden again."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11049316
Not a Reiser repeat heh
Arrest warrant has been dropped: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j67FZIpdD8zrIyYcrXZQ4cqFj_mgD9HNV8UG0
an egomaniacal narcissist wouldnt jeopardize his life by exposing the dirtiest secrets of world governments. it contradicts with 'narcissist' part of the concept.
excuse me but your approach is devoid of logic and knowledge of life. get some of them first. hans reiser was some person. this person is actually trying to fight windmills. that alone requires a lot of sacrifice up to this point. an egomaniacal narcissist wouldnt be able to stomach that much sacrifice from his own life up till this point.
Read radical news here
but, because of morons like you, we are in deep shit on this planet.
the governments and organizations he exposed tried all kinds of means to get to him, couldnt, because he hid, and finally, he found legal solace in swedish law, and in swedish parliament. finally totally removing any kind of legal way to get him.
and RIGHT 2-3 days after this, suddenly rape charges come up !!!
if, there is anyone who couldnt link these two events, and naively, stupidly, moronically believe that, they are not linked, and assange is guilty, do us a favor and shoot yourselves in the head. so that we can get rid of your naivete, and the world can be a better place.
HOW much smoke does one need to see, to understand that there is a fire ? apparently, some are way too naive as to never see the forest fire, while even burning in it themselves.
Read radical news here
Well, surprise, the Taliban *are* the bad guys. But that doesn't mean anything goes.
Being the good guys also means being subject to higher standards.
this thing came up right 2-3 days after assange finally found legal solace in swedish law, by posing as a writer for a swedish publication, totally removing all the possibilities of legal means to get to him.
and suddenly, rape charges come up.
if there is ANYone who can still think that such big coincidences can happen, i have only one word to call them :
morons.
the powers behind these kind of shit, apparently have grown a lot lax and reckless lately. in 1960s, they would at least give some time before coming up with their game so that public wouldnt be able to see the correlation in between the two events. but apparently, they dont need to. for there are people who still can be as stupid as not to be able to see the linkage.
Read radical news here
Oh NOZ! My precious karma!!
/.ers and I fully expect all usual jeers and taunts.
I'm not a pussy so I don't post AC. I also don't bow down to asshats like Assange.
My views on the whole wikileaks issue is opposite of most
Thanks for the confirmation.
BBC is now reporting that the warrant has been withdrawn
We need a "+1 -- nice sig" moderation.
... this was going to be about how he did the Pentagon in the ass.
Have gnu, will travel.
WikiLeaks founder no longer suspected of rape
Published: 21 Aug 10 17:25 CET
http://www.thelocal.se/28504/20100821/
The U.S. government definitely has the motive to try and get Assange into custody somehow. These extremely convenient rape charges are a means to do that. Once Sweden has him in custody, the U.S. government will have the opportunity to try and extradite him. (Or more likely, he will "disappear" and it will take 3 years before anyone discovers where he was shipped off to.)
The timing on this stinks to high heaven. Wikileaks just threw egg in the face of the U.S. government and their military industrial complex. There are dozens of agencies in the U.S. that would love to get a piece of this guy.
Given the situation, the MOST reasonable guess is that he is being framed to try and discredit him and by association, tar the Wikileaks organization with the same brush.
Since Wikileaks JUST announced that they were getting into bed with the Swedish Pirate Party, its practically a GIVEN that one of the other political parties in Sweden would be willing to co-operate in some backroom scheming to throw some mud on this Assange guy.
The whole thing just stinks.
This is ridiculous. Even the weirdest occurrences are usually explained by the most simple answer. Conspiracy theorists can usually tell you exactly whats going on behind the scenes with great detail and even postulate on outcomes from the original action. This tends to take credibility away from the conspiracy theorist in that most people find the situation 'unbelievable' or lacking enough evidence to convince them unequivocally. In this case I would think a simple explanation may suffice. Obviously the U.S. government wants this guy out of the picture as he has given away, and pledged to keep giving away, U.S. government secrets. How easy would it have been for some device of the U.S. state department to have paid or catered to each of these women a considerable amount of money or favors in exchange for their cooperation in the operation? Not very hard in my opinion, and furthermore this type of scenario seems more and more relevant given that the charges were dropped so quickly. This was a PR stunt to start amassing bad press for Assange so if they ever do nail him on anything directly this will ring in the back of peoples minds reminding them that this is a bad guy. Looks, talks, walks, and smells like a disinformation operation, probably is a disinformation operation.
Maybe it's time to release the password to his insurance?
This unsuccessful attempt to throw mud at Assange may be good news for the Pirate Party. If I were Swedish, this incident alone would make me vote for them in the upcoming elections.
There the victim couldn't bear up under the limelight. You get raped by someone rich and famous, do you want to see your picture on the front page of every page in the nation?
And after the witness dropped out and Kobe claimed no foul, the DA released enough evidence to make it absolutely clear that there had been a rape.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
dont you think, you are rather out of place here ? leave aside here, out of place in the 21st century ?
Read radical news here
Julian Assange is no longer a suspected rapists, as chief-prosecutor Eva Finné has lifted the warrant.
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/assange-inte-langre-misstankt-for-valdtakt_5167469.svd
Link is in swedish.
With Reiser when the guilty verdict was handed down there were still plenty of people who decried how stupid the jury was, how there clearly wasn't enough evidence to find him guilty and so on... Until he confessed and gave the location of the body.
I'm not actually one of those who decried how stupid the jury was, BUT! enough evidence to find him guilty != guilty. It's perfectly possible for someone to be guilty without there being enough evidence to prove it, and in that case, she must be let go. (Of course, in that case, you wouldn't know she was guilty, but that doesn't change the objective reality.)
If I didn't know any better, I'd honestly think this is the next plot in Stieg Larsson's Millennium series.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
It is a classic "character assassination" campaign. After the charges have been trumpeted all over the world, the widely-publicized arrest warrant has been withdrawn and a few hours later the Swedish Public Prosecutor announced that "he is no longer even under suspicion"... and yet from now on every time his name is mentioned, the easily impressed by the authority types with limited attention span will go "isn't that the rapist/traitor/terrorist/child-molester guy?"
It also served its job as a final "warning" from the power elite to this guy: "See what we can do? We can destroy you and make you a villain and no one will help you! You are defenseless against our power!"
So congratulations are in order. Now you can proudly consider yourself a honorary member of the dirty-tricks arm of the Pax Americana, unlike the rest of us, "tin foil hat" "conspiracy nuts" who smelled a rat from the get-go ...
You know, I just don't quite know why you'd go this bland, this crass and this obvious with an accusation. I know the American intelligence / state department apparatus has never been that good at these things, but . . . If you want the guy gone, skip the bullshit and throw a bag over his head.
Actually, I don't get what the big deal is, overall. Not from the view point of the U.S. military. Every American already knew all this shit Assange released.
In fact, I think the whole WikiLeaks episode illustrates a much graver problem: the complicity of the average American. Fact is, the average American just doesn't give a fuck what the military does as long as they never bring back the draft.
Assange's quest is quixotic at best and moronic at worst. He thinks he's fighting the U.S. military-industrial complex. He isn't. He's fighting an American public that has never really given a fuck what the government does to or with an all-volunteer military oversees.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
He just went to Sweden and got Wikileaks in bed with the swedish Pirate Party.
Then a couple of days later, we hear about two women who both apparently had consentual sex with him a few days apart, both charging (in Sweden) that he raped them.
I believe in coincidences, but I sure don't TRUST coincidences. This reeks of a smear attempt or something even more sinister. They're probably also trying to "send a message" to those who would go against the status quo like Wikileaks has.
Look at it this way: Wikileaks is at war with these secretive government agencies. Its a no-holds-barred kind of war. If they thought killing Assange would do more good than harm for them, I don't doubt he'd be dead within a day or two of the decision being made. So the reason he's alive is that they don't want to martyr him.
Instead, they're going to discredit him, and try to convince the plebs that he's some sort of pervert sicko whackjob so they are more likely to ignore what Wikileaks is telling them about the ongoing wars etc.
You're not going to be able to catch the CIA on this. Part of the deal when they pay you is that if you get caught, they will deny knowing you. As everyone discovered with the Valerie Plame case, being a government asset doesn't mean they give a shit about you. You exist, in reputation or in biological function, as long as you are useful to the State. I honestly have no idea why anyone would sign up given the history of The Agency.
The CIA is unconstitutional. It operates under a secret budget and outside the rule of Law. It has led to nothing but abuse, misery, and hasn't done anything but provide people from around the world with a good reason to hate the United States.
Intelligence services don't mean you train commandos to rape and torture and kill portions of the civilian populace in order to enforce your political will on a sovereign country. It doesn't mean you buy politicians off and then give them a bunch of weapons and training to do your dirty work for you in exchange for resource access. It means you have feelers around the world so you are always in the loop, so if some dictator does go batshit insane, then you prepare a response and let him know that you've got about ten million tons of reasonably accurate weaponry that you're going to drop if and only if he does carry out an attack.
Yes, it leaves you open to the possibility of terrorism committed by a few sociopaths, but that's the price you pay to live in a free and open society. The alternatives are far worse.
One of the "victims" was really a man with an Israeli passport. I don't know if that's anything other then a rumor, but that's good enough for me.
I do not play in the middle of the road
You know what the police say "You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride"
Armies and soldiers don't kill. Websites do. Right?
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
http://www.thelocal.se/28504/20100821/
Actually, in your example, I think the Taliban would be the guilty party?
As for your Sun Tzu quote, it's always wise to read a book all the way through :):"A government should not mobilize an army out of anger, military leaders should not provoke war out of wrath. Act when it is beneficial, desist if it is not. Anger can revert to joy, wrath can revert to delight, but a nation destroyed cannot be restored to existence, and the dead cannot be restored to life. Therefore an enlightened government is careful about this, a good military leadership is alert to this. This is the way to secure a nation and keep the armed forces whole".
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
What criminal acts has Julian Assange committed? He's not a U.S. citizen, he doesn't have to follow whatever secrecy rules the U.S. cooks up for its classified documents.
I know of no laws in Sweden, Australia or anywhere else that Assange has broken. The U.S. would certainly like to get their hands on him, but its hard even to make a case that he has violated any U.S. laws anywhere that the U.S. would have jurisdiction.
On the other hand, the soldiers or contractors who steal classified documents and leak them to Wikileaks are definitely breaking the law. All of us around the world who want to see the truth exposed, are glad that they are doing it -- but make no mistake that they are breaking U.S. law and taking great personal consequences onto themselves in the eventuality (even likelihood) that they get caught.
Assange is just the messenger, but this rape charge (already withdrawn, within two days !) certainly makes it look like certain governments of the world want to smear the messenger, so that their sheeple will not notice the message.
The evolution of character assassination and politics
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Watch the movie "Enemy of the State". They are in the process of destroying his credbility, should he go public with the rest of the information.
Except for sex-related offences, particularly those accused of child molestation. Then we lynch first and ask questions later. It's for the children!
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
This 'rape' accusation was designed to keep people thinking that The Powers That Be are out to get him, and that Wikileaks is fighting the good fight.
Wikileaks is controlled opposition.
I have been searching years for that story ever since I foolishly lost my copy of The Magazine of Fantasy Science Fiction, I first read it in and was unable to recall the name of it. I'd almost begun to think I imagined it! Thank you for choosing to include that as a part of your signature!
--bornagainpenguin
Have a Virgin Mobile USA smartphone? Give VMRoms.com a try!
Now Assange has a license to rape.
fuck you people with your false rape accusations. you're shitting all over someones life and worst of all you make it so much harder for all the women who actually got raped and have to fear/face our doubt because of shit like this.
It was leaked in Mar 2010: http://wikileaks.org/wiki/U.S._Intelligence_planned_to_destroy_WikiLeaks,_18_Mar_2008
What do we call the "He's right, therefore I like him" effect? If you've been right in the past, you're more likely to be right in the future. It's not exactly a bias to give them the benefit of a doubt in such cases.
It works the other way too. I hate Rush Limbaugh. I also don't believe anything he says. That's not a bias, I don't disbelieve him because I hate him. I both hate and disbelieve him because he is frequently and verifiable untruthful.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Modded '-1 Troll' by ball-less Swedish girliemen.
Some rape are only on power, some rape are about getting sex, then there is a whole gray area going on between those two extremes.
Sometimes it feels like Wikileaks is playing Napster, the US is playing the RIAA, and something like Tor is going to become the next p2p technology.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
1 - There are many types of criminals - those who have psychological problems and still can be helped.
2 - Others who could have been helped, if their problems were noticed at earlier stage.
3 - And those who commit crimes because they just don't care about anybody else and lack anything resembling conscience.
4 - How exactly would you help them?
Answer - see 1 and 2.
Fix them early on, don't wait just so you could throw your hands in the air and sigh "he/she can't be helped, he/she is too far gone to be saved".
Most criminals are NOT Hannibal Lecters. And even those who are can't be just locked up with "general population".
If anyone needs psychotherapy and special treatment it's psychopaths.
Bin Laden is near-paranoid in the measures he takes to hide himself.
Assange is an attention whore.
Osama bin Laden is in the news practically every 3-4 months. If that ain't attention whoring, then I don't know what is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videos_of_Osama_bin_Laden
... soldiers never rape, kill, or pillage anyone. Perfect model citizens, even the thousands of ex convicts and self-described mercenaries are fully law-abiding, high-morals examples. The printed truth is wonderful. Are we in Disney yet?
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Consequences will nevar be the same.
Yeah, well, quite possibly that is because the majority of /. readers are from the USA. You know, where you are PRESUMED INNOCENT until PROVEN GUILTY.
Oh, you mean like not having to pee in a jar to show you're not a drug addict or show papers that you're not an illegal to get a job? Or more recently, just because you're brown-skinned? And how is it that we all have to present our papers and they still have factories full of illegals, anyway?
And I'm not even going to MENTION what it takes to board an airplane these days. Home of the Brave!
"Innocent until proven guilty" died somewhere about the time that Reagan was promising to "get the government off the backs of the people".
In criminal parlance, "motive" means what caused the crime to be committed. It does not mean that the crime is justified or that other people in the same situation would act the same way.
Unless someone has a motive, the crime does *not* happen, it's as simple as that.
However, every person is an individual, circumstances that might provide a motive for one person may not motivate others.
but this, this is a conspiracy
investigate the hell out of whoever made the accusation, follow the trail of money, expose the manipulative assholes
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
"With Reiser when the guilty verdict was handed down there were still plenty of people who decried how stupid the jury was, how there clearly wasn't enough evidence to find him guilty and so on... Until he confessed and gave the location of the body."
Reiser had a known history of domestic abuse and was in a horribly bad spot with his wife, the crime was hardly a surprise.
So does this mean Assange will release the key to the insurance file now?
yes, conspiracy theories seem to tend to violate falsifiability big-time
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
The suspicions of a smear campaign, but also the common sense "if in hot water or potentially in hot water for one thing, don't go committing unrelated offenses to draw *more* attention to the first issue".
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
'Lyndon was running about 10 points behind, with only nine days to go... He was sunk in despair. He was desperate... he called his equally depressed campaign manager and instructed him to call a press conference at two or two-thirty ( just after lunch on a slow news day) and accuse his high-riding opponent (the pig farmer) of having routine carnal knowledge of his barnyard sows, despite the pleas of his wife and children... His campaign manager was shocked. 'We can't say that, Lyndon,' he said. 'It's not true.' 'Of course it's not,' Johnson barked at him, 'but let's make the bastard deny it.'
-HST
Likewise, until sufficient proof is offered, the US government is not performing a conspiracy.
Individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty; the government should be presumed guilty until proven otherwise... after all, this is the government we're talking about!
What do we call the "He's right, therefore I like him" effect? If you've been right in the past, you're more likely to be right in the future. It's not exactly a bias to give them the benefit of a doubt in such cases.
If you mean what I think you mean, that simply Bayesian updating, a quite rational inference technique.
It works the other way too. I hate Rush Limbaugh. I also don't believe anything he says. That's not a bias, I don't disbelieve him because I hate him. I both hate and disbelieve him because he is frequently and verifiable untruthful.
That's very rational -- but it turns irrational when you apply it to third parties and think like this: Rush Limbaugh dislikes Kim Jong Il, I hate Rush, therefore I'm positively predisposed to Kim. This kind of thinking can lead to real problems - since the enemy of my enemy is not always my friends...
For recklessly putting innocent lives in Afghanistan in danger but if these charges are phony and this looks like a distinct possibility,
Im all for finding the person who made these phony accusations and prosecuting them.
If it was a US intelligence agency,Im also for prosecuting any agents involved for violating civil rights under color of law.
I suspect someone had the asinine idea that they could cook up a phony rape charge as a way of creating an interpol warrant.
Then when the swedes arrest him on the rape charge then the US indicts him on some sort of intelligence issue charge and asks for extradition.
"Armies and soldiers don't kill. Websites do".
Instant classic. Thank you. Hope you like hip-hop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXzFp1lshBE
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
That's how they start the game of false accusations.There will be a next time and other accusations but with carefully planted evidence to point towards some heinous sex crime and all evidence ( including DNA ) will be pointing to him. think they aint able to ? they did get JFK .. think they cant get to him ? LOL
That's because it's composed of politicians who use scandal to get their way quite regularly.
people have presupposed Assange's innocence because they like him
Naw its just that whole innocent till proven guilty mind set I have, and possibly the unusual circumstances that it was claimed to happen under.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
Apologies to all of you who already dismissed this as way too obvious -- the head of Military Intelligence might want to plant a lot of false information about suspected friends of enemies. A really good place to plant it would be amidst incriminating and embarrassing facts and have it leak out to some unsuspecting third party organization like, uh, WikiLeaks! Yeah. Of course a great way to build credibility is to have the FBI and CIA go after WikiLeaks in earnest, even try some stupid dirty tricks like unsubstantiated sexual harassment. As a result, the Taliban or Al-Qaida suspect their friends to be moles and either kill them or torture them or whatever. That is the problem with deceit, you never know where it ends or where it began. In fact, I could be deceiving everyone now. I could be Mr. Gates, either Robert or Bill, planting this suspicion to either further enhance the deception or undermine the evidence or both or neither. Who really knows? BTW, I am neither Gates. However, I can’t be sure that I was not tricked into writing this by some clever inception (yes, I saw the movie).
Yeah, well, quite possibly that is because the majority of /. readers are from the USA. You know, where you are PRESUMED INNOCENT until PROVEN GUILTY. ...
Unless of course you are a suspected terrorist.
My UID is prime. Hah!
Dvorking, how about the honor killing statistics? Sweden has a high incidence of "honor killings" per capita. AC is wrong about using the label "immigrants" I know the group he refers to, they are squatters, not immigrants. An immigrant adopts the language, culture, and customs of the new land.
He also served the sentences as ordered, then, after release, the judge changed his mind about the sentence. It wasn't so much about the crime, but the fact he was sentenced to rehab, completed rehab, then was ordered to jail in direct contradiction of the original sentencing. It's that apparently improper conflict that caused the issue, and that's why the extradiction didn't go through: because the US couldn't explain the legal process behind the change in the sentencing. No one claims he was innocent. The only claim I saw was that he had completed the sentence as ordered.
Learn to love Alaska
Some countries suppress arrests and charges until guilt is determined. The right to privacy exceeds the right to free speech. In the US, we don't have the presumption of innocence for anything other than a short period of the trial. Before the trial, during the trial outside the courtroom, and after the trial that presumption is not recognized.
Learn to love Alaska
For the rest of his life, he can be truthfully be called the "accused and charged rapist who evaded arrest and got off on a technicality." But no one will mention the technicality is the fact that the charge was made up in the first place. They aren't smearing him with an actual sham trial, but just an accusation is sufficient for a smear, when the news agencies prioritize their popularity over the truth (see, no conspiracy even needed).
Learn to love Alaska
It seems easy to assume this was a warning shot pointed at him. I don't blame a particular organization, these things are far more complex than you may think.
It was either something in the Scientology 'fair game' rules, or specifically stated as something to do to a psychiatrist... but I remember having read in one of their own documents the tactic of false accusations against important individuals, specifically of sexual crimes. Not sure what to make of it.
Though it does seem like a fairly obvious thing to do as part of a character assassination.
To prevent this day from getting worse, I'll just read ERROR as GOOD TH
this shows how determined they are to get him on something ( even if not real ?) only a matter of time before the site is closed and he is arrested for 'something'
Must have been Rachel Marsden
Assassination of the body would have been way too obvious and would actually have boosted Julian's reputation, so why wouldn't they assassinate his character instead? Especially when it can ruin reputation and trust amongst the public.
It's not that hard. For CIA types with black budgets and all, it's likely to be terribly easy.
1. Send your operative to tail Julian.
2. Find out the bars and nightclubs he hangs out at.
3. Find some floozy Inga that looks like she'll do anything for a buck.
4. Tell Inga that she can get 50,000 Euro to take one in the butt with a particular person.
5. Give her 5,000 Euro in advance so she knows you're serious.
6. Find Julian at the bar. Find people to be "friends" and get him drunk enough so he loses some degree of judgement.
7. Have Inga show up and take care of the rest.
8. Afterwards, tell Inga she's not getting the rest of the money from your end unless she cries "raep!"
9. ????
10. Profit!!!
This is speculation and may not be the case, but this kind of thing isn't terribly far-fetched either.
Name the "dancing israelis", then explain why they were dancing and high fiving each other,as they filmed the destruction of the towers, from a decent camera set up on a tripod, in advance of the first plane hitting. The scene that witnesses saw and reported to the police. And by the way..what happened to that video? It has never been shown, and has disappeared.
Now explain what happened with the empty van that the bomb dog hit on that some more israelis with the "moving company" had, and where did they go to, they seem to have disappeared rather abruptly.
Now explain and name the "maintenance men" and what they were doing in the WTC in closed off floors for a few weeks previous to the attacks. Who were they, who hired them, who paid for them, where did they go to, and what did they allegedly do while they were there working?
Now explain all the israeli "art students" they rounded up and quietly hustled out of the country during the same time frame.
Now explain why an air traffic controller boss took some tapes from that day, busted them up into small pieces, then put the pieces in different garbage cans widely spread out.
Now explain why this was the first and only time when obvious big planes in distress and off course were not officially intercepted.
Now explain why the secret service didn't whisk the shrub away from that kids school once it became obvious that attacks were underway, why did they wait.
Now explain the odd coincidence of the DOD running a "drill" that consisted of planes hitting buildings on the same day..the same "coincidence" that happened the day of the london tube and bus attacks, a "drill", even down to the same routes and stations.
There are several dozen more oddities with that case, once you have explained those first ones. Go ahead, I dare you.
None of the above is conspiracy "theory", it is 100% pure verifiable data. Go ahead and explain it somehow as other than "some" insider knowledge and coordination for the attacks, an "inside job".
Remember, it doesn't have to be the "entire" government in on anything, in fact, they always operate on "need to know" and compartmentalized procedures, plus use paid for mercenaries/spooks/operatives. That is SOP, same as with the israelis, and the israelis have a huge presence inside the US government, quite a lot of dual citizens and zionist sympathizers, both civilian and inside the military. And the same with the main stream media. Now answer the question, who profits the most from a huge US presence and military interest in the middle east?
Motive, means, opportunity.
The box cutter arabs were patsies, the least important, but the most pushed in the media and by the government, in the entire operation.
There was no incredible coincidence of timing with Reiser. He did not give the middle finger to the military industrial complex of the West.
Those guys are not Boy Scouts.
expandfairuse.org
Occam's Razor, anyone?
Simple, yes. Honey traps are one of the oldest, simplest, most reliable tools in the spy business. There are plenty of good examples. Looks like this particular attempt backfired however. It looks very bad for the powerful lobbyists in Sweden looking to undermine the Pirate Parties new found support from their union with wikileaks.
As for this particular case, I'll have to see what, if anything, comes out. It could be a deliberate smear campaign against him, though I'm a bit doubtful of that as the risk of backfire would be pretty large.
Backfire? You must be kidding. Lots of people on slashdot seem to automatically believe he is guilty. Unless you could somehow catch the US agents red handed this sort of scheme has no chance of "backfiring". They have succeeded. Assange has already been discredited. At least on slashdot. Personally I don't like or dislike Assange. I just think this is the most obvious setup I have ever seen. Coincidences like this just don't happen. Period. There is plenty of evidence here against the US Government. It's just all circumstantial.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Step back a moment there. If you were unaware, it is a human right set out by the UN that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Its incorrect to relate the USA as there is no constitutional law that explicitly states a person is innocent until proven guilty. Would have been better to use the UN or even Britain, as it was the origin of the concept, as an example. The lack of education on countries outside of the US for Americans and the self importance they tend to give themselves does annoy me.
It's reported all right by pathologists and other medical practitioners - those large number of rapes I'm talking about are most definitely happening. The only thing that isn't proven in those cases is exactly who the perpetrators are. A depressingly small number of reported cases with medical evidence make it to court
If you had actually bothered to read more than a few words of the post above instead of some deranged attack on who you think I may be you would have noticed I was talking about REPORTED EVIDENCE.
I can only suggest improving your reading skills and stop pulling crap like the "And so in effect you insist" bullshit that bears no relation whatsoever with what I wrote. You should have grown out of that sort of kindergarden sandpit style of argument by now.
"Innocent until proven guilty"
It seems like some entity is trying to interdict his movements around the world - if assange leaves the country, the prosecution (if they dont throw the charges out before then) will cry that its an admission of guilt to "flee the country"
I smell dirty tactics, but hopefully this matter will be resolved either way.
Hrm. Strobe was cool.
Grow up and read my other post where I replied to an adult and you'll understand you are projecting all kinds of bullshit from your own baggage instead of writing anything connected to what I've written above. You are arguing with what other people have said and rambled in all kinds of directions instead of addressing the few words I've written above.
You are writing about theoretical borderline cases that might exploit loopholes in lax laws that might not even exist as if they are the norm. I'm writing about women in morgues, hospitals or undergoing medical treatment that have without question suffered from something considered a crime everywhere and it would have still been considered a crime where you are with laws a century or two old. Spare me the bullshit of pretending it's all connected to PC weirdness. Crime happens and not everyone that commits it gets caught. One of the problems with rape cases is that victims are reluctant to testify - I did not make that up and you know it.
Consider that it would be very silly to pretend the murder rate is lower just because you can't find or convict all the murderers. All I really said a couple of posts above is that the conviction rate is a lot lower than the rate of reported crimes, and then I gave one of the reasons (if the victim won't testify it becomes as hard to prove as a murder with no witnesses).
I've kind of followed the story on CNN, and other "news" sites.
Oddly, almost no one knows anything about Julian. Stupid assed Americans seem to be divided along party lines. Liberals like him, because he thumbs his nose at the establishment. Conservatives hate him because he's a "hacker" and/or because he leaked sensitive information that might get American soldiers killed. But, almost NONE of them have ever visited Wikileaks, or know one damned thing about anything Julian has done BEFORE he released that video.
Bunch of damned jerkwads just don't have a clue what Assange is about.
If anyone is interested, I like Assange. I think he's done a lot more good with his site, than he has done bad. I disagree with his assessment of that frigging Apache video - but you can't explain shit to civilians. Leaking the video, in and of itself, shouldn't have hurt the US - it's those stupid goddamned opinions and assessments that are doing that.
The REST of the leaks about operations in Afghanistan? Well - I think Julian should have leaked little bits and pieces of that, after asking advice from the pentagon. But, that's just me. That isn't how Julian does business.
There is little to be gained from publicizing ALL of that tripe. It's like writing your biography, and including every trip to the bathroom. Enough has already been publicized to demonstrate that Pakistan's government is corrupt and ineffective, and that we've been a bunch of tools for dealing with them. Enough has been leaked to demonstrate that ineptitude and/or lack of coordination in the field get innocent people killed - but we've always known that.
No need to leak more.
And, oh yeah. None of that has ANYTHING to do with some trumped up rape charges. Wonder how much the bitch was paid, and by whom?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Oh, fuck you. It had nothing to do with readers being from the USA. It was pro-Linux bias. The zealots here on Slashdot, who hold a majority position, viewed Reiser as one of their own and felt it was necessary to protect him.
There are geeks around the world that do know Assange and I'm sure that all of them (including me) can see this for what it is - rubbish.
The only thing that this will do is keep Wikileaks and Assange in the headlines - possible to their benefit. Afterall, there's those that say there is no such thing as bad press.
Whether or not it came about at the behest of the US government or some other government, who knows - only the girls who made the claims.
But suffice to say, all of those that didn't presume him innocent of rape charges now have egg on their face.
Swedish authorities correctly dismissed the charges after determinting that the ... mmm .... charger, a one Mr. Barak Hussain Obama, the current President of the United States of America, is in fact not God as Mr. Barak Hussain Obama had earlier claimed.
Never the less, Mr. Obama and his brood will not be put off by this minor set back.
Rather, Mr. Obama and brood in the departments of State, Justice, Defense, Treasury and Interrior, still has a ... mmmm ... shall we say a "Taste" for the murder of Mr. Assange.
President Mr. Barak Hussain Obama is prepared to ... mmmm .... shall we say "Loot the Treasury" in order to pay for the murder.
After all, God's will, ... will be done, ... at any price, ... under Heaven or above Hell.
I thought the comments section at the fox story had the worst morons, until now.
and in the wake of their lurching to aid US govt interests, they realized that you need physical / real evidence to make a rape charge stick, so it looks like the Pentagoon will have to be satisfied with the what remains: A charge that he groped someone.
The US politicians will soon learn that such people as Julian Assange are part of eternal human struggle for more liberal and fair sosciety.
Julian Assange is part of human history already, the same as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, or Andrey Sakharov, or Mahatma Gandhi.
He is a giant and they are dwarfs (in comparison with him), they just did not get it yet.
Hi,
Just because he was guilty does not mean that there was enough evidence to convict him.
It's possible that he could have, of course. What is suspect is the timing, Why didn't he get charged for these crimes when he wasn't a matter of international concern by intelligence outfits? Why, if he commited these crimes are they sufacing right as his site is reaching an international importance, and all other attempts to illegaly curtail wikileaks have failed?
The timing is too perfect. This is a completely political action. It reminds me of the trumped up persecution of James Trafficant, done in the same fashion. Generally, the REAL criminals don't tend to come to ill from their crimes. How many crimes do you think your average sucessful politician has under his belt? I'd bet that they have potential rap sheets that would rival the hardest criminals in the toughest prisons, if they'd ever be actually investigated. If you see someone of public stature who is raked over the coals by the media, even if they did commit the crime, there is usally a reason why you're hearing about it. Almost all public figures have skeletons in their closet that would curl your toes, yet why do some evade media scruitiny, and others get a death sentence? My rule of thumb is if the mainstream media is demonizing someone, they're probably good. So far, that's turned to be a pretty accurate strategy.
I think Assange is most likely guilty of what he is accused of. That doesn't mean that he is guilty to what most of the slashdotters think he is being accused of.
The girls and Assange did never have intercourse, as stated by the girls in Expressen. In USA, what he did would likely be called sexual harassment. In short he was a creepy dude feeling up the girls, who mistook signals from the girls as they wanted to have sex with him and who didn't understand when the girls tried to tell him that he was a creepy dude and they had have enough of his advances.
This is not anything strange at all. Most people sentenced for rape in Sweden come from the Anglo-Saxian cultural sphere, with people from the arab world as the second largest group of convicted rapists.
In the Anglo-Saxian world women are meek and timid, in Sweden they aren't. Usually guys from the Anglo-Saxian world misinterpret that as sexual aggressiveness. All those stupid German and US-made "Swedish" porn movies (and other stupid forreign movies that portray Swedish women as sexual maniacs) strengthen those delusions.
And another thing:
The story was broken by Swedish tabloid Expressen (original in Swedish), and later picked up by more reputable sources like CNN and the BBC, /---/.
That is like saying: "The story was broken by BBC, and later picked up by more reputable sources like Penthouse and Hustler"
Is it because of Expressens physical format (tabloid) or because of general xenophobia that Expressen is considered less reputable than BBC and ... I can't belive someone stated this ... CNN. If you don't know the reputability of someone/something, don't make any unfounded statements about their reputability.
Why was Mr Assanges name published?
Normally, the Swedish Prosecution Authority do not publish the names of persons suspected of crime. The authority did not in this case initiate publication. Late on Friday night, a Swedish newspaper got hold of information concerning Mr Assange's arrest. When interviewed, the duty prosecutor confirmed the facts presented.
Source : http://www.aklagare.se/In-English/
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
"The CIA is unconstitutional. It operates under a secret budget and outside the rule of Law. It has led to nothing but abuse, misery, and hasn't done anything but provide people from around the world with a good reason to hate the United States."
Yes. The secret actions of the CIA (not the information-gathering) are the cause of much the corruption of the U.S. government. See this comment: Do you support U.S. government violence?
I wonder what part the internet played in spreading suspicion that this could be dirty tricks. Forty years ago would the police have simply said, "OK, let's get him!"
Fuck the US government agency that pulled this shit and the Swedish authorities that allowed them to do it.
There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
The US government wouldn't conspire to make Assange look bad! The tin foil hat conspiracy nuts must be idle today ;-)
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
"A Palestinian man has been convicted of rape after having consensual sex with an Israeli woman who believed he was Jewish because he introduced himself as 'Daniel'. "
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7901025/Palestinian-jailed-for-rape-after-claiming-to-be-Jewish.html
(sorry about the link source but i wasn't going to dig for a better one.)
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
No, asking for the figures is a transparent delaying tactic and trick to make me jump in a fucking childish little troll game. I give you figures and you say "irrelevant - not in my backyard or last years figures or what about a specific age range" or similar utter fucking bullshit. It must rub off from lazy politics onto people like you that are grown up and should know better.
Your second point of discarding actual experience as irrelevant really shows how detached from reality you are on this issue - or far more likely that you are playing a childish little game of stirring me and the earlier posters up. Thanks for telling me how I think and stupid I am too - it really shows a lack of maturity to do so which you have slipped into with the stupid little game you are playing.
You don't need me to find those numbers - check your local court list and you'll see how many cases there are where there is a lot of evidence and the suspect has been found.
It's funny that you keep dragging feminists into something I have taken care into explaining in terms of moral values that could have applied any time in the last few centuries.
Consider that, look in the mirror and then think of who the "PC" weasel really is. I'm threatening your silly little precious view that bad things never happen to good people by talking about real violent crime. You've realeased this torrent of vomit accusing everyone but real criminals of things simply becuase I stated that this crime happens more often than most people reading this would think.
Bringing up bullshit about rare edge cases as if it is the norm is insulting to anyone that is reading the long string of ranting drivel in this thread. You've also fallen into the bullshit new agers argument that anyone with expertise on a subject must be biased so can never be trusted. You are a classic case of the sort of hysterical screeches that you are complaining about.
So it hurts your feelings that some people speak of you as a potential criminal just because most real rapists are also male? That's just life, ignore them because they are not realyl talking about you and grow up instead of spouting bullshit about how it hurts your feelings. Be a well adjusted man like myself instead of little boy whining about how unfair it is that the girls are calling you names. Nobody is out to get you despite stupid fantasies about being framed like the utter crap a few posts above. That sort of bullshit almost never makes it past cops that hate the idea of anyone being framed for rape far then you ever will.
From your age you should act like a grown man and not a sensitive little bubble boy.
Assange yet again suspected of rape... Prosecutors have apparently change there mind again...
Sorry swedish version only so far...
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/assange-ater-misstankt-for-valdtakt_5232049.svd