Icelandic MP Claims US Vendetta Against WikiLeaks

Stirling Newberry writes "Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir details more of the evidence for what she calls a 'judicial vendetta' against WikiLeaks and its volunteers, including attempts to gain access to her Twitter account. Her efforts to block the National Defense Authorization Act were discussed here previously. The story was taken up last year by Glenn Greenwald and Wired. As a result, the International Parliamentarian Union adopted a resolution on her case. What's new? She asserts that there is a grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks and related organizations, and is calling on Sweden to provide assurances that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange not be re-extradited to the U.S. She says, 'There is no doubt that the U.S. wants to get even with WikiLeaks.'"

Comments

seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[circletimessquare]

they only feed the fire by going after him

the "damage" assange did is done, and there's no way you can hide what has been revealed

just forget about him. move on

because all the efforts the USA goes through just feeds the myth and makes the man a hero, deservedly or not

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[oldredlion]

Of those who know who he is, I'd bet most think he is a rapist.

I think that's the reason they pushed the women to bring charges - to discredit him.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[pla]

I'd bet most people don't even know who he is. Of those who know who he is, I'd bet most think he is a rapist.

I'll agree with your first point (though most people know of "that Wikileaks guy", and some vague notion that the government has tried to frame him for something-or-other); On your second point, I have yet to meet a non-feminist who doesn't consider this a blatant attempt to destroy a random guy's life for embarrassing the US government.

Assange may count as the worst sort of scum. I have 100% confidence he has no shot whatsoever at ever getting anything even remotely resembling a fair trial, either in Sweden or in the US.

I only hope "we" let him go down in a Swedish court rather than one of our sham anti-terrorism tribunals - They have a hell of a lot nicer prisons than we do.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[Anonymous Coward]

How about:
-Evidence of US soldiers murdering civilians
-How the US was lying about keeping track of "collateral damage"
-Proof of how the US gave Saddam a green-light to invade Kuwait
I'm too lazy to find links for those examples, but google should get them quickly enough.

There are many more examples, but the point is that while previously people only had suspicions about the US's wrongdoing, now there's evidence. That's the first step in doing anything about it. The cables I'm sure have also had repercussions diplomatically, what with all the cases of US ambassadors lying through their teeth. The leaks have also taken away a lot of the US's credibility, which will probably impact them strongly in the future, especially with regards to situations like Iran, and whatnot.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[jythie]

I thing the biggest thing he revealed was how mundane most information truly was.. and how out of control the US 'classified by default' culture has become.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[Anonymous Coward]

You posted the other day against Assange. Obviously you have an agenda, I may have one, too. But I'm not being paid. Are you?

Now, the US are in fact inverting History by demanding and getting a non-national to be extradited (that TV site guy from England). This is even more significant on the 4th of July. Do you thing the founding fathers (the ones who gave their blood) wanted it that way?

And the reasons? The reasons for all that? Oil and the mythical beast called "intellectual property" -- as if one could be entitled to own any idea. Did you see the voting against ACTA on Europe? 478 to 39. Let me translate for you: that's the way you say, on political terms, "no fscking way, now go home".

You are your country now. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and all the ol' good guys did their part and risked their lives. Were things different and they would be hung up. It was not just risky, it was noble -- even today I cannot explain to sheepish idiots why having Freedom is important. Just imagine what it was back then.

And then, now, you get fine Politicians who do what we have seen in these last 15 or so years and people post here "many will be okay with using fake charges to get him into U.S. custody via Sweden". And guess what? I bet they're nodding and saying "Yeah", just like you (probably).

The USA has been a great country and deserved better people than the ones it got nowadays.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[catmistake]

I thing the biggest thing he revealed was how mundane most information truly was.. and how out of control the US 'classified by default' culture has become.

Well... something about some of the information sparked revolution in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya... you'd think the US would want to give Assange a medal for helping to accomplish what the secrets agencies of the West could not. And it would be great if all the US wanted was to extradite him... because the US has no legal standing to do so... is everyone forgetting about extraordinary rendition? That's what would be keeping me up nights... a bag over the head and a Polish vacation.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[lightknight]

Nonsense. What he's pointing out is that various members of the US government are willing to sacrifice the farm for a cow, and should be taken out back and summarily executed.

The price of finding OBL, or rather, in conducting this vaccination ruse, is already being paid; the global attempt to annihilate Polio is now in jeopardy because of it. If the history of botched American relations is anything to go by, this will come back to... inconvenience us at an ill-fated moment. And on behalf of those Americans who will be paying the price for this act of stupidity, I wish to salute all those involved for their dedication to promoting idiocy.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[InspectorGadget1964]

A video that shows how crew of an US helicopter assassinated people is far from "mundane"

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[Vinegar Joe]

are you suggesting she likes it without rubber?

She's Icelandic.......she likes it with blubber.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[brit74]

> Proof of how the US gave Saddam a green-light to invade Kuwait

First, I didn't realize that the US-Iraq conversations, pre-1991 invasion of Kuwait was part of what Assange or Manning had in their documents. Second, it's highly misleading to say that the US gave Iraq the green light to invade Kuwait. The worst you can say is that the US didn't tell Iraq that they would counterattack if Saddam invaded Kuwait. More specifically, the US said it didn't have an opinion on the Iraq-Kuwait oil disputes (both countries were drawing from some of the same oil reservoirs, and were having a dispute over it). When you say the US "gave Saddam a green-light to invade Kuwait" you make it sound like the US was all "yeah, buddy, go ahead and invade Kuwait" when that's not at all what happened.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[InspectorGadget1964]

If you are killing unarmed civilians and claiming a camera is a weapon, you are committing an assassination. Any questions about that?

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[arth1]

It's pretty obvious Assange collaborated with Manning to steal secret documents.

That's a crime for sure.

For Manning, who was under US jurisdiction, sure.
For Assange, who wasn't, which law, exactly did he break in this instance, under which jurisdiction?

I know it's a right-wing American dream that US law applies to non-Americans outside the US, while US citizens are not subject to any other country's laws. It's time to wake up, because that is just a dream. In the real world, if the US wants its laws to be recognized, the US has to also recognize the law of other countries. Even when it lets people walk free.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[Phrogman]

Because of the US Govt's abuse of the polio vaccination service, every NGO representative worldwide is going to be viewed as a spy for the US by anyone with half a brain. This is going to severely limit their ability to try to help people in the third world.

It doesn't make any difference that the Islamist groups out there were already suspicious of NGO reps - the US went and confirmed their suspicions completely. This will only serve to make some people think the Islamists are right in other things they say. We should not be doing things to make them look more credible :(

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[Anonymous Coward]

The worst you can say is that the US didn't tell Iraq that they would counterattack if Saddam invaded Kuwait. More specifically, the US said it didn't have an opinion on the Iraq-Kuwait oil disputes (both countries were drawing from some of the same oil reservoirs, and were having a dispute over it).

US Government assured the Saddam administration they wouldn't interfere if Saddam invaded Kuwait, because "it's an internal regional matter".
This is effectively (or at the very least indirectly) giving him a green-light.

Geo-political events are not a game of checkers, but it is more akin to multi-dimensional chess.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[Rei]

If you believe what you wrote, then I assume you also believe that the military should stop pushing the BS about how accurate it is and how well it can tell civilians from militants, and openly admit that it can't tell the difference between things like a camera and an RPG from firing range and will quite readily mow down anyone who they can't tell whether is a threat or not?

Do you not also think that for civilians to know whether they want to endorse military action, they need to know this, and to be able to see what war is actually like than the sanitized, sterile picture presented?

While I think Assange is an arse who's simply trying to avoid jail for crimes unrelated to his political activity, I think that in this sort of regard, Wikileaks has done a lot of good.

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[Rei]

Wrong, wrong, wrong. The UK lower court found, and the high court upheld, that all four counts would be illegal even under *British* law. And the accusations aren't at all like you present them.

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

Re:seriously, the USA is just making a martyr

[Rei]

I've written about this before several times, so I don't want to have to write it all again; here's a link instead.

And, FYI, according to the charges, the first woman told friends at the party that same night about the "violent" sex with Assange and that she didn't feel safe, then subsequently moved out of her own apartment until he left. The second woman freaked out immediately after Assange started having unprotected sex with her while she was sleeping (something she hadn't even done with her boyfriend of 2 1/2 years). They only brought *charges* after talking.

It took me about three months before I was able to simply use the word "rape" for what happened to me. It moved from "an unwanted sexual experience" to "some of my friends tell me I should call it rape" to "rape or something like that" before I could accept just using the term. You don't want to see yourself as a victim and you don't want to empower the perpetrator. You just want to try to forget it and move on. It's only when it becomes obvious that you can't just do that that you have to face up to it. I'm still trying to deal with some of the effects, like a fear of saying no (because if you don't say no, you can't be raped... I know, that's messed up, but I'm trying to get past it, and I'm doing better).

People have often berated me for not reporting it (like most rape victims), on the grounds that he is free and could well do it again. But that's easy to say from your ivory tower (sadly, I in the past once did the same thing to a rape victim, something I now really regret). The last thing you want is to have to relive it and have people accuse you of being a liar, a slut, etc; you just want to get on with your life and not think about it. However, if I had talked to someone a couple days after it happened and found that the same guy had just done the same thing to another girl... I don't know how that would have my altered course of actions, but it definitely would have affected me.

Iceland

[jfdavis668]

Forget Wikileaks. Let's invade Iceland.

Re:Iceland

[Rei]

Forget Wikileaks. Let's invade Iceland.

Judging from the US embassy here, you'd think the US already did ;) It's the most paranoid place in the country. Concrete barriers in the front, armed security guards (even *pepper spray* is illegal here, the police don't even carry it**), etc. You could take all the pictures you want with a telephoto lens of any Icelandic government building, coast guard ships, etc, but if you snap a cell phone camera picture on the same street of the embassy and don't hightail it out of there, you'll be approached by the guards and they won't be happy. The embassy got in trouble about six months back for spying on all the homes and businesses in a several block radius.

As for the concept of a Wikileaks person being in parliament, don't be shocked. Members of the Al(th)ing are mostly pretty walk-of-life people. Everyone here is connected anyway and it's all pretty casual. On 1st may, for example, I walked right into a Samfylkingin meeting from off the street and sat down a couple tables over from the prime minister (could have sat closer if I wanted to). And there were little kids running around in the room playing. People take "celebrity" and "status" in stride. The joke here is, what does an Icelander do if he sees someone famous on the street? He walks up to them and asks them if they wants *his* autograph. ;)

Oh, and Slashdot? It's not 1992; implement proper unicode support already so that I can type a proper thorn.

** - Not only is pepper spray illegal, but tear gas has been used just twice in the history of the country. And people here talk about it like using it was the greatest war crime imaginable ;)

Rome

[damicatz]

The US is like the modern day Roman Empire. Eventually, the rest of the world will get tired of being bullied by the US and stand up.

Re:Rome

[Falconhell]

Only difference is the Romans had a period of civilisation between their rise and fall, the US didnt.

They had to publish all

[F69631]

Sure, most of the documents weren't important and some that were should probably have stayed secret... but that means they would've had to cherry pick which documents to publish. If they'd have cherry picked, people would have said "You obviously have some agenda, as you cherry pick documents that present [entity we like] in a bad light".

Also, by publishing everything they allow people to analyze not only what there was but also what wasn't there.

Also, there is no way that they would've been able to know what documents were important and what not. In some countries the press cross-checked the leaked stuff with their politicians' negotiations and foreign trips, saw if their politicians' public statements matched the data found in documents, etc... but there is no way that Assange or even some major newspaper would've been able to do that all alone.

So... yeah. I am not in the "everything government/officials do should be public" camp as I think officials should be able to do their work and have honest exchanges between each other without the press being able to take quotes out of context to produce artificial scandals... but I don't think that saying "Only x% of the published documents were important" is that good argument.

Of course it's a vendetta

[quixote9]

News organizations do the exact same thing -- find sources and publish their stories -- and you don't see the US gov going after the Guardian or the NYTimes. (They're some of the news outlets that did the actual publishing. Wikileaks worked through them precisely because they were trying NOT to endanger people on the ground.) The US can't go after news outlets. There's this little thing called the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech.

But by de facto torture of Manning and by making an example of Assange (they hope, if they can get their hands on him) they figure they can "discourage" repeat embarrassments.

Because that's all they are: embarrassed. I didn't see anything come out we didn't already know. All Wikileaks did was provide hard evidence of the obvious.

Re:Goes both ways

[tftp]

He takes the view that the US is a big bully

He and the other 5,650,000,000 people.

and has made statements about being on a mission to stop "two wars" (i.e. the Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan)

Why would that be illegal? Publishing US secrets was not a crime for Assange because he haven't signed on the dotted line. Manning did, and he is being punished for that.