Slashdot Mirror
Time Runs Out On Sweden's Sexual Assault Charges Against Julian Assange
As the Guardian and many other sources report, the clock has run out on the three 2010 charges of sexual assault on which Swedish authorities had hoped try Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Assange has been waiting out those charges since 2012 in London, inside the Ecuadorian embassy, claiming that he feared extradition to the U.S. in connection to this Wikileaks work if he were first extradicted to Sweden. He was recently rebuffed after suggesting that he'd be interested in living in France as a political refugee. The linked Guardian story notes that the expiry of the Swedish prosecutors' time doesn't mean that Assange is no longer under scrutiny, as does CNN.
He was never formally accused, only wanted for questioning. And when it turned out that they could only question him, and not take custody of him they lost interest...
BTW, if you're going to read any links, check out the last one - "Ghosting" by Andrew O’Hagan. He was Assange's ghostwriter for his book and spent months living with him, interviewing him and recording every conversation. It's a... very revealing read, to put it mildly.
I'll never forget the last thing grandma said to me before she died: "What are you doing in here with that knife?!?"
Now is a good time to remember that since Assange was accused, we had Snowden release a bunch of documents, including one on JTRIG, GCHQs attack dog for perverting the course of justice in the name of national security:
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/
"the use of “honey traps” (luring people into compromising situations using sex) "...
"...JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable."
"..they boast of using to achieve those ends: “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy)..."
Does anyone actually care about this guy's legal troubles?
I've never understood why people simply assume there can't possibly be any basis in this story, just because he gave us Wikileaks. It reminds me of how some people refused to believe Hans Reiser might've indeed been guilty of killing his wife, apparently just because he gave us ReiserFS.
I think there were four important things to know:
1) There were real women who made real complaints, though they weren't particularly heinous and they dropped them fairly quickly.
2) The prosecutor decided to go ahead anyway, which is unusual, though potentially justifiable if the women dropped the complaints because they felt threatened or intimidated by Assange's reputation (ie, they didn't want to be the people who put an international hero behind bars).
3) The US really wanted Assange, it's quite plausible they Swedish authorities simply wanted to get Assange into the country to extradite him to the US.
4) Sweden went to very usual lengths to get Assange for a case of this stature, which might be evidence of an ulterior motive, or a proper reaction by the Swedish authorities to someone who was publicly flouting their legal system in a very public manner.
Personally I don't think the basic facts are in huge debate and I suspect Assange deserves some real (though mild) punishment, however I don't know if that's what he'll get in Sweden or if he'd eventually end up in a US prison cell.
I stole this Sig
In the 21st century, people get arrested and detained all the time for not breaking a law.
Sweden as impartial now as it was during WW2 when it did business with Nazis and took stolen gold as payment and prevented others from getting help against Russia. Don't trust sweden.
No, the Swedish investigation (first became public Aug. 20) came before the "Cablegate" releases (Nov. 28), not after. Assange controlled the timing of the Cablegate releases, it was his choice to have the come immediately after the Swedish issue came up (even while Wikileaks volunteers were expressing concerns about the rushed release - which ultimately led to a mass exodus of volunteers from Wikileaks). And after Cablegate blew up big, when being shown all of the headlines, he smiled big (on camera) and said "I'm untouchable now in this country."
As for everything else, see here.
I'll never forget the last thing grandma said to me before she died: "What are you doing in here with that knife?!?"
You're trying to mislead slashdot readers, and, given your comments under this article, it isn't because you don't know what went on, but purposefully. Most likely you're, like cold fjord, a sad fuck whose job is to feed us propaganda about the case. Who's paying you, the US or Sweden?
The facts are as follows:
1. Wikileaks released a video from a US helicopter murdering unarmed Iraqi journalists in April 2010, which made a huge news splash.
2. Then in July 2010, they released the Afghan War Diary and announced the imminent release of the Iraqi War logs. This made an even hugher news splash.
3. The US immediately began an investigation and a smear campaign against Assange. It had nothing to do with Cablegate.
There were, for example, allegations that the Afghan War diaries contain names of people who will 'face danger' for co-operating with the US. Of course, as of today there is no information of anyone hurt because of that release. There were also calls for him to be assassinated by US senate members and so on.
4. Alongside with the investigation under the very modern US Espionage Act of 1917 , and together with the smear campaign, the US began to pressure various governments to help US apprehend Assange.
This is the prequel to the Sweden's investigation.
5. The complaints by the two women in Sweden were made in the end of August, months after the US effort to discredit and arrest Assange began in earnest.
Now, why are you lying when all this can easily be checked and confirmed?