Deep Politics Forum

Meet Wikileaks Founder's Alleged Sex Victim

Wikileaks leader Julian Assange implied that the rape and molestation charges against him in Sweden were part of a global conspiracy. But a fringe-left accuser identified in the Swedish media hardly seems like a CIA plant.
Meet Anna Ardin, the political secretary and press officer of the Swedish "Brotherhood Movement," a group of Christians from the Social Democratic Party controversial for inviting anti-Semitic speakers to the country. Another of their invited speakers: Assange, who lectured on the group's behalf in Stockholm this month right before he was hit with sex charges from two different women, charges ultimately dismissed by Swedish police and derided by Assange as "dirty tricks." Ardin appears to have helped coordinate Assange's travel around the country; in addition to arranging the Stockholm event, she reportedly tried to arrange places for Assange to stay through her Twitter account (she has apparently since deleted the tweets and has locked her WordPress blog).
The Swedish business news site Newzglobe today identified Ardin and quoted a Brotherhood official saying she was on sick leave from the organization. Ardin's name has also been tossed around in the Swedish blogosphere with increasing hostility: one writer wondered if the "radical feminist" was "the world's most hated woman right now." The backlash against the former university research assistant is fueled not only by the police backing down from the charges against Assange but also by a seven step guide Ardin published in January to "legal revenge" that involves, in one example, sabotaging a victim's sexual relationships.
Then there was the quote from an unnamed accuser in the tabloid Aftonbladet, clearing Assange of forcing himself on anyone: "It is quite wrong that we were afraid of him. He is not violent and I do not feel threatened by him.... The responsibility for what happened to me and the other girl lies with a man who had attitude problems with women." The issue may have had to do with Assange's willingness (or lack thereof) to use condoms, according to the Guardian.
None of this is to say Ardin's charges against Assange are unfounded; rape is one thing, molestation something else. If anything, Ardin's outing tends to undercut Assange's conspiracy theory that one of his accusers is a major figure on Sweden's left fringe, freewheelingly indiscreet on her personal blog and, until her charges, an enthusiastic promoter of Assange's visit to the country. Of course, to the famously anxious Assange, seeming like an unlikely CIA plant may just make Ardin all the more perfect to be one in the first place.
http://gawker.com/5619931/meet-wikileaks...sex-victim

Just in....Swedish Prosecutor reverses course again and will bring an investigation [and charges?] against Assange for rape! :joyman:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/01...01578.html
STOCKHOLM — A senior Swedish prosecutor reopened a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday, the latest twist to a puzzling case in which prosecutors of different ranks have overruled each other.

Assange has denied the allegations and suggested they are part of a smear campaign by opponents of WikiLeaks – an online whistle-blower that has angered Washington by publishing thousands of leaked documents about U.S. military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The case was dismissed last week by Eva Finne, chief prosecutor in Stockholm, who overruled a lower-ranked prosecutor and said there was no reason to suspect that Assange, an Australian citizen, had raped a Swedish woman who had reported him to police.

The woman's lawyer appealed the decision. Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny decided to reopen the case Wednesday, saying new information had come in on Tuesday.

"We went through all the case material again, including what came in, and that's when I made my decision," to reopen the case, Ny told The Associated Press by phone.

She declined to say what new information she had received or whether Assange, who was questioned by investigators on Monday, would be arrested.

An arrest warrant issued Aug. 20 was withdrawn within 24 hours amid the back-and-forth between prosecutors.

Ny said "it's not entirely uncommon" that such reversals take place in Sweden, in particular regarding allegations of sex crimes.

Ny also decided that another complaint against Assange should be investigated on suspicion of "sexual coercion and sexual molestation." That overruled a previous decision to only investigate the case as "molestation," which is not a sex offense under Swedish law.

Summary: The accusations against Wikileaks’ director Julian Assange grows even stranger. Since it’s bizarre, perhaps an info op by the US government, the mainstream media gives it little coverage. Nothing to see here. Move along, fellow sheep. Links to other posts in this series appear at the end.
Background: Two ex-girlfriends file rape charges in Sweden on the same day, about incidents occurring in the same week, against an enemy of the US government then seeking residency in Sweden to protect himself and Wikileaks. The case has moved from the hands of prosecutor Maria Haljebo Kjellstrand, to Chief Prosecutor Eva Finné, to Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny.
The latest development, from the Swedish prosecutor’s website:
The review was requested by the prominent (expensive?) attorney hired by the women, Claes Borgstroem, who earns his pay by keeping the heat on Assange.

Now for the really strange news: see the Daily Mail’s excerpts from the police reports. The pentagon-friendly headline: “Supporters dismissed rape accusations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – but the two women involved tell a different story“. But the details, appearing only at the end of the long article, tell a different story. Read it and decide for yourself.
If you don’t want to think for yourself, Heather Horn of the Atlantic writes “Who to Believe in the WikiLeaks Rape Case?“, citing five reliable sources (including Gawker and Jonah Goldberg of National Review) — all of whom support the Party line. Nothing to see here, sheep. Move along.
Updates

• For a masterful summary see “Wikileaks, Assange, and the Strange Swedish Accusations” by James Fallows at the Atlantic.
  
• For a description of the legal protections Sweden provides and Wikileaks needs see “A Swedish Shield, Unraised“, Clint Hendler, Columbia Journalism Review, 2 September 2010
  
• Another perspective: “Fallows, others, taking another look at Assange’s ‘demise’“, Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, AntiWar, 2 September 2010
  

Previous posts about this story

1. Sad news about the CIA – Underestimating the skill of the government at covert ops?
   
2. The full story of the rape charges against Julian Assange of Wikileaks, a possible covert op. – The key post, telling the story.
   
3. Update to the Wikeleaks rape story, and why it’s important – If a covert op, it’s working.
   

Also — see these FM reference pages:

• Information & disinformation, the new media & the old
  
• Intelligence agencies – how they work, how they don’t
  
• Women and gender issues
  
• http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2010/...more-21010
  

This article [if containing truth ?!] supplies the best info/disinfo. Again, if true, Assange doesn't get the most gallant knight of the realm award for this month, but hardly, IMO, puts him in rape territory.....as both were after him and seeking his amourous attention. There is the possible issue of a condom, but if the woman didn't want sex without a condom she should have said no, not go to the police the next day and declare 'rape'....I'm sure Assange would have either used a condom or just gone to sleep.... If true [no way to tell], then it seems not to be an intel op...just a stupid decision by the women - who claimed to like his work - and must have known it would derail it - or could. There were other ways to handle it, methinks. But who knows if the details in this article are true or not...at this point. mokin:

On Wikipspooks:

Quote:As a result of the latest of a number of communications to Cryptome via the encrypted message forwarding facility PGPBoard, by a group identifying itself "Wikileaks Insiders", the PGPboard operators sent an open letter to Birgitta Jónsdóttir (an Icelandic MP and colleague of Julian Assange) conveying "Wikileaks Insiders'" declaration of support should she be willing to take over the fronting of Wikileaks from Assange. The following is her reply dated 6 September 2010:

dear xxxxx

the messenger should never become the message as has happened with JA
i however fear that the media circus would make me into yet another mythic person that is not good for wikileaks at all
wikileaks should have spokes people that are conservative and not strong persons, rather dull, so to speak, so that the message will be delivered without the messenger getting all the attention
whilst i find it to be important to speak out about how i find it troubling to mix together wikileaks and personal matters like is happening right now - i have no desire to take over as a front person
i feel the most urgent matter is that the core people of wikileaks will have a meeting where structure and transparency issues are solved
wikileaks has grown so much in the last few months but the needed structure of more horizontal nature has not grown the same - most of us working as volunteers for wikileaks do not feel at ease with pyramid structure in power
i do not know who wikileaks insiders are but feel they should step forward and show some transparency themselves...
all my best
Birgitta Jónsdóttir

Sorry two posts in quick succession here. John Young has some solid observations to make - as usual:

Quote: Julian Assange should not be pilloried or dumped by supporters based on unproven allegations which have been erratically handled by Swedish officials. Below are the official notices from the Swedish prosecution office concerning Assange (search the website for "Assange") as translated by Google, followed by Swedish procedures for investigations and prosecution of crimes.
If supporters of Wikileaks think Assange should step aside as principal spokesperson due to unproven allegations of sexual misbehavior that is an excellent reason for him to stay in place. The rush to judgment appears to be based on media reports of incomplete police reports. Media and police reports are notoriously inaccurate. Media reports are always deficient and police reports are frequently disproven in court. The fainthearted should avoid helping the malevolent feed the beast.
The Swedish prosecutor has not made a final decision to do more than investigate the allegations. Assange should not be prejudged, instead endure the fray, ignore the frenzy, calm followers, defy opponents, as in the past, and continue with renewed strength from the tempering challenge.
There is nobody within Wikileaks with his capabilities to speak for the extraordinary initiative. His comments are customarily retrained, subtle, informative and deliberate, unlike the hyperventilation and exaggeration of supporters and detractors who seem incapable of grasping Wikileaks comprehensively and resort to impassioned exclamations which are never convincing. Nothing written or said about Wikileaks has been as constructive and inspired as what Assange has provided.

Golly - three in a row! - but this is solid information. Too long to post in full here plus graphics etc, but it contains all the statements so far issued by the Swedish Prosecutors Office concerning the Assange rape/molestation allegations - all in English. There is an extended explanation aboutof the legal procedures to be followed in such cases.

On the Cryptome site.

I am but a bemused spectator at this point watching this bit of theater from a distance, but I can't help but wonder about the implications in the fact that one of the 'plaintiffs' is an assistant in forsknings. I am sure those implications are lost in the translation.

It appears that research and development is not limited to technology, thought and policy but is sometimes embodied in explorations and findings of a different nature, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, an intelligence field of its own warranting secrecy and subterfuge, and sometimes undercover work.

From http://cryptome.org/ :

cia-leaks-dci.pdf Director of Central Intelligence on Leaks
September 16, 2010

cia-leaks-iatf.pdf CIA Interagency Task Force on Leaks
September 16, 2010

cia-leaks-fddc.pdf CIA Inadequacy of Existing Laws Concerning Leaks
September 16, 2010

120 spooks dedicated to job in Pentagon against Wikileaks

By James Nixon
Thinq.co.uk | 13 September, 2010

Sources inside the Pentagon have revealed that a rapidly-expanding team is working night and day to win the US Defense Department’s propaganda war against whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks.

Defence chiefs officially admitted the existence of the team – officially dubbed the ‘Information Review Task Force’, but known to insiders as the “WikiLeaks war room” – based in suburban Virginia, a stone’s throw from the Pentagon.

Since that official announcement, the war room’s staff has swelled by 50 per cent to nearly 120 members.

The crack team of military propagandists has been assembled to undermine WikiLeaks’ operations, and is led by the formidable Brigadier General Robert A Carr of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Brigadier General Robert A Carr

“I wouldn’t want to go up against General Carr… Very smart guy,” one Pentagon official told investigative reporter Philip Shenon in an interview US news site The Daily Beast.

In addition to its day-to-day agenda of disruption, the team is bent on gathering evidence that could be used to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and others under the US 1917 Espionage Act.

Assange has claimed that the ongoing criminal investigation being carried out into allegations of rape made against him in Sweden, where WikiLeaks is based, have been orchestrated by US intelligence sources in an attempt to discredit the site’s planned disclosure of 15,000 further files from its Afghan War Dossier.

The site is currently conducting a “harm minimisation” exercise to redact details in the documents that could be used to identify innocent civilians and others.

Senior Pentagon spokesman, Marine Colonel David Lapan, told The Daily Beast: “We believe we probably know what’s in those. And we believe, again, that they will pose some risk to our forces in Afghanistan and to others.”

The Pentagon has so far refused publicly to co-operate with WikiLeaks, accusing the organisation of having “blood on its hands”, having allegedly exposed civilians and serviceman to danger via its earlier publication.

According to Pentagon sources, there is no evidence so far that civilians have been harmed as a result of information revealed by WikiLeaks.

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/9/13/pentago...wikileaks/