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US Intell planned to destroy Wikileaks
I believe the Wallenberg family owned a considerable stake in the bearing company SFK:

http://www.american-buddha.com/hig.tradi...enemy7.htm

Quote:TRADING WITH THE ENEMY: AN EXPOSE OF THE NAZI-AMERICAN MONEY PLOT 1933-1949

Chapter 7: Globes of Steel

Throughout World War II, Sosthenes Behn was an investor in the Swedish Enskilda Bank, chief financier of the colossal ball-bearings trust known as SKF. Goring's cousin Hugo von Rosen and William L. Batt, vice- chairman of the War Production Board, were directors of SKF in America throughout the war, dedicated to keeping South American companies on the Proclaimed List supplied with ball bearings.

Tiny ball bearings were essential to the Nazis: The Luftwaffe could not fly without them, the tanks and armored cars could not roll in their missions of death. ITT's Focke-Wulfs, Ford's autos and trucks for the enemy, would have been powerless without them. Indeed, World War II could not have been fought without them. Focke-Wulfs used at least four thousand bearings per plane: roughly equivalent to those used by the Flying Fortresses. Guns, bombsights, electrical generators and engines, ventilating systems, U-boats, railroads, mining machinery, ITT's communications devices -- these existed on ball bearings.

With its 185 sales organizations throughout the world, SKF could have contributed a fine example of Sweden's economic democracy at work. However, SKF was concerned only to make profits, trade on both sides of the fence in wartime, and act as a front for German interests. It was in part an arm of the Swedish government since its representatives abroad were often ambassadors, ministers, or consuls, who represented Swedish policy all over the world. SKF represented virtually every industrial combine in Sweden and every member of the board was part of the companies that controlled the entire Swedish economy. Founded in 1907, SKF, with its subsidiaries, was the largest manufacturer of bearings on earth. It controlled 80 percent of bearings in Europe alone. It also controlled iron ore mines, steel and blast furnaces, foundries and factories and plants in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany. The largest share of its production until late in World War II was allocated to Germany: 60 percent of the worldwide production of SKF was dedicated to the Germans. Some indication of SKF's attitude toward the Allies can be gauged from the fact that while the German factory at Schweinfurt produced 93 percent of capacity, the U.S. company in Philadelphia produced less than 38 percent, and the British less than that.

And ball bearings were among the most powerful weapons of The Fraternity's sophisticated form of wartime neutrality. Their inventor and the power behind their production and distribution as SKF chairman was Sven Wingquist, a dashing playboy friend of Goring and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He was a prominent partner in Jacob Wallenberg's Stockholm Enskilda, the largest private bank in Sweden -- a correspondent bank of Hitler's Reichsbank. Wallenberg was large, athletic, impeccably Aryan -- comptroller of mining, shale oil, electrical goods, munitions, iron mines -- virtually the whole industrial economy of his native country. Sosthenes Behn and Wingquist were in partnership with Axel Wenner-Gren of U.S. Electrolux in the gigantic Bofors munitions empire: Bofors supplied Germany with a substantial part of its steel production in World War II.

As stated, American directors for the duration were Goring's second cousin by marriage Hugo von Rosen, and William L. Batt. A hard-bitten and driving individualist, Batt was born in Indiana; he began in railway shops, where he learned a machinist's trade from his father. He earned his engineering degree at Purdue in 1907; next year he was employed in the ball-bearing plant of Hess-Bright Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia. When Hess-Bright amalgamated with SKF in 1919, he rose rapidly to become president of the company in 1923.

A big man, with the hands of a lumberjack, black patent-leather hair, a prominent nose and a jutting cleft chin, Batt dressed in high fashion, and sported monogrammed silk handkerchiefs and Sulka ties. His SKF factory in Philadelphia rivaled the giant sister factories in Goteborg in Sweden and Schweinfurt in Germany. SKF Philadelphia was the subject of glowing articles in The Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine, its products reaching a staggering $21 million a year by 1940.

With war approaching, and the fear of America entering the conflict, Hugo von Rosen and fellow board members traveled to their German and Italian plants, which were jointly owned with Germany and Italy, and promised their managers that if it proved difficult to ship ball bearings to Nazi or Italian affiliates in Latin America through the British blockade, Philadelphia would take over whether or not Roosevelt declared war. Simultaneously, the SKF directors protected their associated chemical company, I.G. Farben's Bosch, with the aid of John Foster Dulles. Batt was president of American Bosch. Dulles, the Bosch/General Aniline and Film attorney, set up a voting trust to protect the company with himself and Batt as trustees after Pearl Harbor. He was thus enabled to save the company from being seized until the spring of 1942, five months after America was at war.

Dulles also proved helpful in setting up similar protections for SKF: protections that lasted until the end of the war. He helped organize a deal whereby Batt became the nominal majority shareholder with trustee voting rights. Since American-owned companies could not be seized by Alien Property Custodian Leo T. Crowley, this proved to be a protection.

With the outbreak of war, Roosevelt appointed Batt vice-chairman of the War Production Board, whose chairman was Sears, Roebuck's Donald Nelson. Batt worked from 8 A.M. until after midnight, so busy that his lunch consisted of apples and milk eaten in the middle of meetings while he kept relighting his cold pipe with a lighter in the form of a cannon.

From the moment he took up his position on the War Production Board, Batt instituted the famous motto "Patch and pray." Ignoring the fact that his fellow Fraternity members had caused these very shortages, and that he was wartime majority trustee shareholder for companies collaborating with the enemy, he blasted the public on the radio for being extravagant with rubber and scrap metal. He insisted that housewives turn in their tin cans, old tires, tubes, leaky hot water bottles, rubber gloves, and aprons. He called for all old newspapers to be sent for packing ammunition; he enforced voluntary surrender of rags, used wool, and even fats for glycerin. At the same time, he cheerfully overlooked the fact that scrap had gone to build the bombs that were rained on Pearl Harbor. He moved smoothly between that whited sepulcher of Republicanism, the Union League Club of Philadelphia, and the New Dealers on Capitol Hill. He was smart enough to express admiration of the Red Army when he went to Russia on the famous Averell Harriman mission. It was convenient for him to be called a "pink" while maintaining his Nazi connections.

During his period with the War Production Board, which lasted for the duration, Batt's behavior was largely in the interests of The Fraternity. He was ideally situated to turn a blind eye to von Rosen's trade with Proclaimed Listees, given his immense influence and the fact that he had innumerable government employees on his staff throughout North and South America and neutral Europe. Because of war and the blockade, it was difficult for SKF in Sweden to supply its Proclaimed List customers south of the Panama Canal. As a result, von Rosen saw to it that those same companies were supplied direct from Philadelphia.

Von Rosen was under direct orders from Stockholm to supply the Latin American Nazi-associated firms irrespective of the fact that there was an overwhelming demand for all available ball bearings in the United States. He was to base his sales on the principle of Business as Usual rather than on the needs of the war effort. Batt, accepting these arrangements, could not use the excuse that he was in effect working for a Swedish company and therefore had to obey neutral rules, since he himself as an American owned 103,439 shares of capital stock.

Under von Rosen's directorship and Batt's trusteeship, SKF production in wartime failed to reach even the minimum of American expectations. This fact infuriated Morgenthau, who designated the stocky, feisty Canadian-born Lauchlin Currie of the White House Economics Staff to hammer away at the government to stop this outrageous circumstance. Currie was seconded by a very determined and thorough official of French extraction, Jean Pajus of the Office of Economic Programs, who prepared millions of words in reports on the doings of Batt and von Rosen until as late as 1945.

Delving deep into records, Currie found that the all-important Curtiss Wright Aviation Corporation was unable for fifteen months after Pearl Harbor to secure sufficient ball bearings from SKF and came close to closing down. Worn-out ball bearings caused crashes that cost American lives. At a time when every plane in the country was desperately needed for the war effort, large numbers of planes were grounded because of the lag in supply.

In June 1943, one loyal, patriotic executive of SKF finally lost all patience with von Rosen and went to Washington to see Batt in his role of vice-chairman of the War Production Board to complain bitterly of the SKF shortages that were hampering America's fight in the air. Batt listened coldly and then said, "Nothing can be done. Nor will it be done." That was the end of the matter. The executive resigned.*

Someone on the SKF staff even doctored the inventories in Philadelphia so that it seemed only a few million ball bearings were ground out, when in fact vastly more had been produced. Sometimes, for American use, von Rosen manufactured an outer bearing part without its inner component and vice versa. It exasperated Currie and Pajus that the incomplete bearings were useless.

While holding up orders, causing bottlenecks (with the collusion of the indispensable Jesse H. Jones), and causing shortages, von Rosen did not only ship to South America. He also sent to Sweden secret patents, detailed charts, and private production details. Knowing that these might be intercepted by British or American censorship in Bermuda, members of his staff placed the precious documents in the diplomatic bags of the Swedish embassy in Washington. Neutral diplomatic bags were precluded from seizure or search in time of war. Currie wrote, in a memorandum summing up Batt's collusion, on May 3, 1944: "Batt was busy ... pulling all wires he could in the U.S. Office of Censorship and with the British Purchasing Commission."

At the same time these activities were continuing, the SKF Philadelphia operation was issued a general license to deal internationally throughout the war. And Batt's retention in his official position during World War II can only be ascribed to Roosevelt.

Treasury even allowed SKF to get away with posing as an American-owned corporation, despite the fact that Treasury had records of the Swedish-German ownership in its possession. When Lauchlin Currie became too inquisitive, Batt deliberately burned all of the appropriate SKF correspondence and accountancy files.

On April 10, 1943, a loyal and patriotic American, J. S. Tawrsey, chief engineer on the SKF board of directors, resigned following a furious quarrel with Batt. He charged that SKF was "destructive to the war effort," that SKF had failed to meet orders for 150,000 deliveries per month to the all-important Pratt-Whitney fighter airplane engine company, and that Batt was flagrantly working against America despite his WPB role. In disgust with the company, Tawresey joined the Air Corps. He contacted Treasury. Franklin S. Judson of the Foreign Economic Administration flew to see him at an Air Force base in Florida. The men had a charged meeting in which Tawresey poured out his heart on the doings of SKF. Angrily he charged von Rosen and many of his staff with anti-Semitism and pro-Nazi feelings, and said that they blatantly held the United States up to scorn at board meetings and in private conversations. Currie was horrified. He wrote Morgenthau a blistering report on the meeting, followed by an equally damning SEC report, but nothing happened to the company as a result.

Throughout the war an old reliable of The Fraternity proved to be helpful. The National City Bank of New York siphoned through money to Sweden: the SKF profits from Latin American dealings. Officially, all National City Bank's Swedish accounts were frozen on Roosevelt's orders. Somehow, Batt managed to use his government influence to have the funds specially unblocked by license for transfer across the Atlantic.

As war went on, it became necessary to cloak SKF shipments to South America in case members of the FBI should discover what was going on As a cover, von Rosen set up a subsidiary that took a leaf out of the Standard Oil book. Registered in Panama, it was protected by Panamanian laws from American seizure. Ball bearings traveled from American ports on Panamanian registered vessels. Over 600,000 ball bearings a year traveled in this manner to Nazi customers in South America including Siemens, Diesel, Asea, and Separator, as well as Axel Wenner-Gren's Electrolux and Behn's ITT. Transfer was made of purchasing funds through the Nazi Banco Aleman Trans-atlantico. Von Rosen used a crude code in his telegrams, all of which were passed through the diplomatic bag. "Wild duck glace arrived, also Schnapps" meant that ball bearings had arrived along with their component parts.

When Germany began to run short of ball bearings in 1943, despite the vast shipments from Sweden and its own local production, more were needed from South America. So von Rosen arranged for reshipment from Rio and Buenos Aires via Sweden. The British, utterly dependent on SKF for their own ball bearings, appeased the dubious corporation by issuing special Navicerts allowing vessels to pass unsearched through the blockade to Sweden. Even the Russians concurred -- they, too, needed SKF.

A curious series of events took place in 1943. Early in October, Batt flew to Stockholm in an American Army bomber accompanied by Army representatives. The ostensible purpose of the mission was to secure further supplies of ball-bearing production machinery, despite the fact that there was quite sufficient in Philadelphia. Details of his meetings with Jacob Wallenberg and Wingquist were not disclosed. However, on October 14, when General Henry H. ("Hap") Arnold, U.S. Army Air Force chief, commanded a raid on SKF's giant Schweinfurt factory, he was shocked to discover that news of the supposed bombing had been leaked to the enemy. The result was that America lost sixty planes in the attack. Arnold told the London News Chronicle on October 19, "I don't see how they could have prepared the defense they did unless they had been warned in advance."

For the first time since Pearl Harbor there were some signs that action might be taken by the American government. The energetic Jean Pajus spearheaded a drive to expose SKF.

Meanwhile, General Carl Spaatz of the U.S. High Command in London was furious because the Swedes were tripling their shipments to Germany with British and American official authorization after the raid on Schweinfurt. He called U.S. Ambassador John G. Winant to his headquarters on March 13, 1944, and blasted him about his handling of the matter, claiming that Winant was "playing along with the British." Spaatz screamed, "Our whole bomber offensive is being nullified!" Winant, red-faced and smarting from the dressing down, asked his assistant Winfield Riefler to look into the matter. Riefler found that the British Ministry of Economic Warfare, which was supposed to enforce the restrictions of shipments, was failing to do so because Britain was as dependent on Swedish SKF as Germany -- following Luftwaffe raids on the SKF subsidiary's plant in Luton.

On March 20, Lauchlin Currie wrote to Dean Acheson that he was drastically concerned by the gravity of the situation: "During the past few months our air forces have made sixteen heavy and costly raids for the sole purpose of destroying the ballbearing production capacity of the Germans. But while we are eliminating German production at tremendous sacrifice in planes and men, Swedish production continues to be available to the enemy. Swedish shipments to Germany in 1943 were at an all-time peak." Acheson did not reply.

On April 13, 1944, U.S. Ambassador Herschel Johnson had a meeting with Swedish Foreign Minister Christian E. Gunther in Stockholm. Gunther pointed out that negotiating the three-way pact between the United States, Britain, and Germany had been immensely difficult and that if Sweden should break the pact now, Germany could react violently. Gunther added sharply, "American public opinion would see the justice of the position taken by Sweden if Sweden should publish the entire correspondence in which it would appear that trade between Sweden and Germany was on a contract basis known to the Allied governments and based on prior agreements with them." Thus it was clear the Swedish Foreign Minister was threatening the United States: if it didn't play along, Sweden would disclose to the American public that its government was making deals with the enemy.

Lord Selborne, Minister of Economic Warfare, gave his views to Riefler of Winant's staff in London. He was responding to a U.S. government proposal that SKF should be put on the blacklist if it refused the request for an embargo. Selborne totally disagreed with the proposal. He felt that such a threat would be a fatal blunder. He begged Riefler to dissuade the U.S. government from such a course. Instead, the British government felt that the entire output of SKF should be bought by the United States outright: a sure source of dollars for the Nazis. It was clear that Selborne was concerned that in the event of blacklisting, Britain would be left without its vast influx of ball bearings. Not only were bearings immediately expected by ship, but there were 350 tons being held at Goteborg by British supply authorities. He felt that these would be held hostage, and seized by the Swedes in reprisal if Swedish property in the United States or Britain should be seized. There was also the danger of thousands of tons of bearings loaded on two British cargo ships, Dicto and Lionel, being hijacked at sea.

On April 25, Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson advised Secretary of War Stimson that Sweden had rejected the U.S. demand to stop shipments to Germany in excess of those agreed to in 1943. He wrote, "Sweden, I am sure, will try to drag the matter out by iscussions, holding out hopes to us that exports to Germany will be reduced in the future. This has been her policy in the past, and she'll try it again." Patterson pointed out that Sweden was furnishing Germany with munitions that killed American soldiers, that 20 percent of the shells fired at Americans came from Swedish iron ore, and that the Swedes were getting large quantities of petroleum when the British and U.S. were short of it for war purposes. He added, "I ... believe that the government should make the facts public." It was a futile hope.

On April 27, Lieutenant James Puleston, Navy liaison in the Foreign Economic Administration, wrote to Lauchlin Currie that "no confidence whatsoever" should be placed in Jacob Wallenberg, that the idea of the embargo was a "mirage" and "a pleasant dream." He felt that a much more effective way to secure cooperation was for the State Department to threaten cutting off oil supplies to Sweden; he disliked Swedish ships "hanging around" American and Caribbean ports "because we believe that there are enough pro-German crews [in the Swedish navy] to act as spies." He added in his report to Currie:

If we dilly-dally or accept the half measures proposed by Wallenberg and the State Department we abandon the last battle before it begins -- ... If we go through the [oil embargo] we can at least put the additional loss of American lives where it belongs -- squarely in the State Department. If we do not, we will share this responsibility and, personally, I don't want to think that a single American soldier died because I did not press the State Department for the proper action.

Pressing the State Department was no easy matter. However, in April 1944, Treasury was finally able to induce Dean Acheson to agree to hire someone to fly to Sweden and try to buy off the Enskilda Bank from supplying Germany.

The choice of special emissary fell on a curious figure. Instead of sending Currie or Harry Dexter White, Acheson and Morgenthau selected a banker and movie executive of Paramount Studios, Stanton Griffis, who was better known as a socialite than as an expert in economics. He flew to London, where he was joined by a smooth young economist and Red Cross vice-chairman named Douglas Poteat. The two men squeezed into a cramped Mosquito aircraft and flew through violent electrical storms to Stockholm. There, at the gloomy and overpowering Grand Hotel, they met with Ambassador Johnson and with Jacob Wallenberg.

On the second morning of his stay at the Grand, Griffis woke up to see a waiter standing with a breakfast. The man said in a heavy Balkan voice, "I am an American secret agent. I will be working for you and will keep you informed. In Room 208, where you will be meeting with [the Swedes], the Germans have installed listening devices. In Room 410 is Dr. Schnurre of the Nazi government, who is hoping to outbid you in the ballbearings negotiations." Griffis was astonished by this little speech. He assumed the man was a jokester or a plant. But from that moment on the waiter, who was working for the OSS, kept him informed of every movement of Wallenberg and the Nazis.

The negotiations in the gloomy Enskilda Bank boardroom dominated by Wallenberg family portraits were slow and tedious. Griffis obviously knew nothing of the links between Batt and the Axis, because in the course of his discussion he said to one of the SKF executives, Harald Hamberg, "You can hold out as long as you like, but the U. S. is not going to stand by while you make machines to kill American boys." Hamberg, no doubt hiding his knowledge of the matter, replied, "How do you know that our ballbearings help kill American boys? "Whereupon, Douglas Poteat took out a handful of ball bearings and laid them on the table. "Where were these made?" Poteat asked. The executive examined them. "In Sweden," he said. And Poteat added, looking the executive in the eye, "Every one of these was taken from a German plane shot down over London."

At last, after several weeks, an agreement was reached. Griffis authorized $8 million to be paid to the credit of the Enskilda Bank. When the war was over, Griffis guaranteed, there would be no anti-trust action against SKF. SKF would keep all of its German properties forever, and all SKF Nazi connections in the United States would be forgiven, forgotten, and -- more importantly -- unexposed.

Meanwhile, public criticism was beginning to surface: SKF workers in Philadelphia got wind of the dealings with the Nazis. An article appeared in the liberal newspaper PM, charging von Rosen and Batt with gross malfeasance and trading with enemy collaborators. Various disaffected SKF executives, troubled by the nature of the corporation to which they belonged, began to snitch.

Batt gave The Washington Post an interview on May 14, 1944, saying that production in Philadelphia would be hurt if the company were nationalized or Proclaimed Listed in response to press criticism from the Left. He insisted he was not a Nazi front and he denied that Goring's relative was his partner. He described von Rosen as "a salesman." He admitted that he voted 95 percent of the stock without revealing that his ownership was to protect the company from seizure as an alien concern.

But the loyal American executives, and workers on the assembly lines in Philadelphia, grew increasingly restless. There was a series of union meetings, in which shop stewards talked angrily of a strike. Many workers went home to their wives and children, muttering about collaboration with the enemy. It seemed that what the U.S. government had lamentably failed to do -- put SKF out of business -- the workers might.

Batt didn't lose control. On May 16 he called a mass meeting of the eight thousand employees of SKF in the large truckyard of the factory. His wavy black hair, strong face, and powerful broad-shouldered figure always inspired confidence in the workers, who tended to trust him no matter what the evidence against him. He delivered a speech, standing on a high platform flanked by four American flags flapping in the wind. He shouted, "None of our production is reaching the enemy! I assure you of that, my friends! All these rumors about Nazis influencing our company in Sweden are sheer nonsense! These kinds of rumors are just Hitler propaganda to pull us down!"

This outrageous lie was greeted with cheers by eight thousand gullible workers. They were hugely relieved and almost ran back to the assembly lines. Somebody in the government got to PM and forced it to issue a retraction. On May 18 the Treasury and the Office of the Alien Property Custodian issued a joint statement to the press to the effect that following an investigation of SKF, it was "totally absolved of all alleged collusion with the enemy." The statement went on, "Both the War and Navy departments have advised the Treasury Department and the Alien Property Custodian that all of the production of SKF Industries and SKF Steel contributes to the war effort of the United States ... SKF Industries and SKF Steel have excellent records for war production, and state that any serious loss of production would have an immediate and serious effect on production of war munitions needed for plant operations."

On June 13 the agreement was concluded between SKF and the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom regarding reduced bearings exports to the enemy. Despite the expert example of public relations shown by William L. Batt, it was clear that the government was uneasy about advertising the fact that Nazi Germany was still being benefited by the Allies. A note on the top of the State Department memorandum dated June 13 and listing the amount of shipments reads: "It has been agreed to keep this arrangement secret not only during the period of its operation, but also after its termination."

In July a series of memoranda of the Foreign Economic Administration was shuffled between government departments alleging that so far from adhering to the $8 million agreement, SKF was indulging in a so-called triangular trade, shipping via Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland to the enemy to avoid charges that they were shipping directly. Every effort possible was made to get around the agreements. Unfortunately, the memoranda show, since the U.S. government had whitewashed SKF, it could scarcely expose these new activities. Under Secretary of War Patterson kept hammering away at the issue, but nothing was done about it. A helpless Lauchlin Currie could merely try to reassure everyone that everything would be all right in the end.

On behalf of the Foreign Economic Administration, Jean Pajus prepared a devastating indictment of William Batt, Hugo von Rosen, and SKF as a whole on September 15, 1944. Following a pocket history of the corporation up to date, he summarized the key matters as follows. He stated that Batt had been "under SKF orders to supply the Latin American market, irrespective of current war orders in the United States, and to base all sales in the United States primarily on the long-term business interests of the company rather than the needs of the war effort." He pointed out that directives from the Swedish plant came through the Swedish Legation in Washington, thus escaping the normal channels of censorship. These directives showed that a company collaborating with the enemy could exercise control of a vital U.S. industry.

Pajus reiterated that SKF production had not reached even minimum expectations; that there had been great lapses in ball-bearings deliveries to vital war industries; that as a result planes had been grounded; that William L. Batt could have corrected the situation but had not done so. He summarized the deliberate tying up of raw materials, the associations with enemy corporations, and the overall disgrace of a so-called American company controlled by enemy interests. SKF remained unpunished.

The Norwegians, who had suffered enough from Swedish collusion with the enemy, struck out in the only way possible. They showed their protest on December 4, 1944. Norwegian workers at the SKF plant in Oslo destroyed the entire factory by explosion and fire, disposing of $1.5 million worth of ball bearings.

Meanwhile, Dean Acheson failed to put SKF Philadelphia on the Proclaimed List, as he was empowered to do. Instead of taking new action against SKF as new public criticism began to surface, he simply urged Morgenthau and Currie to keep up a series of public relations statements that SKF was loyal and decent -- in order not to hamper the war effort.

Lauchlin Currie's belief that matters would improve as the war neared its end proved to be unfounded. On December 9, 1944, Jean Pajus wrote to U.S. Ambassador Johnson in Stockholm that he was shocked at the continuing trade. He wrote, "After the losses in men and planes sustained in the attack on Schweinfurt, what would the American people think if they learned that SKF is still supplying the German war machine with ballbearings?"

By early 1945 it was painfully obvious that Stanton Griffis's $8 million was largely useless. Not only did it absorb merely a part of the ball-bearings shipment, and a small part at that, but the Swedes were infringing on the agreed maximum shipments all down the line. It was only when it was obvious that Hitler was about to lose the war that Sweden finally showed some signs of adhering to its agreements.

The war ended as Griffis had arranged, without punishment for William L. Batt or any of his circle. Hugo von Rosen was, of course, protected by his "neutrality." In the weeks at the end of the war, Batt suddenly turned up in Germany and visited the military decartelization branch in Berlin. He conferred with Brigadier General William H. Draper, in charge of decartelization, making sure that the secret promises made by Griffis to Wallenberg would be kept: that nothing would be done to disrupt the Swedish interests in SKF in Germany, that none of the plants in Germany would be broken down or removed, and that he and his American colleagues would not be subject to antitrust action. It goes without saying that the promises were kept.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14
Reply
See also: http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=13406

Swedish Royal families nazi past.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14
Reply
http://www.fsilaw.com/~/media/Files/Assa..._2011.ashx
Extradition hearing: 7-8 February 2011
1
IN THE CITY OF WESTMINSTER MAGISTRATES' COURT
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTION MARIANNE NY, SWEDISH
PROSECUTION AUTHORITY, SWEDEN (A SWEDISH JUDICIAL
AUTHORITY)
-v-
JULIAN PAUL ASSANGE
____________________________________________
PROVISIONAL SKELETON ARGUMENT
ON BEHALF OF MR. ASSANGE
_____________________________________________
Extradition hearing: 7-8 February 2011
[This skeleton argument is provisional and has been written without the benefit of the
Prosecution's Opening Note. It will be perfected in due course]
1. Introduction
1. Marianne Ny, a Public Prosecutor in Gothenburg, Sweden, has requested the
extradition of Julian Paul Assange to Sweden pursuant to a European Arrest
Warrant ("EAW") issued on 2 December 2010 and certified by the Serious
Organised Crime Agency ("SOCA") on 6 December 2010.
2. It should be made clear at the outset that it is not accepted that Ms. Ny is
authorised to issue European Arrest Warrants. In Enander v. The Swedish
2
National Police Board [2005] EWHC 3036 (Admin), the CPS confirmed that
"the sole Issuing Judicial Authority [in Sweden] for the enforcement of a
custodial sentence or other form of detention is the Swedish National Police
Board" (Enander, paragraph 13, emphasis added). There is no evidence that
that official position has changed since the High Court's judgment in Enander
was handed down on 16 November 2005. Accordingly, if the Swedish National
Police Board is the sole issuing judicial authority in Sweden, then Ms. Ny was
not authorised to issue the EAW in this case, and it is invalid ab initio. If the
CPS does not accept that this is the case, then it is put to strict proof that Ms.
Ny is entitled to issue EAWs.
3. On 23 December 2010, the Defence wrote to SOCA requesting proof that Ms.
Ny was entitled to issue an EAW. While SOCA acknowledged receipt of this
letter on 24 December 2010, stating that it would "revert … in due course."
SOCA has yet to provide the confirmation sought that Ms. Ny was even
entitled to issue the EAW, a matter on which it would have had to satisfy itself
before certifying the EAW.
4. Mr. Assange surrendered himself for arrest on the EAW by appointment with
police officers on 7 December 2010. He had his initial hearing before Senior
District Judge Riddle, and was denied bail. He was subsequently granted
conditional bail by Senior District Judge Riddle on 14 December 2010. The
Prosecution appealed to the High Court,1 which upheld the grant of bail on 16
1 It is worth noting that there was considerable confusion as to who was in fact
responsible for taking the decision to appeal the grant of bail on 14 December 2010.
On 14 December 2010, Ms. Lindfield indicated that she needed to take instructions
from the Swedish Judicial Authority. Yet the Swedish Judicial Authority subsequently
denied that it had any role in the decision
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec...ecision-uk). Yet
the DPP stated on the BBC, on 16 December 2010, that the CPS had been acting as
agents for the Swedish prosecutor: "There was some confusion over whether Britain
or Sweden was behind the bid to deny him bail. A spokeswoman for Sweden's
prosecution authority said the case was in British hands. Britain's Director of Public
3
December 2010, and ordered the CPS to pay the requested person's costs
(CO/12844/2010, Judgment of 16 December 2010, Mr. Justice Ouseley).
5. There has been correspondence between the Court and the Parties regarding the
timetable which was set by the Court, without hearing the Parties, on 23
December 2010, just before the Christmas recess. The defence reserves its right
to argue that this procedure was unfair to Mr. Assange and a breach of
procedural due process.
6. The extradition hearing in this case has been set for 7-8 February 2011.
7. Mr. Assange will raise, inter alia, the following issues in opposition to his
extradition to Sweden:
(1) The certification of the European Arrest Warrant ("EAW"): Ms. Ny is not a
"judicial authority" for the purposes of the Extradition Act 2003 (as set out
above);
(2) Extradition has been sought for an improper purpose, and the proceedings
are an abuse of process and/or the EAW is not a Part 1 warrant for the
purposes of section 2 of the Act;
(3) Additional limb of abuse of process: non-disclosure by the Swedish
Prosecutor;
Prosecutions told BBC radio they had been acting as the agents for the Swedish
government but declined to comment on the specifics of the case"
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...ksfounder-
Julian-Assange-granted-bail.html).
4
(4) Additional limb of abuse of process: the conduct of the prosecution in
Sweden;
(5) The offences are not extradition offences (section 10 of the Act);
(6) Extraneous considerations (section 13 of the Act); and
(7) Human rights (section 21 of the Act).
8. These points will be developed in turn.
2. The requested person's extradition has been sought for the purpose of
questioning him further, and not for the purpose of prosecution
9. This issue is raised in two discrete contexts: first, as a section 2 point, and
second, as an abuse of process point. It is first necessary to set out the factual
basis for the complaint before setting out the legal context.
Factual background
10. Ms. Ny has repeatedly and publicly stated that she has sought an EAW in
respect of Mr. Assange simply in order to facilitate his questioning and without
having yet reached a decision as to whether or not to prosecute him.
5
11. On 18 November 2010, Ms. Ny explained her reasons for seeking an arrest
warrant in these terms:
"Ny … told AFP: I requested his arrest so we could carry out an
interrogation with Assange'
[…]
Ny reopened the rape investigation on September 1 but did not request
his [Assange's] detention, making it possible for him to leave Sweden.
We have exhausted all the normal procedures for getting an
interrogation (and) this investigation has gotten to a point where it is
not possible to go further without interrogating Assange himself,' Ny
said."
(Exhibit to the Witness Statement of Mark Stephens, Exhibit MS-7, 14
December 2010, emphasis added)
12. In fact, Ms. Ny's claim that all the "normal procedures for getting an
interrogation" had been "exhausted" is highly inaccurate. As is clear from the
letter from Mr. Assange's Swedish lawyer, Mr. Hurtig (MS-4), the latter
repeatedly sought to make Mr. Assange available to Ms. Ny for questioning,
but all these efforts were rebuffed:
"9. Fifth, I can confirm that on behalf of Mr. Assange I have been trying
for many weeks to arrange for him to be questioned by Ms. Ny,
including by Mr. Assange returning to Sweden for questioning. All these
attempts have been rebuffed by her. It is here useful to set out a brief
chronology…"
6
(Letter of Mr. Hurtig, Exhibit MS-4 to the witness statement of Mark
Stephens, underlining added)
13. As Mr. Justice Ouseley found, when granting bail to Mr. Assange, Mr Assange
"has expressed, and I see no reason to doubt it, a willingness to answer
questions, either over the telephone or some other suitable form of
communication if the prosecutors in Sweden wish to put them to him"
(paragraph 22, Judgement).
14. Ms. Ny's statement was also wrong in that she was in touch with Mr.
Assange's lawyer, Mr. Hurtig, at the relevant time.
15. The significance of Ms. Ny's statements to the media for present purposes is,
however, the following: it is perfectly plain from those statements that Ms.
Ny's purpose in requesting an arrest warrant, and subsequently an EAW,
against Mr. Assange, was not in order to prosecute him, but in order to
facilitate his "interrogation", i.e. to facilitate his questioning. This is an
improper use of extradition, and of the EAW scheme.
16. Other statements by Ms. Ny to the media to this effect are included in a bundle
of material to be served on the Court.
17. Ms. Ny's position has been further confirmed in official, diplomatic
communications from her to the Australian Embassy in Stockholm (and
communicated to Mr. Assange via the High Commission in London pursuant to
their consular assistance) made in December 2010, i.e. subsequent to the
issuing of the EAW. Due to the significance of this communication, it is cited
here in full (the significant passages, for these purposes, are underlined below):
7
" Australian High Commission
London
20 December 2010
[…]
Dear Mr Stephens
As previously advised our Ambassador in Stockholm made representations to
Ms Marianne Ny, Director of the Public Prosecution Authority in Sweden, for
access to the documents requested in your letter of 7 December. He has
received the following response:
Starts
Your request to obtain copies of the investigation against Julian Assange has
been denied. This is mostly due to the confidentiality of the bulk of the
requested documents which are only available in Swedish. Assange's lawyer
Bjorn Hurtig received a copy of the majority of the investigation documents
during his detention hearing in the Stockholm District Court on November 18.
The same documents were also filed in court. The Stockholm District Court and
defendant [sic] were verbally given a detailed explanation of the contents of the
small number of documents not included in the written material that was
submitted. The defence has asked for copies of all materials. Under Chapter
23, paragraph 18 of the Code of Judicial Procedure, I have decided to reject
the defence's request to obtain copies of the documents not surrendered before
the detention hearing. I consider it would be detrimental to the ongoing
investigation into the matter.
I want to emphasise that before a decision to prosecute the defendant has been
made, he will be given the right to examine all documents relating to the case.
If the prosecution goes ahead, the suspect will have the right to receive a copy
of the investigation.
The right to access information about the case that Assange and his councillor
Bjorn Hurtig have been privy to, does not include any third parties. As I have
emphasised the defence has already received copies of the material that may be
sent to Assange. If the Embassy so wishes, it is possible to get the file which has
been released to the media.2 All subsequent documents to be added in the
investigation after 1 September 2010 are confidential and I can therefore not
disclose them.
2 This may be a reference to the file which was, quite wrongly, leaked to the media by
the Swedish Prosecutor's Office.
8
It is possible to appeal against the refusal to disclose documents. Should you
wish to appeal, I would ask you to come back to me so that I can issue a formal
decision which can be appealed.
Ends
On 16 December the Australian Ambassador spoke directly to Ms Ny and
confirmed that the key points she wished to convey were:
our request for access to the documents requested has been denied.
the defence has already been granted access to the majority of the
investigation documents (in Swedish) and has been briefed verbally
on those documents not included in the written material already
provided.
if a decision is made to charge Mr Assange, he and his lawyers will
be granted access to all documents related to the case (no such
decision has been made at this stage).
Third parties ('including the Australian Embassy) do not have the
right to access information about the case
Yours sincerely,
Paula Ganly
Minister Counsellor"
18. It is, therefore, clear from the foregoing, official diplomatic communications
between Ms. Ny and the Australian High Commission (Mr. Assange's consular
representatives), in December 2010 (after the issuance of the EAW on 2
December 2010), with reference to the underlined passages above, that:
- "a decision to prosecute the defendant" has not been made yet. In
other words, the Swedish Prosecutor has not yet decided whether to
prosecute Mr. Assange or not;
9
- "a decision to charge Mr. Assange" has not yet been made. "No such
decision has been made at this stage".
19. The position is further confirmed by Mr. Hurtig, who doubts whether Mr.
Assange would be prosecuted at all, if extradited:
"6. Second, I have been asked about the likely outcome of the
proceedings if Mr. Assange is extradited to Sweden. In my opinion, it is
highly unlikely whether Mr. Assange will be prosecuted at all, if
extradited." (MS-4, emphasis added)
20. That there is considerable doubt as to whether Mr. Assange would be
prosecuted at all, if extradited, only underlines the point that a decision as to
whether he will be prosecuted at all remains to be taken by Ms. Ny. Yet the
EAW should only have been issued for the purposes of prosecution.
21. This is further confirmed by paragraph 7 of Mr. Hurtig's statement:
"I can confirm that the Swedish Prosecutor has made several remarks in
the media to the effect that she is just seeking Mr. Assange's extradition
to Sweden in order to hear his side of the story. …" (emphasis added)
22. The Court is referred to the bundle of media clippings which further confirm
Ms. Ny's repeated position that she is merely seeking extradition to conduct an
interview with Mr. Assange, with no decision having been taken whether to
charge or to prosecute him.
10
23. It is clear from the context of these remarks that in stating that she wishes to
hear Mr. Assange's "side of the story", Ms. Ny is not merely stating a general
fact of Swedish criminal procedural law, but making a specific remark in
relation to the facts of this case.
The law
24. It is a well-established principle of extradition law, pre-dating the introduction
of the Extradition Act 2003, that mere suspicion should not found a request for
extradition. A person's extradition should not be sought merely in order for
him to be questioned.
25. In the House of Lords' decision in Re Ismail [1999] 1 AC 320, 326-327, Lord
Steyn stated in this regard:
"It is common ground that mere suspicion that an individual has
committed offences is insufficient to place him in the category of
'accused' persons. It is also common ground that it is not enough that he
is in the traditional phase 'wanted by the police to help them with their
inquiries.' Something more is required..." (emphasis added)
26. An order for extradition should not, therefore, be made where the requested
person is sought merely for the purpose of questioning and not for the purpose
of pursuing a criminal prosecution. The Re Ismail principle has been reaffirmed
in several cases under the Extradition Act 2003.
11
The Vey case
27. In Vey v. The Office of the Public Prosecutor of the County Court of
Montluçon, France (a Category 1 territory) [2006] EWHC 760 (Admin), the
issue was whether the Appellant's extradition was being sought for
interrogation or prosecution in France.
28. The facts in Vey were as follows.
29. The victim, Mourens ("M") was murdered in France. Mrs. Vey's son, Marvin
Vey ("S"), was arrested, confessed, but then retracted his confession and
blamed his step-father. When that accusation was found to be untrue, S accused
Vey ("V") of the murder: she was then in the UK. France sought V's
extradition under the Extradition Act 2003. The examining magistrate of the
County Court of Montluçon issued an arrest warrant against V for voluntary
murder on 12 May 2004. On 8 November 2004 a European Arrest Warrant was
issued by the Public Prosecutor in France. V was arrested on 25 January 2005.
Since the EAW did not specify whether V was sought in order to be prosecuted
or in order to serve a sentence, a second, replacement EAW was issued by the
Public Prosecutor in France specifying that V was accused of a crime, and had
not been tried or sentenced.
30. The Senior District Judge conducted the extradition hearing on 18 February
2005. In a judgment of 2 March 2005, he called for further information from
the French authorities, since it was not clear whether they sought V to
prosecute her or merely to interview her. The extradition hearing was
adjourned to 21 April 2005. The French authorities provided answers to clarify
the matter: in light of those answers, the District Judge was satisfied that V was
12
accused of the murder. In a decision dated 23 May 2005, he ordered V's
extradition to France.
31. V appealed to the Administrative Court pursuant to section 26 of the 2003 Act.
The argument was raised that the EAW did not provide sufficient particulars to
satisfy section 2(4) of the 2003 Act, which requires that the EAW must be
accompanied by: "© particulars of the circumstances in which the person is
alleged to have committed the offence, including the conduct alleged to
constitute the offence, the time and place at which he is alleged to have
committed the offence and any provision of the law of the category 1 territory
under which the conduct is alleged to constitute an offence."
32. The High Court (Moses LJ, Holland J) allowed the appeal and ordered V's
discharge.
33. On the first issue, of whether the information provided in the EAW amounted
to sufficient particulars under section 2(4) of the 2003 Act, the Court held that
the EAW failed to provide sufficient particulars. The section in the EAW for
setting out the circumstances of the offence and the level of participation of the
wanted person contained merely a history of the accusation by V's son. There
was no clear statement or information whatsoever of the circumstances in
which V was alleged to have committed the offence nor of her conduct.
Accordingly, the warrant did not comply with section 2(4) of the 2003 Act and
was, therefore, invalid. Since the warrant was invalid, there was no jurisdiction
to consider extradition under the 2003 Act. Nor was it appropriate to grant an
adjournment to allow the Public Prosecutor in France to remedy the defects in
the warrant.
13
34. On the second issue, as to whether V was sought for prosecution or merely for
interrogation, the Court held that it was not strictly necessary for the Court to
address this issue since the warrant was invalid due to failure to provide
sufficient particulars of the offence and of V's conduct. Hence V's discharge
would be ordered. However, the Court affirmed that there was a clear principle
that mere suspicion should not found a request for extradition (re Ismail [1999]
AC 320). In this case there was uncertainty and ambiguity, not resolved by
expert evidence, as to whether V was being sought merely for the purpose of
questioning and not for the purpose of pursuing a criminal prosecution.
The Trenk case
35. The principle in re Ismail was again confirmed by the High Court in Trenk v.
District Court in Plzen-Mesto, Czech Republic [2009] EWHC 1132 (Admin).
36. The facts in Trenk were as follows.
37. A Czech judicial authority sought Trenk's extradition for an offence of
swindling pursuant to an EAW. His extradition was ordered by a District
Judge. Trenk ("T") appealed to the High Court, contending that it was not clear
whether his extradition was sought as an accused person or merely for
questioning and accordingly that his discharge ought to have been ordered.
38. The High Court (Mr. Justice Davis), on 24 April 2009, allowed T's appeal and
ordered his discharge. The Court held that, on the basis of the materials before
the Court, it was simply not established that the case had crossed the boundary
from investigation into prosecution. Rather it appeared from a review of those
materials that the reason why T's extradition was being sought was to enable
14
him to be questioned further to see whether or not charges can or should be
brought. Accordingly, T's discharge would be ordered. (re Ismail [1999] AC
320 and Vey v The Office of the Public Prosecutor of the County Court of
Montluçon, France [2006] EWHC 760 (Admin) applied).
39. These authorities were further recently considered and affirmed in Asztaslos
[2010] EWHC 237 (Admin), where the Court (Aikens LJ, Openshaw J) stated,
at para 16:
If an EAW has been issued by a requesting state as an "accusation
case" warrant, but its purpose is, in fact, the surrender of the requested
person for the purpose of conducting an investigation to see whether
that person should be prosecuted, it is not a legitimate purpose and so
the warrant is not an EAW within the meaning of section 2(2) and (3).
Accordingly, Part 1 of the Act will not apply to it: see the Armas case,
paragraph 28 per Lord Hope of Craighead and paragraph 54 per Lord
Scott of Foscote.
40. The judgment in Asztaslos will be considered further below in the context of
the requested person's section 2 arguments.
(1) Abuse of process
41. The law and procedure for deciding whether extradition proceedings should be
stayed as an abuse of process is well-established.
42. In Bermingham and Others [2006] EWHC 200 (Admin), the Administrative
Court held that, under the 2003 Act, the magistrates' court has jurisdiction to
ensure that "the regime's integrity" was not usurped by abuse of process,
15
although the question whether abuse is demonstrated has to be "asked and
answered in light of the specifics of the statutory scheme".
43. In Tollman [2006] EWHC 2256 (Admin), the Administrative Court, at
paragraph 82, endorsed the conclusion that the judge conducting extradition
proceedings has jurisdiction to consider an allegation of abuse of process. Rose
LJ went on to apply to extradition proceedings the statement made by Bingham
LJ, in relation to conventional criminal proceedings in R v Liverpool
Stipendiary Magistrate, ex part Ellison [1990] RTR 220:
"If any criminal court at any time has cause to suspect that a
prosecutor may be manipulating or using the procedures of the
court in order to oppress or unfairly to prejudice a defendant
before the court, I have no doubt that it is the duty of the court to
inquire into the situation and ensure that its procedure is not
being abused. Usually no doubt such inquiry will be prompted
by a complaint on the part of the defendant. But the duty of the
court in my view exists even in the absence of a complaint."
44. The Court, in Tollman [2006] EWHC 2256 (Admin), then went on, at
paragraph 84, to set out the proper procedure for dealing with an allegation of
abuse of process:
"Where an allegation of abuse of process is made, the first step
must be to insist on the conduct alleged to constitute the abuse
being identified with particularity. The judge must then consider
whether the conduct, if established, is capable of amounting to
an abuse of process. If it is, he must next consider whether there
are reasonable grounds for believing that such conduct may
have occurred. If there are, then the judge should not accede to
the request for extradition unless he has satisfied himself that
such abuse has not occurred."
16
45. More recent cases such as Lopetas v. Minister of Justice for Lithuania [2007]
EWHC 2407(Admin) and Central Examining Court of the National Court of
Madrid v. City of Westminster Magistrates' Court & Malkit Singh [2007]
EWJC 2059 (Admin) have applied the above authorities.
46. It is submitted that these thresholds have been met in this case.
The conduct alleged to constitute the abuse must be identified with
particularity
47. First, the conduct alleged to constitute the abuse has been identified with
particularity.
48. The abusive conduct consists of the fact that Ms. Ny is seeking Mr. Assange's
extradition in circumstances where:
(I) She has not yet decided whether to prosecute him;
(II) She is seeking extradition for the purposes merely of questioning
him in order to further her investigation;
(III) Arrest for the purposes of questioning would have been, and
remains, unnecessary given that repeated offers have made on
Mr. Assange's behalf for him to be questioned by her, which she
has rebuffed; and
17
(IV) The proper, proportionate and legal means of requesting a
person's questioning in the UK in these circumstances is through
Mutual Legal Assistance.
Whether the conduct, if established, is capable of amounting to an abuse
of process
49. It is submitted that it is clear that this conduct, if established, is capable of
amounting to an abuse of process. The line of case-law from re Ismail through
Vey and Trenk all confirm that it is improper to use extradition merely in order
to obtain a person's availability for questioning, absent a clear decision to
prosecute the arrested person, and that the appropriate remedy for the requested
person in those circumstances is for him to be discharged. In those
circumstances, where extradition should never have been sought in the first
place, it is plainly appropriate to stay the proceedings as an abuse of process.
50. This is all the more so where the Prosecutor's stated reason for seeking Mr.
Assange's arrest that all domestic procedures for obtaining his questioning
have been exhausted is patently false, as the requested person has repeatedly,
through his lawyers here and in Sweden, offered himself for questioning.
51. Finally, there is nothing to show that the Prosecutor ever sought to engage the
usual MLA procedures for questioning Mr. Assange. Mr. Hurtig asserts that
under Swedish law there has not even been a formal request for Mr. Assange's
interview, and if the Judicial Authority asserts that there has been, then it is put
to strict proof as to that request.
52. In short, Ms. Ny went from informal discussions about arranging an interview
of Mr. Assange straight to the issuance of an EAW, without taking the
18
reasonable and proportionate, intermediary step of formally summoning him
for an interview or formally requesting his interrogation.
53. These facts have to be seen against the background of the evidence of Ms. Ny's
stated approach to sexual offence cases, demonstrated by her earlier policy
statements about how such cases should be handled. Evidence to this effect is
in the process of being translated from Swedish.
Whether there are reasonable grounds for believing that such conduct may
have occurred
54. It is submitted that there are reasonable grounds for believing that such conduct
may have occurred:
(I) Ms. Ny has not yet decided whether to prosecute Mr. Assange
(II) Ms. Ny is seeking extradition for the purposes merely of
questioning in order to further her investigation
55. These facts are evidenced both by Ms. Ny's public statements to the media and
her official statement to the Australian High Commission, as outlined above.
(III) Arrest for the purposes of questioning would have been, and
remains, unnecessary given that repeated offers have made on
Mr. Assange's behalf for him to be questioned by her, which she
has rebuffed
19
56. This fact is established by the evidence of Mr. Assange's Swedish lawyer, Mr.
Hurtig, as outlined above.
(IV) The proper, appropriate and legal means of requesting a
person's questioning in the UK in these circumstances is through
Mutual Legal Assistance
57. It has always been open to Sweden to request that Mr. Assange be interviewed
in the UK by virtue of the arrangements for Mutual Legal Assistance ("MLA")
between Sweden and the UK, in particular the EU Convention on Mutual Legal
Assistance in Criminal Matters (2000, C197/01) and Protocol (2001/C326/01)
to which all EU member states are parties. These instruments, and the second
additional protocol to the European Convention of 1959, make arrangements,
for example, whereby a witness in one country may give evidence in
proceedings in another by means of video or telephone link.3
58. Indeed, Mr. Assange a cooperative witness, as he has shown by having
already been interviewed at length about the allegations in Sweden - could
easily have been interviewed by the Swedish authorities simply through the
informal assistance of the UK authorities:
"15.23 The United Kingdom does not require that there be in place any
bilateral or multilateral agreement, exchange of letters or other prior
arrangement in order for it to make or entertain a request for mutual
legal assistance. A wide range of assistance can be provided informally,
including:
3 See Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance Handbook (second edition) (Oxford
University Press: 2010), Jones, Davidson, Sambei and Gibbins, chapter 15 ("Mutual
Legal Assistance and other European Council Framework Decisions"), in particular at
paragraph 15.37 ("Video and telephone conferencing"). See also the Home Office's
published guidelines on Mutual Legal Assistance (8th edition).
20
interviews of cooperative witnesses, unless their evidence needs to be
taken on oath
[…]"
59. No credible explanation has been offered by or on behalf of Ms. Ny as to why
she did not simply seek Mr. Assange's questioning through MLA.
60. This is not a self-standing limb to the abuse of process alleged in respect of Ms.
Ny in this case, but it is an additional, relevant feature.
61. For the foregoing reasons, therefore, it is submitted that the Tollman test for
abuse is satisfied in this case, namely the conduct alleged to constitute the
abuse has been identified with particularity; the conduct, if established, is
capable of amounting to an abuse of process; and there are reasonable grounds
for believing that such conduct may have occurred. Accordingly, it is submitted
that the learned judge should not accede to the request for extradition unless he
is able to satisfy himself that such abuse has not occurred.
(2) Section 2 of the Act
62. Furthermore, or in the alternative, it is submitted that the EAW is defective in
respect of section 2 of the Act.
63. Section 2 of the Act provides, in pertinent part, as follows:
2 Part 1 warrant and certificate
(1) This section applies if the designated authority receives a Part 1 warrant in
respect of a person.
21
(2) A Part 1 warrant is an arrest warrant which is issued by a judicial
authority of a category 1 territory and which contains
(a) the statement referred to in subsection (3) and the information
referred to in subsection (4), or
(b) the statement referred to in subsection (5) and the information
referred to in subsection (6).
(3) The statement is one that
(a) the person in respect of whom the Part 1 warrant is issued is
accused in the category 1 territory of the commission of an offence
specified in the warrant, and
(b) the Part 1 warrant is issued with a view to his arrest and extradition
to the category 1 territory for the purpose of being prosecuted for the
offence.
[…]
64. The EAW in this case does not contain the statement referred to in section 2(3)
of the Act. The EAW contains only the ambiguous phrase in the preamble,
"This warrant has been issued by a competent authority. I request that the
person mentioned below be arrested and surrendered for the purposes of
conducting a criminal prosecution or executing a custodial sentence or
detention order", which leaves it entirely unclear as to whether the EAW is
even a conviction EAW or an accusation EAW (assuming that it is one or the
other, and not an interrogation EAW).
65. Nowhere in the EAW is Mr. Assange referred to as an "accused" (to anticipate,
which distinguishes this EAW from the one in e.g. Asztaslos).
66. In Asztaslos, after a review of the authorities, the Court summarised, at para.
38, what it believed to be the effect of the authorities:
"We will attempt to summarise what we believe is the effect of all these
authorities. (1) The court will look at the warrant as a whole to see
22
whether it is an "accusation case" warrant or a "conviction case"
warrant. It will not confine itself to the wording on the first page of the
warrant, which may well be equivocal. (2) In the case of an "accusation
case" warrant, issued under Part 1 of the Act, the court has to be
satisfied, looking at the warrant as a whole, that the requested person is
an "accused" within section 2(3)(a) of the Act. (3) Similarly, the court
will look at the wording of the warrant as a whole to decide whether the
warrant indicates, unequivocally, that the purpose of the warrant is for
the purpose of the requested person being prosecuted for the offences
identified. (4) The court must construe the words in section 2(3)(a) and
(b) in a "cosmopolitan" sense and not just in terms of the stages of
English criminal procedure. (5) If the warrant uses the phrases that are
used in the English language version of the EAW annexed to the
Framework Decision, there should be no (or very little scope) for
argument on the purpose of the warrant. (6) Only if the wording of the
warrant is equivocal should the court consider examining extrinsic
evidence to decide on the purpose of the warrant. But it should not look
at extrinsic material to introduce a possible doubt as to the purpose
where it is clear on the face of the warrant itself. (7) Consideration of
extrinsic factual or expert evidence to ascertain the purpose of the
warrant should be a last resort and it is to be discouraged. The
introduction of such evidence is clean contrary to the aspiration of the
Framework Decision, which is to introduce clarity and simplicity into
the surrender procedure between member states of the European Union.
Therefore the introduction of extrinsic factual and expert evidence must
be discouraged, except in exceptional cases."
67. The requested person would make the following submissions regarding the
effect of Aszataslos.
68. First, Aszataslos deals with the issue of whether an EAW is deficient in respect
of section 2 of the Act, and is not concerned with the question of whether the
proceedings constitute an abuse of process by virtue of a misuse of the EAW
(the point made in section (1) above). Plainly evidence from outside the EAW
itself ("extrinsic factual and expert evidence") is always admissible if relevant
to a potential abuse of process.
23
69. Second, it is not accepted that the Court's summary in Aszataslos of what it
believed to be the effect of the authorities, is entirely accurate. For example, in
neither Vey nor Trenk did the High Court consider, nor state, that factual and/or
expert evidence regarding whether a person is an accused person in the
requesting state should only be introduced "in exceptional cases". On the
contrary, in both those cases, the Court evidently considered it perfectly proper
to consider the evidence bearing on the subject. As Vey and Trenk are both
decisions of the High Court, Aszataslos is of no greater precedential value than
those authorities.
70. Third, even applying the propositions enunciated in Aszataslos, and even
assuming that this is not an "exceptional case" (which it plainly is), the EAW
in this case does not "indicate, unequivocally, that the purpose of the warrant
is for the purpose of the requested person being prosecuted for the offences
identified". In Aszataslos, the Court considered that the position was made
clear in box (e) of the warrant, where the requested person was referred to as an
"accused". Nowhere in the present EAW is Mr. Assange referred to as an
"accused" revealingly, he is only ever referred to by his name. Nowhere in
the EAW is it said that the EAW has been issued for the purpose of Mr.
Assange's prosecution, beyond the formula on the first page of the warrant
which, as in Aszataslos, is "equivocal".
71. Confining oneself to the four corners of the EAW, therefore, the EAW is
equivocal, entitling the Court according to the propositions enunciated in
Aszataslos - to examine "extrinsic evidence" ("(6) Only if the wording of the
warrant is equivocal should the court consider examining extrinsic evidence to
decide on the purpose of the warrant"), namely the statements made by the
Prosecutor, Ms. Ny, who issued the warrant, that no decision has been yet
taken as to whether to prosecute Mr. Assange and that the EAW has been
24
issued for the purpose merely of questioning him further and of hearing "his
side of the story".
72. Fourth, Mr. Assange would, in any event, argue that this is an "exceptional
case". This case is entirely unlike those discussed in Aztaslos, where expert
evidence has been obtained in order to throw doubt on an otherwise clear
situation of an accusation EAW. In this case, the Prosecutor herself has made
clear, unequivocal public statements to the media and to the Australian High
Commission to the effect that no decision has been yet taken as to whether to
prosecute Mr. Assange and that the EAW has been issued for the purpose
merely of questioning him further. This is a highly unusual, if not
unprecedented, state of affairs, and clearly an exceptional case enabling this
Court to consider that evidence.
73. Accordingly, for the foregoing reasons, it is submitted that the EAW is
equivocal as to the purposes for which Mr. Assange's extradition is sought and
fails to comply with section 2(3) of the Act, and therefore the EAW is not a
Part 1 warrant and the Court has no jurisdiction over him.
3. Additional limb of abuse of process: non-disclosure by the Swedish
Prosecutor
74. Ms. Ny's letter to the Australian Consulate reveals, moreover, that she is on the
horns of a dilemma. As is clear from that letter, if she had taken a decision to
prosecute Mr. Assange, then he would be entitled to "examine all documents
relating to the case" and "to receive a copy of the investigation".
25
75. There has not, however, been full disclosure of the documents in the
investigation file in this case. In particular, Mr. Assange has not been provided
with copies of the SMS messages sent by the Complainants in which in
contrast to what is alleged in the EAW Ms. Wilen says that she was "half
asleep" at the time of the sexual intercourse.
76. In passing it should be noted that if the Complainant's own evidence that she
was "half asleep" has been bolstered in the EAW into an allegation that she
was fully asleep, in order to support the making of a rape allegation, then this
would in itself constitute prosecutorial abuse.
77. Other text messages from and between the Complainants which the Swedish
Prosecutor has refused to disclose but which Mr. Assange's lawyer, Mr. Hurtig
has seen (but was not allowed by the Prosecutor to take notes or copies of),
speak of revenge and of the opportunity to make lots of money and of going to
the Swedish national newspaper, Expressen (see Chronology, MS/1, entries for
19-20 August 2010). Ms. Ardin, moreover, as the Swedish Prosecutor is no
doubt aware, maintained a blog in which, 6 months prior to the allegations in
this case, she set out her "7 steps for legal revenge"4 a seven-stage plan for
4 "7 Steps to Legal Revenge by Anna Ardin
Step 1: Consider very carefully if you really must take revenge. It is almost always
better to forgive than to avenge . . .
Step 2: Think about why you want revenge. You need to be clear about who to take
revenge on, as well as why. Revenge is never directed against only one person, but
also the actions of the person.
Step 3: The principle of proportionality. Remember that revenge will not only match
the deed in size but also in nature. A good revenge is linked to what has been done
against you. For example if you want revenge on someone who cheated or who
dumped you, you should use a punishment with dating/sex/fidelity involved.
Step 4: Do a brainstorm of appropriate measures for the category of revenge you're
after. To continue the example above, you can sabotage your victim's current
relationship, such as getting his new partner to be unfaithful or ensure that he gets a
madman after him.
Use your imagination!
Step 5: Figure out how you can systematically take revenge. Send your victim a series
26
taking systematic revenge against an ex-lover (she has since deleted the last 6
steps from her blog). Clearly these SMS messages and extracts from blogs
significantly undermine not only the Prosecution's case, but the request for his
extradition. Yet they have not been disclosed to Mr. Assange or to his legal
team.
78. The horns of the Swedish Prosecutor's dilemma are these: either (1) Mr.
Assange's extradition is sought for purposes of prosecution, and thus a decision
has been taken as to his prosecution and he is then entitled under Swedish law
to disclosure of the entire investigation file, including the SMS messages and
blog evidence and yet these crucial items of evidence have not been disclosed
to him, representing a serious violation of Swedish criminal procedure law and
dereliction of duty on the part of Ms. Ny, and thus an abuse of process, or (2)
Mr. Assange's extradition is not being sought for the purposes of prosecution,
in which case it should not have been sought at all. Either way, it is an abuse of
process for Ms. Ny to proceed in the way in which she is doing.
79. Indeed, it bears emphasising that Mr. Assange has never been informed by the
Swedish Prosecutor, in a language he understands, of the charges against him,
if indeed there are any formal charges until he was arrested on the EAW. If
he was indeed a formal suspect, then this would have had to happen.
of letters and photographs that make your victim's new partner believe that you are
still together which is better than to tell just one big lie on one single occasion.
Step 6: Rank your systematic revenge schemes from low to high in terms of likely
success, required input from you, and degree of satisfaction when you succeed. The
ideal, of course, is a revenge as strong as possible but this requires a lot of hard work
and effort for it to turn out exactly as you want it to.
Step 7: Get to work.
And remember what your goals are while you are operating, ensure that your victim
will suffer the same way as he made you suffer."
27
4. Additional limb of abuse of process: the conduct of the prosecution in
Sweden
80. Further expert evidence from distinguished Swedish legal authorities will show
that Mr Assange has been the victim of a pattern of illegal and or corrupt
behaviour by the Swedish Prosecuting Authorities:
(a) Contrary to Swedish law, an acting Prosecutor released his name to
the press as the suspect in a rape inquiry, thus ensuring his
vilification throughout the world;
(b) After the Swedish authorities announced that Mr Assange had been
cleared of rape by the Stockholm prosecutor, a secret process took
place from which Mr Assange and his lawyers were excluded and
by virtue of which, at the behest of a lawyer acting for the
complainants, the rape allegation was revived by a new prosecutor,
Marianne Ny. This secret process was a blatant breach of Article 6
of the ECHR;
© The repeated refusal of the new prosecutor, Ms. Ny, either to
interview Mr Assange on dates offered in Sweden or to interview
him by telephone, Skype, interview or at the Swedish embassy in
London was disproportionate or unreasonable behaviour under
Article 5 of the ECHR;
(d) The prosecutor's office has refused all requests - and still refuses all
requests - to make the evidence against Mr. Assange available in
English, which is his right under Article 6 of the ECHR;
28
(e) The prosecutor's office has given Mr. Assange's Swedish lawyer a
98 page evidence file in the Swedish language. It has, illegally
under Swedish law, made extracts of that file available to the
English media, with the object that he should be further vilified in
the UK and elsewhere. One newspaper has admitted that it was
granted "unauthorised" access to the prosecution file. This was a
breach of Mr. Asssange's fair trial and privacy rights.
(f) Swedish law apparently permits and even pays for the lawyer
representing complainants to attack the credibility of suspects even
before they are charged. In this case, the Swedish state has paid Mr
Claes Borgstrom to give interviews to international journalists
assassinating the character of Mr Assange and prejudicing his fair
trial on these charges. Sweden has no law of contempt of court or of
perverting the course of justice of the kind that is necessary to
prevent media character assassination of a potential defendant prior
to charge. This is a breach of Article 6 of the ECHR.
(g) As noted above, the Swedish prosecution refuses to disclose Twitter
and SMS messages to and from the complainants at relevant times,
which messages destroy their credibility. This is a breach of UK
law as well as European human rights law.
81. In relation to this limb of abuse of process, reliance is also placed upon the
matters set out in paragraphs 9-10 of the letter of Mr. Hurtig (MS-4).
29
5. The offences are not extradition offences (section 10 of the Act)
82. Pursuant to section 10(2) of the Act, the District Judge must decide at the
extradition hearing whether the offences specified in the EAW are extradition
offences.
83. It is submitted that none of the conduct alleged against the requested person
would constitute an offence in England and Wales.
84. As the House of Lords laid down in Norris v. Government of the USA and
others [2008] UKHL 16, the "conduct test" for double criminality should be
applied consistently throughout the 2003 Act. The conduct relevant under Part
1 of the Act is that set out in the EAW:
"91. The committee has reached the conclusion that the wider
construction should prevail. In short, the conduct test should be applied
consistently throughout the 2003 Act, the conduct relevant under Part 2
of the Act being that described in the documents constituting the request
(the equivalent of the arrest warrant under Part 1), ignoring in both
cases mere narrative background but taking account of such allegations
as are relevant to the description of the corresponding United Kingdom
offence …"
85. In this case, the relevant conduct is set out in box (e) of the EAW. It is
submitted that none of the conduct alleged would amount to an offence in the
UK.
30
86. The issuing Judicial Authority has yet to state, in an Opening Note, which
offences under English law it says would have been committed had the conduct
alleged in box (e) occurred in the UK. Accordingly, the requested person will
be entitled to make submissions in response to the Judicial Authority's
position, once it is known.
6. Extraneous considerations (section 13 of the Act)
87. Section 13 of the Act provides as follows:
13 Extraneous considerations
A person's extradition to a category 1 territory is barred by reason of
extraneous considerations if (and only if) it appears that
(a) the Part 1 warrant issued in respect of him (though purporting to be
issued on account of the extradition offence) is in fact issued for the
purpose of prosecuting or punishing him on account of his race,
religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation or political opinions, or
(b) if extradited he might be prejudiced at his trial or punished, detained
or restricted in his personal liberty by reason of his race, religion,
nationality, gender, sexual orientation or political opinions.
88. Mr. Assange reserves the right to argue that his extradition is barred by reason
of extraneous considerations, namely that the EAW has been issued against
him for the purposes of prosecuting or punishing him for his political opinions
(limb (a)) and/or that he will be prejudiced at trial, etc., by reason of those
opinions (limb (b)), or by reason of his gender as a result of the 2005
amendments to the sexual offences laws in Sweden which deny to men the
protection of mens rea. The latter point will also be made in respect of the
"extradition offence" issue (see earlier), in that these gender amendments
31
preclude any assumption that the Swedish offence contains the requisite
element of mens rea.
89. This argument will rely on the matters set out at paragraph 80 above, supported
by expert and other evidence and accordingly it will be further developed once
that evidence is served.
7. Human rights (section 21 of the Act)
90. Section 21 of the Act provides, in pertinent part, as follows:
"21 Human rights
(1) If the judge is required to proceed under this section (by virtue of
section 11 or 20) he must decide whether the person's extradition would
be compatible with the Convention rights within the meaning of the
Human Rights Act 1998 (c 42).
(2) If the judge decides the question in subsection (1) in the negative he
must order the person's discharge.
[…]"
91. Mr. Assange reserves the right to argue that his extradition would be
incompatible with his human rights, in particular under Articles 3, 6, 8 and 10
of the ECHR. Again, the formulation of this argument will rely on expert and
other evidence and accordingly it will be further developed once that evidence
is available.
92. With regard to the risk of a breach of article 3 of the ECHR, by virtue of
onward rendition to the USA, reliance is placed on two cases in which Sweden
32
has been found to have violated the international prohibition on torture by
virtue of rendition of persons to Egypt.
93. In 2005, in Agiza v. Sweden (Communication No. 233/2003), the United
Nations Committee against Torture found that Sweden had violated the United
Nations Convention against Torture ("CAT"). In its Decision dated 24 May
2005 (CAT/C/34/D/233/2003), the Committee found that Sweden's expulsion
of Agiza was in breach of its obligation under Article 3 of CAT not to expel or
to return a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for
believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture:
"13.4 The Committee considers at the outset that it was known, or
should have been known, to the State party's authorities at the time of
the complainant's removal that Egypt resorted to consistent and
widespread use of torture against detainees, and that the risk of such
treatment was particularly high in the case of detainees held for
political and security reasons. The State party was also aware that its
own security intelligence services regarded the complainant as
implicated in terrorist activities and a threat to its national security, and
for these reasons its ordinary tribunals referred the case to the
Government for a decision at the highest executive level, from which no
appeal was possible. The State party was also aware of the interest in
the complainant by the intelligence services of two other States:
according to the facts submitted by the State party to the Committee, the
first foreign State offered through its intelligence service an aircraft to
transport the complainant to the second State, Egypt, where to the State
party's knowledge, he had been sentenced in absentia and was wanted
for alleged involvement in terrorist activities. In the Committee's view,
the natural conclusion from these combined elements, that is, that the
complainant was at a real risk of torture in Egypt in the event of
expulsion, was confirmed when, immediately preceding expulsion, the
complainant was subjected on the State party's territory to treatment in
breach of, at least, article 16 of the Convention by foreign agents but
with the acquiescence of the State party's police. It follows that the State
party's expulsion of the complainant was in breach of article 3 of the
Convention. The procurement of diplomatic assurances, which,
moreover, provided no mechanism for their enforcement, did not suffice
to protect against this manifest risk."
33
94. Worryingly, too, the Committee against Torture further found that Sweden
failed to co-operate fully with the Committee "by neither disclosing to the
Committee relevant information, nor presenting its concerns to the Committee
for an appropriate procedural decision" (paragraph 13.10), thereby also
breaching Article 22 of the CAT.
95. The following year, in Mohammed Alzery v. Sweden (Communication No.
1416/2005), the United Nations Human Rights Committee ("HRC"), the treaty
body established to examine individual and inter-state complaints regarding
breaches of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
("ICCPR"), found that Sweden had violated the prohibition on torture
contained in Article 7 of the ICCPR.
96. The HRC found that Sweden had committed multiple violations of the
prohibition on torture by expelling Mr. Alzery to Egypt, including violations
committed by foreign agents (US and Egyptian agents) on Swedish territory, at
Bromma airport (paragraph 11.6). Among other things, the HRC considered
that Sweden over-relied on mere diplomatic assurances which it received
regarding the risk of ill-treatment (paragraph 11.4):
"11.4 The Committee notes that, in the present case, the State party
itself has conceded that there was a risk of ill-treatment that without
more would have prevented the expulsion of the author consistent with
its international human rights obligations (see supra, at para 3.6). The
State party in fact relied on the diplomatic assurances alone for its
belief that the risk of proscribed ill-treatment was sufficiently reduced to
avoid breaching the prohibition on refoulement."
34
97. These cases, and what they reveal about Sweden's naïveté in relying on
diplomatic assurances that expelled persons will not be ill-treated, are
significant for this case.
98. It is submitted that there is a real risk that, if extradited to Sweden, the US will
seek his extradition and/or illegal rendition to the USA, where there will be a
real risk of him being detained at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere, in conditions
which would breach Article 3 of the ECHR. Indeed, if Mr. Assange were
rendered to the USA, without assurances that the death penalty would not be
carried out, there is a real risk that he could be made subject to the death
penalty. It is well-known that prominent figures have implied, if not stated
outright, that Mr. Assange should be executed:
- Mick Huckabee, who is one of the favourites as Republican
candidate, for the 2010 Presidential election has called for those
responsible for the leaking of the US Embassy cables to be executed
("US embassy cables culprit should be executed, says Mike
Huckabee: Republican presidential hopeful wants the person
responsible for the WikiLeaks cables to face capital punishment for
treason", The Guardian on-line, 1 December 2010
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec...sexecuted-
mike-huckabee) ;
- "WikiLeaks: guilty parties 'should face death penalty': Leading US
political figures have called for the death penalty to be imposed on
the person who leaked sensitive documents to whistle-blower website
WikiLeaks as anger intensified against those responsible for the
international relations crisis", The Telegraph on-line, 10 January
35
2011,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...8172916/Wi
kiLeaks-guilty-parties-should-face-death-penalty.html);
- Sarah Palin, the former Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, has
said that Mr. Assange "should be hunted down just like al-Qaeda
and Taliban leaders"
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...8171269/Sa
rah-Palin-hunt-WikiLeaks-founder-like-al-Qaeda-and-Talibanleaders.
html).
99. If the USA were to seek Mr. Assange's rendition from Sweden, e.g. by way of
expelling an alien on the completion of any criminal proceedings in Sweden, it
is submitted that, based on its record as condemned by the United Nations
Committee against Torture and the Human Rights Committee, Sweden would
bow to US pressure and/or rely naively on diplomatic assurances from the USA
that Mr. Assange would not be mistreated, with the consequence that he would
be deported/expelled to the USA, where he would suffer serious ill-treatment,
in breach of Article 3 of the ECHR, as well as in breach of Articles 6, 8 and 10
of the ECHR.
8. Conclusion
100. For the foregoing reasons, Mr. Assange will request the Court to order his
discharge.
Geoffrey Robertson QC
John RWD Jones
Doughty Street Chambers
10th January 2011
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx

"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.

“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
Reply
WikiLeaks: Julian Assange 'faces execution or Guantánamo detention'

Quote:WikiLeaks: Julian Assange 'faces execution or Guantánamo detention'
Skeleton argument outlined by Australian's defence team claims he could face rendition to US if extradited to Sweden

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Esther Addley
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 January 2011 14.21 GMT


Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, could be at "real risk" of the death penalty or detention in Guantánamo Bay if he is extradited to Sweden on accusations of rape and sexual assault, his lawyers claim.

In a skeleton summary of their defence against attempts by the Swedish director of public prosecutions to extradite him, released today, Assange's legal team argue that there is a similar likelihood that the US would subsequently seek his extradition "and/or illegal rendition", "where there will be a real risk of him being detained at Guantánamo Bay or elsewhere".

"Indeed, if Mr Assange were rendered to the USA, without assurances that the death penalty would not be carried out, there is a real risk that he could be made subject to the death penalty. It is well known that prominent figures have implied, if not stated outright, that Mr Assange should be executed."

The 35-page skeleton argument was released by Mark Stephens, Assange's lawyer, following a brief review hearing this morning at Belmarsh magistrates court.

The WikiLeaks founder, who is on conditional bail while his extradition case is being considered, appeared for no more than 15 minutes in the dock, while supporters including Jemima Khan and Bianca Jagger looked on and waved support from the public gallery.

He later emerged to give a brief statement to a large number of reporters, saying: "Our work with WikiLeaks continues unabated. We are stepping up our publications for matters relating to Cablegate and other materials.

"These will shortly be available through our newspaper partners around the world big and small newspapers and human rights organisations.
"

The skeleton argument outlines seven points on which Assange's lawyers will contest his extradition, which was sought by the Swedish DPP, Marianne Ny, following accusations from two women that he had sexually assaulted them in separate incidents in August.

One accusation, that Assange had sex with one of the women while she was asleep, would amount to rape under Swedish law if proven. Both women had previously had consenting sex with Assange.

The other points of argument include:

That the European arrest warrant (EAW) is not valid, because Ny is not the authorised issuing authority, and it has been sought for an improper purpose ie "simply in order to question him and without having yet reached a decision on whether or not to prosecute him". This, they argue, would be in contravention of a well-established principle "that mere suspicion should not found a request for extradition".

That there has been "abuse of process" as Assange has not had full disclosure of all documents relating to the case, in particular text messages sent by one of the women, in which she allegedly said she was "half asleep" (ie not fully asleep) at the time they had sex, and messages between the two women in which they allegedly spoke of "revenge".

That the "conduct" of the Swedish prosecutor amounts to abuse of process. Assange's lawyers cite the fact that the rape allegations were initially dismissed and then reopened by a second prosecutor, that the prosecutor has refused Assange's offers of interview, and that it has not made documents available to Assange in English. They also cite the leak of part of the prosecution case to the Guardian as "a breach of Mr Assange's fair trial and privacy rights".

That the alleged offences would not be considered crimes in the UK, and therefore, they argue, an EAW between the two countries would not be valid.

That the extradition attempt is politically motivated, and that his trial would be prejudiced because of his political opinions or because, they argue, of his gender.

Assange's team will make their case on 7 and 8 February, when Assange will return to court for the full extradition hearing. The case for his extradition is being argued by the Crown Prosecution Service on behalf of the Swedish prosecutor; the full prosecution case is not expected to be released before that date.

District Judge Nicholas Evans agreed at this morning's hearing to ease the terms of his bail conditions, which require Assange to wear an electronic tag and report daily to a police station close to the stately home on the Suffolk/Norfolk border where he is staying. For the nights of 6 and 7 February Assange will be permitted to stay in London.

(my bolding) The last official Wikieaks leaked cable was published on 5th January 2011.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14
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Lawyer for Assange's Sex Accusers Helped In CIA Torture Rendition

By Andrew Kreig | Last updated Jan 13, 2011, 1:03 am
[Image: Thomas-Bodstr%C3%B6m1-300x225.jpg]Former Justice Minister Thomas Bodström (Photo via Wikipedia/Creative Commons)

Best-selling spy thriller author Thomas Bodström ─ an attorney who represents the two Swedish women making the notorious sex charges against WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange ─ knows better than most people that truth is stranger than fiction.
As Sweden's Minister of Justice, Bodström helped his nation in 2001 secretly turn over to the Central Intelligence Agency two asylum-seekers suspected by the CIA of terror, according to materials recently researched via Google by my Justice Integrity Project and by the Legal Schnauzer blog of Roger Shuler. Shuler broke the story this morning in his blog, "Lawyer for Assange Accusers Has Apparent Ties to CIA and Torture."
The CIA flew the terror suspects to Egypt for torture as part of the decade's rendition effort requiring secret, high-level Swedish cooperation. Assange is the subject of a recent global manhunt by the Swedes seeking him for sex questioning. The United States is investigating him intensely, but has not filed charges. But he can take only cold comfort that Sweden eventually welcomed back the 2001 asylum seekers under international pressure and awarded them damages for their torture.
On Jan. 11, Assange's attorneys spoke of their fears that if Great Britain sends their client to Sweden to Sweden for an inquiry on sex charges he could end up being sent by Sweden to the United States on spy charges. There, the defense lawyers said, Assange could face death or imprisonment at Guantanamo in Cuba, where the Bush and Obama administrations can hold so-called terrorists almost indefinitely with minimal due process.

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As a parallel development, the Obama administration has used the disclosures as rationale for a wide-ranging crackdown not simply against WikiLeaks but against anyone in government or the media, particularly the web-based media, who might disclose secrets that the government regards as threatening national security. Our project summarized these developments this week in a [url=http://www.opednews.com/articles/Whistleblower-Says-Obama-by-Andrew-Kreig-110110-264.html]column
, "Whistleblower Says: Obama's DoJ Declares War on Whistleblowers."
WikiLeaks Questions
Bodström is sometimes described as "The John Grisham of Sweden." He left his Social Democratic Party and his parliament seat last fall to move to the United States for six months, citing a need for family time and to write another book.
Is Bodström again cooperating with U.S. authorities in their all-out effort to save the United States, Sweden and perhaps Bodström himself from further embarrassment caused by cables WikiLeaks might release from its still-secret trove?
Or are Swedish authorities proceeding normally, as they claim, in launching a global Interpol manhunt to capture Assange to question him about precisely how and why he engaged in sex-without-a-condom last summer with two women who invited him separately to stay with them in their beds while he was on a speaking tour?
Whatever the case, Bodström's role in helping initiate the sex claims which are not criminal charges inevitably bring scrutiny upon his motives, background and law partner Claes Borgström, a prominent feminist and, like Bodström, a former official in the Social Democratic Party.
Lawyers for Assange made news Jan. 11 by saying their client could be "detained at Guantanamo Bay" or subject to the death penalty if he is extradited from Britain to Sweden, which could lead to extradition or "illegal rendition" to the U.S. The lawyers issued the statement, according to a Huffington Post report, as the WikiLeaks founder appeared in a U.K. court to schedule his extradition hearing for questioning in Sweden over alleged sex crimes.
It's not just Assange and his attorneys who fear trumped-up charges against Assange. Critics in Sweden are saying that their government has been jeopardizing their country's hard-won reputation for political neutrality and human rights. In November, Sweden's parliament announced that it would probe U.S. embassy surveillance of Swedish citizens revealed by WikiLeaks and its media partners.
Political Prosecutions At Home and Abroad
The legal reform project I founded last year got its start investigating the kinds of political prosecutions that became notorious in the United States during the Bush administration in 2007 after revelations that the Justice Department had purged nine U.S. attorneys for political reasons the previous year. Digging deep in such cases, one often finds that some prosecutors use every possible tool to destroy a target under the guise of enforcing the law.
The conventional wisdom is that such prosecutions under Bush were a temporary aberration, perhaps encouraged by then-White House adviser Karl Rove out of partisan zeal before he resigned in mid-2007. But our research has concluded that political interference in the justice system is a serious, longstanding problem blighting both parties and largely ignored by such watchdog institutions as the traditional news media.
The probe of Assange on both sex and spy charges shows how political prosecutions dishonor other nations as well, and carry the potential for undermining web-based news distribution systems that currently provide one of best hopes for citizen oversight of government abuse of power.
Last week, our project published a Connecticut Watchdog column headlined, "Rove Suspected of Role In Swedish WikiLeaks Probe." Rove has long advised Sweden's governing Moderate Party and is well-positioned as a White House veteran of earlier rendition efforts to counsel leaders about the political and media dimensions on the capture of the nomadic Assange.
The column attracted widespread readership and follow-ups elsewhere because of Rove's reputation. The column also attracted several conservative critics, who said Rove's statement on his website bio that he has advised Sweden's governing Moderate Party does not prove that he has specifically advised Prime Minister Fredric Reinfeldt or his administration about WikiLeaks.
Failing to receive a response from Rove for comment, I hosted one of his longtime friends, Timbro Media Institute Executive Director Roland P. Martinsson, on my "Washington Update" public affairs radio show Jan. 6. Martinsson, who heads Scandinavia's leading conservative, free-market think tank, called for Assange's arrest and said there's no evidence Rove is involved with Reinfeldt or WikiLeaks.
Prof. Brian Palmer of Uppsala University, a Reinfeldt biographer and one of my sources for Reinfeldt's links to Rove, is the scheduled guest Jan. 13 on the show, which can be heard live at noon (ET) worldwide or by archive later on the My Technology Lawyer radio network. Listener and dial-in question information is available on the show's website. I am thrilled also be to a guest discussing this next Sunday on Connecticut Watchdog's radio show hosted by George Gombossy.
What follows are further reports drawn from the public record about irregularities in the Assange prosecutions. They paint a picture suspiciously like those of some of the more infamous political prosecutions in the United States of recent years, but as ever this is only a step along the way in investigating what really happened.

The Accusers' Lawyer

Let's start with a Wikipedia bio.
Thomas Lennart Bodström is a Swedish politician and member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. He was the Swedish Minister for Justice in the two last succeeding governments of the Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson, from 2000 to 2006. Since October 2006 until October 2010 he was the chairman of the Riksdags committee for juridical issues….
Thomas Bodström is the son of Lennart Bodström, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs 19821985 in the Olof Palme government. In his youth, however, Thomas Bodström was not involved in party politics. Instead, his first brush with media attention came as a football player… He took interest in international affairs and in 1999 he joined the board of the Swedish branch of the international organisation Lawyers Without Borders.
His role in the CIA rendition of two terror subjects in 2001 has become controversial in Sweden after United Nations and Swedish officials began issuing reports. For example, the Swedish news organization The Local reported in 2006, "Sweden broke torture ban during CIA deportation."
Swedish officials just looked on while US agents mistreated Mohammad Alzery, along with fellow Eyptian Ahmed Agiza, at Stockholm's Bromma Airport," according to the news report. "This very serious indeed for Sweden," said Anna Wigenmark, a lawyer at human rights group the Swedish Helsinki Committee, who represented Alzery at the UN.
Who's To Blame?
Bodström has long minimized this role authorizing the 2001 rendition. He and former Prime Minister Göran Persson have said that decision-making was a group-effort, with the key choices made by then-Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, who was assassinated in 2003. Bodström said that he only became aware of CIA involvement Jan. 7, 2002 at a meeting with the then head of the security police, Säpo.
But Lindh's friend and former communications director Eva Franchet wrote "Girlfriend," a 2009 book that implicated Bodström and Persson. According to press reports in 2009, Franchet wrote that Bodström learned about the rendition at the same time as her late boss, Dec. 17, the day before they occurred. Franchet's book also said the United States was threatening Sweden with heavy trade sanctions unless her nation complied with the rendition.
Even accepting Bodström's defense, his government's overall cooperation with renditions undercuts claims by Sweden's establishment that its justice system is immune from political pressure, including from the United States.
Instead, those who delve into those matters can see beneath the surface a pattern of human rights rhetoric that coexists with behind-the-scenes battles over whether the nation would live up to such aspirations. For example, a start-up group Stop NATO Sweden last year published a long white paper, "From Neutrality to NATO." It documented how leaders of major parties in Sweden have been supporting the U.S.-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in ways incompatible with Sweden's neutrality traditions.
In December, a Swedish medical school professor and noted human rights advocate wrote a hard-hitting column headlined, "Assange Buried the Swedish Neutrality Myth." Dr. Marcello Vittorio Ferrada-Noli wrote that Sweden can no longer enjoy the image "of a modern, independent, democratic and non-aligned country" because of WikiLeaks, and therefore is embarked on what he called "revenge."
His next column Jan. 11 was headlined, "The Swedish political crusade against Assange and WikiLeaks." It argued that Bodström and his law partner initiated the questionable sex charges that obscured Bodstrom's dealings with U.S. authorities, as well as scandalous sellouts by officials since then of Swedish business interests.
The validity of Sweden's sex crime investigation has been debated in many quarters and is conveniently framed by an exchange of open letters last month between filmmaker Michael Moore and a Swedish defender of its procedures.
Next Steps
The ending of this thriller is not in sight. Without the power of subpoena, scriveners can only advance the plot incrementally by bringing forward such "new" material about the pasts of such an important characters in this saga as the attorneys representing Assange's accusers. Our project has attempted to contact him and his partner without success for comment. We shall continue such efforts with the intention of providing updates here.
In the meantime, one has to wonder why the lawyer background isn't more widely known, at least in the United States. This is particularly true of Bodström, who for so long was so prominent in government and elsewhere in such interesting ways. The background is all public. Bonnier AB, Sweden's most important media company and also highly influential in government and diplomacy, has vast resources to connect the dots for its readers, for example. So do the major U.S. news organizations.
Is there something boring about a handsome, best-selling author, former football star like Bodström, who served as one of Europe's top legal officials and is now embroiled in major international sex scandal and political intrigue? What if the scandal ultimately threatens to restrict the world's whistleblowers, reporters and their readers from learning what's in government documents? Is it only a few bloggers that have the resources to research the past of such a key figure in this case?
Or is this kind of material only for the government to know, along with its most discrete scriveners?

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http://ctwatchdog.com/2011/01/12/how-muc...-rendition
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx

"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.

“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
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...aha...that clears up a few things :mexican: angryfire
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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Indeed.

The smoking noose.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14
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David Guyatt Wrote:Indeed.

The smoking noose.
With Julian Assange's name neatly engraved on it......hand engraved, I'll have you know....
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
After more than a week with no new releases the WL Central blog reported there were more about to be released and an hour or so later we had a 'Cablegate' site update with about 60 new cables with release dates up to and including today (13 Jan).

However, the latest torrent files don't link to any parts of the file. Neither does the 'download full-site archive' link work.

I have had the Magnet url of the latest Torrent in my Torrent client since this morning. It reports between 15 and 20 peers connected to the tracker but there is nothing to download, which can only mean that the original file release has not been downloaded by anyone out side Wikileaks yet - or if it has those who have downloaded it, immediately stopped seeding it - a highly unlikely scenario. I've downloaded all of these since the releases started and it has never taken longer than about 5 minutes.

It's odd.
Peter Presland

".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn

[/SIZE][/SIZE]
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Disturbing stuff from WL Central:

Jacob Appelbaum is a security analyst who works on Tor and Wikileaks, and has been very instrumental in discovering weaknesses in the Haystack system, among other things. He has gained notoriety with the US government through acting as a speaker and advocate of Wikileaks, and became widely known last fall after a Rolling Stone article calling him "The Most Dangerous Man in Cyberspace" and "The American hacker behind Wikileaks". Recently he was one of the subjects of a subpoena from the US DoJ requesting information from Twitter. While the Twitter story broke he was in Iceland, and he returned to the US on Monday. He has been the subject of repeated harassment at airports this year, and apparently Monday was no exception, despite members of the ACLU meeting him at the airport. He will be headed to Toronto this weekend and will be able to experience the independence (or not) of Canadian customs.
His tweets on his most recent experience arriving in the US:

Quote:Jan 7: 9:07PM - It seems quite wrong that I feel safe in Iceland while simultaneously having a sense of apprehension about returning to the USA next week.
Jan 7: 9:20PM - Motivation: ..."I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear."...
Jan 7: 9:33PM - Now's a good time to note that *the world* needs strong anonymity. Help out: https://www.torproject.org/getinvolved/v...er.html.en
Jan 9: 10:52AM - After a good deal of thought, I've decided to fly home from Iceland tomorrow to Seattle as planned. The ACLU will meet me at the airport.
Jan 9: 11:12AM - I am not practically able to transport electronic devices. I will be radio silent before, during, and for some time after my flight.
Jan 9: 11:31AM - I think that it is unlikely that there will be any serious trouble. With secret courts and sealed orders... the only way to know is to go.
Jan 10: 5:30AM - I'm heading to the airport from Reykjavik and expect to be in the US around 16:40 PST Monday afternoon. Perhaps everything will go smoothly.
Jan 10: 7:40PM - I am out of the airport and back in Seattle. Nothing more for now, sleep time.

Yesterday (January 12) he added:
- It's very frustrating that I have to put so much consideration into talking about the kind of harassment that I am subjected to in airports.
- I was detained, searched, and CPB did attempt to question me about the nature of my vacation upon landing in Seattle.
- The CPB specifically wanted laptops and cell phones and were visibly unhappy when they discovered nothing of the sort.
- I did however have a few USB thumb drives with a copy of the Bill of Rights encoded into the block device. They were unable to copy it.
- The forensic specialist (who was friendly) explained that EnCase and FTK, with a write-blocker inline were unable to see the Bill of Rights.
- The CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) agent was waiting for me at the exit gate. Remember when it was our family and loved ones?
- When I handed over my customs declaration form, the female agent was initially friendly. After pulling my record, she had a sour face.
- She attempted to trick me by putting words into my mouth. She marked my card with a large box with the number 1 inside, sent me on my way.
- While waiting for my baggage, I noticed the CBP agent watching me and of course after my bag arrived, I was "randomly" selected for search.
- Only US customs has random number generator worse than a mid-2007 Debian random number generator. Random? Hardly.
- During the search, I made it quite clear that I had no laptop and no cell phone. Only USB drives with the Bill of Rights.
- The CBP agent stated that I had posted on Twitter before my flight and that slip ended the debate about their random selection process.
- The CBP agents in Seattle were nicer than ones in Newark. None of them implied I would be raped in prison for the rest of my life this time.
- The CBP agent asked if the ACLU was really waiting. I confirmed the ACLU was waiting and they again denied me contact with legal help.
- All in all, the detainment was around thirty minutes long. They all seemed quite distressed that I had no computer and no phone.
- They were quite surprised to learn that Iceland had computers and that I didn't have to bring my own.
- There were of course the same lies and threats that I received last time. They even complemented me on work done regarding China and Iran.
- I think there's a major disconnect required to do that job and to also complement me on what they consider to be work against police states.
- While it's true that Communist China has never treated me as badly as CBP, I know this isn't true for everyone who travels to China.
- All in all, if you're going to be detained, searched, and harassed at the border in an extra-legal manner, I guess it's Seattle over Newark.
- It took a great deal of thought before I posted about my experience because it honestly appears to make things worse for me in the future.
- Even if it makes things worse for me, I refuse to be silent about state sponsored systematic detainment, searching, and harassment.
- In case it is not abundantly clear: I have not been arrested, nor charged with any crime, nor indicted in any way. Land of the free? Hardly.
- I'm only counting from the time that we opened my luggage until it was closed. The airport was basically empty when I left.
- It's funny that the forensics guy uses EnCase. As it, like CBP, apparently couldn't find a copy of the Bill of Rights I dd'ed into the disk.
- The forensics guy apparently enjoyed the photo with my homeboy Knuth and he was really quite kind. The forensics guy in Newark? Not so much.
- The CBP agent asked me for data - was I bringing data into the country? Where was all my data from the trip? Names, numbers, receipts, etc.
- The mental environment that this creates for traveling is intense. Nothing is assured, nothing is secure, and nothing provides escape.
- I resisted the temptation to give them a disk filled with /dev/random because I knew that reading them the Bill of Rights was enough hassle.
- I'm flying to Toronto, Canada for work on Sunday and back through Seattle again a few days later. Should be a joy to meet these guys again.
- All of this impacts my ability to work and takes a serious emotional toll on me. It's absolutely unacceptable.
- What happens if I take a device they can't image? They take it. What about the stuff they give back? Back doored? Who knows?
- Does it void a warranty if your government inserts a backdoor into your computer or phone? It certainly voids the trust I have in all of it.
- I dread US Customs more than I dreaded walking across the border from Turkey to Iraq in 2005. That's something worth noting.
- I will probably never feel safe about traveling internationally with a computer or phones again.
- None the less, safe or not, I won't stop working on Tor. Nor will I cease traveling. I will adapt and I will win. A hard road worth taking.
- A solid argument for free software: To check the integrity of your hardware and your software against tampering. No binary (firmware) blobs.
- I'd like to think that when I visit my family in Canada this wekend and attend a work conference that Canada won't hassle me. Am I dreaming?
- Will the Canadian government simply act as an arm of the US policy of detaining, searching, and harassing me? Oh Canada! I hope not.
- It's interesting to note that some media initially reported that I had no trouble because I said nothing at all. Irony abounds.
- Why do we allow US Customs to lie and to threaten people? It's a crime to lie to them and they do it as their day job. Why the inequality?
- A few points: I was not arrested, I did not consent to any searching, and of course - this isn't about travel, this is about liberty
- @squeakie Yes, I was searched but I did not consent to this search.
- @tbeckett No, I asked if I was free to go and I was denied the ability to leave.
Peter Presland

".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn

[/SIZE][/SIZE]
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