Summary: Former UK ambassador Craig Murray looks at the latest chapter of the US government’s (assisted by its allies) attempts to destroy Jullian Assange for the releasing its secrets. Fortunes have been spent to get him. The public’s gullibility is, as usual, their greatest asset. Reopening the rape investigation might reveal some secrets.
“Re-Opening of the Swedish Assange Case Should Be Welcomed“
By Craig Murray at his website, 13 May 2019.
Posted with his generous permission.
That the Swedish investigation into the rape allegation against Julian Assange is being re-opened is something that ought to be welcomed. The alternative would be for this accusation to hang unresolved over Julian’s head forever. The Swedish prosecutors now need finally, as my father used to say, either to piss or get off the pot. They need to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to charge or not.
Editor’s note – Assange is being investigated for second degree rape. I cannot find a definition. Given Sweden’s broad definition of rape, it could have tenuous relation of what most people consider “rape.” See a timeline of the story.
There is no reason for delay. The Swedish police have had seven years to investigate this case and all the evidence has been gathered and all statements taken – the last being the interview of Julian Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy in 2017. Hopefully to review the evidence and decide whether to charge will not now be a lengthy procedure. It is worth noting, contrary to much misreporting, Julian Assange has never been charged with anything in Sweden.
Ed. – While Sweden’s police have devoted vast resources to the Assange case, many cases of rape go uninvestiated because they are buried in rape cases (details here).
In the event that Sweden does wish to try to extradite, that should take precedence over the US request. There are three good reasons for this. Firstly, rape is by far the more serious alleged offence. Secondly, the Swedes entered the process many years before the Americans. Thirdly, the European Arrest Warrant is a major multilateral arrangement that is much more important than the discredited bilateral extradition treaty with the USA.
Ed. – See this note about the US – Sweden treaty.
Julian only entered Ecuadorean political asylum because he feared onward extradition to the USA, not extradition to Sweden.
None of the above detracts from the many problems with the Swedish prosecution, Sweden’s Chief Prosecutor decided no offence had been committed and the case should be closed after the initial investigation, before another Prosecutor decided to reopen the case, as is possible under the Swedish system. That prosecutor, Marianne Ny, herself decided to close the case in 2013, and was instructed not to by the British Crown Prosecution Service, in a series of emails which the CPS attempted to hide and some of which had been destroyed. Ms Ny also admitted to destroying communications from the FBI, and ultimately admitted to having destroyed the entire case file. {Ed. – They dropped their preliminary investigation in 2017.}
That is before you get to the problems with the Swedish judicial system, where rape trials hear all evidence entirely in secret, there is no jury, and two of the three judges are political party appointees.
Plainly, as always in cases involving Assange, there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the impartiality of state justice. The United Nations has already condemned the disproportionate sentence given to Assange for breaking bail conditions and his being held in a maximum security prison. It has gone virtually unremarked by the MSM that the Ecuadorean government has, entirely illegally, handed all of Julian’s possessions over to the USA.
Plainly this is a long and difficult fight to save Julian from entrapment and permanent imprisonment. But the Swedish calumny not being simply left hanging is a necessary step in that fight.
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For More Information
See this great summary of the Assange crime story by Andrew Krieg at the Justice Integrity Project.
Ideas! For some shopping ideas, see my recommended books and films at Amazon.
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about Julian Assange, about rape, and especially these…
- America’s courtiers rush to defend the government – from us. About the mockery and smears of Snowden and Assange.
- The full story of the rape charges against Julian Assange of Wikileaks, a possible covert op.
- New and strange developments in the prosecution of Julian Assange (Wikileaks) – New but not more enlightening.
- Julian Assange trapped & smeared. Wikileaks weakened. Mission accomplished for CIA?
- Important: The Affair Assange shows us what’s behind the curtain – Analysis by journalist Chris Hedges and the Strategic Culture Foundation.
- James Howard Kunstler looks at the news about Assange & sees useful idiots on parade.
- The “Resistance” is Silent on Julian Assange – by Margaret Kimberley at the Black Agenda Report.
- The secret weapon that brought down Assange of Wikileaks.
Written in 2016, Assange’s book looks prescient today
Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet
by Julian Assange (2016).
From the publisher …
“Cypherpunks are activists who advocate the widespread use of strong cryptography (writing in code) as a route to progressive change. Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of and visionary behind WikiLeaks, has been a leading voice in the cypherpunk movement since its inception in the 1980s.
“Now, in what is sure to be a wave-making new book, Assange brings together a small group of cutting-edge thinkers and activists from the front line of the battle for cyber-space to discuss whether electronic communications will emancipate or enslave us. Among the topics addressed are: Do Facebook and Google constitute “the greatest surveillance machine that ever existed,” perpetually tracking our location, our contacts and our lives? Far from being victims of that surveillance, are most of us willing collaborators? Are there legitimate forms of surveillance, for instance in relation to the “Four Horsemen of the Infopocalypse” (money laundering, drugs, terrorism and pornography)? And do we have the ability, through conscious action and technological savvy, to resist this tide and secure a world where freedom is something which the Internet helps bring about?
“The harassment of WikiLeaks and other Internet activists, together with attempts to introduce anti-file sharing legislation such as SOPA and ACTA, indicate that the politics of the Internet have reached a crossroads. In one direction lies a future that guarantees, in the watchwords of the cypherpunks, “privacy for the weak and transparency for the powerful”; in the other lies an Internet that allows government and large corporations to discover ever more about internet users while hiding their own activities. Assange and his co-discussants unpick the complex issues surrounding this crucial choice with clarity and engaging enthusiasm.”
Admit it you support Assange because he was a big help to your orange headed god in chief Trump taking the presidency though the Hillary emails. I’m sure you would not give a rat’s ass about his treatment otherwise.
Amir, it is only common courtesy to provide links and sources when you are bashing the host: Note that it should include contrary evidence.
As it is, no one gives a rat’s ass about your innuendo and speculation. Larry does his bashing with facts.
You really need to up your game.
Amir,
Congrats – you have posted the weirdest comment of the day.
The ongoing US vendetta against Assange is peculiar, given that Trump praised him while on the campaign trail.
It does suggest that the US president is not really in charge of his own administration. Certainly Assange is being pursued at least as vigorously today as he might have expected to be by a Clinton administration.
Of course, it may be that the whole effort is hugely effective in its primary purpose, putting Wikileaks out of business. Much like with Russiagate, a fictitious crime allows for massive investigations that cripple the target and largely curtail its freedom of action. Certainly we have not heard much from Wikileaks lately….
Etudiant,
“It does suggest that the US president is not really in charge of his own administration.”
The strong continuity of US policy despite changes of President – even party – is big evidence for the existence of the Deep State. The NYT ran an op-ed by a member of the Deep State that confesses. They don’t like Trump’s policy inclinations regard Russia – although they are quite rational and in the best interests of the US – and have successfully and proudly thwarted them.
In many ways, the Deep State runs this country like Woodrow Wilson is still in charge with ideas from 100 years ago or even 400 years ago: America is a shining city on a hill that will usher in global utopia through domestic and global intervention as long as it can get rednecks in flyover country to comply. NPR is a good sample of Deep State ideas: these people over here need fixing, now those people over there. Oh no! another crisis in Upickastan that requires our intervention RIGHT NOW. Even its view of Russia is a copy of the Great Game Britain played with Russia 200 years ago. The Soviet Empire died in the late ’80s but the last Wilsonian Baby Boomer Deep Stater will die with “Russia!” on his lips. Anyone, like Trump, suggesting that we work on our own nation and make peace with other great powers is anathema.
Like Bill Lind said, this overextension of imperial power is going to end the same way every empire has ended in the past.
Bryce,
Sad but true.
Re: imperial overstretch
The theory of imperial overstrech was brought to the public’s attention in Professor Paul Kenney’s great 1987 book “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
.
The book also shows the limitations of his theory, as he believed that the US was at the peak of its power – about to decline from overstretch. Successful predictions are the gold standard test. Needless to say, his failed.
“Like Bill Lind said, this overextension of imperial power is going to end the same way every empire has ended in the past.”
I don’t know if Lind said that, but it is quite false. Internal turmoil (e.g., nobody says “rich as an Argentinian”), climate change, external invasion are more common destroyers – even in societies not experiencing overextension.
Ana Ardin is one of his accusers, and she worked for the cia out of Miami. This was reported early on in the case but subsequently censored. I’m repeating it here so you can do the math on this one.
John,
I have tried to run down the connections between Anna Ardin and the CIA. The original articles were at Counterpunch, by Israel Shamir and Paul Bennett – and then by Alexander Cockburn. But they’re gone. There are links to Swedish language publications, which I cannot find.
What remains at Counterpunch is this by Shamir – Bennett, well worth reading. Here is the bottom line.
There are excerpts elsewhere from Cockburn’s article. Such as this at ShadowProof.