Sweden complicit in campaign to “demonise & harass” Assange
UN special rapporteur on torture repeats claims of “concerted effort” to “isolate and ultimately silence” WikiLeaks founder
Al Burke
For the second time in less than half a year, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on torture etc. has accused Sweden of serious crimes against the human rights of Julian Assange.
The first time was on 23 May, when rapporteur Nils Melzer wrote to the four governments, among them Sweden, which for nearly a decade have collaborated in plaguing and persecuting Assange. The Swedish government responded with a brief letter consisting largely of untruths, evasions and glaring omissions.
Nils Melzer therefore wrote a follow-up letter to the government to convey ”additional observations and clarifications, and to reiterate or further detail my queries”.
That letter was sent on 12 September and, in accordance with U.N. praxis, made public after 60 days. [You can read it here, or embedded below – ed.]
The follow-up letter includes Melzer’s conclusion that ”the manner in which the preliminary investigation against Mr. Assange has been conducted by the Swedish prosecution appears to have contributed significantly, if not decisively, to various patterns of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment which Mr. Assange has been exposed to since 2010”.
Among other things, ”the Swedish prosecution appears to do everything to maintain the unqualified ’rape suspect’ narrative it has been disseminating, while at the same time avoiding to expose the evidentiary merits of this narrative to transparency and independent public scrutiny”.
For these and other reasons, rapporteur Melzer concludes that ”acts or omissions of the Swedish authorities defeat the presumption that the preliminary criminal investigation against Mr. Assange has been, and currently is being, conducted in good faith and in compliance with the fundamental principles of due process and of justice”.
There ”appears to have been a deliberate, sustained and concerted effort by the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and, more recently, Ecuador, with a view to isolating, demonizing, harassing and, ultimately, silencing Mr. Assange.”
Why?
”I am gravely concerned that Mr. Assange is being prosecuted and abused for having published evidence for serious misconduct of State officials, including international crimes involving torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, whereas the incriminated officials themselves are being granted impunity in flagrant violation of the most basic principles of justice, human dignity and the rule of law.”
That and much more is documented in a detailed bill of particulars, including sections on:
- Proactive manipulation of evidence
- Disregard for exculpatory evidence
- Disregard for requirements of necessity and proportionality
- Pervasive procedural procrastination
- Arbitrary detention and torture.
The government responded on 11 November with a brief note which referred the U.N.’s rapporteur to the above-noted disgraceful reply to his first letter: ”The Government has no further observation to make”.
[Since this article was written, Sweden has announced it has halted the investigation into the accusations of rape against Mr Assange, citing “lack of evidence” – ed.]
Al Burke is an editor and translator who in 1988 immigrated to Sweden from the United States. Websites: www.julian-assange.se and www.nnn.se
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A person from another epoch.
And all of our MSM went willingly along with the crusade to take out Julian Assange.
I do hope that they never have to worry about their freedom of the press – AKA spewing out whatever the government and security agencies demand.
They are the lowest of the low Andy. Contemptible rats. These creatures have so much blood on their hands – think Iraq 2003 as just one single example of many.
News just in, 60 doctors in the UK have signed a letter stating Julian Assange is depressed and unwell and needs urgent hospital attention.
This, of course will be ignored by British authorities. Doing the bidding of Empire.
A Guardian report ends: ‘Swedish prosecutors said last Tuesday they had dropped their investigation into a 2010 rape allegation, even though they found the plaintiff’s claim “credible”.
Translation: he’s a rapist really so deserves all that is coming (not that the Guardian expressed a view as to why after 10 years not a single charge was ever brought by Sweden).
Nor has the Guardian retracted lies they told to massage disquiet about the severe privations inflicted on a fellow journalist (such as allegations about secret meetings with Manafort, or columnists pronouncing on Julian Assange’s personality even though none of them had ever met him).
The Guardian clung onto the rape story like a Pit Bull with lockjaw rather than admit (as many of us suspected all along) that the entire story was a charade exploited by the authorities in order to to get him for exposing what was really happening in Iraq and elsewhere.
Given the international rise of neofascism (essentially an off-shoot of the US empire) is it any surprise that certain sorts of people are making their way to the top in the media, politics or the legal profession in countries like Britain, Sweden and Australia?
Thank you for your sanity Harry. And I’m not being facetious either.
Don’t know if you saw my comment further down this thread, but yesterday was out on the street with several members of the Socialist Equality Party trying to drum up support in opposing the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States, and for a public meeting on Dec 15th here in defence of JA and Chelsea Manning.
A small minority were willing to take leaflets advertising the meeting, and were obviously sympathetic to Julian Assange’ plight.
The very large majority didn’t want a bar of it. Comments were made such as: “he’s a fucking rapist” “you’re defending a rapist” or “he deserves everything he gets”.
The ones who showed the most animosity were Hipster – Yuppie types.
Quite a few, as soon as I said the words Julian Assange, waved their hand at me or a gave a sharp No.
Not one of these people would have even thought about 1 million dead Iraqi’s or Wedding parties droned or Syria and Libya and Yemen destroyed or Iraq WMD.
None of that would have even crossed their minds…..”he’s a fucking rapist” while entire countries have been raped and looted and bombed back to the stone age. George Orwell has been reborn.
What were you saying about Neo fascism? All these cretins who have drowned themselves in identity politics Harry. The very same people who jump up and down screeching about Trump The Fascist!
Isn’t that so ironic? And deeply sad. And deeply scary.
Pretty much all of us here at Offguardian and numerous other independent sites can see what’s happening.
Those who inserted Identity Politics as a Trojan Horse into Society to create such divisiveness, well, they’ve done a great job. I say that with bitterness by the way. Sorry for the lengthy reply. Thanks.
Gezzah
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/25/julian-assanges-health-is-so-bad-he-could-die-in-prison-say-60-doctors
The open letter is signed by doctors from the US, UK, Sweden, Australia, Italy, Germany, Sri Lanka and Poland and has been sent to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel . I suspect it will be completely ignored by Patel. There seems to be a growing trend amongst politicians and NGOs of reacting to uncomfortable truths with a wall of silence. Unfortunately, with the complicity of our mainstream media, they get away with it.
This Guardian article is most likely the report that Harry (Stotle) refers to at 8.26 a.m. as it throws in the offending sentence at the very end.
Hi Judy…. Thanks for this. There are several stories on this at Worldwide Socialist Website about the urgent need for Julian to have hospital care, including an interview with an Australian psychologist Dr Lissa Johnson, who has done a lot of work down here in defending Julian Assange, and on an Australian site called New Matilda, she posted a series of brilliant articles going into the psychology of why so many have turned against Julian Assange and Wikileaks, and the disgusting cowardly role the filth presstitutes have played in this.
I cannot even call them journalists anymore. They are Not.
Google: ‘Lissa Johnson Julian Assange New Matilda’ and her articles should come up. The WSWS are very worthwhile also.
Most of the people no longer have their own independent thoughts. They have soundbites from the media that they believe to be their own.
Groupthink en masse. Also known as Fascism. Thank J.
Thanks, Gezzah
I shall be sure to look at Lissa Johnson’s writings.
You mention “Groupthink en masse” and this is so true. An interesting (psychological) aspect of this is that in their minds it isn’t simply a case of recognising that people have different opinions. It goes further than that, so successful is the media brainwashing. If you dispute the mainstream narrative about anything, you are immediately accused of being “an apologist”; the implication being that you recognise that the mainstream narrative is [indisputably] correct but are trying to defend the indefensible.
“Apologist” is bandied around like a neurological tic, as an automatic reaction to anything cerebrally challenging…it absolves the accuser of any obligation to analyse what is being said to challenge their mind set. It’s an easy get out for anyone of a mentally lazy disposition, and particularly those who have been brainwashed into believing that they live in free and fair democracies i.e. the large majority of people living in Western countries.
J.
https://truepublica.org.uk/united-kingdom/how-the-uk-security-services-neutralised-the-countrys-leading-liberal-newspaper/
For anyone interested in how a principled, intelligent individual can expose the self-serving nature of authority figures we are meant to trust I cannot recommend highly enough the work of Phil Scraton, the man who turned down an OBE and forensically dismantalled the mountain of lies initially passed off as the official version of why 96 people died at a football game.
Prof Scaton urges his audience to ‘bear witness’, ‘hear testimonies’ (from those harmed), ‘recover truth’ and ‘challenge deceit’: an electrifyng lecture that has obvious implications for other instances were shady authority figures hide behind a wall of disinforamtion, bureaucracy, and questionable legal pretexts.
Nils Melzer in his own way has done something similar.
He has somehow drawn together the broader strands (regarding the abusive actions of nation states) and given them a context that had not been so accurately defined before his analysis.
Melzer also discredits the nature of the sex crime accusations without demeaning the purported victims.
In other words just like Scaton, Melzer has been a game-changer .
One example signifying this is the way the Guardian suddenly stopped producing regular articles sneering at Assange’s mistreatment, all the while implying he deserves what is coming.
His account of Assanges torture is literally a watershed moment: one bound to become the definitive history, and one that does so much to expose the corruption, lies and amorality at the heart of the political establishment.
And lets just remind ourselves who did the Guardian side with: the whistle blowers or truth tellers, or those who perpetuate human rights abuses at the drop of a hat?
Especially La Hyde. Any mea culpa from her yet?
Ah Sweden. The same government that thought to scare its citizens that war with Russia was imminent.
That Russia was about to invade the land of Favikan and kidnap Mr. Nilsson ….
What situation would prompt a wide-scale political campaigns involving every single country in the Western World (and then some), with constant feed of articles and talking points to ALL mass media organisations as well as [to] politicians of all spectrum to present a united view across the world?
And when this campaign lasts 10 years and still on-going, what level of importance would you give such a reaction?!!!
It is only an ‘Existential threat’ that would necessitate such a prolonged campaign, don’t you agree?
This is precisely what happened and still going strong across all Western countries in relation to one individual called’ Julian Assange’. An individual who helped uncovering inconvenient truths about the myth of our present-day democracy.
An individual who exposed the outright criminalities in the West’s foreign interferences and invasions.
As it stands today, this is the evidence that say glaringly that the three pillars of Western Civilisation are:
– Lies,
– Deception, and,
– Military agression
And that’s how democracy look like, American and Western style: Western countries are ruled by political scums and outright criminal deceivers.
Some of the comments below from Mark and others are an absolute disgrace and fit only for the comments section of the Mail or the Sun.
Could you be more specific? Sites like this thrive on debate but saying something is a disgrace without identifying it begs the question – who appointed you to be arbiter of what is graceful or disgraceful?
I would have thought it self evident,but then the disgusting racist comments below by “Mark” and others were up voted by a number of people,am I to assume you are one of them Cornell?
Whoa there Captain Self-righteous. I am not sure Mark meant offence this time to the “rapeugees or gimmegrants“ but was using the terms in the way many far right and “nationalists” use them as hateful terms, only to illustrate that. He should have used quotation marks if that is true. I say this in the context of other things he has said. Maybe I am wrong but he can clarify. Otherwise you are right to call him on it but fortunately an Editor stepped in.
I suggest you look again at the comments “Mark” made below,he has clarified his position for the hard of thinking like yourself.
Hard of thinking? Are you aware that all your posts are fact-free, restricted as they are to you expressing personal abuse. There are studies of people who turn up at courtrooms to scream at the convicted and unconvicted alike, and pound on the paddy wagons. They often are criminals themselves and find this recreational, perhaps an outlet for their uncontrollable anger more acceptable than reoffending. This is you isn’t it?
Obviously you are another closet racist like “Mark” was.I don’t think there is any profit in continuing this exchange.
At least you are right about one thing.
The Swedes, of course, have to save face, which is why they are still hinting and stating that their case was ‘credible’ despite the opposite being true. Looking at the Swedish media, their reaction has been in line with the Guardian’s. Sweep all the gore under the carpet and attempt to ignore what this tell us about the relationship of the Swedes to Washington, that of loyal and willing vassal state.
For Swedes, who’ve turned virtue signalling, into a vital social skill, this is all very embarrassing indeed. But they, like the ghastly Guardian, will choose to look away from the real image in the mirror, the shockingly awful one, and forget and pretend it never even happened.
And I can’t help thinking of all the thousands of words I used over the years attempting to explain to the journalists at the Guardian, the New Statesman and elsewhere, how grotesque this affair really was and how fundamentally and obviously weak and flawed the Swedish ‘case’ against Assange really was.
In the beginning I actually believed that they cared about the truth. That was a mistake. I then moved from criticism of the Guardian’s awful coverage, so massively misleading and full of glaring mistakes, ignorance and downright lies about what was happening in Sweden… to something close to utter contempt for them. The mix of ignorance, spite, venom, stupidity, arrogance and sickening student humour, revolted me. There’s something about a pack of middle class dogs that smell blood and at the same time are incredibly servile in relation to their masters, that turns one’s stomach.
I explained that the reason the Swedish state hadn’t brought charges against Assange was because their case was so weak because clearly no sex crime had ever happened. This seemed obvious. Weak case, no charges. Only the Guardian’s journalists and their crap legal experts, simply ignored this.
That it was clear that the Swedish courts would never allow the case to continue, if it was ever, brought before them, was also increasingly clear. The chances of Assange ever being found guilty by a Swedish court were clos to zero, given the weakness of the state’s case and the total lack of any evidence that a sex crime had ever been committed at all.
I argued years ago and for what seems like years, that the state would never actually charge Assange with anything at all, because their case was so weak because in reality there was no ‘sex crime’ at all. It never happened. The Guardian’s journalists seemed to regard my version of events as something close to ‘sex heresy.’
I dunno. What little faith I ever had left in the Guardian and bourgeois democracy, vanished years ago.
‘pack of middle class dogs ‘
There is nowt middleclass about the lass Marina Hyde and her ‘chosen’ mini-me Hadley Freeman or petite bourgeoisie harridans ‘me-too’ bandwagoning on behalf of the DS they front.
Given the massive coverage of the absurd allegations against Assange in the UK media over the years, the lack of interests and comment, let alone critical analysis, of the final collapse of this grotesque judicial saga… so vile and so vindictive… hasn’t received anywhere near the detailed coverage it deserves. So much time, effort and money used, so much harm done to an innocent man, and no calls for an inquiry in Sweden itself, as to how this thing was ever allowed to go ahead, year after year after year. Still, in order to save face, the Swedes are arguing that it was all Assange’s fault, the endless delays, and not, fundamentally the clear and hopelessly flawed nature of their own pointless investigations into a set of sex crimes that never took place in the first place!
This must rank as one of the greatest legal scandals in Swedish history. What about the redress and compensation Assange is entitled to? The Swedes have to address the harm they’ve done and make substantial amends, restoring Assange’s public reputation and paying his enormous legal costs, would be a start. What’s the price of all of those wasted years for Assange? He’s owed millions by the Swedish state.
Nils Meltzer’s letter is a masterful and completely staggering analysis of the weakness of the state’s case against Assange and their massive and systematic attempt to smear him and destroy his reputation by any means necessary. Behind the Swedish actions lurks the United States which uses Sweden like a pawn, with the Swedes eager and willing to fulful their low and ghastly part in this dreadful affair.
This thing reminds one of the horrible Drefuss affair in France, where an innocent man was framed by the state. Yet the reaction in our terrible media, especially the ghastly Guardian, the new voice of the UK’s security services, is one of ignoring what’s happened for fear that the truth might raise public awareness of what Assange has been up against all these years and the cruel fate that awaits him if the UK state manages to deliver him to their American masters.
The transnationalist corporatist state is answerable to the steel toed boots of Fascism kicking them in the face en masse for eternity just as Orwell hypothesized.
Assange will be released soon given that he has only been held as a bargaining chip for USA political purposes up to campaign time 2020. When extradition gets waived by whatever politician wants to bring that Assange canard into the mix we will all evidence the real reason why Assange was booted from the embassy with his feline better.
What happened to the cat?
MOU
“…if you want a picture of the future imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever…”
Enough said.
…or more to the point:
“…if you want a picture of the future imagine a boot stamping on Assange’s face forever…”
Journalists that knowingly disseminate propaganda should be put into solitary confinement and depending on the damage caused by their lies should either be executed or jailed permanently. Like most of the reporters in mainstream media. And entire prison industry could be built around these people. Essentially the system used for truth teller should be adopted for willing journalist liars.
Tiny headline in the comic yesterday: “The Guardian’s view on extraditing Assange – Don’t Do It”
wtf? Did I miss a memo?
Early this evening, a ‘story’ appeared on my phone:
‘Julian Assange Is Not Vindicated, He Merely Outwaited Justice’ written by Nick Miller at The Sydney Morning Herald.
By the time I finished this peice of garbage, I was almost shaking with anger.
Yet another servile, gutless, servant toad of the Empire sticking the boot in on behalf of his Masters. Like an Aussie Luke Harding.
This Miller creep even referred to Assange supporters as one eyed and conspiracy theorists. Oh, and no mention of Nils Melzer once. He did however mention a ‘UN agency’ without even naming it.
But then… we look at the revelations of Udo Ulfkotte and the video here at OffG a few weeks ago of Ulfkotte’s speech detailing how German intelligence wrote stories for him to publish under his name, and how other stories were faked.
Why am I angry? I know this. I know what the role of the mainstream stenographers is for. I’ve known for years.
Thanks for your article Al, it’s the very polar opposite of what I deleted from my phone 2 hours ago.
And of course the ABC’s national radio channel wouldn’t have been doing its job this week if it hadn’t again conflated criticism of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians with “anti-Semitism” together with its routine smearing of Corbyn. The vehicle for this masterpiece of quality journalism was its improbably titled ‘Religion and Ethics Report’. This programme’s website has form in this regard.
Yep…. Fecken depressing CP, but then, that is their role. As mouthpieces for imperialism, Neoliberalism and the Anglo Zionist Empire.
Have a lefty friend and after Israel’s latest murderous spree, I used the words Settler Colonialist Zionist Regime in describing the Israeli Govt in the context of criticising their actions.
There’s been no reply. Just silence.
Religion & Ethics program? Is that Geraldine Doogue? If so, all I can say is…. Of course. She has form.
No, GP, the presenter wasn’t Doogue but a bloke whose name escapes me for the moment.
However, earlier this year Doogue gave a sycophantic interview to John McTernan, a Blair crony who trotted out all the usual vile stuff about anti-Semitism in UK Labour. It was McTernan’s second interview on this subject on RN. Any interviews on RN with defenders of Corbyn and the left? Silly question!
Your timing is remarkable CP. At this very moment am doing a street campaign with a few others to drum up support for Julian Assange and oppose extradition to the United States.
Have given out quite a few pamphlets advertising a public meeting to defend Assange and Manning, but the verbal responses have ranged from: “he’s a fucken rapist” and “you’re defending a rapist” – that was from hipsters to “he deserves everything he gets” from an old man, to “I hope he just dies” from a lady in her 30s. A lot of very sharp No’s.
The media has done a wonderful job in their propaganda on behalf of the Empire. I knew it wouldn’t be easy but….
And none of them said anything about 1 million dead Iraqi’s or war crimes. Was having a 10 minute time out and saw your reply, cheers CP
Thanks, GP, and my commiserations over the lousy reception you are getting from the great Aussie public. I’ve experienced much the same when canvassing on other subjects (first nation and refugee rights). Puts me in mind of a US poll in which Regan was voted the greatest US president (!) and a reporter commented: ‘If you tell folks a lie often enough, they’ll come to believe it.’
Indeed, the more you come to understand what is happening in the world, the more aware you become of the brainwashing role of the ‘liberal’ media.
Regards.
CM
Regards your last paragraph: Exactly! So you know what’s it’s like trying to get people to stop!
At least a number of people signed up to come to the meeting, and a number of others were definately sympathetic to Julian and Chelsea.
Was interesting to note, apart from that old man; the ones who showed the most animosity; a few making completely brainwashed comments about rapist etc, were the hipster – yuppie types under 35.
The sort who fully buy into Neoliberalism… the ‘aspirational’ types. And how long has Neoliberalism been the governing mantra in Australia?
Have a good week CP, cheers…
Sorry Capricornia Man, I meant CM, not CP.
I’m sorry to have to raise this issue, but Next time you vote Labour read the piece below, from the Independent April 2019.
The Labour leader’s comments on the Assange issue come after more than 70 parliamentarians signed a letter to home secretary Sajid Javid and Labour counterpart Diane Abbott urging them to ensure the 47-year-old WikiLeaks founder faces Swedish authorities if an extradition request is made.
On Friday evening Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry joined the group and called for the WikiLeaks founder to be extradited to Sweden.
“I think that what should happen is that he should be extradited to Sweden. And then the Americans can make a further application to have him extradited from Sweden,” she said on BBC Radio 4.
“And if he is to be extradited from Sweden then he will be able to apply to the Swedish courts, and indeed to the British courts, he will be able to apply to the European Court of Human Rights, and he will be able to make his case.”
Referring to the allegations, she went on: “Whenever I see pictures of Julian Assange or hear about him I think of two women in Sweden.” (sic)
Then Corbyn chimes in.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said that Julian Assange should answer questions over longstanding rape and sexual assault allegations made in Sweden.
“If there are allegations which Julian Assange needs to answer of sexual issues, sexual attacks that may or may not have taken place in Sweden, then it’s a matter for the courts to decide,” he said in an interview with Sky News.
“But, I do think he should answer those questions.” i.e., rape allegations.
Yep, extradite him to Sweden where he has never been charged with anything – let alone rape – so that he can be banged up ready for a trip across the Atlantic and disappeared forever into the Guantanamo gulag. Nice one Labour.
It seems a perfectly reasonable opinion by all of them.
A bit restrained?
The only way Labour can do ANYTHING about the injustices, conspiracies, coverups … is by being in Government.
There have been any number of mantraps laid for them to stumble into over the last couple of years – from Venezuela to Syria and Hongkong via Salisbury…
It is better to chose the battles to fight to win the war.
I always believe in choosing battles. But what important battles have Labour fought? In fact, I’m struggling to recall one battle they have fought with much vigour.
Being in opposition is not about keeping quiet about your principles and then introducing them when in power. If you can’t speak up for Assange, Williamson or the children being murdered in Syria by groups we fund, or to stop World War Three then you don’t deserve to be in power or opposition. All the facts are there – Corbyn just needed to spell these out to the electorate in simple terms.
And for me, not engaging forcefully against the ‘anti semitism attacks’ has made Labour’s problems far worse and normalised the current political circus.
The whole system, the media, parties including Labour are a joke.
At least in America they have a single candidate for the presidency who is defining her candidancy on the most important issues of the day and fighting her detractors with a compelling message.
The battle they chose and won as a minority was to stop the Hard brexit that was always the plan A, by first getting a meaningful vote and then getting May’sdodgy WA rejected and then getting the Hard brexit rejected.
Now they can go into the election with the best manifesto since 1945 – the people are ready and will give them the 5 years to put their money where their mouth is after 10 years of austerity.
All the issues you mention will be addressed and because we are the centre of the ancient empire the ramifications will spread to every corner of the world. We will stop the warmongering and robber baronery and election fixing and overthrowing of elected governments and … if Julian doesn’t get extradited by the 13th he will be free on Corbyns return from the palace.
Even in the US the duly elected president has been subjected to a coup conspiracy from when he was elected and before – their DS ‘Resistance’ is linked to ours. Remember Pompeo saying they will make Corbyn run a gauntlet and stop him being PM?
The best manifesto since 1945 has just been released – what is not to like?
oh dear
don’t forget that in britain labour has hardly stood up for disabled people over the last 10 years – this labour party is as deceptive and arrogant as the failed tories are in government undertaking such criminal deeds
Thornberry is a right winger – a closet Blairite. She doesn’t reflect the view of true socialists.
She is typical of the Blairite scum who make up 80-85% of the PLP.
How anyone can put any faith in this crew, no matter how much you hate the Tories, is beyond me.
It just represents the triumph of hope over experience.
Like a woman who keeps going back to an abusive partner.
This is what Labour is like – in opposition.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Just imagine how much worse they would be if they ever got into power.
Some sad and deluded people still put their hopes in Corbyn.
Sad.
Won’t you even give him 60 seconds?
https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1197533872310947846
I’d like to give him the next 5 years. He’s not my ideal candidate, but he’s gotta be the choice compared with ANY other party / leader in this election.
We’ve given him 4 years and look what’s happened.
Abject surrender to the Zionist Mafia, the Blairites, the Spooks and the Deep State.
Get real.
Done Groaning, that was the best 60 seconds worth of Labour Party Political Broadcast I’ve heard in decades.
“To close the Gates of War even for 60 seconds is worth having” — Jean Giraudoux, The Trojan War Will Not Take Place, 1935.
“But where’s the money coming from?” — AZC, MSM, whenever social progress is mooted.
“But where are the raw material and energy coming from? and where’s the entropy going?” — with apologies to BigB.
I have never voted Tory and never will – satisfied?
Mark, like Frank, you’ve gone all pro-neoliberal TTIP nirvana and sunny uplands by encouraging voting for Boris rather than Jezza.lol
I’m more likely to get struck by lightning than vote for Bojo (or anybody else, for that matter.)
Which politicians in the UK have defended Assange and done so vocally?
The only one I can think of is Chris Williamson.
For arguments sake let’s say there are a dozen MPs out of the 650. Pathetic.
The political system is broke. No one in their right mind would vote. The Lib Dems and Tories are the same. Two thirds of the Labour Party might as well be Tories. Most of the rest have no backbone including Corbyn who should have read the brief and realised the Swedish investigation had never gone beyond preliminary stage. 10 years and not a politician of note saying anything.
Scottish voters seem to be no better off.
Represented it seems by at least one SNP MP who has connections to Integrity Iniative – an organisation which furthers the aims of the United Kingdom. See Kit Klarenberg’s investigation in to that affair.
Anyone who votes on the better devil you know argument is seriously missing the point. Would anyone here vote for a devil because he is less evil than the other 3?
Even if you vote Corbyn because he has more principles than the rest there is a risk of Blairites coming through the backdoor or his premiership being paralysed by ‘ anti semitism’. Vote for anything and you legitimise a broken and corrupt system. In my view, even talking or speculating about the election, you fall into this trap.
Francis, thanks for confirming what I wrote recently: Corbyn’s ignorance of world affairs in general is even more dangerous than his ignorance of Syria in particular. Of course he may not be ignorant, merely a cowardly weasily if-monger: _If_ there are allegations which Julian Assange needs to answer…
” Your if is the only peacemaker: much virtue in if.” — As You Like It.
So the rape capital of Europe has the temerity in attempting to fit-up Julian on a rape charge. Sickening.
The Swedish police no longer even bother investigating the violent rapes of very young children since the 2015 mass invasion of rapefugees and gimmegrants.
They have simply given up.
They no longer dare venture into the ever expanding archipelago of gimmegrant no go areas and have called for the army to be sent in instead.
But they have unlimited time and resources to “investigate” a man whose condom broke during consensual sex 1o years ago.
Any man accused of rape is about as likely to get a fair trial in Sweden as a woman accused of adultery in Saudi Arabia.
And to think this is the land that once produced the Vikings.
Editor: Look, Mark, we understand you’re one of those semi-closeted British racists, who hide their fear of ‘them’ behind spurious moral indignations, and we cut you some slack because you also make many valuable and non-racist contributions. But any further use of the term “rapeugees” or “gimmegrants” (seriously? What are you, 15?) will not be tolerated.
You also failed to cite sources. – ed
You disgusting wretch,that is straight out of the worst kind of shite from the far right.But at least we are fully informed about you now.
Many by your new friends, the Muslims, who were taught to consider non-Ms inferior rabble ripe for slavery.
Thanks for the bargain basement head shrinking.
“There is no rape problem in Sweden.”
“Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.”
Thank you ed.
Apart of the outrage about the language, everyone knows it’s true (New Year’s eve in Koln, Malmoe gettos , Newcastle where gangs of muslims were abusing girls just as examples).
If you say these are lies, then you are the liar. This is a huge problem, don’t ignore it just beacuse it contradicts your ideology and you don’t know what to do about it.
This was meant to be a response for John Thatcher.
Admin – are this set of rape comments and opinions acceptable on this site?
Inconvenient facts are censored only on the Graun; that’s why the UK became “grooming ring” center of Western Europe. By those “Asian” men to be as un precise as possible.
Editor: facts are not censored, but OT racism is strongly discouraged in our Comment Policy. Extreme examples may be removed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10025&v=H9TscJsVKp4 . John Wedger on child abuse.
Tell us something we don’t know about Sweden, the country where its prime minister was shot down in the street and Carl Bildt became puppet master behind the scenes.
Sweden used to have the world’s longest running eugenics program, from the 1930s (or maybe before) up to 1975. Its centre-piece practice was the mass sterilisation of some 60,000 people, the majority of them young women or teenage girls, who were deemed unfit to have children. The most common reason for sterilising them was usually a mental health issue, which could mean almost anything (including rebelliousness or hanging out with the neighbourhood motorcycle gang).
The eugenics program underpinned the establishment of the social welfare state because there was a fear among politicians that people would take advantage of it to have large families and that the wrong sort of people (rebellious, non-conformist) would be born and end up being the majority in the Swedish population.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/julian-assange-judge-her-husband-links-british-military-establishment-exposed-wikileaks/5695199
Every society has it’s psychopaths, sociopaths, masochists, pedophiles, hangmen, torturers, etc.
http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/jeffreys.html http://www.minehead-online.co.uk/judge.htm < Arebuthnot in the same mould of this character from yesteryear. Note the socio/political atmosphere of the epoch in question.
Maybe their current problem of being unable to comprehend let alone deal with an unprecedented level of violence among parts of their immigrant communities is a kharmic reward for their complicity in the persecution of Assange? The two events are obviously unrelated except that they demonstrate a general level of cluelessness about what’s happening in the world.
Martin, the two events are by no means unrelated; both are AZC plots to crush intellectual resistance to corporate fascist EU$A, and undermine European labour with cheap labour by refugees from weak but resource-rich MENA countries after take-over by “our irresistible armed might” (principally NATZO but also looser armed gangs such as the Coalition of the Killing in Iraq. Remember, it was Assange’s release of a video showing cold blooded killing in Iraq which led to his entrapment in Sweden by prosecutor Carl Bildt ).
Good point. As an aside, are you the same person/name that posts on El Reg?
Now it’s all on the US, the full weight of wrongdoing and War on Truth.
With a President who said ‘I love wikileaks’, what could possibly go wrong.
Never forget that the General Public at large have been trained to hate Trump by ………? Pavlov’s dog comes to mind…..?
Trump is 1st non-Mafia president since JFK & we all know what happened to him………
It’s not lost on why the Swedes decided to release their response on Nov. 11… that says something.
Steve Bell the venerable Guardian cartoonist is comparing Andy and Julian in his opinion cartoon. Kudos to Mr Bell.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2019/nov/20/steve-bell-on-prince-andrew-and-julian-assange-cartoon
Interesting that in most articles and discussions on Julian’s plight, there is rarely any mention of Australia, the country of which he is a citizen and the country which has done nothing for him and is therefore just as guilty as Sweden and USUK. The number of Australian MPs who have spoken up for Julian can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The number of Australian MPs who have responded to my numerous emails about Julian is precisely ONE (Peter Whish-Wilson, Greens Senator) – the others have not deigned even to send a template response.
You mistake Australia for a sovereign state. It went from British penal colony to US lackey and grovels at the boots of its new master without threat or even request. A blithe, obliging vassal. Expecting more betrays one’s naivete.
Too right.
I cant recall a single Australian politician standing up for Assange, whose only “crime” has been to expose the TRUTH……they are utterly GUTLESS……
Yes, they rank down there with the Swedes, yet still way above the British, who end this farce in a moment.
Spot on Jack. I’ve lived in Aussie for over 15 years, and I’m gobsmacked at the level of snivelling sycophantic brown nosing by politicians here towards their masters in Washington; always using the rather quaint term of…. ‘The Alliance’.
For the gullible and ‘chattering classes’ to actually believe it is an ‘alliance’.
Howard, Gillard, and now Morriston come readily to mind for those whose grovelling reached truly cringeworthy proportions.
And yes, granted, New Zealand is not much better, and yes, NZ is also part of Five Eyes, and part of the Empire.
Apparently an Australian passport is worth jacksh*t…
The only way in which this Swedish collaboration could be effective was, as Melzer points out, by appealing to a public opinion in which rules of evidence and the presumption of innocence are held in contempt. It is to the shame of society as a whole that what never pretended to be anything more than malicious gossip, spread by a known collaborator of the CIA and aided by prosecutors aping those demagogue US prosecutors who scare more than 90% of defendants into sacrificing their right to trial, was espoused by the great majority of the punditocracy, left as well as right.
It became an article of faith among news columnists and commentators that Assange was a narcissist and a rapist. And that to deny either was to align one’s self with misogynists and reactionaries.
Without the sneering support of the Blairite and Liberal intellectual class, which was dcesigned to divide and confuse those naturally inclined to support wikileaks, it would have been much more difficult to crucify Julian. It ought to have been politically impossible for any politician in the UK, however much they might have wanted to do so, to support extradition.
The real lesson though is that, whether the person smeared is a taxi driver in Karachi, a well known publisher/thorn in Establishment flesh, a Billionaire with a taste for parties or a sleazy minor Prince there ought always to be a presumption of innocence and an insistence that charges be published and proven before guilt is established.
Given the behaviour of Sweden, Great Britain, and the USA, in relation to Julian Assange since he exposed the criminality of all 3 nations, Adolph Hitler is starting to look like a nice bloke…….
Adolph Schickelgrueber was a nasty sentimentalist, but the damage he did was achieved not through his vile nature but because he became a tool of Anglo Zio Capitalism; the AZC financed his party and built up Nazi Germany as “our bulwark against Communism”. Of the trio of criminal nations named by Brian Harry above, UK & U$ Anglo Capitalists supported Nazi Germany up to the hilt up till 1939 when Stalin’s brilliant Molotov-Ribbentrop pact played on Schickelgrueber’s innate love of treachery to turn and bite the hand that fed him; and Sweden not only allowed itself to become the doormat for Nazi invasion of Scandinavia but Swedish iron and steel products strengthened the Nazi army.
Fresh generations grow up but the fruit does not fall far from the tree.
You have completely missed my point……
Disgraceful, criminal behaviour by Sweden, a nation complicit in the persecution of a man who dared to expose the war crimes, corruption, mass murder and racism by western governments and elites.
They have also demonstrated as in this country that when needed the judiciary can serve as a willing tool for the rogue western governments.
Cowardingly lackeys who may well find their decisions be judged accordingly – and come back to bite them hard in due course.
I suspect that he didn’t “dare” to but, rather, had to.
Both are compulsions, whether internal or external, and the result is the same.
The nation of Sweden ,or more appropriately the governance or lack thereof has declined in much of the last 15 -20 years .It used to be a land of equality and high standards but no more .It is now plagued with crime in such high levels that some dare not go out of house and home .I just don’t understand what has happened .The false charges fiasco claimed on Assange goes a long way to define who they were obliging for political purposes .Certainly the fingerprints of intelligence services all over this.For shame that they have destroyed a good reputation.
You dont understand what happened? Neoliberalism happened. The Social Democrats changed to become pace New Labour, ‘new’ Social Democrats (without adding the prefix like Blair) with all the privatisation, liberalisation, destruction of union rights etc. As a consequence, the SwedenDemocrats, a kind of right wing ultranationalist party, is now neck and neck in the polls with the Social Democrats as more and more of their traditional voters realise the party is doing nothing for them but thinks they have nowhere else to go.
And precisely the same thing has happened to the former social-democratic party in Assange’s homeland, Australia. Before it shamefully adopted neo-liberalism, nearly all blue-collar workers voted for it as a matter of course. Now, increasing numbers of them vote for hard-right racist parties in the mistaken belief that such outfits have the answer to their problems.
Correct CP… Same thing happened in my own country of New Zealand when David Lange was elected Prime Minister in 1984, and his finance minister Roger Douglas (Rogernomics) ended up putting Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan to shame with his full throttle embrace of Neoliberalism.
Slash and burn and privatise in spades.
All social democratic parties have been fully embedded into this vile maxim: Neoliberalism – Trotskyism for the rich.
And like you, I see the disturbing, and scary rise in Far Right populist parties, not only here, but right across the Planet, especially in Europe.
Those fecken idiots relentlessly pushing their post modernist Identity Politics Crap that has lobotomised and fragmented the Left have a lot to answer for.
‘Douglas’, huh? I always thought his surname was ‘Nomics’.
The SD have moved ahead now 24 to 22%
Sweden is the model for the matriarchy that is being forced on us all.
The socialists are going down the toilet.
The same thing has happened in Germany, France, Italy, and a few other places.
Probably the UK as well too on Dec. 12th.
Labour imploding and Bojo getting back in. Followed by a purge of Jezza and the handful of decent people remaining in the PLP.
Round here they have served to enhance it.
The real casualties of this whole sorry saga, regardless of the ultimate fate of JA, are the “justice” systems of Sweden, the UK and the US.
They have been revealed for all the world to see as irredeemably corrupt, highly politicised instruments of persecution and political intimidation.
Reveal the truth about war crimes and the most egregious malfeasance and abuse of power, and you face (if you are lucky enough to avoid judicial or extra judicial murder) 35 years in a fetid dungeon in the American Gulag.
Those who commit those same war crimes and abuses do so with complete impunity.
Though nothing will in any way inhibit those concerned from giving lofty sermons and pious lectures to the benighted Darkies and assorted lesser breeds about their human rights failings.
Double standards and hypocrisy are the hallmarks of western foreign policy.
This has always been a British speciality.
If there were gold medals for hypocrisy, Britain would have a chestful of them.
This reeks of US influence. Shame on Sweden to whom Assange had done nothing. They have erased a hundred years of studious proximity to neutrality, exposed their justice system as a politically manipulated sham and revealed the shameless mores of some of their citizens. It fits better with how other Scandinavians perceive them than with how they are seen by the rest of the world.