Julian Assange - Wikileaks: Warrior For True Part 17

According to Lucy Dalglish, Executive Director of the Reporters Committee For Freedom of the Press, the problem with speaking up for WikiLeaks is that she didn't consider Julian a.s.sange to be a journalist.

She said that though Julian "has done some things that journalists do... I would argue that what The New York Times does is more journalism. They vet the information... They consider outside sources. They take responsibility. They publicly identify themselves... They do some value added. They do something original to it."

But Joel Simon, Executive Director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, believes that if Julian were prosecuted, "it would be because he is a journalist."

WikiLeaks represented an unconventional newcomer that offered material for anyone to a.n.a.lyze, while circ.u.mventing the cla.s.sic flows of information with all its ethical, political and commercial filters.

With WikiLeaks, journalists were again circ.u.mventing the cla.s.sic path of the information between the sources and the public. WikiLeaks was wedged in between. Already pushed aside by the new way in which the public could acquire information, by speaking out, confronted with a double crisis of legitimacy and confidence from the rest of the population. Journalists didn't like it at all.

A year ago, there was talk of a journalistic crisis (lack of credibility, lack of means for investigative journalists, editors fighting with industrial groups and political pressure), which saw the creation of alternative editorial boards made up of bloggers and freelance journalists who wanted to remain independent. WikiLeaks showed up and gave even more means to these new types of journalism.

"Traditional communication media are no longer alone, now there's the Internet." El Pais "While journalists often stay behind doors waiting for an official press release, this time they are at the heart of diplomatic and political conversations." Le Monde The journalism WikiLeaks proposed is called 'data journalism.' This mountain of data represents a rich source for investigative journalists who could now do their jobs the way they should: searching for nuggets of information and expose them to the light of day. For those who claim that WikiLeaks' articles were not great revelations, they were at the very least confirmations. Julian's gift was to know how to s.h.i.+ne the spotlight on them,

FINAL TEST.

The past is of no importance.

The present is of no importance.

It is with the future that we have to deal.

Oscar Wilde.

32.

A MAN AND HIS OPPOSITE.

The facts recounted here are real. This is the information that was told and shared by the different parties involved in the sensitive Swedish affair in which everyone had their own story, points of view and versions of the truth.

Here is one part of the truth. It's one version... only one of the many possibilities.5 It was almost 11 a.m., and the auditorium of LO-borgen building in downtown Stockholm was still filling up. The hall seated forty people and was almost full for Julian a.s.sange's conference. There was so much interest in this seminar that it was broadcast live on the Internet as well. A few people stayed standing, mainly technicians. On the side near the open door, photographers with their cameras were waiting. The camera was on a tripod at the end of the room and was ready to film; the audience eventually sat down and went quiet.

Julian was invited to Sweden by the Christian wing of the Social Democratic Party, called Broderskap in Swedish. The following days, he had various meetings with political organizations and journalists scheduled.

He had arrived in Stockholm three days earlier on Wednesday, August 11, 2010. While Julian was in Sweden, he stayed with the political secretary of the Broderskap, Anna Ardin. He had never met this young thirty-one-year-old woman: until then they had only had phone and e-mail contact. Anna suggested he stay at her place as she'd be out of town until the day of the conference.

Since Sweden represented an interesting territory for Julian and WikiLeaks, Julian had to benefit from his visit in order to figure out how to implement his organization. Sweden has many laws that protect the media, although Iceland was the first basis of the organization and still boasts one of WikiLeaks' management companies, Suns.h.i.+ne Press.

The day after his arrival on Thursday, August 12, 2010, Julian had dinner with committed militants in favor of open governance, as well as with an American journalist who wanted to discuss his upcoming book on the Bush clan. They both ended up at the Beirut Cafe. The journalist in question was American Dexter Filkins of The New York Times. (He joined The New Yorker in December 2010.) He's also the author of The Forever War, which relates his experience in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Anna, the lovely blonde, was supposed to come back on Sat.u.r.day, August 14, 2010, but came back a day earlier. Julian was at her place when she arrived. They talked, got acquainted and decided that they could get along.

The young woman's blog profile read: "Political scientist, communicator, entrepreneur and freelance writer with specific knowledge in faith & politics, gender issues, feminism and Latin America." She got her major from the Department of Government at Uppsala University in Sweden where she did her thesis on the Cuban Government.

That night they had dinner in a restaurant close to her place. Anna told The Guardian how the rest of the evening went once they got back to her apartment: "When they sat and drank tea, a.s.sange began caressing her leg before breaking her necklace and ripping off her clothes. She tried to put some clothes back on again because things were going too fast and it felt uncomfortable, a.s.sange immediately took her clothes off again. She actually didn't want to go any further but it was too late to say 'stop' to a.s.sange when she'd gone along with it this far, so she let a.s.sange fully undress her."

Then she realized that Julian wanted to sleep with her without using protection. She tried several times to reach for a condom, but he stopped her by holding her arms and grabbing her legs. He finally let her go and agreed to use a condom, but Anna didn't feel safe. While they had s.e.x, the condom tore and Julian e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed without pulling out. Anna was angry with him for not having stopped at that point.

The next day at LO-borgen, Julian was the main speaker of the War and the Role of the Media seminar. After a brief introduction from Peter Weiderud, President of the Broderskap, the founder of WikiLeaks walked over to the lectern.

The president said, "The floor is yours."

Julian settled in, adjusted the microphone and joked, "The floor is mine, but what about the screen?"

A young woman in the first row looked at him very attentively. She was fascinated and couldn't stop staring at the Number One of WikiLeaks. She was wearing a fuchsia cashmere sweater that couldn't go unnoticed. She seemed tall and sleek, her long, light brown hair was in a ponytail held by a turquoise elastic and she wore black gla.s.ses. Sofia Wilen was twenty-seven. She observed and listened, as did the rest of the room.

Everyone was taken by Julian's words. The president was sitting in front of a big screen, facing the audience, with a console separating the two men. Anna Ardin was on the left, with her laptop in front of her. Julian was behind the lectern to the right of Weiderud, and addressed the audience from the side. Wilen repeatedly shot pictures of Julian with her camera during the entire conference, which lasted an hour and a half.

A few weeks prior to the conference, Sofia Wilen discovered Julian on television in a report concerning WikiLeaks. She was fascinated by the man right off and was intrigued by his organization. She had told her friends she thought he was "interesting, brave and admirable." From that day on, she continued to follow his career very closely and become a fervent admirer of WikiLeaks.

One night she searched on Google and found out he was supposed to go to Stockholm. Without delay Sofia told the Broderskap, which was organizing the conference, that she wanted to partic.i.p.ate in the event, but unfortunately for her, she never got a reply. Later, she found the announcement about the seminar and decided to take a day off that Sat.u.r.day to go to Stockholm to hear Julian speak.

"I was there on time and was able to meet a.s.sange. He came to me and asked if I could help him find a cable for his laptop."

The young woman immediately jumped into a taxi and ran to buy a cable. She came back just in time for the conference.

Julian spoke for an hour and a half, his audience was captivated and focused. He spoke calmly, while projecting data onto the big screen. There were a few technical glitches, but he laughed them off. Anna, who had spent the previous night with him, was there to help him like an improvised press agent for the cause.

The conference ended around 2 p.m. with a Q&A session and the president thanked the audience as well as Julian for the successful seminar. The meeting finished on a humorous note when Peter Weiderud asked his guest: "Will you come back to Sweden soon?" Julian said how much he liked Sweden, but smiling that "Sweden is very nice in the summer, but in the winter, it's a whole different story."

Everyone laughed and applauded warmly. A few journalists were there to interview Julian. The crowd dispersed, but a young woman stayed behind. "She was bit strange, wanting to get Julian's attention. n.o.body really knew who she was," one of the partic.i.p.ants said afterward. "When everyone was gone, she was still there."

Julian, a couple of friends, and a few Christian Democrats went to have lunch at Bistro Boheme on Drottninggatan Street, and Sofia was there as well. During lunch, Julian sat close to her. He put his arm around her shoulder and asked her if she could buy him a charger for his computer. Sofia was flattered and by then it was obvious that Julian was coming on to her. The attraction was indeed mutual.

They left the bistro together and went to see the movie Deep Sea at the Cosmonova, a 3D movie theater in Stockholm. They sat in the back row of the movie theater and made out during the film. They even held hands. Julian thought she was very attractive. He kissed her and groped her under her clothes.

In the mean time, Anna had finished organizing the kraftskiva ('crayfish party') in Julian's honor, a traditional Swedish party usually held in August, which is all about eating crayfish and drinking.

When they left the movie theater, Sofia and Julian took the subway again up to Zinkensdamm station. From there, Julian left the young woman and took a taxi to get to the kraftskiva organized by Anna. Before he took off, Sofia asked, "Will we see each other again?" To which Julian answered, "Of course."

Sofia went home by train to Enkoping, a small town of thirty-eight thousand inhabitants in Uppsala county, located eighty thousand kilometers North West of Stockholm. It took her an hour to get home. Once at her apartment, Sofia received a text message from Julian. She called him; he was still at the party. They talked for a long while and sent each other text messages throughout the entire evening.

On Sunday, August 15, 2010 Sofia talked to her colleagues about the fabulous time she had had with "the most popular journalist in the world." According to them, the ball was now in her court as to whether she would see him again or not. She tried to call him, but didn't get an answer; his phone was turned off. That day he didn't answer any calls because he was with Rick Falkvinge and Anna Troberg of the Pirate Party for a photo shoot organized through their connection and in support of WikiLeaks.

The young woman tried contacting Julian again on Monday, August 16. He answered her call. He had a meeting the same evening, but he agreed to meet up with her at 8:30 p.m. She jumped at the opportunity and traipsed downtown Stockholm waiting around for him. Around 9 p.m., he hadn't called her back, so she decided to call him. Julian was on Hornsgatan Street, where his meeting had just ended. He asked her to meet him there and Sofia came running.

The couple finally met up and headed for Old Town. They sat down on a park bench in Munkbron Square. They had a nice long conversation then took the train back to Sofia's place in Enkoping. She bought two train tickets for one hundred and seven kronor (about seventeen dollars), as he didn't have any money on him and didn't want to use his credit card for fear of it being traced. Julian spent most of the train trip focused on his laptop and ignoring Sofia.

At the apartment, Julian and Sofia climbed into bed together. They started having s.e.x, but Julian didn't want to use a condom. Sofia pulled back because she didn't want to have unprotected s.e.x. Julian lost interest in her and fell asleep. Later on, they woke up during the night and had s.e.x, as Julian reluctantly accepted to wear a condom.

In the morning, she went out to buy breakfast then went back to bed and fell asleep next to Julian. She woke up with him trying to have s.e.x with her and asked him to put on a condom, which he refused. She quipped that he'd better not have AIDS. He rea.s.sured her that he obviously did not. She was annoyed with again having to ask him to wear a condom, because she had spent the whole night asking him to do so. Sofia had never had unprotected s.e.x before and so, was understandably very upset with Julian.

When they got out of bed she offered him a bowl of cereal and some fruit juice. They made jokes that she could be pregnant. Sofia didn't like the stress of the situation and made a few sarcastic remarks in a positive way to cut the tension.

On Sofia's bicycle, they went back to the train station. Julian had to get back to Stockholm to meet with Agneta Lindblom Hulthen, President of the Swedish Union of Journalists. Julian pushed back his meeting with her at 4 p.m. Sofia dropped him off at the station and bought him another train ticket. He was still broke. He promised to call her again.

On Wednesday, August 18 2010, the mood darkened. Sofia contacted Anna to tell her that she had had unprotected s.e.x with Julian and was very angry that he didn't use a condom. She was afraid of having been infected with an STD or potentially contracting AIDS or being pregnant. Anna then told her that she'd also had s.e.x with Julian the night before his conference at LO-borgen and that Julian had s.e.xually a.s.saulted her.

The same day Anna told Julian that he was no longer welcome at her place, but he refused to leave. After calling Sofia, Anna called a close collaborator of WikiLeaks in Sweden to tell him that she wanted Julian out of her place. She pointed out that Julian refused to leave and had even been sleeping in her bed even though they were not sleeping together. It was true, Julian kept staying at her place, but he spent most of his nights in front of the computer. The friend called to ask Julian why he wouldn't leave. The man was surprised that Anna was asking him to leave. However, Anna said that Julian had s.e.xually hara.s.sed her. That same night he had walked toward her naked from the waist down and started rubbing up against her.

The very next day and the day after, the momentum of the events picked up. The two women sent each other text messages and decided to meet to compare notes. As for Julian, he was still staying in Anna's apartment, refusing to leave.

Anna asked the collaborator to convince Julian to take an STD test to rea.s.sure Sofia. Julian refused. Anna then threatened him by saying that Sofia would go to the police. He refused to comply with the blackmail.

On Friday, August 20, 2010, it had been a week since the founder of WikiLeaks was sleeping at Anna's place, except for the night he spent in Enkoping with Sofia. Julian finally left. He claimed that Anna had in fact never asked him to leave before that day.

The two women met that afternoon at 2 p.m. They went to a police station in the center of Stockholm to ask for advice. They wanted to know whether they could force Julian to take an STD test. Six days had gone by since Julian spoke at the conference held in LO-borgen.

33.

REPRISALS.

"I immediately believed her account because I had an experience similar to hers."

The nights Julian a.s.sange spent in Sweden ended up having some serious repercussions. When Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilen showed up at the Klara police station in downtown Stockholm on Friday, August 20 2010, they basically turned Julian's life upside down.

How did Sofia find Anna in the first place? And why did she contact her? The two women claim they met on Facebook. However, they both attended the same seminar at LO-borgen, the one where Anna played the role of improvised press agent after having spent the night with the founder of WikiLeaks and where Sofia did everything she could to attract the same man's attention.

That afternoon the two women met and compared stories. They arrived together at the police station at 2 p.m. Their first intention was to ask for some advice. Anna accompanied Sofia for moral support and helped her with her statement.

They talked to a female police officer. Sofia's statement read as follows: "I was raped in my home on the morning of Tuesday, August 17, 2010 by a man who had s.e.x with me against my will."

She wanted to know if it were possible to force Julian to take an STD test. Anna, who had only gone along for moral support, said that she had s.e.x with the same man, and that in her case the man in question had torn the condom on purpose.

Anna didn't realize that the police officer wanted her to report her case whether she wanted to or not. She had good reason to believe that Anna had been raped. The officer listened to them separately and submitted a report of rape. The officer concluded that both women were victims: Sofia had been raped and Anna had been s.e.xually a.s.saulted. Their stories confirmed that in Sofia's case Julian refused to wear a condom and in Anna's case he sabotaged the condom.

The female police officer ended her report with the following: "Everyone I spoke to was in earnest agreement that this was a case of rape."

That same Friday night, Maria Kjellstrand, the on-call prosecutor was contacted. She confirmed that Julian had to be considered as a rape suspect. At 5 p.m., she accused Julian in absentia: even though he was absent, he was suspected of raping Sofia Wilen and not having respected the freedom and will of Anna Ardin. In Swedish, the prosecutor qualified the mistake made as 'ofredande,' which best translates as 'denying someone's freedom,' as English law has no equivalent.

The report on the two young women was completed around 6:40 p.m. A Swedish collaborator of WikiLeaks later said that Julian had accepted to take an STD test the same night, but all the clinics were in fact closed for the weekend.

That night, journalist Niklas Svensson of the tabloid Expressen was covering proceedings on the budget of the elected coalition in Sweden. He was at Harpsund, the secondary residence of Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. The second he caught wind of Julian being suspected of rape he raced back to Stockholm.

"I s.h.i.+fted my attention towards that case pretty quickly, so to speak. One and a half hour later I was back at my office in Stockholm. My colleague Diamant Salihu managed to get the prosecutor to confirm the case and I was working separately on my own sources."

Niklas Svensson, age thirty-eight, was a well-known political journalist in Sweden. He was controversial and aggressive, and many Swedes didn't like him. According to sources in Stockholm, he worked for one of the most widely read newspapers in the country. He commonly wrote about crimes or celebrities, but in the past few years he's been increasingly interested in politics. His approach has been likened to that of the paparazzi. He has never done any deep a.n.a.lysis; he loves sensationalism, and enjoys alluding to it. He would even sometimes bend the truth to create a story.

In 2006, Svensson was fired from Expressen for illegally hacking into the database of the Social Democratic Party. In reality, all he did was use a pa.s.sword he wasn't supposed to have. He then went freelance and ran the blog Politikerbloggen (literally, The blog of politicians, which posts dirt on politicians) for some time. In 2007, the blog was bought up by a television channel and Svensson eventually went back to work for Expressen in February 2010.

The next day, Sat.u.r.day, August 21 2010 at 9:15 a.m., Julian tweeted: "We were warned to expect 'dirty tricks.' Now we have the first one."

As for Anna, she was interrogated again by the police and confirmed the allegations of s.e.xual abuse against Julian.

The journalists at the Expressen finished a story that would soon explode throughout the Western press. A bit later that day, a storm hit the office of the Swedish prosecutor. Karine Rosander, Director of Communications, then tried to explain the arrest warrant against Julian a.s.sange.

Chief Prosecutor for the Stockholm region Eva Finne was alerted by the media at the same time as she received the file at her place. Right away she rejected the accusations of rape, but didn't say anything about the s.e.xual a.s.sault. She didn't refute Sofia's testimony, but didn't consider it to be a confirmation of rape.

In other words, at 4:48 p.m., Eva Finne decided to rescind the arrest warrant against Julian a.s.sange, who had yet to contact the police to find out whether he was suspected of s.e.xual a.s.sault.

From New York to London, journalists were wondering how a rape charge could be dropped in less than a day. Rosander was very uncomfortable when she tried to explain the strange turn of events to a host on television channel Al Jazeera. The host couldn't understand how such a mistake could be made. She answered succinctly.

"You can't call it a mistake because the prosecutor in question has to make a decision based on the information available at the moment of the decision."

The young woman, known to be intelligent, elegant and educated, defended her office in the interview by saying that the on-call prosecutor followed standard procedure and had to make a decision very quickly. She pointed out that Eva Finne, who rejected the rape charge, had access to more information on Sat.u.r.day than the on-call prosecutor had on Friday. If false rumors were spread on the subject, it was probably because the accused was a hyped up celebrity. And so, Rosander refused to provide any more details.

The same night, police investigators searched nightclubs of the Stureplan district to see if the founder of WikiLeaks was perhaps out partying, but they couldn't find him.

On Sunday, August 22, 2010, the story broke in Expressen with a sensationalist t.i.tle: "Julian a.s.sange accused in absentia of rape and s.e.xual a.s.sault." The article appeared both in the printed edition and online as early as 5 a.m. Svensson was pleased with it: "When I went home around 2:30 a.m. I realized this would become one of the largest scoops we've ever had."

Julian immediate responded to it on Twitter: "Reminder: US intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks as far back as 2008."

All the details of the charges made against a.s.sange were revealed in Expressen, a newspaper that can be compared to the Herald Sun in Great Britain: same style, same politics. Founded in 1944, it's Sweden's center-right newspaper, and its editorial line can be described as 'liberal and independent.' It's also highly criticized and its reputation is a little spotty.

The leaks had to come from the plaintiffs or the police. Had the two women called up a tabloid to embarra.s.s Julian even further? Svensson denied it.

"If it was Anna who tipped me off? I can firmly deny that I have had any contact with her. We haven't talked to each other at all."

The shock wave was imminent. Within a few hours, the international press had landed in Sweden. Julian, however, denied all the accusations made against him. Suspected, Julian affirmed that he did nothing wrong and that the s.e.x he had with both women was consensual.

As for Anna, she gave an anonymous interview to the newspaper Aftonbladet (which translates to: 'evening paper'), the most widely read daily in all of Scandinavia. Anna confirmed that Julian was not violent or intimidating. Here's a selection of affirmations.

"I don't feel threatened."

"It's completely wrong that we are afraid of a.s.sange and therefore unwilling to report him, he is not violent and I don't feel threatened by him."

"The other woman wanted to report a rape. I gave my story as testimony to her story and to support her. We are completely behind the accuracy of the information we have given."

"The accusations are not staged."

"In both case, the s.e.x had been consensual from the start but had eventually turned into abuse."

In the same article Anna refuted the accusations of an international plot to trap a.s.sange.