Julian Assange - Wikileaks: Warrior For True Part 18

"The charges against a.s.sange are of course not orchestrated by either the Pentagon or anyone else. The responsibility for what happened to me and the other girl is with a man with a warped att.i.tude to women and a problem with taking no for an answer."

The Aftonbladet got in touch with Julian and asked him if he had had s.e.x with his two accusers. His answer was clear: "Their ident.i.ties have been made anonymous so even I have no idea who they are. We have been warned that the Pentagon, for example, is thinking of deploying dirty tricks to ruin us."

That evening the two women hired, or more precisely accepted the services of Sweden's most famous and most expensive lawyer, Claes Borgstrom. He was a mediator for s.e.xual equality in the previous Social Democratic government before going back to practicing law in 2008. In fact, this pro-feminist lawyer was chosen to represent the two plaintiffs even before the preliminary inquiry was complete. But who was he exactly? And more specifically, who was paying for this case? It was clear that neither Anna nor Sofia could afford him.

Claes Borgstrom was the a.s.sociate of former justice minister Thomas Bodstrom, who, among others, was the author of an editorial for the Aftonbladet in which he pled for an extension of the legal definition of rape. As a pro-feminist lawyer, Claes Borgstrom has been credited with several controversial proposals. In 2006, he got attention by suggesting that Sweden boycotted the World Cup, which was organized in Germany to protest against the presumed rumor of an intensified trafficking of women during the event.

Swedish rape legislation is exemplary in Europe, and has been stricter than its neighboring countries since 2005. The law has three types of legal gradations for rape: rape, punished by six years in prison, aggravated rape good for ten years in prison, and lesser rape that involves four years in prison and consists of s.e.x with a person who is unconscious, drunk, ill or asleep. Many cases revealed that this last type has led to many convictions. Swedish law is in fact very strict with men who do not respect the word 'no,' particularly if the victim is not in a position (or of sound mind or sober state) to be giving their consent for s.e.x. This also holds true if s.e.x is already underway, as a woman always has the right to say 'no' and a man who doesn't respect this can be accused. Extending the law has tripled the amount of complaints in Sweden because what was formerly called 's.e.xual a.s.sault' is now cla.s.sified as 'rape.'

Sweden holds the European record for the number of rape complaints: 53 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010, which is twice as much as in Great Britain and four times as much than in France. Swedish law has made it easier to bring up charges. The police listen to victims without prejudice. Society has freed women of guilt to give them the power to say 'no,' no matter what they wear or how many drinks they've had.

Nevertheless, only five to ten per cent of people accused of rape are actually condemned. A rape without any trace of violence is difficult to prove, as it falls under a he-said/she-said situation. Reforming the law has given so much weight to women's voices that some Swedish critics have joked that soon people won't have s.e.x without first getting written consent from their partners!

34.

THE PROSECUTORS' STORIES.

"Why these accusations are coming at this point in time is an interesting question. I haven't been contacted by the police. The allegations are false and extremely disturbing."

This question came up in the last week of August 2010. Was destabilizing the founder of WikiLeaks, whose website embarra.s.sed so many governments, the point of all this? The day after he was accused of rape, the charges against Julian a.s.sange were dropped.

"We were forewarned by Australian intelligence on August 11, 2010 that we had to expect a campaign against me. We were worried that something likes this would happen," Julian said in an interview given to television station Al Jazeera.

"We can have some suspicions about who would benefit, but without direct evidence I would not be willing to make a direct allegation," he added.

EXCERPTS OF PRESS RELEASE OF THE PROSECUTORS' OFFICE.

* Statement of Prosecutor Eva Finne on August 23, 2010.

That day, she said she was expecting to make a decision in the near future, but pointed out that all the facts of the case must be carefully considered.

"I will now go through the matter in detail and a.s.sess the legal aspects in order to decide the future direction of the investigation. I expect to give an informed opinion this week, possibly as early as tomorrow, Tuesday."

I have not had any contact with Julian a.s.sange and I do not know if the reports are true that he would have a Swedish lawyer.

Julian a.s.sange is not suspected of rape. I'll go through the matter further in the section to a.s.sess whether any other offenses may be present or not. With regards to the initial suspicion of molestation, I still don't have a decision.

My decision to cancel the request on the grounds that I do not think he can be accused of rape does not imply any criticism of the on-call prosecutor's decision. I had access to more information for my decision on Sat.u.r.day than the on-call prosecutor had on Friday."

* Statement of Prosecutor Anders Perklev on issues of transparency and confidentiality on August 23, 2010 "The pressure exerted on the authorities has been great the last few days due to the decision to arrest Julian a.s.sange. The prosecution communications director has been on-call for the entire weekend and has answered questions from news organizations both in Sweden and abroad.

The decision to arrest and other decisions are made by a single prosecutor under his/her own responsibility and not by the court as such. This limits the possibilities for people other than the prosecutor to step in and provide information or comment on a decision. Moreover, the confidentiality required in the investigation in order to not hinder its course must be taken into account.

However, it is very important that information that can be disclosed be revealed as soon as possible, quickly and properly. We will also make sure that the authorities are better prepared in order to be able to satisfy the great interest for information concerning major cases."

CHRONOLOGY OF THE a.s.sANGE AFFAIR.

* Events of Friday, August 20, 2010 to Sat.u.r.day, August 21, 2010.

Around 5 p.m. on Friday, August 20, the on-call prosecutor in Stockholm decided that Julian a.s.sange had to be arrested in absentia on suspicion of rape and molestation. The prosecutor based her decision on the information from the case that the police gave her over the phone, which was standard procedure. The prosecutor also understood that it concerned a foreign national ready to leave the country. One of the motives for his arrest in absentia was therefore the risk that Julian would leave the country before he could be questioned.

However, the information concerning his arrest came from an unknown source, a Swedish news service. The editorial staff of this news source contacted the on-call prosecutor that Friday evening. When the prosecutor realized that the editorial staff knew all the details of the case, the existence of a file on Julian a.s.sange was confirmed.

Yet the prosecutor did not provide any details concerning the case. This is very important, especially for s.e.xual offenses, because data on the people involved must be protected, as stipulated by the laws on confidentiality. When the news came out in the media on Sat.u.r.day, the on-call prosecutor in Stockholm felt attacked. It was clear that the case had to be taken away from the on-call prosecutor so that he could continue to perform his regular work. This is when Prosecutor Eva Finne was called in to lead the investigation as of Sat.u.r.day.

Once appointed to lead the investigation, Eva Finne studied the file. Around 4:30 p.m. on Sat.u.r.day, she decided to cancel the arrest of Julian a.s.sange, because she felt that he could not be accused of rape. The elements that supported her decision were more extensive than those the on-call prosecutor had access to on Friday. The exact details of the case could not be revealed, as the investigation was ongoing and therefore, had to be kept confidential.

Normally, after a weekend, all the cases are redistributed to various prosecutors, but an ordinary prosecutor may sometimes be designated before the weekend is over. This is the case for serious or high-profile matters like Julian's since the on-call prosecutor cannot be monopolized for a single case and needs to be able to function normally.

* Evolution of Sat.u.r.day, August 21, 2010 Eva Finne decided that Julian a.s.sange could no longer be suspected of rape, yet she didn't rule on the penal qualification of this, which was still considered rape. She also didn't rule on the molestation complaint. The investigation was therefore still ongoing and the suspicions against Julian a.s.sange were not retracted.

* No additional decisions in the a.s.sange case on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 Prosecutor Eva Finne finally said she would not decide the matter on Tuesday, August 24, 2010. Additional information would be published as soon as it was made available.

* Decision of Prosecutor Eva Finne on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 There are two complaints in the case from two different women. The first was initially described as rape and the second as molestation.

Complaint No. 1 K246314-10 "The information obtained while questioning the victim is, as previously announced, such that the suspicion of rape has been eliminated. This does not mean that I have discredited this information. I have studied the content of the interview to see if the suspicion of another crime may be presumed, either molestation or s.e.xual a.s.sault, but according to my a.n.a.lysis, this is not the case.

The investigation is therefore finished as concerns this complaint as they is no suspicion of offense."

Complaint No. 2, K246336-10 "The suspicion of molestation has been retained. I will issue instructions to the investigators to interview the suspect."

* Evolution of the case on Monday, August 30, 2010 Claes Borgstrom contacted Marianne Ny, Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecution Development Centre in Gothenburg, in charge of supervising legal evolutions on s.e.xual offenses. Ms. Ny leads a special unit on the development of crime and is specialized in the elaboration of laws concerning s.e.xual a.s.sault.

The last day of August caused upheaval in the case's procedure. That day, Julian was questioned at the Kungsholmen police station in Stockholm, where he admitted that he stayed at Ms. Anna Ardin's place for a week and that he had s.e.xual relations with her, although denying any rape or aggression. While Anna thought that he purposely tore the condom, he said he did not. He didn't tear the condom and had no idea there was something wrong with it. The Australian continued by declaring that he had slept in Anna's bed the entire week after their s.e.xual relations and that she had never mentioned any torn condom.

Later, Julian admitted on Swedish television that he had denied all the accusations against him. He did not have any non-consensual s.e.x and refused to answer any other additional question on his relations.h.i.+ps with the plaintiffs, whom he didn't criticize at all.

During his interrogation about his s.e.xual relations.h.i.+p with Ms. Ardin he said: "I had no reason to suspect that I would be accused of something like this." He added that the complaints made against him to the police, and repeated in the Swedish press, included "a bunch of incredible lies."

* No decision of penal review on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 The civil parties, represented by lawyer Claes Borgstrom, requested on Friday, August 27, 2010, the review of the decision of Prosecutor Eva Finne according to which a.s.sange could not be suspected of rape. This request was handled by the Prosecution Development Centre in Gothenburg. A decision was expected in the following days.

However, the Prosecution Development Centre in Gothenburg did not make a decision concerning the review of the a.s.sange case before Tuesday, August 31, as new information had emerged that very day. Prosecutor Marianne Ny said: "On Tuesday, new information emerged in the investigation. We received it late Tuesday afternoon and we cannot make any decision today.

The decision is expected around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, September 1."

The case took an unexpected turn on Wednesday, September 1, 2010, when Marianne Ny, Chief Prosecutor, decided to reopen the investigation.

* Decision of penal review in the a.s.sange case on Wednesday, September 1, 2010 Chief Prosecutor Marianne Ny decided that the rape investigation must resume. She also decided that the investigation of molestation should be extended to include all the events of the complaint.

"Based on the new decision of the prosecutor on August 25, 2010, I order the investigation concerning the complaint K246314-10 to be resumed.

The investigation relative to complaint K246336-10 concerning a matter qualified as molestation is extended to determine other events stated in the complaint and qualified as s.e.xual coercion and s.e.xual a.s.sault.

We have studied the case and I believe that on the one hand, there is reason to think that an offense subject to public prosecution has been committed. As well, there are also reasons to undertake more investigative procedures. On the other hand, I have another evaluation of the qualification."

Marianne Ny was the lead investigator in this case, a.s.sisted by Deputy Chief Prosecutor Erika Leijnefors in West Stockholm. Erika Leijnefors was in constant contact with police investigators in charge of the investigation. All the important matters such as decisions on possible coercion as well as completing the investigation were to be decided by Marianne Ny.

The plaintiffs' lawyer Claes Borgstrom claimed that it wasn't the first time a man who had forced a woman to have unprotected s.e.x had to face this type of accusation, which conforms to Swedish law on rape.

Julian a.s.sange didn't respond directly to this turn of affairs, but his Swedish lawyer, Leif Silbersky, known for defending the most controversial cases, expressed his views in Expressen: "Now I'm really surprised. I thought that Eva [Finne] is a skilled and competent prosecutor who draws the correct conclusions from the material that is available to her. Now another prosecutor says that she has not done that. We are back to square one the circus continues."

The lawyer added that Mr. a.s.sange was still in Sweden, "angry and disappointed" by the country's legal system.

Honey trap or not, the case was quickly qualified as controversial. a.s.sange and WikiLeaks sympathizers were convinced that he was the victim and that the two women were accomplices in an American vendetta. The United States was indeed looking for a way to punish WikiLeaks for leaking hundreds of thousands of secret American doc.u.ments on the Internet.

This possible conspiracy against Julian is at the very least a strange coincidence, as it happened at the same time as Julian a.s.sange started to arise worry in the American government. This could also mean that the Swedish prosecutors' office was under some political pressure.

Borgstrom described the vendetta in these words: "Mr. a.s.sange and his legal team were misrepresenting a justice system that required approval from Sweden's highest appeals court before the extradition warrant was approved. Those who say that the judges in our court of appeal were influenced by pressure from the United States don't know what they're talking about. It's absurd."

Mr. Borgstrom added that by presenting the allegations against him as part of a political conspiracy, Julian had made 'victims' of the two women who now face vilification on the Internet and regular death threats. Only Julian and the two plaintiffs were in fact in a position to know that it was not a CIA plot or something cooked up by Obama's administration.

35.

CLAs.h.i.+NG TRUTHS.

The two Swedish women's accusation against Julian a.s.sange was full of inconsistencies. His lawyers were even convinced that he was the victim of a 'honeytrap,' which Julian confirmed by openly accusing the Pentagon in the pages of the Aftonbladet. Aside from his lawyer, few people dared to say anything in Sweden, not even the members of the Pirate Party who had been hosting WikiLeaks servers and who continue to defend the website. In a press release dated August 21, 2010 Deputy Leader of the party Anna Troberg said: "As little as we want to throw a.s.sange to the wolves, just as little would we like to question the integrity of the two women who have filed charges."

The WikiLeaks group coordinator in Stockholm, a close colleague of Julian said: "This is a normal police investigation. Let the police find out what actually happened. Of course, the enemies of WikiLeaks may try to use this, but it begins with the two women and Julian. It is not the CIA sending a woman in a short skirt."

Is it coincidence or are people just being relentlessness? One thing is for sure: the complexity of Swedish rape law is the focus of these allegations. Now back to the facts. Depositions have crossed paths and revealed many blatant inconsistencies.

Julian and Anna had s.e.x, but the condom tore. Anna was upset with Julian for not stopping at that point. However, despite this, and for the entire week afterward, Anna never asked Julian to leave. She let him stay in her flat a few more days and even organized a kraftskiva ('crayfish party') in his honor, during which she tweeted that she was having a great time with some of the coolest people on the planet. She later tried to delete her tweet. When the police questioned Julian about it, he admitted to having had s.e.x with Anna Ardin, but he said he hadn't torn the condom or even noticed it was ripped.

The day of the conference, Sofia Wilen was sitting in the first row. She was invited to the lunch given in Julian's honor. In reality, there are different versions of these events: one said that the twenty-seven-year-old woman just showed up, the other was that Julian invited her himself. In any case, it was clear that she was able to attract his attention.

Nick Davies confirmed in The Guardian that both Sofia and Anna were present at this lunch. In fact, the first called the second to find out if she could attend the seminar. Weird.

Moving right along. Early the following morning, in her apartment in Enkoping, Julian and Sofia had s.e.x again, but this time, according to the young woman's statement, she fell asleep and Julian proceeded to have s.e.x with her and didn't want to use a condom. Their disagreement didn't stop them from having breakfast together, though. Sofia even took Julian to the train station on her bicycle and paid for his train ticket a second time. However, the incident of not wearing a condom was important for Ms. Wilen as she had never had unprotected s.e.x before. When questioned by the police, her ex-boyfriend told them that in the two and a half years that they were together they had never had s.e.x without a condom, because that was 'unthinkable' for her.

It was very surprising that after having s.e.xual relations the women described in their statements, they both continued to be in contact with their presumed rapist.

In fact, from August 13 to 20 2010, nothing happened. Neither of the two women said anything, nor did they decide to press charges. It took several days for Anna and Sofia, who claimed that they didn't know each other, to show up together at the police station to report the rape only after having discovered that they both had had s.e.xual relations with the same man and shared a similar experience.

For Julian's lawyers the situation was crystal clear: "We understand that both complainants admit to having initiated consensual s.e.xual relations with Mr a.s.sange. They do not complain of any physical injury. The first complainant did not make a complaint for six days in which she hosted the respondent in her flat [actually her bed] and spoke in the warmest terms about him to her friends. The second complainant, too, failed to complain for several days until she found out about the first complainant: she claimed that after several acts of consensual s.e.xual intercourse, she fell half asleep and thinks that he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed without using a condom a possibility about which she says they joked afterwards."

Both complainants say they did not report him to the police for prosecution but only to require him to have an STD test. However, his Swedish lawyer has been shown evidence of their text messages which indicate that they were concerned to obtain money by going to a tabloid newspaper and were motivated by other matters including a desire for revenge."

There was another revelation from a girlfriend to the police. During the kraftskiva, Anna told a girlfriend about the ripped condom and the unprotected s.e.x she had had with her guest. During this dinner at her place, she told another friend that she had had the worst s.e.x ever with a.s.sange.

"Not only had it been the world's worst screw, it had also been violent."

If it were that bad, then why did she throw the man a party? Anna Ardin said in her statement that Julian had torn the condom on purpose. She told a girlfriend that he was still staying at her flat, but they weren't having s.e.x because he had "exceeded the limits of what she felt she could accept" and so she no longer felt safe.

Moreover, the text messages the two young women sent to each other the last week of August 2010 seemed favorable to Julian's defense. Bjorn Hurtig, his Swedish lawyer was allowed to read some of these messages between Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilen. He was not authorized to copy them or make a note of them. However, he did read that Wilen thought about contacting the Expressen, as a friend suggested she could get a lot of money for telling her story. Prosecutor Marianne Ny didn't divulge all of the doc.u.ments linked to the affair, in particular the text messages between the two accusers. But before there is a decision to prosecute someone, the law authorizes the examination of all available doc.u.ments as soon as the prosecution procedure was to start.

Julian is probably a man with a big s.e.xual appet.i.te, and is exploiting his newfound fame with women. But who are these two women accusing him of rape and s.e.xual a.s.sault? Not much information can be found online about Sofia Wilen, while suspicions focus directly on Anna Ardin. The blogosphere exploded. She's the instigator of a conspiracy to help bring Julian down!

Anna Ardin is a left-wing militant. She is the political secretary of the Fraternity Movement, a controversial group close to the Social Democratic Party. As a radical feminist, Anna Ardin wrote a manual called Seven Steps to Legal Revenge, which has been published on her blog. In September, she erased all the traces of this guide. It was a humorous posting for women who wanted to get revenge on their ex-lovers. In seven steps, one could use legal means and make sure the victim suffered a lot.

There have been all kinds of arguments flying around about this article and Ardin's militant past. Articles on CounterPunch, an American newsletter that writes about politics in a controversial and provocative manner, have greatly contributed in playing up the idea that the main accuser of Julian a.s.sange in Sweden has a serious past collaborating with anti-Castro groups.

The following comments are those on CounterPunch, picked up by a large number of blogs, which endlessly propagate the idea that Anna Ardin is in fact a CIA agent.

"Anna Ardin (the official complainant) is often described by the media as a 'leftist.' She has ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups. She published her anti-Castro diatribes in the Swedish-language publication Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas put out by Miscelaneas de Cuba. From Oslo, Professor Michael Seltzer points out that this periodical is the product of a well-financed anti-Castro organization in Sweden. He further notes that the group is connected with Union Liberal Cubana led by Carlos Alberto Montaner whose CIA ties were exposed here. Note that Ardin was deported from Cuba for subversive activities. In Cuba she interacted with the feminist anti-Castro group Las damas de blanco (the Ladies in White). This group receives US government funds and the convicted anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is a friend and supporter. Wikipedia quotes Hebe de Bonafini, president of the Argentine Madres de Plaza de Mayo as saying that "the so-called Ladies in White defend the terrorism of the United States."

"In addition to her anti-Castro, pro-CIA streak, Anna Ardin apparently indulges in her favorite sport of male bas.h.i.+ng. A Swedish forum reports that she is an expert on s.e.xual hara.s.sment and the male 'master suppression techniques.' Once, as she was lecturing, a male student in the audience looked at his notes instead of staring at her. Anna Ardin reported him for s.e.xual hara.s.sment because he discriminated against her for being a woman and because she claimed he made use of the male 'master suppression technique' in trying to make her feel invisible. As soon as the student learned about her complaint, he contacted her to apologize and explain himself. Anna Ardin's response was to once again report him for s.e.xual hara.s.sment, again because he was using the 'master suppression technique,' this time to belittle her feelings."

These pa.s.sages were written by Israel Shamir, known journalist, anti-Semite and Holocaust denier, who also wrote under the names of Adam Ermash and Joran Jermas.

It's interesting to hear what is being said in Stockholm. By listening one can hear so many things...

It's important to know that though currently not in power, the social democratic party is the largest political party in Sweden since a long time. It has its roots in socialism but has always also been a democratic party, as opposed to various leftist communist movements and parties. As a part of its heritage, social democratic party members tend to be very suspicious towards communism. This is also reflected in the common Swedish social democratic view on Cuba and Castro. For a Swedish social democrat it is perfectly normal to be anti Castro.

Also, in recent years, feminism has been embraced as a part of social democracy (and, for that matter, most political parties). Being a feminist is not at all considered extreme in a Swedish political context. It simply means that one acknowledges that women are paid less than men for doing the same kind of job and that women are under represented in leading positions in the society something should be done to correct this. Hardly radical or extremist.

There are those in Sweden to the left of the social democratic party that have a more positive view on the Castro regime in Cuba and considers the current Cuban government as legit. They are however a marginalized minority in Sweden. There are also some conservatives and libertarians that doesn't embrace the feminist a.n.a.lysis. But they too are few.

Based on that, Ms. Ardin is to be considered as a pretty mainstream Swedish social democrat although it is also fair to say that she has shown a clear pa.s.sion for these two issues. The rumor that Ms. Ardin would have accused Mr. a.s.sange of s.e.xual a.s.sault as a part of a CIA initiated honey pot seems simply absurd. Based on some conspiratorial web sites, the rumor is based on her visiting Damas de Blanco an opposition movement in Cuba consisting of wives and other female relatives of jailed dissidents, and writing about Cuba in various papers. According to some sources, Damas de Blanco and these papers are CIA funded."

A friend of Ms. Ardin told us: "I have no idea how if at all the CIA tries to undermine the Castro regime. But it seems very farfetched that they would hope to accomplish anything by supporting Ms. Ardin's meetings with Cuban dissidents or writing about Cuba. She is simply not that important.