John Pilger: "How The So-Called Guardians Of Free Speech Are Silencing The Messenger"

A new article by journalist John Pilger describes, among other things, the links between Swedish politicians, implicated in the CIA renditions, and the prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. He describes the hypocrisy of the UK Guardian who is making tons of money off of the Wikileaks material, even as they turn against Assange himself. Nor are they alone in that, as the BBC recently retailed the outrageous rumors regarding Assange's purported anti-semitic statement, an attempt of character assassination of the man who has done more than anyone to open up the secret world of war crimes, financial machinations, and political double-dealing.

Should Assange’s current British appeal fail against his extradition to Sweden, he will probably, once charged, be denied bail and held incommunicado until his trial in secret. The case against him has already been dismissed by a senior prosecutor in Stockholm and given new life only when a right-wing politician, Claes Borgstrom, intervened and made public statements about Assange’s “guilt”. Borgstrom, a lawyer, now represents the two women involved. His law partner is Thomas Bodstrom, who as Sweden’s minister for justice in 2001, was implicated in the handover of two innocent Egyptian refugees to a CIA kidnap squad at Stockholm airport. Sweden later awarded them damages for their torture.

These facts were documented in an Australian parliamentary briefing in Canberra on 2 March. Outlining an epic miscarriage of justice threatening Assange, the enquiry heard expert evidence that, under international standards of justice, the behavior of certain officials in Sweden would be considered “highly improper and reprehensible [and] preclude a fair trial”. A former senior Australian diplomat, Tony Kevin, described the close ties between the Swedish prime minister Frederic Reinheldt, and the Republican right in the US. “Reinfeldt and [George W] Bush are friends,” he said. Reinhaldt has attacked Assange publicly and hired Karl Rove, the former Bush crony, to advise him. The implications for Assange’s extradition to the US from Sweden are dire.

The Assange Frame-up

Over at Counterpunch, Israel Shamir and Paul Bennett have a new article that demolishes the contrived "rape" case against Julian Assange of Wikileaks. They've done their research and found CIA connections to one of the women involved, not to mention the reasons the Swedish government may have saluted so quickly a sign from their U.S. allies. It's strange that Assange, who knew the U.S. would be trying to set him up, fell for the classic "honey trap" ploy. But then, that's why state spook agencies keep using it... it works so often. One can't hold it against him.

Let's hope Mr. Assange slips this trap of opportunists, U.S. character assassins, old Cold War assets looking for a new job, and just plain liars, and is back at work soon doing what he does best, helping expose criminal activity among the governments of this world.

From the Counterpunch article:

Julian Assange now stands accused of: (1) not calling a young woman the day after he had enjoyed a night with her, (2) asking her to pay for his bus ticket, (3) having unsafe sex, and (4) participating in two brief affairs in the course of one week. These four minor charges, worthy of Leopold Bloom’s mock trial in the Nightown chapter in Ulysses, have been shaken and fermented until they were able to cook up a half-baked rape case!....

* The pseudo-progressive organization Reporters Sans Frontières attacked Assange for endangering the lives of innocent American secret agents in Afghanistan. Despite its ‘leftist’ terminology, RSF is a private organization drawing funds from US government sources aiming to destabilize Cuba. It is connected to Cuban émigrés in Miami.

* 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 (see here and here) in the Swedish-language publication Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas put out by Misceláneas de Cuba. From Oslo, Professor Michael Seltzer points out that this periodical is the product of a well-financed anti-Castro organization in Sweden.

Read the entire article. H/T to Rixstep and tehranchik at Twitter