cnet news
Julian Assange, leader of the WikiLeaks project that’s published extensive secret details of U.S. military and diplomatic activity, has been arrested in London on a Swedish accusation of rape.
“He is accused by the Swedish authorities of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation, and one count of rape, all alleged to have been committed in August 2010,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement today.
Assange is scheduled to appear at Magistrates Court in the City of Westminster in London later today, the police said. The police’s extradition unit arrested him this morning on a European arrest warrant after Assange and his lawyers arranged to meet with police at a London police station.
Hopefully, wikileaks will inform us of the evidence against Assange. I don’t want to reveal to much, but I’m very interest in what constitutes “unlawful coercion” and whether or not that bit of social engineering should put Sweden off my travel itinerary.
I guess its not true you can’t rape a Swedish woman? ((Consent always granted.))
Ha, ha.
They’ll keep him locked up & or jumping through hoops for years. He won’t make the mistake of “turning himself in” ever again.
Who wants to bet he’ll be extradited to the U.S. eventually?
tolly: I’ll take that bet. That we still do have the first Amendment and freedom of the press and the Pentagon Papers Test Case, what convinces me that Assange is safe from the USA is that too many Republicans have called for his head. What the pukes want is always fanciful and baseless, so I’m just going with the flow.
More relevantly is the blackmail of Assange saying he has an “unreview/unedited/unredacted” mass of posting ready to dump should he feel justified in doing so.
If redacted material has caused this much stink, just imagine the harm to the USA’s ability to skulk in those dark and fetid places should the sweet sunshine of the truth ever shine upon us? Might our own press wake up and remember what motivated them to go to J-School?
Naaa, nevermind, just kidding.
Advice to Assange; Stay out of small planes.
“Extraditing
Assange will not be just a formality, because in August Swedish
prosecutors had cancelled an arrest warrant for Assange relating to two
accusations of rape and molestation, saying at the time that he was no
longer suspected of a criminal offence. Then, they later resurrected the
… charges after the intervention of a right-wing Swedish politician.”
So it’s not a legal issue then…
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1930630/assange-locked
And apparently it’s not ‘rape’ (although the media seems happy to repeatedly say it is).
”They’re not “rape,” everyone agrees–because the sex was consensual. They also aren’t unspecified “molestation.”
What they appear to be is a violation of a Swedish law against “having sex without a condom.””
http://www.businessinsider.com/julian-assange-sex-crimes-2010-12
So you are left with a crude framing to try and silence wikileaks. If you value free speech you should value wikileaks, and Assange.
Why can’t we use the same tactics on Fox News “reporters”? Beck, O’Reily you name it. And no, it’s not just Fox News, but start with them! I’ll go first,
Beck rape Boobo. Go FBI!
He’ll conveniently be found hanged in his cell.
The said she had CIA ties:
The whole rape thing is so dodgy. Makes the whole system look corrupt. They must think the the world is full of stupid people doing it so publically. It’s so unbelievable.
#5. JMJahn. Big ☺!
#5. JMJahn. Make that a big 🙂
Some important points brought up by Greenwald that the MSM never brings up:
– Assange is not accused of anything, he’s just wanted for questioning
– He made repeated efforts to provide answers via phone, all rejected
– Putting someone on Interpol’s most wanted list for a crime of this low magnitude is unprecedented
http://democracynow.org/2010/12/7/glenn_greenwald_julian_assange_arrest_and
“But Claes Borgström knew better. He and his friend and colleague Marianne Ny had been working on expanding the legal concept of rape in Sweden. They were interested in two sweeping changes to current legislation, whereof the most important one is that people themselves no longer decide when they’ve been raped – their governments do.”
http://radsoft.net/news/20101202,00.shtml
@#7 “Why can’t we use the same tactics on Fox News “reporters”? Beck, O’Reily you name it. And no, it’s not just Fox News, but start with them!”
Name one News Organization (media of any kind, include and start with Fox) that have ever in the human history blackmailed/extorted any country by publishing some stolen info and than demanded that its demands be followed or the rest will be published?
Wikileaks/Assange is not News Organization of any kind. Depending on your Leftness you may call him anything from common blackmailer or extortionist or at the Right end – terrorist. As such, any excuse is good to remove him from the public he threatens.
Who he threatens? As there are many claims that most recent info release haven’t hurt anyone: in country of my origin (which is not US) there are three Govt. representatives (two elected politicians and one appointed bureaucrat) who are now in hiding, fearing for their lives. Two politicians have released notes denying Wikileaks info, third guy is just hiding. Wikileaks lists them as accepting to spy for US. In my country of origin there is not much law and order. If someone is accused of being a spy “honorable criminals” will go for literal kill. Not only that Wikileaks have harmed barely alive diplomatic relations with US but lives of people who wanted to help US are on thin ice. Thanks to BS extortionist Assange. If Obma had Regan guts this BS would have been in Gitmo with the whole entourage, if not simply shot in that empty place on top of his body.
#17–dismal==what you sayin? Blackmail? Extortion? Thats illegal.
Silly Puke, you think anything you don’t like is illegal?
I will meet you half way and agree that telling the truth is un-American and no good Puke would be caught dead doing that.
Onward Christian Soldier!!! There be heathens outside the continential USA. Go gettum.
My point of view has always been that Assange is not the problem, but an end point symptom.
The problem is the people who leaked such documents. That my friends, is treasonous. The people responsible, should be found, put up against a wall, and shot.
My biggest problem with this Assange questioning /arrest/ whatever, is that is shows how little evidence you need for a rape charge. I know it may seem a little harsh to the woman, but if you cannot show proof that such a rape happened, the case should be thrown out. I may not lake this Assange ass clown, but he should not be brought down in this way.
So tomorrow we all should just keep beleaving
in freedom of the speech or press after all this.
I was always the skeptic about democracy but after this which hunt I’m devastated
#7
The reason why you can’t bring these charges against Fox News is because it was consensual when O’Reilly had the dildo up his ass.
The others are sexless freaks.
I don’t give a damn if it’s right or wrong. When you pick a fight with a guy that outweighs you 50 with a 8 inch longer reach, chances are you’re going to get your ass kicked.
Non-consensual sex is typically rape, isn’t it? Sex without condom when your partner requires it????
#23 Are you some new kind of idiot?
So your partner wants to get on top, and does so “without your consent”. By your definition that’s rape.
Well lets see. We all seem to agree that the guy is being railroaded by various governments many of whom have a personal ax to grind. The rest are being leaned on and perhaps offered bribes.
Freedom of speech and due process seem to be faerie tails. I’m going to miss them.
Who would have thought that many of the leaders of the western nations have the ethics of a Papa Doc? Are any of them worthy of more respect than bleep on a stick?
Fear their power yes. Cross them at your own risk but if one is pulled down, “Good riddance to bad rubbish.”
He turned himself in to keep the CIA from offing him. Simple as that.
He probably won’t live much longer, in any event. Or perhaps he will be the “new Number Six”. until they are done playing with him.
I wish to publicly express my appreciation of his efforts to out the bastards, and being right in their faces is a novel approach. But the evil power structure always wins.
The next step will be massive raids on any and all locations possibly associated with Wikileaks. Many will be arrested and all computers confiscated. But none of this will stop the information from getting out. The truth shall set us free.
Watch closely. See how “they” shut down the money, persuade ISP’s to distance themselves, discredit with trumped up sex charges.
Next time a similar situation starts to bubble up the clamp down will be much quicker. Most of us might not even hear about it. Ignorance is bliss….all that sort of thing.
I’m with bobbo it would be swell to see the alleged victim’s entire statement/accusation posted on wikileaks or better yet a site called takealeakonwikileaks phallus size (bet is small) rape kit evidence ect ect.
lets have his health and finical records too. along with his family and friends yup pin numbers and passwords all of it this man want on secrets
I’m not upset about how he has embarrassed us or even how he has shown the US to be Human Rights hypocrites we had that coming but he has put lives at risk and hampered efforts to quell terrorism.
I’m just wondering has we looked into Australia’s closet? I think he should clean his own closet before worrying about anyone else’s
The more disgusting the leak, the greater the need to hide it from the public.
I prefer the Cheney approach. If you have nothing to hide, why are your worried about it getting out?
This stuff is sounding more like the movie ENEMY OF THE STATE. This lawsuit will backfire bigtime.
“To me the New York Times has committed at least an act of bad citizenship, but whether they have committed a crime is a matter of discussion for the justice department.”
Senator Joe Lieberman on Fox News
The New York Times has been using the WikiLeaks cables and Lieberman thinks they should be investigated under US espionage laws. This is how freedom dies.
Why are we not calling this guy a Terrorist! Is it cuz he is white and not brown?