Julian Assange Faces Rape Investigation In Sweden — Updated 1017
mpawlo was one of many readers who have sent news that a warrant has been issued in Stockholm, Sweden for WikiLeaks founder and spokesman Julian Assange. The investigation apparently involves "one report of rape and one report of harassment." The story was broken by Swedish tabloid Expressen (original in Swedish), and later picked up by more reputable sources like CNN and the BBC, who say the warrant has been confirmed by Swedish authorities. The WikiLeaks Twitter feed has commented three times about the charges so far, first saying they were warned of 'dirty tricks,' then that they hadn't been contacted by Swedish police, and then a statement from Assange saying the charges are without basis.
Update: 08/21 15:58 GMT by S : Multiple sources are now reporting that the warrant for Assange's arrest has been withdrawn. Aftonbladet has coverage in Swedish. Chief prosecutor Eva Finne said, "I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape."
Update: 08/21 15:58 GMT by S : Multiple sources are now reporting that the warrant for Assange's arrest has been withdrawn. Aftonbladet has coverage in Swedish. Chief prosecutor Eva Finne said, "I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape."
Character assasination in progress (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny aspect of this (Score:5, Interesting)
According to the article the two women did not actually accuse him of rape, only that they asked the police for guidance relating to what allegedly happened.
This point is rather interesting, as in e.g. Norway (which has very similar legal system) you can and often will get a year or more prison sentence if you knowingly falsely accuse someone of rape.
The trick is to get him into custody (Score:0, Interesting)
The fact that the us is playing dirty is like saying hitler was a bad man. First get him into custody then expect to hear that his trial isscheduled in the year 2150 in Syria. Bush said nevermind Osama, the pentagon admitted there were no weapons in iraq. Sleep well America, you will wake up in what's already becoming a military dictatorship. The sad part is it does nothing to arrest Julian since he doesn't know his sources and he couldn't stop wikileaks even if he wanted. The only wistleblower to expose the UBS scam is the only person doing time because the UBS CEO is playing golf with Barrack Osama. Good night America and good riddance. Anyone who wants to emigrate from that country north of a big oil leak is welcome in my home.
Re:"Enemy of the State" (Score:5, Interesting)
Bah, as a swede this hurts, but essentially our government is a US lapdog. Witness the fiasco with the pirate bay for a glaring example, where the prosecution initially refused to press any charges because they felt there was no real case. Then suddenly a few months later they got the people behind it sentenced to pay record damages (1.35 M USD) AND jail time corresponding to a major case of assault and battery in a kangaroo court with the chairman being a member of several pro-copyright lobby organisations, and acquaintance of several of the legal counsels on the plaintiffs side.
I don't know about Denmark these days, but something is definitely rotten in the state of Sweden these days, and I think it was a major mistake of Mr Assange to decide to have anything to do with us.
Sounds like District 9 (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:This just in (Score:3, Interesting)
Say the US secret services wanted to get the WikiLeaks founder locked. Why not do something much simpler like planting child pornography on one of his computers?
These rape and harassment charges are trickier to fabricate. Remember, this is not the 19th century, there is plenty of forensic muscle in existence that can prove or disprove rape. And in the northern countries, criminal prosecutors are rather level-headed, and if no crime was committed, it will be known. And if crime was committed, it will be known, too.
Re:This just in (Score:5, Interesting)
It doesn't take a paranoid to see the US government (or another government) having an agent find a way to get alone with Assange for a half an hour and then accusing him of rape. Hell, just get an agent to sleep with him (he is a male, it isn't hard) and have her give it a little extra twist and now you have physical evidence of a rape. What is generally physical evidence of rape is just a vagina that has seen been used a little too hard. It is pretty trivial to fake. Rough sex will do it (easy to do if the plant is the aggressor), but you don't even need the person you intend to frame. Just grab a nearby vegetable and give yourself a few rough ins and outs when you are not in the mood and that will pretty much do it.
Framing Assange is pretty trivial.
1) Molest yourself with a dildo when you are not in the mood.
2) Seduce Assange to score yourself some physical evidence
3) Complain to the authorities
4) ???
5) Profit
We are never going to know the truth unless someone has a high quality video of the alleged rape, or the accuser is proven to have ties to an intelligence agency. There will be good reason to suspect that it is a frame (easy to do), yet no proof to the contrary.
My advice to anyone who is fucking around with the US government... tape yourself 24/7 and never for any reason turn it off. If they want to make it look like you committed a crime, it is trivial.
Rape? In Sweden? (Score:5, Interesting)
Crime needs three things: motive, means, opportunity.
Motive, no big deal, being a heterosexual male is enough.
Means, easy, every man comes equipped with that.
Opportunity, that's the big problem.
I have lived in Sweden and cannot say I had any difficulty in picking willing girls in bars there, and I'm not even famous like Assange.
A man with his record of fighting government corruption would have an idol status in Sweden, he would have to hire security guards to keep the girls away.
If there's one case where the accused should be presumed innocent, this is it.
Sweden is a strange place (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Rape? In Sweden? (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, swedish law classifies a lot of things as "rape" that wouldn't be rape in other countries (this can be seen by looking at swedish rape statistics before and after the relevant changes to the law).
Also, from the article you linked: " The figures can however be somewhat distorted as it is often only assault rapes by strangers and aggravated acquaintance rapes that are reported in many of these countries - as was the case in Sweden 40 years ago.".
Re:This just in (Score:1, Interesting)
I love how, on zero information, the decision is made: it must be dirty tricks. You know, sometimes people who do interesting or important work are guilty of crimes. Remember Hans Reiser? How about waiting for, you know, facts, before deciding. It's possible that it's all a setup. It's possible that with him being in the news, a couple of women that he's harassed have decided to come forward. How about keeping an open mind?
Oh, yeah, sorry, I forgot, this is Slashdot... carry on.
Re:Rape? In Sweden? (Score:2, Interesting)
It might also be that the larger number of REPORTED rapes ties in with the general atmosphere of equality and sexual openness in Sweden. The number of actual rapes is probably not higher, it's just that being raped is easier to be open about and hence to actually report; it carries a less sense of guilt or shame.
Re:This just in (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, that's why almost all of the raped women always see their attacker prosecuted, found guilty and imprisoned, NOT!
Methinks you watch too many episodes of CSI. Real life is rather more complicated and mundane.
This affair stinks, probably it's a set-up to get him arrested and then shipped to USA.
Re:Proper response (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Rape? In Sweden? (Score:1, Interesting)
Didn't dare to login as I am sure to be modded down.
First of all I would like to state that I am NOT a racist. Sweden has a huge problem with immigrants committing crime and they are responsible for a huge majority of the assault rapes and other rapes as well. The Swedish media is of course covering this up, but if we look at Norway for example the case is the same there. And lets not forget Sweden takes in much more immigrants than Norway.
Re:This just in (Score:2, Interesting)
If they put the same effort into doing something about Osama bin Laden as they're putting into doing something about Julian Assange, I suspect bin Laden would be either in Gitmo or 6 feet under by now.
Oh please. Bin Laden is near-paranoid in the measures he takes to hide himself. He's willing to undergo great hardship and deprive himself of even the most basic luxuries to continue his war against the West. He's been meticulous about hiding, going so far is living in caves at times. Assange is an attention whore. It's not like it's hard for anyone to find him. Saying that Assange's arrest proves that we're not looking hard enough for Bin Laden is downright foolish.
Re:This just in (Score:5, Interesting)
You should be aware that the two women knew each other, and went to the police together. They claim that they were molested by Assange independently in two different cities, with a few days between, without one of them thinking to warn the other.
Re:Funny aspect of this (Score:4, Interesting)
This point is rather interesting, as in e.g. Norway (which has very similar legal system) you can and often will get a year or more prison sentence if you knowingly falsely accuse someone of rape.
That is interesting. I mean, it's an acknowledgement that a. rape is a serious crime and that b. an accusation of rape can have terrible consequences for the accused, even if eventually proven innocent.
I dunno, though: here in the U.S. the system is generally pretty biased towards the woman, and if they tried to pass a law like that here, the complaint would be that it would make a woman afraid to report a rape, or attempted rape, because she might go to prison (mistakes do get made.) That does give women considerable power to really screw a man over if they want. I have no idea how often that happens.
Re:Rape? In Sweden? (Score:5, Interesting)
So how do you explain the larger number of reported rapes in Sweden then?
Because women are strongly encouraged to report rape here, and the police tend to take their accusations very seriously. Don't confuse the number of reported crimes to the actual number.
Re:Rape? In Sweden? (Score:3, Interesting)
So does that tell you something about the general honesty of women, about the general comportment of men, or about the public's general perception of the meaning of the word "rape"?
Re:This just in (Score:1, Interesting)
I'll also remember the last time when the US parked a giant battle ship off my country to help a coup d'etat. Go fucking away and die, suckers. The world pays the bill - in lives - for the heavy lifting you believe it's onto your shoulders.
Re:If you play with matches... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This just in (Score:1, Interesting)
Most service members and even some on record commanders would rather be doing much more beneficial and humanitarian services, or even focusing on combating recent piracy, and not continued fighting of unwinnable ground wars whose objective is a constant mystery to the deployed troops. I think the U.S. is just a scapegoat for the rest of the world most of the time, but I can't deny that its government (not military) is irredeemable and basically hopeless at this point.
Re:One more factor, however... (Score:2, Interesting)
The media and us spies can't control what we decide to believe or say and write. Faces hidden behind their desks, they only control whatever truths or lies newspapers print, not the rest of us. I smell a rat and call it BS. The original story is from a tabloid, who have no reputation or scruples. Easily corrupted. The other papers just repeat the tabloid, risking none of their reputation.
Don't forget that the first one to report this news was Expressen, the only competitor to Aftonbladet, the "newspaper" Assange was supposed to write for. Coincidence? You tell me.
Re:He IS Innocent! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This just in (Score:2, Interesting)
Assange doesn't seem like the type to be humble about the way he's gone after the US military... all of his tv appearances would say otherwise. Perhaps the power that comes with knocking down such a powerful institution and the fame he's generated with it have gone to his head. In fact, we already know that he thinks the rules don't apply to him - while he demands the transparency of other organizations, he does his best to disclose as little as possible about his own.
Re:This just in (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Warrant CANCELED (Score:1, Interesting)
Nice one -- it seems the Swedish government does works weekends.
In "other" countries this would have been allowed to balloon out of control over the weekend making it big news world wide.
But this became a non-story within hours.
False accusations, conspiracy. Yes it is. (Score:4, Interesting)
and suddenly, rape charges come up.
if there is ANYone who can still think that such big coincidences can happen, i have only one word to call them :
morons.
the powers behind these kind of shit, apparently have grown a lot lax and reckless lately. in 1960s, they would at least give some time before coming up with their game so that public wouldnt be able to see the correlation in between the two events. but apparently, they dont need to. for there are people who still can be as stupid as not to be able to see the linkage.
Re:This just in (Score:4, Interesting)
Assange himself masterminded these girls reporting the rapes. It doesn't seem like that bad of an idea if you can later have the girls recant their story, and then claim they were coerced by CIA agents or something... how do you expect the US to prove that the girls weren't coerced by CIA agents?
In this version of the story, Assange comes out way ahead and the US government not so much. Just keep an open mind...
disinformation 'win' - Swedish Govt 'fail' (Score:1, Interesting)
This is ridiculous. Even the weirdest occurrences are usually explained by the most simple answer. Conspiracy theorists can usually tell you exactly whats going on behind the scenes with great detail and even postulate on outcomes from the original action. This tends to take credibility away from the conspiracy theorist in that most people find the situation 'unbelievable' or lacking enough evidence to convince them unequivocally. In this case I would think a simple explanation may suffice. Obviously the U.S. government wants this guy out of the picture as he has given away, and pledged to keep giving away, U.S. government secrets. How easy would it have been for some device of the U.S. state department to have paid or catered to each of these women a considerable amount of money or favors in exchange for their cooperation in the operation? Not very hard in my opinion, and furthermore this type of scenario seems more and more relevant given that the charges were dropped so quickly. This was a PR stunt to start amassing bad press for Assange so if they ever do nail him on anything directly this will ring in the back of peoples minds reminding them that this is a bad guy. Looks, talks, walks, and smells like a disinformation operation, probably is a disinformation operation.
Re:Not Rape? (Score:2, Interesting)
That is why there was another crime called "sexual harassment".
An extreme example would be assault and murder. What if the Swedish parliament would change the law so that if you beat the crap out of someone, you would be convicted of murder.
This is essentially what the parliament did with the rape-definition. If you force petting on someone, you should definitely get sentenced for it, but that sentence should be for "sexual harassment", not rape.
As much as I hate the weasel faced murderer (Score:1, Interesting)
Agency (Score:5, Interesting)
You're not going to be able to catch the CIA on this. Part of the deal when they pay you is that if you get caught, they will deny knowing you. As everyone discovered with the Valerie Plame case, being a government asset doesn't mean they give a shit about you. You exist, in reputation or in biological function, as long as you are useful to the State. I honestly have no idea why anyone would sign up given the history of The Agency.
The CIA is unconstitutional. It operates under a secret budget and outside the rule of Law. It has led to nothing but abuse, misery, and hasn't done anything but provide people from around the world with a good reason to hate the United States.
Intelligence services don't mean you train commandos to rape and torture and kill portions of the civilian populace in order to enforce your political will on a sovereign country. It doesn't mean you buy politicians off and then give them a bunch of weapons and training to do your dirty work for you in exchange for resource access. It means you have feelers around the world so you are always in the loop, so if some dictator does go batshit insane, then you prepare a response and let him know that you've got about ten million tons of reasonably accurate weaponry that you're going to drop if and only if he does carry out an attack.
Yes, it leaves you open to the possibility of terrorism committed by a few sociopaths, but that's the price you pay to live in a free and open society. The alternatives are far worse.
Re:Rape? In Sweden? (Score:1, Interesting)
Actually, it's worst than that, the low reporting increase the probability a reported
one is invented (since all invented ones are reported by definition).
real rapes 1000, reported 1% = 10 real rapists prosecuted
invented rapes 100, reported 100% = 100 innocent persons prosecuted
The numbers are made up, they're just serve as an illustration that
since false accusations are always reported and since real rapes are often
not reported, the percentage of false accusation among reported rapes is much
higher than the percentage of false accusations among all rapes (invented or real).
Re:This just in (Score:3, Interesting)
To the conspiracy theorists this sounds exactly like a warning shot. "Keep it up and we'll actually bring charges and make them stick."
Of course, that's the nice thing about conspiracy theories. They are devilishly difficult to disprove, and quite easy to propagate with confirmation bias.
Re:oh he is guilty (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, in your example, I think the Taliban would be the guilty party?
As for your Sun Tzu quote, it's always wise to read a book all the way through :):"A government should not mobilize an army out of anger, military leaders should not provoke war out of wrath. Act when it is beneficial, desist if it is not. Anger can revert to joy, wrath can revert to delight, but a nation destroyed cannot be restored to existence, and the dead cannot be restored to life. Therefore an enlightened government is careful about this, a good military leadership is alert to this. This is the way to secure a nation and keep the armed forces whole".
Re:Not Rape? (Score:5, Interesting)
Here in Norway there was even a "reckless rape" charge for a while. It was for the times she said yes, but he ought to have understood that she really meant no. Fortunately, even the feminists agreed that this was demeaning to women (not being deemed capable of saying yes and no is pretty demeaning).
Re:This just in (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:He IS Innocent! (Score:2, Interesting)
Someone just leaked the entire plot on Wikileaks.
You joke, but if this were true, it would be poetic justice. If the (likely bogus) rape allegations were posted, this would just be what Assange does to others. Why are most Slashdotters so outraged by the rape allegations, but not outraged by what Wikileaks posts that can literally destroy lives?
Re:Proper response (Score:5, Interesting)
Except the charges have already been withdrawn. My (completely made up) guess, is that the girls were seen having "relations" during US surveillance, who then turned around and offered them money or something similar to throw some charges at him. As soon as the charges were filed, the US had already leaked the rumors of the charges to major newspapers (one must look at the timing of all this). It seems either Assange or some other entity either forced the police to do some very fast and good work and drop the case, or the police threatened the girls with the Swedish 1 year in jail for false accusation of rape, who then withdrew their charges. Just my two cents though =).
bigger than life (Score:3, Interesting)
The US politicians will soon learn that such people as Julian Assange are part of eternal human struggle for more liberal and fair sosciety.
Julian Assange is part of human history already, the same as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, or Andrey Sakharov, or Mahatma Gandhi.
He is a giant and they are dwarfs (in comparison with him), they just did not get it yet.
Re:Rape? In Sweden? (Score:4, Interesting)
This is actually a lie. It's popular to say because crime shows repeat it and depict it a lot, when in fact it's only true of serial rapists, generally only violent serial rapists, a tiny subpopulation of rapists.
The vast majority of rapes are date or acquaintance rapes, and most involve poor judgement from both parties, poor judgment made even worse in most cases by intoxicants.
Sometimes, victims end up places they would normally not want to be and in company they would not normally keep due to lapses in their judgement.
Nearly all of the time, the attacker is not (in their own mind) assaulting anyone. They are usually intoxicated, often have poor judgement even sober, and have been SURE they are getting laid every since entering the empty room with the victim and starting to strip each others clothes off. Something changes, but the attacker does not want to accept that without a fight, so they push back and try to keep things moving - this is often more than enough to result in a rape. Even if the victim is slapping them or trying to push them off (this is a step past rape by shutting the ears and "keeping things moving"), this particular idiots clouded perception sees this as "hitting me first" and becomes more aggressive.
Sex and sexual communication are at the center here, it's not about power. Generally, sex an idiot convinced himself he is getting "for sure", and when things change, is willing to use force to get anyway. The force is not to exert power over the victim, it's a means for the attacker to get chickens they counted before they were hatched.