The Russians call it Kompromat – the use by the state of sexual accusations to destroy a public figure. When I was attacked in this way by the government I worked for, Uzbek dissidents smiled at me, shook their heads and said “Kompromat“. They were used to it from the Soviet and Uzbek governments. They found it rather amusing to find that Western governments did it too.
Well, Julian Assange has been getting the bog standard Kompromat. I had imagined he would get something rather more spectacular, like being framed for murder and found hanging with an orange in his mouth. He deserves a better class of kompromat. If I am a whistleblower, then Julian is a veritable mighty pipe organ. Yet we just have the normal sex stuff, and very weak.
Bizarrely the offence for which Julian is wanted for questioning in Sweden was dropped from rape to sexual harassment, and then from sexual harassment to just harassment. The precise law in Swedish, as translated for me and other Sam Adams alumni by our colleague Major Frank Grevil, reads:
“He who lays hands on or by means of shooting from a firearm, throwing of stones, noise or in any other way harasses another person will be sentenced for harassment to fines or imprisonment for up to one year.”
So from rape to non-sexual something. Actually I rather like that law – if we had it here, I could have had Jack Straw locked up for a year.
Julian tells us that the first woman accuser and prime mover had worked in the Swedish Embassy in Washington DC and had been expelled from Cuba for anti-Cuban government activity, as well as the rather different persona of being a feminist lesbian who owns lesbian night clubs.
Scott Ritter and I are well known whistleblowers subsequently accused of sexual offences. A less well known whistleblower is James Cameron, another FCO employee. Almost simultaneous with my case, a number of the sexual allegations the FCO made against Cameron were identical even in wording to those the FCO initially threw at me.
Another fascinating point about kompromat is that being cleared of the allegations – as happens in virtually every case – doesn’t help, as the blackening of reputation has taken effect. In my own case I was formerly cleared of all allegations of both misconduct and gross misconduct, except for the Kafkaesque charge of having told defence witnesses of the existence of the allegations. The allegations were officially a state secret, even though it was the government who leaked them to the tabloids.
Yet, even to this day, the FCO has refused to acknowledge in public that I was in fact cleared of all charges. This is even true of the new government. A letter I wrote for my MP to pass to William Hague, complaining that the FCO was obscuring the fact that I was cleared on all charges, received a reply from a junior Conservative minister stating that the allegations were serious and had needed to be properly investigated – but still failing to acknowledge the result of the process. Nor has there been any official revelation of who originated these “serious allegations”.
Governments operate in the blackest of ways, especially when it comes to big war money and big oil money. I can see what they are doing to Julian Assange, I know what they did to me and others (another recent example – Brigadier Janis Karpinski was framed for shoplifting). In a very real sense, it makes little difference if they murdered David Kelly or terrified him into doing it himself. Telling the truth is hazardous in today’s Western political system.
Let’s not confuse where the initial revenue from Blair’s book is going with the peddling of the book itself.
Would there still not be something obscene in his using the British Legion to effectively justify the dissemenation of his perverse version of the invasion of Iraq?
Polo: of course, it is all obscene, what are we going to do?
Get on, make babies, make beauty, make art, make trouble is my idea.
?
Time to retire, and tonight, the national anthem of Namibia in a slightly different style:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlYKZ7mnN44&feature=related
Heh Craig Murray: here’s your secret agent man: http://gawker.com/5619931/meet-wikileaks-founders-alleged-sex-victim
There. I’ve done more to expose the NWO than any of you combined!
“Tin Foil hats promoting Wikileaks as a double bluff? Pull the other one.”
Is that Stephen Jones sniping from a thicket?
gawker. It makes money for its incestors by selling advertising ? And it has some shockhorror exposes ? There’s a thing.
aarrgghh. typos rule. Accident, honest. in*v*estors. But funny enough (IMO) that I’m not deleting it.
Yes, Richard, it is a going concern that sells advertising in order to publish. That sort of thing has been going on for years.
Does anyone still seriously believe that the CIA set up Julian Assange?
Heh Craig Murray … regarding Assange, it would be best at this point to publicly admit that you were wrong in believing that the little guy was framed by the CIA. I think your credibility will be needlessly damaged by your knee-jerk “secret agent man” theory, unless you admit to your mistake and promise to hereafter engage in a more discerning thought process.
technicolour, that’s a wonderful account, I’m very pleased indeed about your father! What a relief that must’ve been for him and you. Yes, in China they run two parallel medical systems – people can train in one or the other but both learn about both – and are busy exploring the scientific basis for traditional Chinese medicine. That seems a sensible attitude. We, on the other hand, seem blinded by ‘the evidence-base’, good in principle but in practice with its own dogmatic limitations and provenances. Heresy! Make trouble! A good motto.
Abe, thanks very much for the links to the lovely songs!
Mark, yes, Geo TV – while it had its good points during the Musharraf era – the explosion of private TV channels did enable a somewhat different set of views and entertainment from State TV to emerge – they have seemed very anti-the current government.
The Musharraf regime, during whose regime these outelts were established, attempted to use media liberalisation (good in and of itself) as a front to demonstrate his commitment to ‘civil society’ and plurality’.
Some of the media outlets are tied very strongly with the military. The film, ‘Khuda ke Liye’, about rendition and radicalisation, a very good commercial film (which I would thoroughly recommend you watch; it can be obtained with subtitles), was part-financed by the Army. This meant that while it slated the CIA and the Taliban, it did not (could not, would not) criticse the Pakistan Army, but showed it in a helpful light. That was the film’s major flaw. Mind you, it, and similar elisions, also often are major flaws in the standard Hollywood film, esp. ones starring right-wing reactionnaries like Harrison Ford! George Clooney films are much better, aren’t they?
During the Musharraf regime, underneath the window-dress of liberalism, of course, the hard facts – guns and butter – continued to define the nature of the Pakistani state.
Re, Assange, even the Daily Mail report seems to point towards either a groupie infatuation, “I’m your greatest fannery”, or else an array of honeypottery. If the account is accurate (a big pinch of slat and slab of Cheddar), all its suggests is that he was naive. So what’s new? As Craig Murray delineates in his books, personal sexual morals actually have nothing to do with political morality. As whistleblower or journalist who facilitates/ disseminates whistleblowing activity can be Don Juan, Casanova, Lady Gaga or Anais Nin, for all I care. What is important is the content of the information which the organisation for which he works disseminates. It is valid to argue around that. The fact that Assange-the-person suddenly has become the subject of such sustained and widespread smear tactics by various levels of state asset suggests that they have something to gain by discrediting him and thence the information purveyed by Wikileaks. They have also succeeded to some extent in drawing attention away from the actual information and towards personalities.
Don’t buy it.
“has become the subject of such sustained and widespread smear tactics by various levels of state asset suggests that they have something to gain by discrediting him and thence the information purveyed by Wikileaks”
No, he’s not become the victim of smear tactics. He’s become the victim of silly Swedish law.
What’s your evidence of the smear tactics against Assange? Just the fact that this woman had a problem with him? Do you believe, as Craig Murray seems to believe, that she was a CIA asset?
Anonymous poster at 7;49am, if you actually read my post of 7:18am, you may discover that I have suggested two possibilities and that one of those possibilities concords your assertion in relation to the woman allegedly involved. Thank you.
‘accords’, I meant! or else, ‘concurs’. Or else, ‘is in concordance with’.
“The fact that Assange-the-person suddenly has become the subject of such sustained and widespread smear tactics by various levels of state asset suggests that they have something to gain by discrediting him and thence the information purveyed by Wikileaks.”
Where’s “the fact” of a smear? Where’s the evidence?
Are you really immediately running away from what you state as a fact?
No. I’m proposing a number of possibilities. I’m saying that I try not to be dogmatic. It’s an opinion, just like yours.
In my view, the coincidence b/w Wikileaks’s release of the files and the typical accusations against Assange is suspicious to say the least. We’ve seen this type of thing, uhm, how many times before? It is a typical tactic used to discredit dissidents, as Craig Murray explained – kompromat. It’s been used against him and many others! What makes you (whoever you are) so very convinced of the opposite? Where’s the evidence?
You completely ignore the evidence.
Well, anyway, in the spirit of avoiding dogmatism, I think you and Craig Murray set him up. You two needed something to write about. So you two went to Sweden, found two women to play ball, and Craig used his street cred to set him up.
That’s as good as your silly (potential) CIA theory.
I do have to admit that space aliens might have done all of this.
My central point is that the aim and/or effect of scandals like this is not necessarily to obtain a conviction but simply to generate heat. Heat which diverts attention away from the information and onto the personalities and which also serves to discredit the purveyor of the information and the media organ, political party, or whatever it is in a specific case, for which he works.
So, focus on the information about the wars, and critique the evidence that, not on Julian Assange.
But this thread is about the fantasy of a CIA plot against Julian Assange.
And you’re still sticking with the notion that there was a CIA plot against Assange, even when the evidence (as rational people predicted) turns out to completely undermine the men-in-black theory.
This horrible Swedish woman could show up in Scotland tomorrow and admit to you that she did something terribly wrong, and you, Suhayl, would still believe that the men-in-black theory is completely viable.
This is faith-based for you, Suhayl.
The old word for comfrey is ‘knitbone’and Honey’s antiseptic properties have been known for centuries.
I also heard of what garlic can do. Going round the world it is used for various medical ailments, I’ve heard that it cleanses the pores, helps upset stomachs, enhances your circulation and blood condition??
Yoghurts bacterial properties, speaking from personal experience, are a good working remedy against trush, although somewhat awkward to dress and cold for a little moment it proved itself to be successfull.
“I do have to admit that space aliens might have done all of this.”
“This is faith-based for you, Suhayl.” –anon
Is that Larry posting anonymously?
(I’ll be back later, folks)
Cheddar, is it ? He went to Sweden and had to make do with Cheddar ? That’s scandalous.
“Tu veux un camembert ?” …
dreoilin: I spotted the unmistakable style too 🙂
“Yes, Richard, it is a going concern that sells advertising in order to publish. That sort of thing has been going on for years.”
OMG, has it really ? I’m shocked, shocked ! You mean they’re under commercial pressure to get people looking at their stuff even if they don’t have anything particularly interesting to say ? That’s terrible, why does nobody do anything about it ?
To put it another way, it’s a reprint from the Daily Mail.
Suhayl,
Thanks so much for your piece on Geo TV; it has furthered my understanding of Hamid Mir a rather complicated man who seems to sit between the Taliban and the CIA. Mir has made many video reports but I am struggling with Urdu to understand them.
Posted by: at September 7, 2010 8:19 AM: “I do have to admit that space aliens might have done all of this.”
I see that you have heeded the warning of Criswell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_DEtfvv9MU
PS. If that weren’t enough, here is the trailer in COLOR (sic). What more could one ask for?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKjL9ZqSNxs&feature=related
Hi, I’m just posting this with no name to try and start a pointless argument. Suhayl Saadi said this and Dreoilin said that, and you’re all wrong because you’re silly. Please all argue like hell.
You think they really said this, that and the other ? Bwahaahaa ! You credulous fool !!!!! And anybody who says it’s pointless is a nutter who agrees with Isaac Newton.
Tech,
Yes, I should be more careful about “not ‘for Israel’; just for the paranoid maniacs in power”. I talk similarly about the USA, and I tend to assume people know what I mean. But that’s not good enough, really. (Irish people didn’t agree to troop or rendition flights going through Shannon Airport, and of course they were never asked.)
BTW, you have chickens? That’s fabulous. You should see what passes for Xtra-large eggs around here … Marbles.
Abe,
Yes, yogurt can help. I eat it whenever I’m on antibiotics which clobber the good bacteria as well as the bad. But there’s something very comforting about a cup of tea! I had both on Friday night (with a gap in between.)
Richard,
Thanks for the comments on Ubuntu. Haven’t started yet, but I will. I’ve been on a steep learning curve since my son finished his degree and headed for London, leaving me his PC and my first email address, neither of which I knew how to use. 🙂
Hope I haven’t overlooked anyone – it’s not intentional.
Anyone who might want to watch the Late Late interview with Blair should be able to get it here
http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1079720
“That’s terrible, why does nobody do anything about it?”
*a titter ran around the room*