There are many thousands of people imprisoned in Uzbekistan alone who should not be imprisoned and who suffer much worse conditions than even the genuine horrors of Wandsworth being visited on Julian Assange. But the Assange case has implications for ever deteriorating Western freedoms which should not be overlooked.
Then there are many war criminals who ought to be in jail and who are not. Most prominent of these are Bush, Blair, Cheney, Straw and their crew. A minor figurewho ought to be in jail is Anna Ardin. Here are two tweets she published after being “raped” by Julian Assange:
‘Julian wants to go to a crayfish party, anyone have a couple of available seats tonight or tomorrow? #fb’
‘Sitting outdoors at 02:00 and hardly freezing with the world’s coolest smartest people, it’s amazing! #fb’
She subsequently deleted and tried to expunge those. I doff my hat to Rixstep:
http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01.shtml
For another avowed feminist trying to bring Assange down, analyse the use of language in this article by the Guardian’s useless Helen Piddle. For a worm like her to use words like bizarre and raggle-taggle in relation to John Pilger really defies rationality.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/08/julian-assange-celebrity-supporters
Alas ‘shoulder to shoulder’ we slid back into the pit of redemption.
Can’t see anything wrong with the piece apart from ‘raggle-taggle’ – maybe it indicates her views, maybe she hadn’t considered the implications in the rush of writing. Either way can’t see why it gives an excuse to attack feminists, just because the writer apparently elsewhere says she is one.
technicolour,
so you view bizarre as a neutral adjective?
The article oozes hostility towards the Assange camp. Now anyone who publishes articles against the shaving of female armpits – as the aptly named Piddle did – is a caricature of the type I am pinpointing.
I think it is not unreasonable to surmise her motivation as being the feminist attack Assange camp rather than the neocon side of that unholy alliance.
Freedom of expression is #Priceless . For everything else, there’s #MasterCard . #WikiLeaks #Anonymous http://on.fb.me/hHPUCB
no, bizarre is also a bizarre adjective. If a man had written the piece it would still be. As i said on the previous thread (apologies for repetition), if the Assange claims are false, as they seem to be, then the women who claim to be raped are stooges of the CIA/Swedish government. In which case they are not ‘feminists’, since feminists stand against a war-mongering patriarchy which, as Suhayl points out, now largely kills women and children.
Mark, “Alas ‘shoulder to shoulder’ we slid back into the pit of redemption.”
Don’t mean to be rude Mark, but if you use words with absolutely NO concern for their meaning then you’ll completely ruin whatever effect it is you’re intending.
May I suggest “perdition”, instead. Some may object to the aliteration, though.
Completely agree re. Piddle.
A “bizarre twist” would be having people you’d least expect – the NuLab wankers, for example – coming to Assange’s aid. Pilger, Loach etc, that was really not unexpected.
Kirsty Wark made a right arse of herself last night too.
Looks like a lot of them are getting pissed off no one takes the “rspe” allegations seriously.
One of the interesting features of feminism is that it has no concept of justice, preferring instead to revisit upon the nearest vulnerable male all the torments it thinks womankind has suffered throughout time. That’s why it doesn’t matter that the individual man is innocent, because by definition all men are guilty. Sweden is full of this kind of shit.
Anyway, it looks like the “raggle taggle” has grown by one. Geoffrey Robertson, horrified that Julian has been denied bail and is being held incommunicado from even his legal team until 13/12, has flown back to London from Australia and is working on his case.
why can’t these women just spread their legs and keep their mouths shut afterwards?
It’s interesting to see so-called socialists and feminists like Naomi Wolf getting their knickers in a twist over Assange. Is he a vile rapist or is he a defender of freedom and a slayer of the US dragon? He clearly can’t be both so, amusingly, they opt for the latter. Craig you have absolutely no right to question a woman who says she has been raped. Whatever she may or not have said after the event is irrelevant. It is her call entirely. I said before that Assange was a creepy egotistical individual and now it seems he will get what he wants and deserves. His similarly creepy lawyer Mark Stephens claims Assange is an “investigative journalist.” What piffle! Any decent journalist would check sources, get confirmation from other sources and interpret and analyse. Assange does none of these things – he just leaks indiscriminately and puts lives at risk. He has no way of vetting what he releases. He is a menace.
“Craig you have absolutely no right to question a woman who says she has been raped. Whatever she may or not have said after the event is irrelevant. It is her call entirely.”
Why not? Can’t one question someone who claims to have been robbed or assaulted?
What is it about rape that one cannot question those who claim to have been raped?
Should we just accept what they say without question?
Why?
It is only by questioning their claims that we can test their validity. I know that there are a lot of whacko feminists who argue that if a woman claims to have been raped, then that means she has been raped and the male must be banged up. Swedish feminism is like this.
But them what do we do with all those women who make it up to get revenge for other slights.
Sorry to be tedious repetitive, but where are the demos (or are they just not being reported – anyone know?)? This man is a de facto political prisoner. he could end-up being sent to the USA and disappearing into some black site forever. I’m very pleased that Pilger, Loach and the QC et al are announcing support for him, but there needs to be a fuss kicked-up in the streets. Pressure needs to be put on the domestic security apparatus. Could it be – and I hope that I am absolutely wrong in this supposition – that certain sections of the Left are conflicted because of the nature of the supposed allegations? If so, then shame on them.
I think that almost be definition (by my definition, anyway) most women (and most men) who might regard themselves as feminists (as opposed to the glossy grandstanding careerists and militarised liberal imperialists who have adopted the same attribution) are able to see right through the kompromat and are adding their voices to the condemnation of this craven and politically-driven arrest. If not, then shame on them. For perhaps it will be them next. And then there will be no Assange to leak the secret of their arrest. But of course, they will be sitting happily in their towers of wit and irony, earning their big bucks from the patriarchal war system which they make a living from pretending to condemn.
I’m with Bob and rob on this issue.
off course we should be able to question any accusation, whether it is rape, murder or ‘molestation’ whatever theat might turn out to be.
That the Guardian is able to let Ms. Piddle write such whacky stuff is to their credit, I thank Alan Rusbridger for widening the gap of understanding by letting trash as this appear in print.
I also thank ken Loach John Pilger and other lefties coming forward with their wadges of cash, ready to bail out Julian.
Should the democratic left have some conscience and would like to use some its millions to help out with Julians case I would be equally thankfull of their efforts.
So eddie,are you proposing we just accept all accusers without question?
You poor bloody fool.
That the Guardian are willing to use ‘Raggle-taggle’ in the strapline is peculiar indeed, especially since they seem to be doing some otherwise decent journalism at the moment. And the sneering quote marks around ‘household names’ betrays a rather sniffy attitude to the Wikileaks project (and its supporters) and what it could mean, potentially, for freedom and the way international relations is conducted.
Technicolour, you wrote:
“if the Assange claims are false, […] then the women who claim to be raped are stooges of the CIA/Swedish government.”
Not necessarily; they could just be false or overblown charges that have been played upon and magnified by people with a political agenda. We do not know enough details.
There is also Assange’s sudden fame – this man is hot stuff! Anyone who levels personal accusations against him, or raises charges against him, is bound to divert some of that fame onto themselves; instant lime-light.
“That the Guardian is able to let Ms. Piddle…”
Freedom of the press an’ all that.
By the way, Mr Murray has been pulling your legs a bit by calling her “Piddle”.
Unless the site has been edited since Mr Murray first read the article the woman in question is Ms. Pidd.
And the words he is objecting to, “bizarre” and “raggle-taggle” appear in the following paragraph:
“The already curious case of Julian Assange took another bizarre twist yesterday when the court learned that a raggle-taggle of “household names” were prepared to stake their reputation in his case, offering sureties to the court with a total value of £180,000.”
Mr Murray is keen to suggest that Ms. Pidd has referred to John Pilger as “the bizarre raggle-taggle John Pilger” which would have been more amusing.
Not sure why Mr Murray is suddenly off on a “Egads! Feminazis!” Crusade.
If the charges are completely bogus why not a complete run-down of how Assange cannot and must not be held accountable to the law as Sweden sees it.
Or better still, to focus on the actual context of the leaks and the impact, if nay, on the powers-that-be. It’s about geopolitics, not Assange.
Is Alan Campbell being deliberately provocative or is he just a vile member of the human species?
“if the Assange claims are false…then the women who claim to have been raped are stooges of the CIA/Swedish Govt…”
Not necessarily Technicolour,they might just be attention-seeking starfucking thick evil bitches.
No irony in Ms Pidd’s book title!
Helen Pidd is a reporter for the Guardian. She joined the paper in 2004 to edit Office Hours and was a commissioning editor on G2 before joining the Home News team in 2007. She is the author of Bicycle ?” The Complete Guide to Everyday Cycling
“Or better still, to focus on the actual context of the leaks and the impact, if nay, on the powers-that-be. It’s about geopolitics, not Assange.”
The problem is that those who don’t like what Assange is doing re:WikiLeaks are shouting, “Rapist! Terrorist! Evil Man! Sinister Man! Lock him up and throw away the key!”
And those who approve of him re:WikiLeaks are yelling, “Goddam hairy-pitted dungaree-wearing Feminazis and their bleating on about ‘rape’. Why don’t they just shuuuut up!”
And then there’s the tinfoilers…
@somebody, yes, I think Alan is just being deliberately provocative. Another labour party member, I think, refusing to admit that their party has been hijacked by the Right.
Dear Craig,
It’s so nice to hear from you again. Even if you are a liberal. Still I can forgive you that.
We both come from what is rapidly becoming the distant past. A part of history. A fading, golden glow, that’s receding, fading away as we watch, and remember. Remember what things were like before the clampdown. We won’t see any of it again, not in our lifetimes, and probably not in the lifetimes of our children.
I’ve just been accused of being a rapist and abuser of women, like Assange, because I happened to query whether anyone had ever succeeded in having sexual intercourse, full penetrative sex with a women whilst she was asleep. I said that I had tried but I’d never managed it. I was only half-joking. I did defend myself though agains the accusation of sexual abuse, by saying that after one has been with a women all night and both parties had attempted to fuck one another’s brain out all night, initiating sex the next morning can hardly be defined as attempted rape! Well that’s my defence.
I was interested because one of the alligations aimed at Assange is that he had sexual intercourse with a woman that was asleep and therefore this was an act of rape. So I felt for him and was curious if anyone had had the same experience as me.
In Sweden, rape can be defind as non-physical coercion based on an unequal psychological power relationship between the sexes, and violating a person’s sexual integrity.
God, that would have put me in the dock at the drop of a condom on numerous occasions, and in Sweden too!
This kind of thinking about sex comes pretty close to outlawing it altogether, criminalizing masculinity, flirting, and the initiation of sexual activity with receiving written permission first!
It’s barmy and so open to abuse, which Assange is about to find out to his cost.
You know the US state department are hosting an open forum ‘freedom of the press’ in 2011 dont you.
Link was posted on a previous blog entry
Apologies for slightly off-topic but…
Nigeria’s anti-corruption body has just charged former US Vice-President Dick Cheney with involvement in an USD 240 million bribery scandal in relation to an Halliburton oil deal…
no shit veryangry, its not Ms. Piddle, who would have thought.
Here I am reading the article of Ms. Piddle and she is really called Ms Pidd.
I did notice doooh.
Its amazing what gets your goat, have you arranged your pens in line yet and made sure that the keyboard lies square to the computer screen, and move that tea cup will ya, its out of order….
Fact is, Ms Pidd is trying to align leftist with Julians case, by calling their suport raggle taggle.
Well I’m sure that Ken and John have been called far worse things in life, but this is the sort of reporting which throws others into the cauldron, widens the scope of their induced hysteria, is journalism of the worst kind, flaming and expectant, almost saying, ‘look at these three supporters who support Julian, should we look into them next?
Kirsty Warks newsnight lead last night was fascinatingly attrocious, she really tried hard to make out that support for a rapist, sorry alledged rapist, something the BBC got wrong many time over yesterday, not just on Newsnight but also on Radio five live in the afternoon, that such support was outrageous and something she could not understand.
They called him a rapist, then whith the same breath said ‘alledged’, now that is naughty and labelling to the extreme, sexist in itself to be precise.
It would be pretty disheartening if your sexual technique was not worth waking up for.
Jives please carry on. It makes a nice change from the details of the sex lives of other contributors which ought to remain private.
somebody,
Idon’t know, I have found the standard of this comment thread pretty high throughout.