The BBC repeatedly named Nafissatou Diallo, the alleged rape victim of Dominique Strauss Kahn, while the criminal investigation into the alleged rape was still in progress. Yet they have a policy that Anna Ardin, the accuser of Julian Assange, must not be named – or investigated.
Why the contradiction?
Nafissatou Diallo and Anna Ardin had both gone public and given statements to the media in support of their allegations.
From the New York Times, 25 August 2010:
Anna Ardin, 31, has told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that the complaints were “not orchestrated by the Pentagon” but prompted by “a man who has a twisted attitude toward women and a problem taking no for an answer.”
There was no legal barrier to my mentioniong Anna Ardin last night; the case is no longer sub judice in the UK and there is no expectation of any legal proceedings here. Those are precisely the grounds on which the BBC mentioned Diallo very often. I did not see Oliver Kamm, Charles Crawford, Harry Cole, Charles Murray or any of the other far right commenters trolling about my “disgrace” last night, make a single protest at the naming of Diallo on scores of occasions by the BBC. Why their sudden new-found concern in the case of Assange?
Why the difference? Why is Ardin protected from scrutiny in the entire British mainstream media when Diallo was not, in precisely the same legal circumstances? Has Ardin been D-noticed in the UK when she is reported widely everywhere else in the world?
Anybody who still believes that the Assange allegations are a genuine criminal proceeding following due process, should think very hard indeed.
JW is politically illiterate. He cannot understand the difference between liberal (in the classical sense of the word) and left which is just a stupid label. As you say, this blog is a meeting point of many political tendencies. The one thing we can safely say is that we are all anti-neo-cons. And proud of it!!!!
@Komodo:
Yes, absolutely.
JW, read this:
http://www.nnn.se/nordic/assange/suspicious.pdf
It looks to me as though due process has already been abused by the Swedish system.
@VivaEcuador, @all – I know on such a contentious thread, it is hard to be civil. But please let’s try – it is good to debate/discuss with newcomers. Let’s have more light than heat!
there’s no debating this with you. you see conspiracy everywhere.
Just to be clear.
Oswald shot JFK.
Diana died in a car accident as a result of a drunk driver.
9/11 was caused by Al Quaeda
and Sweden has a fair a due process of law and Assange should go and face the music.
Right i’m off.
That’ll be the day shift over then…
WHY IS SWEDEN REALLY AFTER JULIAN ASSANGE?
WHAT SWEDISH – U.S. TIES ARE REALLY AT WORK?
Follow the money to a connection worth billions of dollars, or Swedish Kronors.
Sweden’s Big Trade Deal For Assange. Who profits most?
Cui bono? What has been lacking in reports of the Karl Rove – Prime Minister Reinfeldt connections is how either would benefit.
It is highly unlikely Karl Rove—no friend of the Clintons nor the Democratic Party—would spare Hillary Clinton embarrassment over the WikiLeaks exposure of U.S. Embassy cables.
Is he then still covering and enabling his own Republican party’s involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars? Is Karl Rove trying to take down Julian Assange and WikiLeaks out of pure loyalty to the war machine? He doesn’t have the political power. Rove is known as an architect of dirty schemes.
In mid-December of 2010, Investor initiated the purchase of an extremely large portion of the U.S. NASDAQ OMX (stock exchange). Investor’s purchase of millions of NASDAQ shares would give the Wallenbergs/Investor a seat on the board IF U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder approves it.
January 11, 2011 the publisher and editor of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, appears again in the London, U.K. court regarding the warrant filed by the Swedish government over allegations of sexual misconduct. Will the U.K. Court order extradition of Julian Assange to Sweden? The next court date regarding extradition to Sweden is scheduled for February 7, 2011.
Is it just a coincidence, that the DOJ deadline for the ABB review of Anti -Trust matters got extended on January 11, 2011 for the third time?
The new date in February to once again coincide with Assanges court date over extradition to Sweden, is very suspicious.
http://www.abb.com/cawp/seitp202/cf41de865d4968d9c125781500
BINGO! “Badda bing, badda boom”
On February 17, 2011, Börje Ekholm was elected to The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. Board of Directors. Mr. Ekholm is currently President and Chief Executive Office of Investor AB (Wallenbergs), the Nordic-based industrial holding company, where he has held a variety of management positions since joining the firm in 1992.
http://ir.nasdaqomx.com/nasdaq-omx-group.cfm
Attorney General Eric Holder worked for Lehman Brothers and understands the importance, financially and psychologically, of a return on an investment.
Obama, Hillary and Holder get Julian Assange.
Jacob Wallenberg/Investor AB get a massive NASDAQ OMX purchase approved and a seat on the board of NASDAQ, along with the merger of ABB and Baldor.
FYI:
“Esse non Videri” or “To be, and be not seen” is the motto of Sweden’s politically powerful Wallenberg family.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallenberg_family
http://open.salon.com/blog/anonymous_operation_want/2011/01/13/swedens_big_trade_deal_for_assange_who_profits_most
@JW, @CE – still interested in a reply to my posts, if you’re willing. We are, I think, fellow seekers of truth and justice, even if our political approaches are different.
Jives, not fair! They have to do an hour’s debriefing before they knock off!
JW wrote:
“This is not about the US this is about rape.”
It is not about rape, because a rape did not happen. It is about the evil feminist slander of an innocent human being.
It is the proof positive that Marxist-Feminists have divorced themselves from the human race. Or should we believe every slander the Nazi’s made about the Untermensch, to be true until proven otherwise?
Dear CE,
on the odd chance that you are *not* a paid member of our most “honourable” MSM, I would suggest you watch the documentary on Assange by the ABC, whose link can be found on this site. To start informing yourself about this issue, so you can stop embarrassed yourself with your ignorance of the case
“Clark, Jives, Galloway, Murray, Assange you are all intellectually and morally bankrupt” – Murray can you hear me? Craig Murray, I have a message for you in the middle of the election campaign. I have a message for you: We have knocked Assange into a trumped up Swedish charge. Craig Murray, as they say in your language in the boxing bars around Madison Square Garden in New York: Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!”
At least that what I heard…..
Was there not a JW character in The Dukes Of Hazzard,an old salt intent on taking the county over?
Sorry i digress…
OT sorry, the champagne marxist’s and PFI privatiser’s are meeting again, still they are alluding that Burston has got something to do with the Labour Party of today.
Bob Crow and BBC lackey, the next GE prospective Labour candidate for Norwich South, Clive Lewis will be join by Mark Serwotka blah blah blah.
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/south_norfolk_village_gears_up_for_annual_strike_school_rally_1_1489416
So many comments I am not sure if this article by Moore and Stone and carried by STWC has been posted here.
http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/usa-war-on-terror/1794-how-to-resolve-the-julian-assange-issue-by-michael-moore-and-oliver-stone
Thanks to Jon and others for defending my right to debate and encouraging reasoned argument over mindless insults.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the cordiality I’ve been shown by most posters. Thank you.
A working link to “Sex, Lies and Julian Assange” direct from ABC (Australia).
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/07/19/3549280.htm
====
Start at 20 min in if short of time.
So many trolls, but not one has answered why they made no outcry at the BBC naming of Diallo while the investigation was still ongoing, and what is the difference.
JA is wanted for arrest, not questioning. This cannot be done in London.
The amount of people lining up to insult Sweden and question the impartiality of the Swedish Justice system is both astounding and deeply concerning. This is a country which prides itself on it’s neutrality.
I wouldn’t care if wikileaks had revealed the entire US senate to be alien lizards wearing Mission Impossible style masks, I’d still want him to face justice and due process followed over the alleged sexual assault of two innocent women.
So many useful idiots blew smoke up JA’s nether region he probably started to believe his own hype. Now his own, and wikileaks, reputation is shattered.
Jon:
I have spent the better part of 2 days being insulted on other threads for pointing out inconsistencies in the rape accusations and drawing attention to the grand jury sitting to consider charges against JA. I don’t think it’s unfair to call someone politically illiterate if they equate support JA with being on the left but I will try to be less “abrasive”.
Incidentally, Charles Crawford has not replied to my postings.
@CE:
What is your reaction to the Australian documentary?
Does JA not have reasonable grounds for believing he is being set up?
‘Thanks to Jon and others for defending my right to debate and encouraging reasoned argument over mindless insults.’
It would help us all to stick to ‘reasoned argument’, CE, if within a couple of hours of first posting here you didn’t accuse the blog host, and some of the regular commenters, of ‘vacuous grandstanding’.
I’m all for civility- where civility is due.
@CE:
“This is a country which prides itself on it’s neutrality.”
This is pure emotional hogwash. Americans would also say the same about it’s justice system, media etc.
@CE
“Thanks to Jon and others for defending my right to debate and encouraging reasoned argument over mindless insults.”
“So many useful idiots blew smoke up JA’s nether region he probably started to believe his own hype. Now his own, and wikileaks, reputation is shattered.”
Do you understand the meaning of “mindless insult”?
The only person I accused of vacuous granstanding was JA. In fact this seems to be his raison d’etre.
Posting on phone, I’m always open to counter arguments so will watch the ABC docu later.
Compared with, say, Paxman & Maitlis, Esler is inherently shallow—as was evidenced almost daily when Newsnight’s website used to run presenter blogs. Allow for his ignorance. Treat him with added caution.
.
Was immediately apparent that neither he nor Joan Smith were even aware of ABC’s coverage of the story, though the most detailed to date & readily accessible for weeks.
.
ABC is not exactly some obscure fly-by-night channel down-under. The corporation is Australia’s counterpart of the BBC. 4Corners is sometimes described as its version of Panorama: it’s been going more than 50 years & as one might therefore expect, has won many awards.
.
Smith & Esler’s ignorance of the background to such a major running story is professional incompetence inexcusable in a cub reporter—they hadn’t even ‘read the cuttings.’
O/T Please sign this 38 Degrees Petition requesting the highest scrutiny of St Theresa’s draft snooping bill.
‘We’ve got just 48 hours to send thousands of messages to the committee of MPs with the power to derail the government’s snooping plan. This is our big chance to influence the Committee’s report. The report could support the plans – or could say there are major problems, making it hard for the government to push ahead.
Right now, there’s a risk that the report will focus mainly on the technical details. But to derail the government’s plans, we need the report to do more than this. It needs to focus instead on the major threats to our freedoms and right to privacy.
The Committee will want to do a thorough job examining the plans. If tens of thousands of us send them emails about why we value our right to privacy, we can make sure the report asks the big questions – and that could be enough to kill the snooping plan.
Can you send a quick email to the Committee?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/protect-privacy-email
So far, 38 Degrees members have done an amazing job of standing up against the government’s snooping plans. Nearly 200,000 of us have signed the petition, and 70 MPs all round the country have had a copy of it hand-delivered by local 38 Degrees members.
~~~~~
This is the membership of the Joint Committee.
Rt Hon Nicholas Brown Labour
Michael Ellis Conservative
Dr Julian Huppert Liberal Democrat
Stephen Mosley Conservative
Craig Whittaker Conservative
David Wright Labour
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster Crossbench
Lord Blencathra (Chair)Conservative
Baroness Cohen of Pimlico Labour
Lord Faulks Conservative
Lord Jones Labour
Lord Strasburger Liberal Democrat
{http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/joint-select/draft-communications-bill/membership/}
Posting on phone, I’m always open to counter arguments so will watch the ABC docu later.
Maybe you should also have commented later, once the facts have sunken in, ce, would you not agree?
JW, in case you return; I myself didn’t understand why the Swedish proceedings were such a threat to Assange until I realised that if taken into custody, he would have lost any chance to avoid extradition to the US by becoming unable to present himself for political asylum at a supportive country or its embassy. You can confirm my confusion from my comments over the recent threads.
A conspiracy involving the US is not a necessary ingredient. The US could be simply taking advantage of the Swedish legal proceedings, waiting until Assange is incarcerated before issuing their extradition request. However, Craig Murray testifies that the Obama administration has been pressuring the UK Foreign Office, and I would be very surprised if that was the full extent of US interference in this matter.
Despite all the complaints about Craig mentioning Ardin’s name on TV, it was Assange who lost the chance of a fair trial when Ardin contacted the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, and when the Swedish prosecution department leaked aspects of the case to Expressen.
See what the pathetic Guido Fawkes and Mike Wallace have come up with:
http://order-order.com/2012/08/21/6500-reward-to-set-off-ecuador-embassy-fire-alarm/
I wouldn’t put it past our govt…….