That the Swedish investigation into the rape allegation against Julian Assange is being re-opened is something that ought to be welcomed. The alternative would be for this accusation to hang unresolved over Julian’s head forever. The Swedish prosecutors now need finally, as my father used to say, either to piss or get off the pot. They need to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to charge or not.
There is no reason for delay. The Swedish police have had seven years to investigate this case and all the evidence has been gathered and all statements taken – the last being the interview of Julian Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy in 2017. Hopefully to review the evidence and decide whether to charge will not now be a lengthy procedure. It is worth noting, contrary to much misreporting, Julian Assange has never been charged with anything in Sweden.
In the event that Sweden does wish to try to extradite, that should take precedence over the US request. There are three good reasons for this. Firstly, rape is by far the more serious alleged offence. Secondly, the Swedes entered the process many years before the Americans. Thirdly, the European Arrest Warrant is a major multilateral arrangement that is much more important than the discredited bilateral extradition treaty with the USA.
Julian only entered Ecuadorean political asylum because he feared onward extradition to the USA, not extradition to Sweden.
None of the above detracts from the many problems with the Swedish prosecution, Sweden’s Chief Prosecutor decided no offence had been committed and the case should be closed after the initial investigation, before another Prosecutor decided to reopen the case, as is possible under the Swedish system. That prosecutor, Marianne Ny, herself decided to close the case in 2013, and was instructed not to by the British Crown Prosecution Service, in a series of emails which the CPS attempted to hide and some of which had been destroyed. Ms Ny also admitted to destroying communications from the FBI, and ultimately admitted to having destroyed the entire case file.
That is before you get to the problems with the Swedish judicial system, where rape trials hear all evidence entirely in secret, there is no jury, and two of the three judges are political party appointees.
Plainly, as always in cases involving Assange, there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the impartiality of state justice. The United Nations has already condemned the disproportionate sentence given to Assange for breaking bail conditions and his being held in a maximum security prison. It has gone virtually unremarked by the MSM that the Ecuadorean government has, entirely illegally, handed all of Julian’s possessions over to the USA.
Plainly this is a long and difficult fight to save Julian from entrapment and permanent imprisonment. But the Swedish calumny not being simply left hanging is a necessary step in that fight.
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Assange walked into the minefield of Sweden’s ‘sexual politics’ like a lamb to the slaughter, completely unaware of the dangers linked to transgression. As a foreigner this is understandable. He didn’t undertand the rules. The unwritten and unspoken ones are by far the most important ones in Sweden, only they are extremely difficult to understand for a foreigner. The fact that the Swedes insist that these unspoken rules don’t really exist, one just ‘knows’ what they are, makes it evern more problematic.
When Assange, essentially questioned the character and unbiased nature of Swedish justice, and even the independence of Sweden as a sovereign state, almost saying he thought it was a vassal of US interests, he was arguably committing a far,, far4, bigger sin or crime, than mere ‘rape’ and for that alone he cannot be forgiven by the Swedes. He by his actions and refusal to go to Sweden, was questioning many of the most important and deep-rooted dogmas and myths about Sweden as an independent, moral super-power. This is why the Swedish elite turned on him so violently. The women involved are or minor significance and are merely pawns in a far bigger game.
Assange’s defence team stated in 2010:
“We understand that both complainants admit to having initiated consensual sexual relations with Mr Assange. They do not complain of any physical injury. The first complainant did not make a complaint for six days (in which she hosted the respondent in her flat [actually her bed] and spoke in the warmest terms about him to her friends) until she discovered he had spent the night with the other complainant.
“The second complainant, too, failed to complain for several days until she found out about the first complainant: she claimed that after several acts of consensual sexual intercourse, she fell half asleep and thinks that he ejaculated without using a condom – a possibility about which she says they joked afterwards.
“Both complainants say they did not report him to the police for prosecution but only to require him to have an STD test. However, his Swedish lawyer has been shown evidence of their text messages which indicate that they were concerned to obtain money by going to a tabloid newspaper and were motivated by other matters including a desire for revenge.”
“You f****d up. You entered Sweden”.
I see a report from Newsweek.com today which reads to the effect that according to a report from Spanish newspaper El Pais, the office of Ecuador’s attorney general, Diana Salazar, informed Mr Assange’s lawyer, Carlos Poveda, that police would be searching the room in the Ecuadorian embassy Mr Assange occupied for almost seven years.
His personal belongings, including computers, mobile phones, memory sticks and other electronic devices, will then be seized and sent to the United States as part of Ecuador’s response to the Department of Justice’s judicial request.
If this is true and comes to pass, would that not be a case of international theft ? Mr Assange’s personal belongings are, by definition, his and should be held by him or by his legal representatives for safe keeping while he is being detained.
The U.S. government has already stolen lots of money belonging to the legal government of Venezuela. They’re about to seize the Venezuelan embassy in D.C. in violation of the Vienna Convention. They’ve dropped the mask. They no longer care what people think of them.
lysias
The US has for a long time been intoxicated with its own power, convinced of its own “exceptionalism”, to the extent where it is enjoying inflicting pain on others – Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Venzuela, Iran.
I am convinced that we are living in one of the most dangerous periods in the history of the World, where the US (and other countries) have invested so much in weapons, that they feel obliged to use them, to make way for more weapons.
To me this is like someone gorging themselves on food, then having to pay an inevitable visit to the toilet.
The US has gorged itself on weapons, so must s**t on any country it chooses, in order to make way for the next batch.
Er, Rod, the phrase “a fortiori” comes to mind. In the case of the US government you are talking about a group of people who have gratuitously and illegally launched unprovoked wars of aggression against dozens of countries, deliberately and systematically murdered millions of people and destroyed their homes, offices, factories, schools, hospitals and the rest of their national infrastructure. Who callously murdered hundreds of thousands of people with nuclear weapons when there was no need to do so. Who lie, cheat, steal on a vast scale – and proudly boast of it.
“If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he next comes to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination”.
-Thomas De Quincey
Thank you, Tom, I don’t think any fair-minded person could disagree with what you have written; the U.S. government has a very unenviable record in most of its dealings with the rest of this planet. Requesting Mr Assange’s personal belongings (when at this stage they have no entitlement) from the Ecuadorian embassy seems, by comparison, small beer but as you may agree the potential consequences for Mr Assange will almost certainly be catastrophic should the USA eventually have him in their jurisdiction.
I believe the change of regime in financially strapped Ecuador led to the Trump administration to intervene with monetary support producing an offer that the Ecuadorian government couldn’t refuse. The U.S. government has much previous form in matters such as this, hence Mr Assange’s eviction into the hands of the British penal system.
To be frank, it’s difficult for me to know in the final analysis what would be best for Mr Assange. I thought, originally, the Swedish aspect was a dead issue. One thing of which I am fairly certain is that if Mr Assange is extradited to Sweden and the Swedish authorities succumb to U.S. pressure to pass him on to them, then his chances of fair treatment in ‘the land of the free’ are without doubt zero. I also believe that there are elements in Swedish politics that are very much aligned to American right-leaning thought.
Tom Welsh
Thanks Tom that was a great post.
@chris 1730
“The word “torture” already came up.
https://off-guardian.org/2019/05/10/chemical-torture-of-julian-assange/
Does anybody have reliable confirmation or denial of this allegation?”
There has been an update on OffGuardian. No confirmation anywhere or from anybody. I would have thought if it were true, then Julian’s defence team would have nuked the net with this story.
I’m concluding it’s bollocks…_
https://off-guardian.org/2019/05/10/chemical-torture-of-julian-assange/
Second link is wrong, sorry. This is the update…_
https://off-guardian.org/2019/05/13/follow-up-alleged-torture-of-julian-assange/
Nothing from the three people who have visited him since he has been in Belmarsh, so I think this story is untrue
Re “it has gone virtually unremarked by the MSM that the Ecuadorean government has, entirely illegally, handed all of Julian’s possessions over to the USA.”
Yes, this aspect isn’t mentioned at present in the online versions of The Grauniad or the Independent today, it is mentioned in the Daily Fail online, in amongst the celebrity tittle tattle. The Register did too:
“It has also emerged that Ecuadorian officials have agreed to allow US investigators –probing the conspiracy to commit computer intrusion charge– to examine the contents of Assange’s former abode inside its London embassy.
The rooms will be searched on 20 May, overseen by police chief Diego López and second sergeant Milton Jaque, a computer forensic expert, reported El País… The Ecuadorians have apparently agreed to hand over any documents, cell phones, computers memory drives, CDs and other devices.
Baltasar Garzón, a former crusading judge from Spain who is now Assange’s lawyer, told the paper the move was “an absolute violation of the institution of asylum by Ecuador”.”
As Jack says, at 12.29: “It is a disgrace.” This whole process looks like an attempt to silence critics and whistle-blowers alike.
This is all too convenient
U.S.A. Ecuador, U.K. and Sweden
are jointly stitching this man up.
It’s called “evidence”, pete. Evidence which will be relevant if and when Assange goes on trial in the US.
Under what UK law is the evidence being siezed Charles? Bail-jumping? Then why isn’t it heading to the CPS? Under what Equadorian law is the evidence being sized Charles? The USA hasn’t filed any charges with Equador over Assange. Can you come up with any legal basis for this seizure and handing-over of Assange’s possessions to the USA?
You’re not denying that the stuff could be evidence, surely? Documents, computer memory sticks, cell phones qall sound like potential sources of evidence to me.
Charles, if the US does not already have evidence then why are they trying to extradite him?
John2o2o
More evidence, perhaps?
Potato/potahto, Tomato/tomahto, evidence/illegal search and seizure, whatever.
You’re at odds with his lawyer Craig,
https://news.sky.com/story/sweden-reopens-investigation-into-julian-assange-rape-allegation-11719039
Craig,
The more I think about this Assange case and look at the applicable law, I find that it is all not as simple as your very helpful post might have discerned ( assumed) it to be.
I found this, on further thought and examination:-
1. Three(3) countries are involved in this Assange extradition matter, involving primarily the US wanting the extradition of Assange to the US.
2. It is the UK Home Secretary who has the final say whether the US or Sweden gets legally to go first in an extradition application.
3. If it is Sweden first ( that in and of itself is another legal issue).
4. If extradition to Sweden; their system seems to be a bit of a ‘poodle’ when it comes to extradition to the US.
5. All along the way the UK and any legal agreement vis-à-vis Sweden still remains in both political and legal play.
So – on a re-reading of your initial post, your thoughts and mine, methinks ( now methinks and re-thinks) – leads me to the conundrum – both legal and political – ain’t as simple as it appeared at first glance.
Further, I reviewed the posts, so far made, re. Assange, before I put fingers to typing and I noted these salient comments which highlight even more of the complexities at hand ( see below).
What I remain convinced of is that while the UK is the ‘poodle’ of the US it does not want to be confirmed as such in the eyes of the global community in this Assange case – so – Sweden becomes a useful foil from not just partial – but actually total discreditation of the UK justice system ( following hot on the heels of this – http://blog.effectivelearning.net/sermon-call-of-the-wild-and-the-rule-of-law/)
So just read on and further ponder and factor in what these thoughtful persons posted, so far ( more to come):-
“Northern
May 13, 2019 at 15:12
Given what people including yourself have said about Swedish sex trials, would it not be relatively simple for them to conduct the whole thing behind closed doors and declare him guilty, even if the evidence doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, assuming those are the orders given by the Americans? More likely it’s just another round of Assange = rapist mental conditioning to undercut resistance to the eventual US extradition (from the UK or Sweden) though I’d think.
I would like to see more in the media of both of Julian’s Swedish accusers. Obviously I can understand the need for sensitivity in these cases, but I have seen precisely ZERO of them in the main stream news even though their information is out there. I assume this is because one of them can’t be trusted to stick to the agenda now perhaps?”
AND
“pretzelattack
May 13, 2019 at 15:44
he was there. he cooperated in the investigation. the original prosecutor closed, or had determined to close, the case. after he went to britain they reopened it, and going back to sweden entailed a very real risk of being extradited to the u.s. he had no way of knowing what the obama administration would do, but it’s not like obama had a reputation for taking it easy on whistleblowers.”
AND
“Alexander
May 13, 2019 at 14:18
HMG is probably very well aware of the scandal that would brew if they were to comply with an American request to extradite him over there.
His lawyers would certainly bring up the word “torture” if he were to be handed over to the woman Haspel – the general public would not like it, whatever the press and the BBC try and stir up.
Quite possibly, the almost maximum sentence he received was partly to buy HMG time. This would be a hot potato for any government, right or left.
And if he were released tomorrow, where would he go?”
AND
“michael norton
May 13, 2019 at 14:26
A Lawyer has claimed this is being re-started by her client, a “rape” victim of Julian.
Is the client the woman who was said to have been working for the CIA?”
Great Digging Courtenay Thanks.
You are welcome.
It is all for humanity – delivered – just before World War 111.
I thought Julian Assange was jailed for ‘skipping bail?’
He’s now been unceremoniously nabbed for that and is currently serving
a 50 week ( very harsh ) stretch for displeasing Her Majesty.
So what’s all this ” interrogation ” mullarkey by the US/UK ?
Are they questioning him on the reasons why he skipped bail?
Or is there some other issues they wish to know about?
The Swedish Prosecutor wants to re-open the case ( I hope the alleged victim in question agrees to this?)
so even if he were a free man he would only be helping the Swedish police with their enquiries and would
be free to go about his lawful business until the Trial – if there was one after his UK bail skipping penalty
The question is: Is Assange in prison due to skipping bail ( a UK offence ) or is he in jail for allegedly
breaking the law in the US – or the potential breaking of the law ( to be decided) in Sweden?
Yet again this time helping the US police and not yet the Swedish with their enquiries.
Can he not do the Swedish help or the US help whilst being a free man?
Or may he skip bail again thereby escaping ‘ justice’ yet again?
That’s the risk.
This ‘ interrogating ‘ looks a bit severe for a UK bail offence.
I hadn’t realised just how politicised the Swedish justice system was. I suspected, as most, that the charges being re-raised was entirely political of course. This does not bode well for Assange.
Were their system genuinely free and fair then he would be able to welcome the chance to clear his name. But with no jury and judges being politically appointed it would seem gaining a conviction without evidence won’t be as difficult as it should be.
Imagine the effect of being an already ‘Convicted Rapist’ will have on his inevitable trial in the US. Trials SHOULD only rest on the evidence but when humans are involved this is not always the case. Even going forward beyond the trial (US) and the (I feel) inevitable conviction and sentence. This ‘rape conviction’ will COMPLETLY discredit Assange permanently. From the point of view of the US and UK, job done.
But, worse than the behaviour of the US, UK and Swedish governments and agencies are our own News Reporters. The BBC again failed to mention that the Swedes decided there was no case to answer before another jurisdiction decided to reopen it with no further evidence. The BBC portrays itself as a ‘Trusted News Source’ when, in fact, it simply reports propaganda for our government and the US.
Even in the face of wide access to the internet and therefore the FACTS behind all of this our government has no shame. It is challenging us to call it out and spitting in the face of common decency.
Gary, you write about decency and shame, I want to share my thoughts on this.
*disclaimer. I’m live emotional person. Anyway, thanks for reading.
This new neighbor of mine probably won’t know what a storm of emotions caused his “Hi”. A wave of memories of a time when I was still a young student, in love with languages, dreamed of becoming a good translator and traveling around the world.
Beautiful sounds, so correctly and so easily pronounced, they brought warm feelings and pleasure, as if the sweet-voiced singer Louis Armstrong himself came down from Paradise (where he undoubtedly resides) and kissed me.
He said “Hi”.
The /h/ was as light and sweet as my grandmother’s rice pudding with whipped eggs and cream, and the sound left the impression of vanilla and ivory color.
The sound /a/ was direct, open and apparently red, simple and clear as a traffic light signal.
The /i/ was exactly the standard of length, depth and breadth, which I could not reach for a very long time, constantly rolling down to the russian /и/ or /й/. The image of this sound for me is those white highlights that the artist makes at the end of the painting.
I know why those colors came to my mind. Because of the picture I was once painting by numbers. There were red double-deckers, light-yellow lanterns, and white highlights on the wet sidewalk. The English in the picture went somewhere on their business, gentlemen in their English cloaks and ladies with their English umbrellas. I dreamed of ever seeing London with my own eyes, a magical city with ancient history, the capital of the country with high culture, where lives a real live Queen, the embodiment of aristocracy.
I know now that MY Britain is an illusion. That her Majesty’s Defense Minister is not a gentleman, but a commoner, he uses vulgar language and boasts of low-grade humor from his bathroom. That her Majesty’s Prime Minister has not gone too far from the Minister of Defense. The Queen herself… no, fake hand is actually not dropped her dignity, just ridiculous, but probably necessary for an old lady no longer able to bestow a real greeting on her subjects.
My illusions were so beautiful. It hurts to remember.
I wish he’d never said “Hi” to me.
Very poetic Tatyana.
The Queen does not have any say in matters of government in the United Kingdom. In 1688 the Catholic King James was forced by parliament to flee and his nephew the Protestant Prince William Of Orange was invited by Parliament to invade from Holland to become King. But he would not be able to overrule the decisions of Parliament.
Many people in the world (especially Americans) do not understand this. The Queen has no power. The Prime Minister and her government are in charge of the country. Unfortunately the current party of government – the Conservatives (or Tories) are greedy and selfish. They were once gentlemen and gentlewomen, but no longer. Journalist Peter Hitchens says they would guillotine the Queen in Trafalgar Square if it would win them votes. I believe him. Unfortunately the alternative Labour Party is also full of warmongers such as Tony Blair.
Craig of course wishes for Scotland to be separate from England. I cannot decide. My father is English and my mother is Scottish.
thanks, John2o2o
I’m regaining my original “me” after a depressive time. Poetic, well, I’m happy to feel some emotions again.
I know that the Queen has no real power, but I really hoped she would play ‘her Majesty’ play up to the tiny bit. e.g. if I were a queen, I would never use the fake hand, it would be my royal privilege and my royal duty to greet my subjects. Am I a queen if I cannot even greet my subjects sincerely and to show my respect?
Yet, my parents identify as russians, my grandparents identified as cossaks, my grandparents identified as Her Majesty’s Katherine the Great Imperess of Russia’s cossaks and my grand-grand-parents identified as Zaporozhie (Ukraine) cossaks. My grand-grand-grand…parents identified as citizens of Kievan Russia. Who am I and what are my feelings about the Crimea and Donbass?
Hello Tatyana, извините Earlier, I replied to this message, but now it is gone. (Perhaps not on topic?)
I said that perhaps the Queen is now in semi-retirement, as she is 93 years old 🙂
Your ancestry sounds very noble and romantic. My own is more humble, but on my father’s side I can trace my family back 13 generations to the sixteenth century time of the previous Queen Elizabeth of England. My mother’s family were Irish refugees to Scotland in 1850.
I do not know much of Crimea and Donbass, расскажите мне? спасибо вам.
Sorry about your illusions about this England of mine, Tatyana. It might cheer you however to learn, and I suspect you missed this, Gavin Williamson has been sacked and replaced by Miss Penny Mordaunt over allegedly leaking details of a Huawei deal, an accusation he denies.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48126974
He seems to have little respect outside of his rural constituency, and you can purchase Gavin Williamson toilet rolls should you wish! 🙂 Of course the Tories will have any body who sings from their hymn sheets and he may have been put to one side pending the coming leadership challenge – in which case I suspect he will be exonerated of any leak. That is how politics works in the Tory Party. These creatures, Liam Fox is a good example, do not stay out of favour for long.
There is a good possibility in Rory Stewart. He would have made a good Secretary of State for Defence, but hopefully he will be selected as PM (or leader of Conservatives which may not be the same thing for long) instead. If he were Tory leader then I could contemplate voting Tory (as he is the only one with any brains and bothers to go walk about and talk to people).
fwl..I fear Rory does walk the walk and talk the talk and have brains. Yet so did Lawrence of Arabia, his hero, but was no real friend of the Arabs…But I agree Rory is head and shoulders above his fellow scrabbling nobodies.
Rory Stewart got a mention on George Galloway’s Twitter page a few days ago. When he was Floods Minister and some place in Britain got flooded he said, “Our flood defences held up well but the water came over the top.” From a very clever man that one’s a beauty.
Michael, you quote Gorge Galloway. Part of what I was thinking about when I mentioned Rory Stewart was the danger posed by the Brexit party and the irony that in anger at democracy / the 2016 referendum having been ignored Brexit party supporters risk losing democracy as in “I love democracy so much I am willing to throw it away in anger – that’s how much I love democracy”….
Have a look at How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt, which contends that the danger to democracy is not from military coups, but arises when disenfranchised voters legitimise a party who then gain momentum until they are in a position to re-write the constitution. There are many examples and it is very difficult not to see the threat as real. Yes, it’s easy to feel that the elites deserve a bloody nose; it’s difficult to see that in giving that support one risks becoming a useful idiot a puppet a patsy for the far right.
It’s worth considering how the EU actually gave us some sort of constitutional protection through the back door and nobody is proposing anything to replace that i.e. there will be no check on the legislature and that may end up meaning no check on the executive.
If you support Brexit and you’re right wing vote Tory and hold your nose
If you support Brexit and you’re left wing vote labour and hold your nose.
If you’re a remainer then vote Green, Liberal, Plaid or SNP according to your other interests.
If you support Brexit and you would like to see an end to democracy vote for the Brexit party.
If you are right wing / Tory Brexiteer and you are fed up with the Tory party, but are not keen on losing democracy then get to work with your party – it’s a mess but don’t vote for the Brexit party.
If you are left wing / labour Brexiteer and you are fed up with the Labour party’s ambiguity on Brexit, but are not keen on losing democracy then get to work with your party.
That’s why I suggested Rory Stewart. He is the only credible leader for the Tories, who should avoid the temptation to go for the ad man type Boris. They need someone who will answer questions and engage. That’s not going to happen until at least June. The May EU election will happen.
Another way to think about is this to consider libertarians who argue that the little lambs should be free to graze and compete with the wolf so that the lambs may dream of becoming wolves. Similarly the Brexiteer who intends that the little lambs’ should be free to vote away their protections.
I voted Brexit and still support it but it is not without difficulties and I do not accept that the Brexit party is the answer. If anything it may resign me to accept remaining (but not yet!)
John, I know about Mr. Williamson’s recent troubles. It does not erase the picture of him in my mind. Please believe me, I have no wish to buy his toilet rolls 🙂
I just find it strange how this kind of person could take the position. I had little experience in hiring people to work for me, still I learned something. They really should write a list of required qualifications and check with it at the interview.
—
If the place exists, please let me know its name.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTlXTY9BO_z
Tatyana
That looks like Tower Bridge in London. A very famous landmark.
https://www.towerbridge.org.uk/about/awards/
@SA thank you!
My apoligies to all of you for producing a lot of offtopic. I’ll improve, honestly 😉
It looks based on Tower Bridge, but the arches in Tower Bridge are directly under the towers.
Yes Tatyana, I think I understand what you write, and it is poetic, it also sounds a bit like Synethesia: https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/syne.html
Your vision of Britain was an illusion and it is hard to have what you might have thought of as an attractive illusion shattered, but don’t worry we were fed the same illusion. The history we were taught consisted of memorising a long list of battles, invasions and kings and queens, it turns out that all this was mostly irrelevant nonsense intended to keep us in our place. Britain is trying to face up to the fact that as a world power is is a spent force, a busted flush, Brexit is the last gasp of a nation labouring under the illusion that it still has a role in world affairs, the persecution of Assange and Manning is an attempt to get us to accept that being kept in ignorance is better than dealing with world realities and that real affairs are best administered by a self perpetuating elite.
I think it is simply good imagination, pete, no synesthesia.
You know there exists an opinion on the russians as if we are the people of low standards, lazy, dirty, that bolsheviks killed and expelled the russian elite, that’s why now only the drunkards inhabit my country and even some Goebbels’s talks about innate defects in the russians.
Well, if you’d lived in Russia in 1990 you would see much ground for this opinion. I remember the meeting of schoolmates, Andrew killed in the street, Masha became a drug addict, her sister Natasha died of flue while pregnant, my best friend Olga who was the gorgeouse blonde with sky blue eyes, the beauty queen – became a prostitute and was killed, and she dreamed to be a stylist, her family couldn’t afford the course.
The people were desperate.
That is why it all touches me so deeply. I ask myself, where was that kind helping hand of the developed West then?
Today, those people who talk about rule of law and about democracy, do they treat Mr. Assange according to their statements? What about Mr. Snowden? What about all that “freedoms” and “European values”?
That’s what I think. Look who’s talking.
Putin this, Putin that, Putin is bloody dictator, Putin eats babies… All those experts ever critical and never offering help. As if everyone have read the book “How to run a ruined after-USSR Russia and to safely lead it to capitalisme in a year” and lazy bastard Putin neglected reading it!
Look, who is telling to go away and shut up. After the revelation from Mr. Williamson’s bathroom I expect anything. Perhaps Mrs.May would share the print on her underwear? Or, maybe some royal would make a tattoo on his backside? I can even imagine the British Parliament discussing political entertainments during *sorry* the defecation process 🙂
I think I’m lucky to have the strong nerve along with the good imagination. At least I can have a good laugh.
Hi Tatyana
You comment on the level of intellect and professional application endemic within the walls of the UK Houses of Parliament. As an example to add to that of Gavin Williamson, you might be interested to know that a supposed candidate for future leadership of the Conservative Party is the new Secretary of State for Defence, Penny Mordaunt. To show she is “one of the people” she participated a couple of years ago in a TV series involving ‘celebrities’ competing against each other at diving challenges. And more recently she undertook to win a bet waged with a Parliamentary colleague by endeavouring to use the word “cock” as many times as she could in public during Prime Ministers Questions in the House of Commons. Very reassuring (not) to know we have people of such mature calibre in charge of our country’s political affairs and nice to know they can focus on such trivialities but not on how to deliver the results of a referendum.
I notice your posts on here generate many replies, Таня. I’m pleased to note your English is improving as expected from your new-found vigour of contribution.
I recall from my early experience of Moscow in c 1995 frozen and dead drunks on the wayside quite clearly. The truth was, and is, we have much in common. We live in difficult times, but not for much longer I think!
Майкл Уиннер,
I noticed that the image of an ordinary Russian citizen is distorted in the eyes of Westerners. So I write under my real name and it’s my real photo and I don’t hide my identity. I write honestly and openly the facts that I know, as well as my thoughts on different events. I try to give more context so that my conclusions are clear. That’s why I’m wordy, and that’s probably why there are so many answers. Also, I think it’s rude to leave a comment unanswered if it’s addressed to me, so sometimes it is a long side discussion 🙂
*I try to pack more articles in my comments. Yet I must confess I use Google Translate when with the laptop.
Frozen drunks are a sore subject.
Simple workers used to go to the capital city to find some job, e.g at the construction site. Sometimes they were deceived, the work is done, and the money is not paid. These men could be those frozen drunks, desperate and not knowing how to return to their families without money.
In my hometown lived a family with four children, my friends. When in such a large family freezes the drunken father, and their mother is a simple nurse, and she can not feed all of her children and take proper care of them… Sasha drank and used drugs, I don’t know if he is alive. Lesha was once playing with gasoline and burnt his face. Lida gone mad, she is in the mental hospital. Natasha lives more or less normal live, married, children.
Who knows, maybe one of the frozen drunks was their father.
Borncynical, hi there 🙂
These people don’t understand what they’re doing.
Someday I’ll have grandchildren and they’ll ask me to help with the history lessons. They’ll ask me “grandma, who is Boris Johnson?” and I’ll have forgotten most of the details by then, remembering just the brightest moments 🙂
I guess all I would remember then, would be “Well, he had a haystack on his head and his sister was showing naked tits on TV”.
Well, if they ask about Williamson, I’ll remember him riding the toilet, trying to take a sh*t and have fun at the same time.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Of course I won’t say ‘tits’ or ‘sh*t’ in front of the kids.
Tatyana
It is so good to hear a genuine Russian voice and to confirm what the Russian people have stoically gone through during the Yeltsin year of robbing Russia of its wealth and transferring it to oligarchs. To the west it seems so simple to turn around the Russian economy by doing more of the same of what has bankrupted Russia and going on about democracy, when the life expectancy of adults plummeted by more than 10 years. The gradual restoration of this and the recovery of Russia after this must have given you, the Russian people a great pride and thank people like Putin and his team for this turnaround. This is of course why he is so much hated by those who wanted to make a fortune out of Russia.
SA, not all of us got through, not all.
I think I’m lucky to have been born to a couple of simple people. My parents knew themselves and taught me how to live on the land. They are not afraid of the manual work. I know for sure I wouldn’t starve if I had even a tiny piece of land. I know how to grow vegetables, and how to breed poultry, and how to milk a cow (well, not, out of practice for long), and what to do with the walls roofs and fences, how to fix electrical power and many other things.
Also, my parents were educated and understood the importance of education. They found the way to earn money from our apiary to pay for the university for me and for my sister’s.
Living on the land also makes you learn about people and relations. Now I understand what Russian classical writers meant when they said “the village is the basis of everything in Russia”.
In fact, you realize that even in the wild you can build a civilization, if there are people around. We start with the fact that together we are able to cut down the tree and make a log… etc etc
Going through some difficulties also teaches you the lesson – don’t you ever judge people by their looks. You can talk to your neighbor in the garden, and he looks ragged. You’ll find out later that he’s a University Professor, and he’ll fix your English vowels briefly while he weeds the potatoes. Ha ha, an amazing experience! 🙂
“where was that kind helping hand of the developed West then?”
They were busy crossing out the phrase “mafia boss” and replacing it with “oligarch” in their academic and journalistic articles, a term made canonical through the Royal Institute of International Affairs aka “Chatham House”. Also and more importantly they were providing investment services in London for said “oligarchs” and places at Oxford University for their offspring.
“As if everyone have read the book “How to run a ruined after-USSR Russia and to safely lead it to capitalisme in a year” and lazy bastard Putin neglected reading it!”
🙂 The West’s “best” “sovietologists” didn’t see the collapse of the USSR coming, and then within months they were sending in their “experts” from places like the LSE, “experts” at realigning an ex-command economy. Goodness knows where they learnt their “expertise” from – the playing fields of Eton?
Thanks for your reminiscences Tanya. As you know I’ve recently been travelling around Russia on the train, everyone I met was friendly and helpful. I enjoyed my visit. I wish that I could speak better Russian, I only know a few words.
I am currently reading Maisky’s diaries, he was the Soviet ambassador to the UK before and during the war. It seems nothing much changes, then there was the same going on as now, Britain could not decide whether to back Germany or the Soviet Union. In 1940 Britain came close to ending diplomatic relations with Russia.
Of course, as we now know Russia’s defeat of the 3rd Army in Stalingrad was the beginning of the end the Third Reich. Three weeks ago I was in Volgagrad (Stalingrad) and saw the memorials. I had not realised previously what a significant battle it was. In the museum there were all the commendations from world leaders to the people of Stalingrad .
The beeb is far, far worse than a simple reporter of Establishment propaganda. It actively manufactures propaganda, such as “Saving Syria’s Children”.
Craig, I hope your analysis proves correct, but I fear that you are far too optimistic.
To admittedly stretch your father’s expression (which, incidentally, my own dad in the US also used) I think there’s already a history of Western authorities conveniently insisting that the judicial bladder turned out to be not quite empty after all– thus, as Mrs. Slocombe would put it, it’s time to “spend a penny” again.
I think it’s all too easy for the legal profession to conjure up legalistic rationales to give the most heinous government actions the color of law. As I’ve written in previous comments regarding Assange, when circumstances call for it, the vaunted Golden Thread serves as a very handy garrote.
You seem inclined to focus on the trees instead of the haunted forest; by this I mean that a consideration of the totality of the circumstances suggests that the Swedish authorities would never have reopened the investigation to give a potential benefit or advantage to Assange. The Swedish government has already seen fit to revive the contrived and threadbare case at the behest of Assange’s Western persecutors.
It seems unlikely that at this stage, they’re acting without fear or favor to finally clear the matter up one way or the other. I take your ominous description as correct: “That is before you get to the problems with the Swedish judicial system, where rape trials hear all evidence entirely in secret, there is no jury, and two of the three judges are political party appointees.”
But does this circumstance not set up the possibility that if charges are filed, no matter how flimsy and pretextual, a guilty verdict is virtually certain? And even if the Swedish case doesn’t get that far, if Assange is placed in Swedish custody he may readily be extradited to the US on a dark cloud of legal mumbo-jumbo.
Consider the lesser case of poor Maria Butina in the US. A fair and honest judicial system would have either exonerated her, or at worst given her the light slap on the wrist her “crimes” deserved. Instead, they turned the screws to a point where her attorney recommended a guilty plea because (as he afterwards explained) the State had proved “the elements of a crime”.
Yes, I am an inveterate pessimist and cynic. But it seems obvious enough that in the Western Hegemony, the rule of law is subordinated to the dictates of naked authoritarian political power. I repeat: for Assange and the world’s sake, I hope you’re right and I’m wrong.
Yes I tend to agree with this assessment. With so much information on the original investigation already in the public domain, from which a charge of certainly rape or indeed the commission of any sexual offense would appear very thin, the only motive for reopening the case would appear to be political rather than judicial and because of that I fear the worst.
I believe that Craig is too smart not to see what the game is wrt the Swedish charges.
Sadly, its difficult not to conclude that Craig has abandoned Assange.
Hopefully, Craig will provide further explanation or change his opinion (I’m not expecting either).
hey ort – thanks for your comments which reflect my own… as jackrabbit has commented on previously, i fear this path to sweden is intentional.. i wasn’t as quick as jr to see it initially, but i do now… i am surprised craig can’t see it either, but i think he is looking at it in some idealistic manner that clouds his thinking on just how corrupt and deceitful the legal system is on the world stage, especially when it comes to whistleblowers, or to those such as maria butina, caught up in international dynamics, as you point out.. the concept of justice is a thing of the past in these instances… as lysias also pointed out above and which i will end with a quote of him – things bode ill for assange at this point given the set up.
lysias comment – “The U.S. government has already stolen lots of money belonging to the legal government of Venezuela. They’re about to seize the Venezuelan embassy in D.C. in violation of the Vienna Convention. They’ve dropped the mask. They no longer care what people think of them.”
james
“…just how corrupt and deceitful the legal system is on the world stage, especially when it comes to whistleblowers…”
‘sadistic’ is the word
I doubt Sweden has had this much potential to gain attention on the world stage since the days of Gustavus Adolphus. So the Swedish political scene will probably bear upon what happens here ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riksdag reveals no overall majority for left right or centre, so the Assange case may be something of a gift for Swedish politicians wishing to make a bigger mark in domestic politics ?
Domestic politics? Sweden is owned by one family, the Wallenbergs.
This may be about British lapdogs and Swedish lapdogs competing for how obedient to the US government they can be. Neither group is likely to be playing to an internal market.
LOL N_
You mean as in Kofie Annan former UN Sec- Gen married to Swedish lawyer/Wallenberg relative Nane?
Similarly I have been long time intrigued by the marriage of a brilliant British Oxford student and Burmese UN intern who went on to become heroine to some political party in Burma
St Antony’s College – one of MI6’s hangouts in the City of the Spires…
Perhaps, but I thought that Julian was only being investigated for sexual assault and not rape?
I’m not sure I welcome it. Frankly it seems to me that if this is reopened then Julian will be charged. (Otherwise what is the point?) Given the lax quality of Western “justice” in this day an age I would have thought this a fit up. As others have said it is probably a back up in case the effort to extradite Julian from England fails.
As I have said over and over and over again: I do not believe any accusation (with or without charges) that cannot be proven by anything other than word of mouth – as a matter of principle. Her claim (if she is making one) is not evidence in my book. And nor is a torn or used condom.
Would it perhaps be easier for the Swedes to stare down US requests for extradition than the Brits who, along with the Australian Government, have shown no inclination to help Assange? Extradition to Sweden may be a lifeline?
I think I can See Where Craig is Coming from here.
No Rape ( ZERO EVIDENCE ) = No Crime.
And Julian should never have had to worry about a USA puppet extraditing him to face life in Torture prisons.. All for telling us of Evil war crimes.
To me..In equal measure with Sociopath Western Gov’s..are the MSM.. Like the Lies on ITV tonight..
I wish Pamela Anderson could find the Time to cause a Mighty Uproar ..Such is Her Global Fame.
You’re not seeing clearly.
There doesn’t need to be a crime for Sweden to investigate. And its already clear that Sweden believed that two women making a complaint was reason enough to investigate. When Assange refused to be interviewed in Sweden absent a guaranty that he wouldn’t be extradited to USA, Sweden used that refusal to get a European Warrant.
Even if Assange isn’t charged with a crime in Sweden, he can be extradited to USA if he’s in Swedish custody. So re-starting the investigation puts Assange in much greater jeopardy than he would be if he just faced a UK court where extradition has previously been denied for computer crimes and UK law places restrictions on any extradition such as no additional charges and no capital charges.
Any restrictions that UK places on extradition to Sweden will only apply to Sweden/the Swedish charges, leaving USA free to torture, charge for any crime, and possibly kill Assange.
jr – i would quibble with you on one point.. the uk is a very dishonourable place at this point in time.. one only has to consider the sentence they have given assange here to know that they are quite capable of playing an evil role when it comes to assange. they do it with russia and the skripal case, they have done it via blair and the iraq war, and on and on it goes.. the uk could easily manipulate the system to screw assange this way and that.. they already have! thinking assange would be safer in the uk is a bit of a pipe dream as i see it… there are no easy paths for assange given the subservience the uk and sweden happily provide the usa…
The Ecuador embassy offered Julian Assange asylum (later rescinded by the criminal and US puppet Lenin Moreno). Julian’s native country, Australia, has given him no support whatsoever. When the excessive sentence in Belmarsh high security prison for terrorists was handed out Australia should have intervened on his behalf. Unfortunately Australia is itself party in wanting Assange out of the way. When Bob Carr was at the foreign office we wrote to find out what support the embassy was giving Julian Assange especially since the Swedish ambassador to Australia at the time, Olof Petersson, had been discovered by my colleague in Sweden, the late Rafik Saley, to have been complicit in extraordinary rendition. The reply from Carr’s office was evasive and claimed that Assange was getting the same support as any other Australian would, a claim strongly questioned by Julian’s mother. The response is in this article.
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2013/02/08/pressure-australia-to-act-on-behalf-of-wikileaks-assange/
Anna Ardin tweets:
“I would be very surprised & sad if Julian is handed over to the US. For me this was never about anything else than his misconduct against me/women and his refusal to take responsibility for this. Too bad my case could never be investigated properly, but it’s already been closed.”
https://twitter.com/therealardin/status/1116293000693518338?lang=en
Macky
Good link. One of the people responding to Ardin is a Charlie Haynes – @charliehtweets – who is a producer for the BBC Victoria Derbyshire show. I bet the Beeb would love to do a smear against Julian.
I am surprised that Ardin is allowed to tweet anything about this as the case is being reopened.
Craig, I’ve searched high and low for any reports of Marianne Ny admitting to destroying the Assange case file.
I think accuracy is of supreme importance when discussing the Assange case.
The whole campaign to free Assange can be all too easily discredited
I followed your link but it didn’t mention Ny admitting the destruction
I’m currently engaged in a discussion with an Assange agnostic, and find myself fouled on this point
Can you or anyone point me to a credible report on this point…(that NY has destroyed the Assange case file?)
Hi Maureen,
The information has been given in FOI request replies. I can’t find any media reports on the subject in English.
Thanks Craig
I so appreciate your work
So another establishment stitch up. It is inconvenient and tricky for the British establishment to completely rely on the Justice system to produce the desired extradition under the watchful eyes of lawyers and world media and governments. I let out is to extradite Assange to Sweden as requested by Jess Phillips and Stella Creasy and 70 others.. this of course firsf all depoliticises the issue, it becomes a sexual misconduct allegation and means that Sweden will then be tasked with the political decision to extradite to the US, with less consequences to Britain’ Reputation.
Sweden extradited this man who is now being tried.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/14/westminster-vip-abuse-accuser-fled-to-sweden-when-story-collapsed
No hiding place in other words.
The British elite seem to be trying to use Carl Beech’s trial
* to rule a line under allegations that have been made against a large number of well-connected men, including leading figures in MI5, MI6 and the army as well as Edward Heath and Leon Brittan, including some who have had allegations made about them by others too, and connecting with the Elm Guest House among other places
* to give the message to anyone else who might blab that if they do they could find themselves in deep deep trouble and utterly isolated, discredited and jailed – if they’re lucky – and the more heinous the crimes they have witnessed the more so.
It’s worth stressing that Beech has pleaded not guilty. That’s clear from the fact that he’s getting a trial at all, but it’s not something the media are headlining.
Will any of the men he accused who are still living be giving evidence? Or will they all do a Janner or Pinochet and be too ill all of a sudden? If they do go into the witness box, I wonder how they will stand up to cross-examination by the defence. I was not at all convinced by Harvey Proctor’s comments in which he denied Mr Beech’s allegations.
Torygraph: “‘It was suggested it was Edward Heath who persuaded me not to castrate Nick,’ Mr Proctor said. ‘I was obviously so persuaded by Mr Heath’s intervention that I placed the pen knife in Nick’s pocket ready for him to present it to the Metropolitan Police over 30 years later as evidence.'”
I cannot easily imagine what it’s like to be accused unjustly of having committed such a crime, but…sarcasm like that?? Could it not be consistent with the attitude of a man who doesn’t consider these actions in the same way that normal people do?
I’m very surprised we’ve heard nothing from the second woman in Sweden involved in the allegations of sexual assault against Julian Assange (not the one with the alleged CIA links). It was reported that she was so distressed at the possibility of her sexual congress with Assange being used as part of a sexual assault charge, that she refused to cooperate further with police. Did her distress stop at the point when she called a halt? Has she viewed with alarm the huge ramifications of her simple enquiry about STD testing? A statement from her could have spared her years of (possibly) contemplating her unwanted and unforeseeable role in what has happened, saved years of false accusations and vilification for Julian Assange and, for those who put a monetary value on everything, saved a lot of taxpayer money.
” … rape trials hear all evidence entirely in secret, there is no jury, and two of the three judges are political party appointees.”
This is the system that organisations such as End Violence Against Women seek for the UK.
I do think capital punishment is appropriate for certain offences, following due process, but even if its not restored, I find the argument for life long sentences as the alternative, ethically questionable, because it amounts to torture, particularly if it involves being kept 23 hours a day confined to a cell, which is no doubt an explanation for the growing suicide rate (unofficial capital punishment) in prisons. I.e. capital punishment is a severe sentence, but its not torture, which is meant to be outlawed too.
Hence its a complete outrage if Julian is being further tortured for skipping bail on an arrest warrant that’s been dropped, but nothing from the BBC!
Hence why I think Farage got it right in his interview with Marr, by not indulging him, but bashing back and showing your audience “your a fighter not a quitter”.
The true story of how he was set up by the US with help from Sweden and UK governments:
https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/sex-lies-and-julian-assange/4156420
http://johnpilger.com/articles/assange-the-untold-story-of-an-epic-struggle-for-justice
https://www.greanvillepost.com/2019/04/13/how-julian-assange-was-entrapped/
We can take a good guess at the fate that awaits Julian Assange if the US get their hands on him. Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning was kept in solitary confinement which included being kept naked, 23 hours in a cell, and sleep interruption (and more) for almost a year. Eighty thousand is a frequently cited figure for the number of US prisoners in solitary on any day. Spells in solitary can be as long as decades. Surely this would prevent extradition from any country which makes any claim to upholding civil rights. For anyone looking for current information on the use of solitary confinement in US jails and prisons, there is a lot on the internet but this is a good start: https://www.afsc.org/resource/solitary-confinement-facts
Why any civilised person would ever consider visiting US boggles the mind… It is utterly uncivilised, is a rogue state, guilty of war crimes and mass torture of people. Britain is little better (remember all the stitch-up of innocent victims such as Guildford Four and Birmingham Six who were tortured and served years of their lives for crimes they never committed), and Britain is just as guilty as USA for the illegal invasion of Iraq which is a war crime. These rogue states are fomenting war for the past 50 years with their involvement in the arms industry and have utterly destabilised our world. Julian Assange will be remembered in history as a man brave enough to expose the crimes of these barbaric animals.
I’m assuming – quite reasonably I imagine – that the Russian and Chinese governments also eavesdrop both on foreigners and their own citizens….
Well.. it is well past time to get off the pot, the DS establishment has found itself incapable of prising its bum off the throne whilst the next in the queue is still the seemingly unstoppable actual social democrats rather than the dopplegangers of the previous two decades.
Not much difference in how the statusquo is kept across the world under a sheepsskin of democracy and elections.
The military forces of Thailand for example – the aristocrats, their new king and lesse majeste laws – subverted all pretence of ‘free elections’ (Just like Catalonian representatives were imprisoned for attempting more local democracy) It is a horror that that country’s hopes now lay in expecting the ex playboy 68 year old prince, now King Rama X, to have some kind of zeal to change his peoples futures – chok di to them, maybe he is a secret reformist, who waited to get the crown before making waves.
The entitled tossers across the world and their lackeys, billionaires promising to make millionaires of the granny sellers, never gave up and always ratchet up the violence to protect their ‘god given’ right to do what the fuck they want.
Hence, the turgid bigging up of the Fartage/Lenon in the mass media;
The fake solidarity of the Blairites posturing on Brexit to help their tory partners to escape from making any concessions in the negotiations; the coarseness of LibDems, etc
E.g where the fuck was mrs bobbly balls when the Fartage rolled into her constituency yesterday?
The Groan has moved back to kicking Corbyn after a hiatus, even as their print circulation dipped and they cleared out longstanding BTL commenators, they are lackeys, they do as they are told. Toynbee today, Blair and mrs Alistair Campbell, all the usual bollocks, because they sense that ‘by god they have finally found the chink in the armour!’
I really hope that the libdems and Brexiteers do well – it may encourage the potty dwellers to finally rise and allow a general election of much greater import than the City’s and the Billionaires desire to carry on doing what the fuck they like.
Anyway – back to my spring cleaning. Sunny but not as warm as i’d like 😉
The Lib Dems are traitors, they were coalition partners when the referendum was decided upon, they could have resigned the coalition, but liked the perks and power more than another election and discussion on what it means to have this referendum.
The EU elections will be decided by a minority of voters, I predict no more than 40+% participation overall, most of them being older voters.
Vote for a Lib Dem. Get a Tory. Cleggover, who assisted Agent Cameron in the enabling of the Health and Social Care Act in 2012 which set in train the privatisation of OUR NHS, is now in the US, working for Mr Zuckerberg. He is resisting all calls for it to be broken up.
His salary – $4million pa. Better than Gideon’s £650,000k for 2 days’ work a week for BlackRock.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6294701/Nick-Clegg-heads-Silicon-Valley-hired-Facebook.html
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/06/why-worlds-largest-fund-manager-paying-george-osborne-650000-pounds
“The Lib Dems are traitors”
Yes, trying to overturn the referendum result.
“The EU elections will be decided by a minority of voters”
Getting your excuses in early by the sound of it.
No MJ just speaking from past experiences and a npus on how this wretched election will be fought by the media.
‘Farrage returns to destroy Tories’ is one headline today and it speaks to a minority about another minority.
Being blind about the cowards who allowed their party to be breakfast to the Conservatives and abstained from the parliamentary vote, rather than stand up and resign their coalition? is not a means to improve it.
As for getting my excuses in first, dont know, i filled out my form to vote, but as yet failed to get my polling card from South Norfolk District Council, but you don’t need them anyway bar some ten councils who try ID pilots.
The turnout may well be higher than for the local elections.
The Lib Dem’s will forever remain traitors having stood by or even supporting the excesses if Cameron, from the privatisation of the NHS to Libya and Syria and yes, the referendum.
The Lib Dem promise to end tuition fees, was always an empty promise, because tuition fees were part of the mickey-mouse accounting to take us into the Euro-currency, hence why they supported them once in office.
The Lib Dem policy was voting reform and they could have politically got away with breaking the tuition fee promise if they had secured genuine voting reform, but again they broke this promise in favour of the pig’s ear AV referendum. That is they abandoned PR because they no longer thought they would be the main beneficiary, so again revealing self-interest rather than principle.
They could have vetoed the referendum, but again they had previously promoted an IN or OUT referendum, which they thought they could win, to avoid a referendum on the Constitution/Lisbon Treaty.
They never vetoed the referendum because they thought Remain would win and they wold use the Remain vote to supersede the earlier Lab/Con promise to hold a referendum on joining the Euro-currency.
On a separate note the Lib Dem election slogan “b…..ks to Brexit is popularly considered a profanity, hence why I don’t write it, but Vince Cable says its succinctly humorous. The fact is according to the dictionary its not a profanity, as it means testicles and nonsense, rubbish”, but it is as used by the Lib Dems!
That is to be grammatically accurate as opposed to a profanity it should read “Brexit is b….cks” rather than “b….cks to Brexit”. I.e. Brexit is rubbish rather than rubbish is Brexit, unless they’re after the French vote!
The LibDems and their banker leader Clegg were dumped like a soiled nappy by the voters at the first opportunity for their treachery – they were not in parliament never mind Government to veto the referendum – 2016.
The genuine social democrats I refer to in my op are of course the current Labour leadership and mass grassroots membership.
The warmed up vomit, that is kipper ‘populism’ is, just as before, the artificial creation of the mass mainstream media on behalf of their global robber baron billionaire masters – using every hot-button they can to stir up the mobs – it was ever the same just like the Lord Gordon populists of yore (Dickens wrote of it).
It makes not a blind bit of difference if every MEP elected is a Kipper or a Remainer does it? They have zero effect on the Parliamentry numbers here which the neocon/libs needed to push through the hard Brexit and Henry VIII powers to escape the EU wide regulations on robbery, tax evasion and money laundering that is the ancient City of London.
They are being primed to try and survive the rout of the next GE.
All else is smoke and mirrors.
Rape charges in Sweden can be life-long affairs. I had read of the case of a boy charged with rape after he has decided to leave his girlfriend. She didn’t like it, so he was going to pay for it. The case was opened, then dropped, then reopened, then dropped again, then reopened, and so on. It went on for years. The poor boy underwent what can only be termed bullying by the Swedish justice system.
So, in my view, the only positive thing about that is that, should Julian Assange end up in a Swedish jail, one can hope he would be better treated than in Belmarsh, where apparently, he is given the terrorist treatment. Unless, of course, US pressure makes the Swedes behave like demented sadists, as happens in Britain.
US poodles end up behaving like the US, which is not a pretty sight.
I fear that Sweden is just a ruse to get the air of normal proceedings cleared of the foul smell that is extradition to the US, what ever secret agreements have been worked out between Sweden and the US.
Will Sweden risk Ms. Nye being called to give evidence on the first proceedings and its destroyed evidence? my answer would be NO, why should it when it is able to have a secret trial without any input from past failed trials and or embarrassing disclosures of state collusion with FBI/CIA requests?
I am not in favour of passing the buck, it should stop with us here and now.
Julian should be released and free to go wherever he wants.
The US should sort out its spying operations, whether its to its own people or others abroad, their continuous data snooping on private affairs taints public proceedings and, once known, hinders public [prosecutions because of a breach of privacy.
And they should be prepared to open up Muellers actions/report to scrutiny with regards to information obtained/refusal to include in the DNC affair.
Who killed Seth Rich and what happened in the hospital he was brought to, alive?
I would welcome a reply to your proposition to send Julian back to Sweden from At5rbed, surprised we had no comment as yet from his/her valuable insight in this case.
Julian can’t get a fair trial. Every single time he gets stitched up before he even gets to the court room. And then the useful idiots say ‘ah but look at the legal judgement, clearly he deserves his fate’.
No. No he doesn’t. You know who deserves their fate? Useful idiots, who usually get shot. It has become clear to me there is a rather well disguised ‘secret’ legal system, where ‘politicals’ are dealt with, rather efficiently. Reliable Judges are drafted in, and with the minimum of fuss, they send people to jail, as instructed. Assange has no chance either in Sweden or the US.
There is the outside possibility of a Trump pardon. But he’ll get no mercy from Swedish feminists. In a way it’s rather fascinating how he’s been dealt with, not so fascinating for him of course. It’s given us a very brief glimpse of how it all really works, and this glimpse may possibly have long term consequences. I fear it won’t be enough to save Julian though.
This is clearly just stage one, to shower him in the brown stuff in public perception as a prelude to burying him in a concrete bunker in some faroff Colorado mountain.
This hell hole perhaps?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermax_prison
I bet that the Brits* who go to Colorado for the skiing have not a clue what goes on within the walls of ADX Florence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermax_prison
* eg my line manager in the NHS used to go every year with her family.
I am surprised you have not mentioned “One day in Gaza” on BBC 2 last night.
Quite shocking. Israeli soldiers shot 1000 people in 8 hours. It must be tough work. Especially with those bullets that turn bone into dust.
2,000 Palestinians injured Geoffrey according to the Guardian and 60 killed. I did see it. Shocking footage of what was called a ‘turkey shoot’ which the UN described as a war crime. The IDF snipers were lying prone on an earth bund specially created for the purpose. All provoked by Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Ivanka did the honours for the large gathering at the opening. Sickening stuff.
The photo showing gas canisters being sent down from the air on the protesters in Gaza at the ‘border’, resembles the photographs of white phosphorus shells sent down on Gaza in Cast Lead 2009/9. They even landed in a school playground.
There is a good critique of the Guardian review of the programme on here. http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/msg/1557814555.html
The Grauniad review was written by Jack Seale. Is he biased? You can get a flavour of his opinions from his other work, for example discussing if there is a left wing bias at the BBC: https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-06-25/peston-is-right-left-wing-bias-at-the-bbc-is-a-myth/
It made me wonder if anyone believes that the BBC has such a bias, I thought it was the other way around, based on what I hear and see.
The Times also reviewed it well. In a relatively unbiased way. Maybe the TV critics can get away with saying things that other journalists can’t. Gave it 5/5 stars.
Just to say that there are 8.7 million Palestinian refugees in the diaspora and elsewhere.
Stop the Ongoing Nakba: Protect Palestinian Refugees
14th May 2019
http://mezan.org/en/post/23526
The above opens:
‘As the world’s largest and most protracted displaced population,[1] Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) today number 8.7 Million,[2] constituting 66.7 percent of the Palestinian people. Yet, neither the internationally mandated bodies nor the international community, have taken any measures to adequately address this ongoing Nakba (catastrophe) by the provision of just and durable solutions as stipulated by international law,[3] and as embodied in UNGA Resolution 194 of 1948 and UNSC Resolution 337 of 1967.’
Exactly. Somewhere he would not be heard from again, as the work of extending “democracy and human rights” to the world goes on.
That people still believe this is about rape is naive at best
Assange rape case politicized, ‘mishandled throughout’ says WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief
https://www.rt.com/news/459193-wikileaks-hrafnsson-assange-sweden/
People are not hunting Assange because of “rape” or “hacking” but because he exposed warcrimes to to whole world by the americans.
Perhaps I’m being naive – but he is currently residing In Belmarsh for skipping bail on a charge that was dropped years ago.
Do all ‘bailskippers ‘ end up in there in the ‘terrorist ‘ wing or is it a special case for Assange.
He’s not dangerous – is he?
If he is – dangerous to whom exactly?
By the way the main investigation ( should the UK government accept the mission? ) is to look into his treatment recently by the Ecuadorian authorities as I suspect he has suffered neglect by his hosts.
If any other Asylum Seeker was treated that way the left liberals would be up in arms.
Particularly at the Guardian.
Dave May 14th 20019 at 08.07
Says. Capital punishment is a severe punishment but it’s not torture..
Sorry Dave but it is if your innocent !
Reminds me of the football manager who bemoaned poor defending that cost his team the match. He said ‘if you’re going to commit suicide, you don’t have to do it yourself’.
No although there are those who favour inflicting a painful death on the basis a simple execution is too good for them, a lot of research has been undertaken to ensure a quick and painless death to avoid the accusation of torture. Killing an innocent person would constitute a wrongful or even criminal execution, but not torture.