Assange: Ecuador Bows To Pressure From US, False Accusations, More Leaks – What Next?

By Graham Vanbergen – In February of this year a United Nations panel decided that Julian Assange’s three-and-a-half years in the Ecuadorian embassy amounted to “arbitrary detention”, leading his lawyers to call for the Swedish extradition request to be dropped immediately. Being good and compliant members of the United Nations, both Britain and Sweden simply ignored the ruling.

It’s interesting that the UN saw fit to make this ruling. What do they know about the Assange rape case, that the rest of us are not privy to? For a start, Sweden has both the most expansive rape laws, which extends all the way to marital bed nagging, as well as the highest number of reported rapes in the western world.

The Observer (sister paper to The Guardian) reported that “Neither woman ever claimed, initially, that she was “raped” by Mr. Assange—rape being våldtäkt in Swedish, but both spoke of the sex being unpleasant. They both concealed their distaste for how it had transpired. In the case of Ms. Ardin, she kept him as a houseguest for six nights after the incident, and even threw a crayfish party for him. In the case of Ms. Wilen, she and Mr. Assange, after a night of sex, joked about the broken condom, and his promise that if she got pregnant he would move to Sweden, pay off her student loans, and they “could name the baby Afghanistan.” She then went out and bought the two of them breakfast oats and orange juice.”

When Ms. Ardin learned Mr. Assange had also slept with Ms. Wilen, and when he failed the golden rule of elemental post-coital communications, they locked arms and went to the police—not to charge him with rape, but to see if he could be compelled to take an HIV test, on a Saturday, in Stockholm. The rest of the Observer piece is interesting in many ways – I recommend you read it.

Fast forward to the run up of recent events.

On the 11th August the New York Times published “Julian Assange to Be Questioned by Sweden Over Rape Claim.” The NYT went to say that “Ecuador and Sweden have agreed to allow Julian Assange to be questioned by Swedish prosecutors inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, in a possible breakthrough to a four-year impasse, Ecuador said on Thursday, but no date for the interview was announced.”

CNN reports September 7th that the “Swedish authorities have blamed the Ecuadorian embassy in London over delays in questioning its famous resident, Julian Assange, about sexual assault allegations.”

On September 14th Reuters reported that “Ecuador sets October date for Assange questioning” – that date being October 17th. That report contradicted the NYT and said “Swedish prosecutors said the questioning will be conducted by an Ecuadorian prosecutor. Swedish chief prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and a police investigator will be allowed to be present to ask questions through the Ecuadorian prosecutor, who will later report the findings to Sweden.”

Even if Sweden drops the investigation, Assange is likely to be arrested for breaching bail conditions in Britain, so it’s a no win situation for Assange for the time being.

The 17th October arrives and according to ex British diplomat Craig Murray: “Swedish prosecutors were meant to question Julian Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy, something for which the Assange legal team has been pressing for years. They believe that once this step has been taken, prosecutors will no longer be able to keep from the scrutiny of Swedish courts the fact that there is no viable evidence whatsoever to back up the ludicrous allegations which have been made. Frustratingly, Swedish prosecutors cancelled the interview, with no explanation given. Anyone would think they do not wish the investigation to progress.”

On October 7th, 2016, WikiLeaks published literally thousands of emails belonging to John Podesta’s private email archives. Podesta is Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign Chairman. He previously served as Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton and Counselor to President Barack Obama. Since then, batches of emails have been released almost daily all adding up to a scandal in its own right – heavily deflected of course by Donald Trump’s antics.

Then, as we have all heard, the Embassy of Ecuador in London cut Assange’s internet line, whilst at the same time we see Russia Today’s bank account frozen and closed by Britain’s RBS bank.

Craig Murray commented on this a few days ago: “This series of events are all aimed at those who seek to counter the neo-con narrative pumped out by the state and corporate media. It could be coincidence, but it looks like co-ordinated clampdown to me.”

Yesterday we hear a story that “Hillary Clinton Linked To Mysterious Front Associated with Julian Assange Pedophile Smear” where ZeroHedge reports that “An unknown entity posing as an internet dating agency prepared an elaborate plot to falsely claim that Julian Assange received US$1M from the Russian government and a second plot to frame him sexually molesting an eight year old girl.”

Internet sleuths from Reddit were able to dig up some information about the attacks on Assange, finding that the company shares the very same address with a private intelligence corporation named ‘Premise Data Corporation’. Interestingly, Larry Summers, who is connected to the Clinton Campaign, is on the board of directors of Premise Data Corporation. What an amazing coincidence.

ZeroHedge reports that “Leaked Podesta Email Reveals Why Larry Summers Did Not Become Obama’s Treasury Secretary” – obviously a job that he so desperately wants looking at that article and that he may have eyes on if Clinton takes the Whitehouse.

Then a couple of days ago we hear that “Quiet pressure from the U.S. government played a role in Ecuador’s decision to block WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from using the internet at Ecuador’s London embassy” U.S. officials tell NBC News. This is of course countered at the same time because there were reports that “claims that John Kerry asked Ecuador to block internet access to prevent WikiLeaks impacting election are simply untrue” – headlines The Guardian at exactly the same time

WikiLeaks claimed that Secretary of State John F. Kerry pressured Ecuador to put a stop to the leaks of Hillary Clinton’s campaign e-mails, which have helped Donald Trump and hurt Clinton by revealing her close ties to Wall Street.

In other words, what appears to be a false rape claim where prosecutors fail to bother turning up is followed up by a smear campaign to make out that Assange is a paedophile and a Russian spy. This also appears to be emanating from a front company whose director is connected the political campaign of the side being exposed by Assange, whilst diplomatic pressure may or may not be applied depending on what you read.

In the meantime, Julian Assange is not amused with the whole American election pantomime!

Given increasing levels of political pressure Ecuadorian government officials will endure in the remaining weeks of the US election that has got ever more spiteful, it will surely be interesting to see just how much President Correa really does stand behind his intention to safeguard Assange’s physical well being until he reaches safe harbour. And when Clinton put her knees under the table at the Whitehouse what pressure she will apply to the UK to finally flush out this ‘traitor’.

You couldn’t make it up, really you couldn’t.

 

 

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