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The Dirty War on WikiLeaks
Media smears suggest Swedish complicity in a Washington-driven push to punish Julian Assange
War by media, says current military doctrine, is as important as the battlefield. This is because the real enemy is the public at home, whose manipulation and deception is essential for starting an unpopular colonial war. Like the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, attacks on Iran and Syria require a steady drip-effect on readers' and viewers' consciousness. This is the essence of a propaganda that rarely speaks its name.
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, arriving for an extradition hearing at the high court in London on 2 November 2011. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
To the chagrin of many in authority and the media, WikiLeaks has torn down the facade behind which rapacious western power and journalism collude. This was an enduring taboo; the BBC could claim impartiality and expect people to believe it. Today, war by media is increasingly understood by the public, as is the trial by media of WikiLeaks' founder and editor Julian Assange.
Assange will soon know if the supreme court in London is to allow his appeal against extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sexual misconduct, most of which were dismissed by a senior prosecutor in Stockholm. On bail for 16 months, tagged and effectively under house arrest, he has been charged with nothing. His "crime" has been an epic form of investigative journalism: revealing to millions of people the lies and machinations of their politicians and officials and the barbarism of criminal war conducted in their name.
For this, as the American historian William Blum points out, "dozens of members of the American media and public officials have called for [his] execution or assassination". If he is passed from Sweden to the US, an orange jumpsuit, shackles and a fabricated indictment await him. And there go all who dare challenge rogue America.
In Britain, Assange's trial by media has been a campaign of character assassination, often cowardly and inhuman, reeking of jealousy of the courageous outsider, while books of perfidious hearsay have been published, movie deals struck and media careers launched or resuscitated on the assumption that he is too poor to sue. In Sweden this trial by media has become, according to one observer there, "a full-on mobbing campaign with the victim denied a voice". For more than 18 months, the salacious Expressen, Sweden's equivalent of the Sun, has been fed the ingredients of a smear by Stockholm police.
Expressen is the megaphone of the Swedish right, including the Conservative party, which dominates the governing coalition. Its latest "scoop" is an unsubstantiated story about "the great WikiLeaks war against Sweden". On 6 March Expressen claimed, with no evidence, that WikiLeaks was running a conspiracy against Sweden and its foreign minister Carl Bildt. The political pique is understandable. In a 2009 US embassy cable obtained by WikiLeaks, the Swedish elite's vaunted reputation for neutrality is exposed as sham. (Cable title: "Sweden puts neutrality in the Dustbin of History.") Another US diplomatic cable reveals that "the extent of [Sweden's military and intelligence] co-operation [with Nato] is not widely known", and unless kept secret "would open up the government to domestic criticism".
Swedish foreign policy is largely controlled by Bildt, whose obeisance to the US goes back to his defence of the Vietnam war and includes his leading role in George W Bush's Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. He retains close ties to Republican party extreme rightwing figures such as the disgraced Bush spin doctor, Karl Rove. It is known that his government has "informally" discussed Assange's future with Washington, which has made its position clear. A secret Pentagon document describes US intelligence plans to destroy WikiLeaks' "centre of gravity" with "threats of exposure [and] criminal prosecution".
In much of the Swedish media, proper journalistic scepticism about the allegations against Assange is overwhelmed by a defensive jingoism, as if the nation's honour is defiled by revelations about dodgy coppers and politicians, a universal breed. On Swedish public TV "experts" debate not the country's deepening militarist state and its service to Nato and Washington, but the state of Assange's mind and his "paranoia". A headline in Tuesday's Aftonbladet declared: "Assange's moral collapse". The article suggests Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks' alleged source, may not be sane, and attacks Assange for not protecting Manning from himself. What was not mentioned was that the source was anonymous, that no connection has been demonstrated between Assange and Manning, and that Aftonbladet, WikiLeaks' Swedish partner, had published the same leaks undeterred.
Ironically, this circus has performed under cover of some of the world's most enlightened laws protecting journalists, which attracted Assange to Sweden in 2010 to establish a base for WikiLeaks. Should his extradition be allowed, and with Damocles swords of malice and a vengeful Washington hanging over his head, who will protect him and provide the justice to which we all have a right?
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31 Comments so far
Show AllAs far as I know Assange has not been formally charged with any crime. What the sex crime thing didn't stick so now they are trying to paste on him responsibility for Manning who was anonymous? If this wasn't so serious it would be laughable. But now knowing Karl Rove is operating behind the curtain it's understandable how it's all being allowed to transpire. Afterall congressional suponeas don't even work on Rove. Apparently the greasy fat man with the supercilious grin is above the "law". Or maybe he is the new "law".
Both CD and DN covered the Private intel Assange indictment leaks. Interpol got 25 Anonymous members, Looks like the Intel leak was a FBI sting to string up Assange.
2/28 news article begins with "Report"
The war against journalism has been going on for quite a while. With corporate media dominating information getting out, citizen (s of the World) journalism has been a key source of real news.
Maybe AG Holden might explain why there was no effort to go after voter surpression. Is keeping state secrets secret more important than democracy?
(Rhetorical ?)
Support Assange and support US whistleblower Bradley Manning!
www.bradleymanning.org or www.couragetoresist.org
Billyb... notes that "The war against journalism has been going on for quite while." Anthony DiMaggio brings this point home quite effectively in his book:
When Media Goes to War: Hegemonic Discourse, Public Opinion, and the Limits of Dissent
Though Sweden has long projected an image of an enlightened neutral state, that is simply not so. The Swedes supplied Germany with iron ore and allowed German troops to travel on Swedish trains on their way to invading Norway, among other things during WW2. The right in that country has continued down that same dubious path since then, with Carl Bildt's behavior as a prime example of the sort of crypto-fascists that inhabit Steig Larsson novels as the bad guys.
Wrong. Sweden did NOT allow German troops through during the invasion of Norway but did allow them to cross over Sweden FROM Norway in 1941 to attack the Soviet Union from Finland. They also provided intel to the Allies throughout the war. They played both sides of the fence.
Not exactly, the Swedes only began to 'cooperate' with the Allies when it became apparent that the Germans were circling the drain. Also, German troops were allowed to travel across Sweden until 1943.
You have it backward.
Sweden rejected the request by the UK to move troops across Swedish territory to Finland.
During the early stages of World War II, the British and French Allies made a series of proposals to send troops to fight against the Soviet Union, which had invaded Finland as a consequence of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. The plans involved the transit of British and French troops and equipment through neutral Norway and Sweden.
The Swedish government, headed by Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson, declined to allow transit of armed troops through Swedish territory, in spite of the fact that Sweden had not declared itself neutral in the Winter War.
Sweden did allow German troops to cross Swedish territory.
On 18 June 1941, the Swedish government quickly agreed to Nazi Germany's demand to transit rights across Sweden for German troops.
A total of 2.14 million German soldiers, and more than 100,000 German military railway carriages, would cross neutral Swedish territory in a thunderous display of "might over right" for the next three years
http://www.answers.com/topic/franco-british-plans-for-intervention-in-the-winter-war
Swedes were a majority of the Scandanavian youth that joined the Nordland Division of the Waffen SS to fight on the eastern front in WWII. The great film director Ingmar Bergman was a swastika-wearing member of the Nazi party when he was a student in Germany. For all practical purposes, Sweden was a defacto ally of Nazi Germany and owes its post war prosperity to having supplied it with war materiel all through the war while being able to hide behind its "neutral" status.
Tony Vodvarka
BS John Shade - During WW2 Sweden imprisoned EVERY allied aircrew that had the misfortune to crash land or bail out over Sweden. - for the duration of the war! Sweden sold Germany scarce nickel, and half the Nazi tanks were made with steel from Swedish iron ore. How many allied troops died as a result of this Swedish war-profiteering? Sweden DID certainly allow German troops to transit their territory, almost on a daily basis - as needed in fact. Sweden sat there getting rich while Britain spent every penny it and the Commonwealth could scrape up to defeat the Nazis. Now here are the Swedes, who are increasingly right-wing these days, trying to extradite to Sweden a person accused of not using protection while having consensual sex, and causing him to lose his liberty without so much as a criminal charge or accusation being filed! What a farce!
Watch out Sweden, you're a small country and you're vulnerable. You export a lot, especially to Europe An enraged world can bring you down economically, and that's what we'll be working for if you continue this charade. Prepare to feel the wrath!
Can we all spell R.O.V.E ? Whatever Karl wants Karl will get. The rest of us can only speculate on what sort of dirt he must have on very important people.
"The Dirty War on WikiLeaks"
The media war on Wikileaks and Assange is far from over, in spite of Pilger and others almost continously exposing it. That's scary in itself.
The media attacks on Assange keep going in spite of having been revealed as baseless. The nazi approach: "Slander, slander - some dirt always lingers" - can be seen applied here openly.
The generalized impression is created that Assange has done something wrong. That way, when he's mistreated - as now with house-arrest in England - it's perceived as somewhat and somehow justified.
Never forget: Assange is a hero for revealing the illegal and unethical manipulations by our global leaders.
reallycurious, Kucinich is not part of the corporate centrist Democratic Party. He is a reformer as is Marcy Kaptor. Redistricting in order to force two reformers to run against each other is a basic hack technique for getting rid of reformers.
As far as Rove having dirt on members of the liberal elite, elites are basically on the same team. We have a Left/Right discourse to cover up the true top/bottom conflict in politics. In other words the true conflict is not rich Republicans vs rich Democrats but rather Hacks vs Reformers. Or in contemporary parlance 1% vs the 99.
The hacks thought highly enough of Kucinich to gerrymander him out of the legislature. That is a highly educated vote of authenticity.
I just wanted to mention Pilger's movie "The War You Don't See". It is excellent in every way. After seeing it, I came away with tremendous respect and admiration for this authentic journalist John Pilger. It is relevant to this article although not about Julian directly.
Thanks for the review. Ordered it a week ago, but haven't received it. The trailer has a tragic scene of American troops forcing an Iraqi family out of their house and terrorizing the little children. Too bad our media doesn't play such images every evening. That would end the wars (maybe, or maybe it would turn into war porn, like our soldiers distribute in giant war porn networks).
Another documentary by John Pilger I would recommend is "Stealing a Nation" (available for free on Google videos):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3667764379758632511
>>STEALING A NATION (John Pilger, 2004) is an extraordinary film about the plight of the people of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean - secretly and brutally expelled from their homeland by British governments in the late 1960s and early 1970s, to make way for an American military base. The base, on the main island of Diego Garcia, was a launch pad for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.<<
For a quick background info., here's John Pilger's article:
"Paradise cleansed: Our deportation of the people of Diego Garcia is a crime that cannot stand"
http://gu.com/p/x24ec
or
www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2004/oct/02/foreignpolicy.comment
I have often felt a sense of gratitude for people like John Pilger. It is absolutely fitting that he exposes here the dirty war on WikiLeaks and some aspects of Sweden (and Britain) that outsiders may not have been aware of.
Western media war loving echo chamber jerks are getting into a bit of tiff over the exposure of their "manaufacturing of consent" propaganda model.
Who will protect Assange, John Pilger asks? We will! Is the answer! If Sweden sends Assange to the U.S. to face trumped up charges in a Kangaroo court, then the everyday people of the WORLD will have to set in motion a regimen to PUNISH the Swedish and the U.S. governments in some way that is (1) legal, (2) peaceful (3) seriously effective (4) of real benefit to mankind.
We could start with a worldwide boycott of Swedish goods, airlines, stocks & bonds & other investments. A grass-roots effort here would help us discover how much support Assange really has around the world - I think its probably massive because a good percentage of the populace is sick & tired of living in a police state. Here in the U.S. a general boycott of U.S. goods would be self-defeating, but we could turn our attention to other things like a voter strike, or selected boycotts of plutocrat-owned companies. Those who are expert in such things might turn their hand to exposing wrongdoing (moral, ethical, legal, criminal) among the 1% and among those who help the 1%. A one or two year campaign to dig up dirt on members of the "ruling class" would surely pay off, and I'm sure more than a few heads would roll. The people do have ways to exact revenge on the so-called "elite" who hate and fear transparency and who would jail (or even execute!) whistleblowers and truth-tellers like Manning & Assange.
Here's the joke. We don't even know if Manning was really the source of the Wikeleaks disclosures. Neither does Wikileaks because there's a firewall between the sender & the receiver.
All over the world, but especially between N. America and Europe, the rich cover each other's backs. They fear exposure, they fear the wrath of the general public if the general public ever realized what's being done behind their backs. That's why every scrap of information is now "secret". and that's why Obama goes after whistleblowers with a vengeance not shown even by Bush. We knew Bush was a sold-out lackey, but Obama has another election to win and he's still trying to pass himself off as one of the people. He's a bought-and-sold lackey too, but he wants to hide that, and transparency might get in the way.
Most governments are the same in this modern world. All up to no good, all hiding the truth, and all putting out propaganda and lies to their populace to a fair-thee-well!
That's why Assange is a threat. Pilger hit the nail on the head!
DW, Indeed the noose is tightening, the hour is late and something needs to be done. However, most of our fellow citizens are hypnotized by their televisions to accept a consensus trance that allows them be led about by the nose. Boycotts, occupations, etc. can never bring down a powerfully entrenched MIC. Short of waiting until it collapses of its self-destructive stupidity and greed, the only possible non-violent resistance is the general strike of which the Greeks are presently giving a robust demonstration. But how to achieve the sort of solidarity and shared sense of purpose to achieve a general strike in a population as lumpen as ours? I suggest that if the true story of the events of 9-11 could become general knowledge, the resulting shock and disgust with the government and the corporate media that supports it could break through the consensus trance and lead to a mass movement for far-reaching reform.
Tony Vodvarka
I contend that the only thing that can save Assange are the Swedish public. If the Swedes are able to see through the media assassination and rally to protect Assange under Sweden's press freedoms, extradition to the US would be impossible. The Swedish government could save face by throwing him in jail for 3 years for assault, and saying "That's that".
Alas, the US does not forget, and will hound/harass Assange for the rest of his life, no matter where he lives. Seal Team 6 are probably already training.
What the Swedes did in WW II is hardly relevant--even what the Swedish government may be up to now reflects on the Swedes no more than what the US government does reflects on us. We do not have a genuine democracy in the US--the word means "rule by the people" not "regular elections," its new debased meaning. The people of the US do not make the decisions, nor do the people much of anywhere else. We are never consulted.
And I don't think Assange faces "an orange jumpsuit, shackles and a fabricated indictment" if they extradite him to the US. Given his stature worldwide, they're more likely to arrange for "a lone nut" to shoot him. After all they haven't used that one in forty years. It would still "send a message" and it would eliminate the risk of his becoming a rallying point.
I agree with abvodvarka that a general strike is our best weapon, and that the US population is not currently ready for such a tactic--but I think we're much closer now than in recent decades, and obviously our enemy thinks so, judging by the furious rate at which Congress is passing bills that revoke one after another of the Bill of Rights. They're trying to arrange corpogovernment control of the internet, on which we depend to organize; arranging for the Powers That Be to be able to simply disappear anyone they feel threatened by; and supplying practically every police force in the country with tanks, drones, or surveillance equipment...who is the deadly enemy against which they need all this? US.
"We do not have a genuine democracy in the US--the word means "rule by the people" not "regular elections," ..."
Are you sure?
Every time the US overthrows a tyrant with their humanitarian bombs and missiles, they provide that country with regular elections, and then a new tyrant is elected by the people instead of appointing himself like the old one did.
My tv says that's democracy, and the people feel much better when they elect their new dictator even if he kicks them around just like the old one did or worse. My tv never mentions "rule by the people". You're not making this up, are you?
"a vengeful Washington."
Nice phrase. A reporter should ask the president to comment upon it.
"...who will protect him and provide the justice to which we all have a right?" Seeking justice through the usual channels, I would think Julian Assange's best chance is the British Law Courts. Sweden is one of the most advanced societies in the world and in that country, public opinion should still matter somewhat.
In it's extreme form, seeking justice becomes screaming mobs outside demanding the aristos head on the block, instead of Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, and Tim deChristopher. Telling the truth is not a crime. Acting in the interests of humanity is not a crime.
"Ironically, this circus has performed under cover of some of the world's most enlightened laws protecting journalists, which attracted Assange to Sweden in 2010 to establish a base for WikiLeaks."
Propaganda laws to protect journalist, who seek to sell news
"All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed."
I. F. Stone
Good quotation of I F Stone and one of my favorites! It's right in there with the way Norman Solomon makes the case in his documentary with Sean Penn of how the US Government's "foundation must be laid" for waging war. It might be "humanitarian intervention" as in Syria or Iran today or in the Balkans in times past which the documentary deals with, the Vietnam War for "democracy," or another "Hitler" is on the loose as in Iraq a few times, the Communists might get in in the Dominican Republic, and right on through. Korea with the Communists about to take over! The 10 feet tall Russians leaping tall buildings, getting through our air power, our nuclear weapons and just right ready to snatch us right out of our beds as part of larger, "terrible, treacherous, criiminal . . . conspiracy!" "Evil people" in Moscow hating our 'freedom."
"Manufacturing consent" through media lackies fits into a clear cut, well established propaganda model too often used in the West. John Pilger is right on top of this. With this Bildt character having the power he has over foreign affairs and having even defened the Vietnam War, it's an open question as to when he's really been a loyal Swede rather than stooge for right wing US power elites bent on insane policies of imperialism. Shades of Edward S Herman and Noam Chomsky!