CNNs hit job on Julian Assange

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 1:18am

"The now U.S. aligned Ecuadorian government gave us selected tapes to damage Julian Assange. We speculate that they support the debunked Russiagate nonsense we promoted over the last two years." https://t.co/0iIfakPZgk

— Moon of Alabama (@MoonofA) July 15, 2019

CNN Twists Embassy Surveillance Records To Attack Julian Assange

Spanish newspaper EL PAÍS reported on July 9 that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was spied on by a Spanish private defense and security firm called Undercover Global S.L., when he lived in the Ecuador embassy in the United Kingdom.

The report was based on “documents, video, and audio material” that was “used in an extortion attempt against Assange by several individuals.” In May, Spanish police arrested journalist José Martín Santos, who had a record of fraud, and a computer programmer for their alleged involvement in an “attempt to make €3 million from the sale of private material.”

Reporters for EL PAÍS found the spying on Assange’s legal defense meetings to be most significant. They were stunned by the fact that Assange felt he had to hold meetings in the women’s bathroom if he wanted to ensure privacy. And they took note of U.C. Global’s “feverish, obsessive vigilance” toward “the guest,” which became more intense after Lenin Moreno was elected president of Ecuador in May 2017.

That is not how CNN viewed the same cache of information compiled by the private security company and eventually used to allegedly extort Assange.

Although EL PAÍS makes no mention of meddling in the 2016 presidential election in its coverage, CNN approached the material like analysts at the CIA. They voraciously consumed logs hoping the documents would confirm Assange collaborated with Russian intelligence assets to release emails from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.

Compare the two reports, as they appeared on the news organization’s websites:

Here is the CNN article.

Exclusive: Security reports reveal how Assange turned an embassy into a command post for election meddling

New documents obtained exclusively by CNN reveal that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange received in-person deliveries, potentially of hacked materials related to the 2016 US election, during a series of suspicious meetings at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

The documents build on the possibility, raised by special counsel Robert Mueller in his report on Russian meddling, that couriers brought hacked files to Assange at the embassy.

The surveillance reports also describe how Assange turned the embassy into a command center and orchestrated a series of damaging disclosures that rocked the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States.

Despite being confined to the embassy while seeking safe passage to Ecuador, Assange met with Russians and world-class hackers at critical moments, frequently for hours at a time. He also acquired powerful new computing and network hardware to facilitate data transfers just weeks before WikiLeaks received hacked materials from Russian operatives.

These stunning details come from hundreds of surveillance reports compiled for the Ecuadorian government by UC Global, a private Spanish security company, and obtained by CNN. They chronicle Assange's movements and provide an unprecedented window into his life at the embassy. They also add a new dimension to the Mueller report, which cataloged how WikiLeaks helped the Russians undermine the US election.

An Ecuadorian intelligence official told CNN that the surveillance reports are authentic.

The security logs noted that Assange personally managed some of the releases "directly from the embassy" where he lived for nearly seven years. After the election, the private security company prepared an assessment of Assange's allegiances. That report, which included open-source information, concluded there was "no doubt that there is evidence" that Assange had ties to Russian intelligence agencies.

Yeah let's just ignore what Assange has always said about where he got the DNC information from.

Assange, a native of Australia, has always denied working for the Kremlin and has insisted that the source of the leaks "is not the Russian government and it is not a state party." He also said he would have published damaging information about then-candidate Donald Trump if he had received it.

Back to Kevin's essay on this hit job.

Yet, there is little to no evidence in the report to substantiate the conspiracy theory that CNN reporters want the public to believe.

Much of CNN’s report quotes from the Mueller report, not the private security company materials. It plugs in meetings and interactions Assange had with visitors that align with dates in the report in order to claim this appears to be evidence of collaboration with the Russian government, but CNN does not know what transpired.

For example, on July 18, 2016, CNN states, “While the Republican National Convention kicked off in Cleveland, an embassy security guard broke protocol by abandoning his post to receive a package outside the embassy from a man in disguise. The man covered his face with a mask and sunglasses and was wearing a backpack, according to surveillance images obtained by CNN.”

“WikiLeaks informed the Russian hackers that it had received the files and was preparing to release them soon. It’s not clear if these incidents are related, and the contents of the package delivered to the embassy are unknown,” CNN adds.

Nonetheless, hours after the report was published, CNN splashed the headline, “When Russia came knocking for Julian Assange” on their website, with a grainy but lurid frame from a surveillance camera that showed the Masked Man who made a delivery.

This is similar to when CNN went searching for a story about a Russian-funded digital media project called In The Now that produces viral videos aimed at “undermining American democracy.” When reporters could not find information to substantiate their state-identified suspicions, they manufactured a news story that involved giving Facebook a pretext for removing the project’s pages.

Ecuador granted asylum to Assange in August 2012. The Ecuador government concluded Assange was a journalist, who faced the threat of persecution and would not receive a fair trial if was extradited. He also would likely suffer cruel and degrading treatment if he was sentenced to prison.

Since then, U.S. media organizations like CNN have refused to accept that Assange was a journalist targeted by the U.S. government. The ignorance of CNN reporters shows in the report. (Ya think?)

CNN describes how Assange had “a special list of people who were able to enter the embassy without showing identification or being searched by security. He was even granted the power to delete names from the visitor logs.”

“From the outset he demanded (and was granted) high-speed internet connectivity, phone service and regular access to professional visitors and personal guests. This arrangement enabled him to keep WikiLeaks active, the documents said.”

Read the rest of Kevin's essay for more information about this unfuckingbelievable heinous hit job by CNN, Marshall Cohen, Kay Guerrero and Arturo Torres.

Tags:

Free Julian Assange

Vote

Comments

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 1:45am

Caitlin is very upset about this too

New CNN Assange Smear Piece Is Amazingly Dishonest, Even For CNN

CNN has published an unbelievably brazen and dishonest smear piece on Julian Assange, easily the most egregious article of its kind since the notoriously bogus Assange-Manafort report by The Guardian last year. It contains none of the “exclusive” documents which it claims substantiate its smears, relying solely on vague unsubstantiated assertions and easily debunked lies to paint the WikiLeaks founder in a negative light.

And let’s be clear right off the bat, it is most certainly a smear piece. The article, titled “Exclusive: Security reports reveal how Assange turned an embassy into a command post for election meddling”, admits that it exists for the sole purpose of tarnishing Assange’s reputation when it reports, with no evidence whatsoever, that while at the Ecuadorian embassy Assange once “smeared feces on the walls out of anger.” Not “reportedly”. Not “the Ecuadorian government claims.” CNN reported it as a fact, as an event that is known to have happened. This is journalistic malpractice, and it isn’t an accident.

Whenever you see any “news” report citing this claim, you are witnessing a standard smear tactic of the plutocratic media. Whenever you see them citing this claim as a concrete, verified fact, you are witnessing an especially aggressive and deliberate psyop. The Ecuadorian embassy was easily the most-surveilled building in the world during Assange’s stay there, and the Ecuadorian government has leaked photos of Assange’s living quarters to the media in an attempt to paint him as a messy houseguest in need of eviction, so if the “feces on the walls” event had ever transpired you would have seen photos of it, whether you wanted to or not. It never happened.

SCOOP: New documents obtained exclusively by CNN reveal that Assange received in-person deliveries, potentially of hacked materials related to the 2016 election, during a series of suspicious meetings at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. w/ @kguerrerocnn https://t.co/OqC9GBsIKl

— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) July 15, 2019

In its very first sentence the article invalidates all the claims which follow it, because its use of the word “potentially” means that none of the documents CNN purports to have contain any actual evidence. It’s worth noting at this time that there is to this day not one shred of publicly available evidence that any of the Democratic Party emails published by WikiLeaks in 2016 were in fact “hacked” at all, and could very well have been the result of a leak as asserted by former British ambassador Craig Murray, who claims to have inside knowledge on the matter.

The glaring plot holes in the Mueller report’s assertions about Russia being the source of the 2016 WikiLeaks drops have already been ripped wide open by journalist Aaron Maté’s meticulous analysis of the report’s timeline in an article accurately titled “CrowdStrikeOut: Mueller’s Own Report Undercuts Its Core Russia-Meddling Claims“. The CNN smear piece, which claims to “add a new dimension to the Mueller report”, is entirely relying on this porous timeline for its reporting. Plot holes include the fact that Mueller claims (and CNN repeats) that the Russians transferred the emails to WikiLeaks on or around July 14, which Maté notes is “a full month after Assange publicly announced that he had them.”

CNN kicks off its smear piece with the inflammatory claim that “Assange met with Russians and world-class hackers at critical moments”, mentioning both “Russians” and “hackers” in the same breath in an attempt to give the impression that the two are related. It’s not until paragraph 43 and 46, long after most people have stopped reading, that the articles authors bother to inform their readers that the “hackers” in question are German and have no established connection to the Russian government whatsoever. The “Russians” counted among Assange’s scores of visitors consist of RT staff, who have always consistently reported on WikiLeaks, and a “Russian national” about whom almost nothing is known.

Lots and lots of links in Caitlin's essay that I haven't included.

Aaron is not buying this either.

1/ Your article floats at least one conspiracy theory that's already been debunked. You say: "RT even published articles detailing the new batches of emails before WikiLeaks officially released them, suggesting that they were coordinating behind the scenes." pic.twitter.com/7DaeW8t0oW

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) July 15, 2019

Marshall is getting hammered over this, but unfortunately there are many people buying this. I hope Wikileaks and Assange add Marshall to the lawsuit that they have against Luke Harding and the Guardian.

—

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

- Kevin Alfred Strom

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 2:29am

Smear jobs, done dirt cheap

@snoopydawg

Mueller's team noted that it "cannot rule out that stolen documents were transferred to WikiLeaks through intermediaries who visited during the summer of 2016." Assange has said a small group of associates helped him from the outside, but only to sift through the emails.

This one is so egregious that a Federal Court Judge has advised Müller et. al., to refrain from saying Russia meddled in the election because there has been no proof adduced to support this craziness. This applies to the "hacks" of DNC also.

New CNN Assange Smear Piece Is Amazingly Dishonest, Even For CNN CNN has published an unbelievably brazen and dishonest smear piece on Julian Assange, easily the most egregious article of its kind since the notoriously bogus Assange-Manafort report by The Guardian last year. It contains none of the “exclusive” documents which it claims substantiate its smears, relying solely on vague unsubstantiated assertions and easily debunked lies to paint the WikiLeaks founder in a negative light. And let’s be clear right off the bat, it is most certainly a smear piece. The article, titled “Exclusive: Security reports reveal how Assange turned an embassy into a command post for election meddling”, admits that it exists for the sole purpose of tarnishing Assange’s reputation when it reports, with no evidence whatsoever, that while at the Ecuadorian embassy Assange once “smeared feces on the walls out of anger.” Not “reportedly”. Not “the Ecuadorian government claims.” CNN reported it as a fact, as an event that is known to have happened. This is journalistic malpractice, and it isn’t an accident. Whenever you see any “news” report citing this claim, you are witnessing a standard smear tactic of the plutocratic media. Whenever you see them citing this claim as a concrete, verified fact, you are witnessing an especially aggressive and deliberate psyop. The Ecuadorian embassy was easily the most-surveilled building in the world during Assange’s stay there, and the Ecuadorian government has leaked photos of Assange’s living quarters to the media in an attempt to paint him as a messy houseguest in need of eviction, so if the “feces on the walls” event had ever transpired you would have seen photos of it, whether you wanted to or not. It never happened. SCOOP: New documents obtained exclusively by CNN reveal that Assange received in-person deliveries, potentially of hacked materials related to the 2016 election, during a series of suspicious meetings at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. w/ @kguerrerocnn https://t.co/OqC9GBsIKl — Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) July 15, 2019 In its very first sentence the article invalidates all the claims which follow it, because its use of the word “potentially” means that none of the documents CNN purports to have contain any actual evidence. It’s worth noting at this time that there is to this day not one shred of publicly available evidence that any of the Democratic Party emails published by WikiLeaks in 2016 were in fact “hacked” at all, and could very well have been the result of a leak as asserted by former British ambassador Craig Murray, who claims to have inside knowledge on the matter. The glaring plot holes in the Mueller report’s assertions about Russia being the source of the 2016 WikiLeaks drops have already been ripped wide open by journalist Aaron Maté’s meticulous analysis of the report’s timeline in an article accurately titled “CrowdStrikeOut: Mueller’s Own Report Undercuts Its Core Russia-Meddling Claims“. The CNN smear piece, which claims to “add a new dimension to the Mueller report”, is entirely relying on this porous timeline for its reporting. Plot holes include the fact that Mueller claims (and CNN repeats) that the Russians transferred the emails to WikiLeaks on or around July 14, which Maté notes is “a full month after Assange publicly announced that he had them.” CNN kicks off its smear piece with the inflammatory claim that “Assange met with Russians and world-class hackers at critical moments”, mentioning both “Russians” and “hackers” in the same breath in an attempt to give the impression that the two are related. It’s not until paragraph 43 and 46, long after most people have stopped reading, that the articles authors bother to inform their readers that the “hackers” in question are German and have no established connection to the Russian government whatsoever. The “Russians” counted among Assange’s scores of visitors consist of RT staff, who have always consistently reported on WikiLeaks, and a “Russian national” about whom almost nothing is known. Lots and lots of links in Caitlin's essay that I haven't included. Aaron is not buying this either. 1/ Your article floats at least one conspiracy theory that's already been debunked. You say: "RT even published articles detailing the new batches of emails before WikiLeaks officially released them, suggesting that they were coordinating behind the scenes." pic.twitter.com/7DaeW8t0oW — Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) July 15, 2019 Marshall is getting hammered over this, but unfortunately there are many people buying this. I hope Wikileaks and Assange add Marshall to the lawsuit that they have against Luke Harding and the Guardian.

Submitted by Lookout on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 9:05am

CNN=corporate news nitwits

What a bunch of propagandists! Lyin' bastards one and all.

Sadly it is true of all the MSM... from Faux news to MSDNC.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by wendy davis on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 11:03am

cnn:

@Lookout

by anthony freda:

Submitted by dfarrah on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 9:12am

Thanks for this info.

A lot to digest....

—

dfarrah

Submitted by vtcc73 on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 11:28am

CNN has always been about building viewership.

Early in CNN’s life there was a NWA MD80 crash on takeoff in Detroit. The hotels close to the airport always had dozens of crew members staying in them. Bob’s Big Boy was one of only a few places close to eat so it wasn’t unusual for one of my captain friends to be having dinner there.

He was alone in a booth with a CNN producer and news crew behind him. The crash was really bad news and the crew had seriously screwed the pooch. This wasn’t known at the time since the accident had only happened about 24 hours before this story.

I saw the guy the next morning and he was seriously pissed. He said they were complaining about the lack of information and the pressure to keep the story prominent on the TV. They were speculating on causes and clearly making up shit. As usual none of them had a clue about aviation or accident investigations other than can be found in an adventure novel. So they’re making up scenarios and possible explanations to put on the air. Sure enough, the next morning there were a few of them being spewed across the screen with “facts” to support their nonsense. Like I said he was pissed.

That was the last time I watched CNN unless there was absolutely nothing else more fun to do than have my fingernails pulled out. I trust nothing they say.

—

"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Submitted by edg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 12:25pm

Assange's Problem

The crime he's accused of in Sweden is refusing to use a condom during intercourse despite his partner's request. While not technically forcible rape, it's a blatant disregard of another person's boundaries.

Julian's biggest problem is that he's basically an unlikable, unsympathetic person. While many, including me, support the goals of Wikileaks, Assange himself has proved to be a flawed emissary for the organization. That plays right into the hands of governments and their corporate media lackeys like CNN.

Submitted by aliasalias on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 2:07pm

That comment reflects CNN MSDNC etc. smear job talking points

@edg @edg @edg Altho The report by Professor Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture wasn't mentioned on neither of them nor it's European echo chambers.

"...NILS MELZER: No, my role is that of a rapporteur. I have been mandated by the United Nations to report to all U.N. member states about their compliance with the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. So, I examined this case, and I reported my concerns to the involved governments, which is now primarily the U.K. government but also the Ecuadorean, the United States and the Swedish governments, which have each contributed, in my assessment, to the medical effects that we have observed now."

First of all know that Nils Melzer did not want the assignment.

"When I was first approached by his defense team to—seeking protection from my mandate in December last year, I was reluctant to do so, because, me, too, I had been affected by this prejudice that I had absorbed through all these public, you know, narratives spread in the media over the years. And only when I scratched the surface a little bit, I saw how little foundation there was to back this up and how much fabrication and manipulation there is in this case. So I encourage everybody to really look below the surface in this case." (my emphasis)

“In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution, I have never seen a group of democratic states ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonize and abuse a single individual for such a long time.”

"...I must say that I’m appalled at the sustained and concerted abuse that this man has been exposed to at the hands of several democratic states over a period of almost a decade. And I’m gravely concerned about the prospects of a possible extradition to the United States. As I have indicated this morning in Geneva, I worry that he would be exposed to a politicized show trial in violation of his human rights.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about your role as U.N. special rapporteur on torture.."

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/31/seg_1_julian_assange_please_update

The whole transcript needs to be read if one wants to dare question the official narrative and along with them faux progressive talk show mouthpieces that even repeat the claim Julian Assange "spread feces on the walls of the embassy".
It doesn't get questioned about how that happens in the most tightly surveilled place on earth where every inch (including the restroom)is being watched and recorded yet there are no pictures of it happening.

Nils Melzer's article worth is well worth reading if you want to know more than what mainstream, and many so-called 'progressive' sites echo.

But before I post a piece from it I want to say that this upcoming trial is more important than anything before it about freedom of the press, of speech and the right for people to know what their ruling classes do not want them to know, and it ain't about 'national security'. So it is much bigger than Julian Assange himself.

Dismantling the Swedish ‘Rape’-Narrative against Julian Assange

"But surely, I found myself pleading, Assange must be a selfish narcissist, skateboarding through the Ecuadorian Embassy and smearing feces on the walls? Well, all I heard from Embassy staff is that the inevitable inconveniences of his accommodation at their offices were handled with mutual respect and consideration. This changed only after the election of President Moreno, when they were suddenly instructed to find smears against Assange and, when they didn’t, they were soon replaced. The President even took it upon himself to bless the world with his gossip, and to personally strip Assange of his asylum and citizenship without any due process of law.

In the end, it finally dawned on me I had been blinded by propaganda, and Assange systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed.

Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide. And thus, a legal precedent is being set, through the backdoor of our own complacency, which in the future can and will be applied just as well to disclosures by The Guardian, the New York Times and ABC News..." (bold is original)

"Fourth, according to their own accounts, neither AA nor SW ever alleged to have been raped, and neither of them intended to report a crime. Rather, evidence shows that AA took SW to a police station, so SW could enquire whether she could force Assange to take an HIV-test. There, they were questioned together by an investigating officer who knew AA personally and ran on the same political party ticket as AA in the general elections three weeks later. When superior investigators insisted on registering SW’s enquiry as a report of “rape” and to immediately issue an arrest warrant against Assange, SW reportedly refused to sign her statement and became so emotionally distraught that the questioning had to be suspended. While at the police station, SW even texted that she “did not want to put any charges on Julian Assange” but that “the police were keen on getting their hands on him” (14:26); and that she was “chocked (sic shocked) when they arrested him” because she “only wanted him to take a test” (17:06). Once Chief Prosecutor Finné had intervened and closed the case, it reportedly was again the police (not SW) who “revised” her statement lodged in the police system to better fit the crime of “rape” before it was resubmitted by a third Social Democrat politician to a different prosecutor who was prepared to re-open the case."
(emphasis mine)

https://medium.com/@njmelzer/response-to-open-letter-of-1-july-2019-7222...

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 2:17pm

Thank you so much for posting the Nils Melzer UN report

@aliasalias

The sexual assault accusations of Assange was a total hit job and was concocted by people with ties to the CIA.

I will have more to say about this later, but the main point of it was that there had been a huge propaganda campaign against Julian to make him look bad to as many people as possible. Calling him a rapist would certainly do it. Sweden has a law about naming both victim and the person accused and yet for years all of the names have been swinging in public. The other thing that people heard that he mistreated his cat and flung feces on the wall. This is a definite case for defamation of character if I ever saw one.

#5 #5 #5 Altho The report by Professor Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture wasn't mentioned on neither of them nor it's European echo chambers.

"...NILS MELZER: No, my role is that of a rapporteur. I have been mandated by the United Nations to report to all U.N. member states about their compliance with the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. So, I examined this case, and I reported my concerns to the involved governments, which is now primarily the U.K. government but also the Ecuadorean, the United States and the Swedish governments, which have each contributed, in my assessment, to the medical effects that we have observed now."

First of all know that Nils Melzer did not want the assignment.

"When I was first approached by his defense team to—seeking protection from my mandate in December last year, I was reluctant to do so, because, me, too, I had been affected by this prejudice that I had absorbed through all these public, you know, narratives spread in the media over the years. And only when I scratched the surface a little bit, I saw how little foundation there was to back this up and how much fabrication and manipulation there is in this case. So I encourage everybody to really look below the surface in this case." (my emphasis)

“In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution, I have never seen a group of democratic states ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonize and abuse a single individual for such a long time.”

"...I must say that I’m appalled at the sustained and concerted abuse that this man has been exposed to at the hands of several democratic states over a period of almost a decade. And I’m gravely concerned about the prospects of a possible extradition to the United States. As I have indicated this morning in Geneva, I worry that he would be exposed to a politicized show trial in violation of his human rights.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about your role as U.N. special rapporteur on torture.."

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/31/seg_1_julian_assange_please_update

The whole transcript needs to be read if one wants to dare question the official narrative and along with them faux progressive talk show mouthpieces that even repeat the claim Julian Assange "spread feces on the walls of the embassy".
It doesn't get questioned about how that happens in the most tightly surveilled place on earth where every inch (including the restroom)is being watched and recorded yet there are no pictures of it happening.

Nils Melzer's article worth is well worth reading if you want to know more than what mainstream, and many so-called 'progressive' sites echo.

But before I post a piece from it I want to say that this upcoming trial is more important than anything before it about freedom of the press, of speech and the right for people to know what their ruling classes do not want them to know, and it ain't about 'national security'. So it is much bigger than Julian Assange himself.

Dismantling the Swedish ‘Rape’-Narrative against Julian Assange

"But surely, I found myself pleading, Assange must be a selfish narcissist, skateboarding through the Ecuadorian Embassy and smearing feces on the walls? Well, all I heard from Embassy staff is that the inevitable inconveniences of his accommodation at their offices were handled with mutual respect and consideration. This changed only after the election of President Moreno, when they were suddenly instructed to find smears against Assange and, when they didn’t, they were soon replaced. The President even took it upon himself to bless the world with his gossip, and to personally strip Assange of his asylum and citizenship without any due process of law.

In the end, it finally dawned on me I had been blinded by propaganda, and Assange systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed.

Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide. And thus, a legal precedent is being set, through the backdoor of our own complacency, which in the future can and will be applied just as well to disclosures by The Guardian, the New York Times and ABC News..." (bold is original)

"Fourth, according to their own accounts, neither AA nor SW ever alleged to have been raped, and neither of them intended to report a crime. Rather, evidence shows that AA took SW to a police station, so SW could enquire whether she could force Assange to take an HIV-test. There, they were questioned together by an investigating officer who knew AA personally and ran on the same political party ticket as AA in the general elections three weeks later. When superior investigators insisted on registering SW’s enquiry as a report of “rape” and to immediately issue an arrest warrant against Assange, SW reportedly refused to sign her statement and became so emotionally distraught that the questioning had to be suspended. While at the police station, SW even texted that she “did not want to put any charges on Julian Assange” but that “the police were keen on getting their hands on him” (14:26); and that she was “chocked (sic shocked) when they arrested him” because she “only wanted him to take a test” (17:06). Once Chief Prosecutor Finné had intervened and closed the case, it reportedly was again the police (not SW) who “revised” her statement lodged in the police system to better fit the crime of “rape” before it was resubmitted by a third Social Democrat politician to a different prosecutor who was prepared to re-open the case."
(emphasis mine)

https://medium.com/@njmelzer/response-to-open-letter-of-1-july-2019-7222...

—

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

- Kevin Alfred Strom

Submitted by edg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 4:15pm

Really?

@snoopydawg

"evidence shows that AA took SW to a police station, so SW could enquire whether she could force Assange to take an HIV-test"

This shows that the claim of him refusing to wear a condom is true. Otherwise, why the fuck would she go to the police to try to force an HIV test? Why are you denying facts?

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 5:08pm

I'm wondering how informed you are about this?

@edg

Do you know that the women invited Julian to stay with them and after they alleged that he raped them they continued partying with him?

This is a he said she said issue, but the point is that no charges were ever brought against him. One of the women brought a used condom to the police and said that Julian intentionally broke it. However none of his DNA was found on it.

This shows that the claim of him refusing to wear a condom is true.

No it doesn't. The woman who asked if he could be compelled to have an HIV test admitted that she had unprotected sex with him. This is why she wanted the test done.

He stayed in Sweden for 6 weeks after the accusations were made and then he was told that he could leave the country. The prosecutors twice closed their case and twice they reopened it because Britain told them to

How much of the UN report did you read? All of it or did you just see something that backed up what you already think you know about the case?

I'm not denying facts. I'm wondering how many of them you know? As I stated above rape cases in Sweden are done without ever mentioning people's names.

edited

—

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

- Kevin Alfred Strom

Submitted by edg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 8:52pm

Okay.

@snoopydawg

No means no unless it's someone you idolize. Gotcha.

Also, see my response to On The Cusp's comment down below.

Submitted by on the cusp on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 8:45pm

Please read my comment below.

@edg Looking at this from a purely evidentiary/legal stance, any woman in that country who has sex with a guy in that country, any guy, who tells her ahead of time he will not wear a condom, loses the right to complain lack of condom is a crime when she consents to having sex. She had sex anyway.
I think you use Assange specifically, whereas, the prosecutors and police used the statutes, applied them correctly.

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by edg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 8:51pm

Please read my response to your comment.

@on the cusp

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 9:02pm

Does this mean that you didn't read it?

@edg

Assange tried to have unprotected sex with her, she said, but she asked him to use a condom. He agreed, but, she said, he had “done something” to the condom so that it ripped before he ejaculated.

Or my comment about this? She took that 'ripped' condom into the police and they tested it and found none of Julian's DNA on it. Therefore it wasn't the condom that he supposedly used. The first woman had connections to the CIA. Again. Assange has never been charged!
So if there is all that evidence against him then why wasn't he? Why did Sweden tell him he could leave the country?

How childish to say that I'm dismissing the evidence against Julian because I idolize him. If you're not going to bother reading the information provided then I'm not going to waste my time responding to you. You apparently have made up your mind on Assange and will not even consider what you have read is false.

Vox may have been created by kos, but he sold it. And many reputable websites have been bought off and are just mouthpieces for the government. Any site that reports on Russia Gate without saying that it's pure propaganda has sold out in my book.

BTW. Anything to say about the CNN article and it's hit job on Assange?

—

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

- Kevin Alfred Strom

Submitted by edg on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 12:35pm

CNN is garbage.

@snoopydawg

'Nuf said about them.

Submitted by edg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 4:19pm

What the hell?

@aliasalias

What does that long diatribe have to do with my comment?

From the material you quoted: "evidence shows that AA took SW to a police station, so SW could enquire whether she could force Assange to take an HIV-test"

This proves that the claim of him refusing to wear a condom is true. Otherwise, why the heel would she go to the police to try to force an HIV test?

Why are you refuting facts?

I made no claim about whether Swedish law is right or wrong to classify refusal to wear a condom as rape. So what the hell is your problem and why did you post that junk?

If you have something cogent and to the point, feel free to post it. Otherwise, you're just making yourself look foolish.

#5 #5 #5 Altho The report by Professor Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture wasn't mentioned on neither of them nor it's European echo chambers.

"...NILS MELZER: No, my role is that of a rapporteur. I have been mandated by the United Nations to report to all U.N. member states about their compliance with the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. So, I examined this case, and I reported my concerns to the involved governments, which is now primarily the U.K. government but also the Ecuadorean, the United States and the Swedish governments, which have each contributed, in my assessment, to the medical effects that we have observed now."

First of all know that Nils Melzer did not want the assignment.

"When I was first approached by his defense team to—seeking protection from my mandate in December last year, I was reluctant to do so, because, me, too, I had been affected by this prejudice that I had absorbed through all these public, you know, narratives spread in the media over the years. And only when I scratched the surface a little bit, I saw how little foundation there was to back this up and how much fabrication and manipulation there is in this case. So I encourage everybody to really look below the surface in this case." (my emphasis)

“In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution, I have never seen a group of democratic states ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonize and abuse a single individual for such a long time.”

"...I must say that I’m appalled at the sustained and concerted abuse that this man has been exposed to at the hands of several democratic states over a period of almost a decade. And I’m gravely concerned about the prospects of a possible extradition to the United States. As I have indicated this morning in Geneva, I worry that he would be exposed to a politicized show trial in violation of his human rights.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about your role as U.N. special rapporteur on torture.."

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/31/seg_1_julian_assange_please_update

The whole transcript needs to be read if one wants to dare question the official narrative and along with them faux progressive talk show mouthpieces that even repeat the claim Julian Assange "spread feces on the walls of the embassy".
It doesn't get questioned about how that happens in the most tightly surveilled place on earth where every inch (including the restroom)is being watched and recorded yet there are no pictures of it happening.

Nils Melzer's article worth is well worth reading if you want to know more than what mainstream, and many so-called 'progressive' sites echo.

But before I post a piece from it I want to say that this upcoming trial is more important than anything before it about freedom of the press, of speech and the right for people to know what their ruling classes do not want them to know, and it ain't about 'national security'. So it is much bigger than Julian Assange himself.

Dismantling the Swedish ‘Rape’-Narrative against Julian Assange

"But surely, I found myself pleading, Assange must be a selfish narcissist, skateboarding through the Ecuadorian Embassy and smearing feces on the walls? Well, all I heard from Embassy staff is that the inevitable inconveniences of his accommodation at their offices were handled with mutual respect and consideration. This changed only after the election of President Moreno, when they were suddenly instructed to find smears against Assange and, when they didn’t, they were soon replaced. The President even took it upon himself to bless the world with his gossip, and to personally strip Assange of his asylum and citizenship without any due process of law.

In the end, it finally dawned on me I had been blinded by propaganda, and Assange systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed.

Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide. And thus, a legal precedent is being set, through the backdoor of our own complacency, which in the future can and will be applied just as well to disclosures by The Guardian, the New York Times and ABC News..." (bold is original)

"Fourth, according to their own accounts, neither AA nor SW ever alleged to have been raped, and neither of them intended to report a crime. Rather, evidence shows that AA took SW to a police station, so SW could enquire whether she could force Assange to take an HIV-test. There, they were questioned together by an investigating officer who knew AA personally and ran on the same political party ticket as AA in the general elections three weeks later. When superior investigators insisted on registering SW’s enquiry as a report of “rape” and to immediately issue an arrest warrant against Assange, SW reportedly refused to sign her statement and became so emotionally distraught that the questioning had to be suspended. While at the police station, SW even texted that she “did not want to put any charges on Julian Assange” but that “the police were keen on getting their hands on him” (14:26); and that she was “chocked (sic shocked) when they arrested him” because she “only wanted him to take a test” (17:06). Once Chief Prosecutor Finné had intervened and closed the case, it reportedly was again the police (not SW) who “revised” her statement lodged in the police system to better fit the crime of “rape” before it was resubmitted by a third Social Democrat politician to a different prosecutor who was prepared to re-open the case."
(emphasis mine)

https://medium.com/@njmelzer/response-to-open-letter-of-1-july-2019-7222...

Submitted by on the cusp on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 6:11pm

Edg, I just realized a point needs to be made.

@edg I just realized the importance of the sequence of events.
The police heard SW say she wanted him to be tested.
The reason they did not find evidence of a crime, and why she didn't desire to file charges, is because she had sex with him anyway, by consent, KNOWING he would not use a condom.
If she were all that worried, she could have said no to sex, and nothing was stopping her from getting tested for the disease after she had sex.

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by edg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 8:53pm

I don't think your point has merit.

@on the cusp

Here's what the 2 women (not just one, but two) said as reported by Anna North on Vox:

Two women made accusations against Julian Assange

The sex crime allegations against Assange stem from a visit he made to Stockholm in August 2010, a few months after WikiLeaks gained international notoriety by publishing material leaked by then-Army private and whistleblower Chelsea Manning about the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Assange was visiting Sweden to meet with a political group there; according to police documents viewed by the Guardian, Ardin said she set up his visit and hosted him in her apartment.

At her apartment, Ardin said he began stroking her leg, then removing her clothes, breaking her necklace in the process. She said she tried to put her clothes back on but he took them off again. She told police she then allowed Assange to undress her, because “it was too late to stop Assange as she had gone along with it so far.”

Assange tried to have unprotected sex with her, she said, but she asked him to use a condom. He agreed, but, she said, he had “done something” to the condom so that it ripped before he ejaculated.

Assange told police that he had sex with Ardin but did not tear the condom, according to the Guardian.

In the days that followed, Ardin told a friend that she was still allowing Assange to stay with her, but they were not having sex because he had “exceeded the limits of what she felt she could accept,” the friend told police.

Miss W met Assange at a seminar organized by Ardin, she told police. They later met up and went to her apartment, where they started to have sex. But Assange did not want to use a condom, Miss W said, so they stopped and eventually fell asleep. Later that night, she said, they woke up and had consensual sex, during which he “unwillingly” used a condom. But in the morning, Miss W said, she woke up to find Assange penetrating her without a condom.

Source: The rape allegation against Julian Assange, explained -- Vox, May 13, 2019

In case anyone thinks Vox is some rightwing rag: "Vox was launched at Vox Media in 2014 by founders Ezra Klein, Melissa Bell, and Matthew Yglesias."

And in case anyone thinks "the lying bitches set him up", seek help.

Submitted by on the cusp on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 8:55pm

Wow, Edg.

@edg I represent sex offense victims, people accused of committing sex offenses, and I keep a professional distance about hero worship and so forth.
It is always about evidence and statutes.
Wow.

#5.1.2.1

Here's what the 2 women (not just one, but two) said as reported by Anna North on Vox:

Two women made accusations against Julian Assange

The sex crime allegations against Assange stem from a visit he made to Stockholm in August 2010, a few months after WikiLeaks gained international notoriety by publishing material leaked by then-Army private and whistleblower Chelsea Manning about the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Assange was visiting Sweden to meet with a political group there; according to police documents viewed by the Guardian, Ardin said she set up his visit and hosted him in her apartment.

At her apartment, Ardin said he began stroking her leg, then removing her clothes, breaking her necklace in the process. She said she tried to put her clothes back on but he took them off again. She told police she then allowed Assange to undress her, because “it was too late to stop Assange as she had gone along with it so far.”

Assange tried to have unprotected sex with her, she said, but she asked him to use a condom. He agreed, but, she said, he had “done something” to the condom so that it ripped before he ejaculated.

Assange told police that he had sex with Ardin but did not tear the condom, according to the Guardian.

In the days that followed, Ardin told a friend that she was still allowing Assange to stay with her, but they were not having sex because he had “exceeded the limits of what she felt she could accept,” the friend told police.

Miss W met Assange at a seminar organized by Ardin, she told police. They later met up and went to her apartment, where they started to have sex. But Assange did not want to use a condom, Miss W said, so they stopped and eventually fell asleep. Later that night, she said, they woke up and had consensual sex, during which he “unwillingly” used a condom. But in the morning, Miss W said, she woke up to find Assange penetrating her without a condom.

Source: The rape allegation against Julian Assange, explained -- Vox, May 13, 2019

In case anyone thinks Vox is some rightwing rag: "Vox was launched at Vox Media in 2014 by founders Ezra Klein, Melissa Bell, and Matthew Yglesias."

And in case anyone thinks "the lying bitches set him up", seek help.

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by edg on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 1:29pm

Wow, on the cusp.

@on the cusp

The two women sound like lying losers who just wanted to frame poor Julian, right? I think you're taking your role as an advocate a bit too far. I'll bet you think that Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump are all just innocent lambs falsely accused by scheming harpies with hidden agendas.

Submitted by lotlizard on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 9:04pm

Ah, but who is Vox Media?

@edg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_Media

Vox Media, Inc. is an American digital media company based in Washington, D.C. and New York City.[2] The company was founded in July 2005 as SportsBlogs Inc. by Jerome Armstrong, Tyler Bleszinski, and Markos Moulitsas, and was rebranded as Vox Media in 2011.

That name, it seems to ring a bell . . .

#5.1.2.1

Here's what the 2 women (not just one, but two) said as reported by Anna North on Vox:

Two women made accusations against Julian Assange

The sex crime allegations against Assange stem from a visit he made to Stockholm in August 2010, a few months after WikiLeaks gained international notoriety by publishing material leaked by then-Army private and whistleblower Chelsea Manning about the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Assange was visiting Sweden to meet with a political group there; according to police documents viewed by the Guardian, Ardin said she set up his visit and hosted him in her apartment.

At her apartment, Ardin said he began stroking her leg, then removing her clothes, breaking her necklace in the process. She said she tried to put her clothes back on but he took them off again. She told police she then allowed Assange to undress her, because “it was too late to stop Assange as she had gone along with it so far.”

Assange tried to have unprotected sex with her, she said, but she asked him to use a condom. He agreed, but, she said, he had “done something” to the condom so that it ripped before he ejaculated.

Assange told police that he had sex with Ardin but did not tear the condom, according to the Guardian.

In the days that followed, Ardin told a friend that she was still allowing Assange to stay with her, but they were not having sex because he had “exceeded the limits of what she felt she could accept,” the friend told police.

Miss W met Assange at a seminar organized by Ardin, she told police. They later met up and went to her apartment, where they started to have sex. But Assange did not want to use a condom, Miss W said, so they stopped and eventually fell asleep. Later that night, she said, they woke up and had consensual sex, during which he “unwillingly” used a condom. But in the morning, Miss W said, she woke up to find Assange penetrating her without a condom.

Source: The rape allegation against Julian Assange, explained -- Vox, May 13, 2019

In case anyone thinks Vox is some rightwing rag: "Vox was launched at Vox Media in 2014 by founders Ezra Klein, Melissa Bell, and Matthew Yglesias."

And in case anyone thinks "the lying bitches set him up", seek help.

Submitted by edg on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 12:42pm

Who is Vox media?

@lotlizard

"Vox is an American news and opinion website owned by Vox Media. The website was founded in April 2014 by Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias and Melissa Bell, and is noted for its concept of explanatory journalism."

Yeah, I'm sure Markos has total editorial control of Vox despite only being connected with the founding of Vox Media through his sports blog 15 years ago and leaving Vox Media a decade before Ezra and Matt created the Vox site.

Submitted by wendy davis on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 11:57am

i thank you as well.

@aliasalias

when i'd posted it as a stand-alone diary it got very few comments, and those mainly on the deaths of bruce dixon (BAR editor) and antiwar justin raimondo. the more who read it, the better.

this is good to hear, though: National strike against Ecuadorian government demands Assange’s freedom, Andrea Lobo, 17 July 2019; The protests in defense of Assange and the recent five-day strike in Ecuador demonstrate that the only social basis for his liberation and the defense democratic rights is the international working class.

"Workers, peasants and youth in Ecuador began a five-day strike Monday against the draconian policies of the Lenín Moreno administration, which is seeking to strengthen its ties to Washington and its military-intelligence apparatus.

The strike constitutes the first major industrial action in the world demanding the freedom of Julian Assange. The demand is presented in the framework of growing opposition to the attacks against social and democratic rights associated with the Moreno administration’s totally servile policy toward US imperialism.

While the corporate media outlets and the organizers themselves have sought to bury the issue during the strike itself, one of the few specific issues that the official call for the strike protests is the “rendition of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, to the United States, placing his life in danger.”

a nice accompanying photo, as well.

#5 #5 #5 Altho The report by Professor Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture wasn't mentioned on neither of them nor it's European echo chambers.

"...NILS MELZER: No, my role is that of a rapporteur. I have been mandated by the United Nations to report to all U.N. member states about their compliance with the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. So, I examined this case, and I reported my concerns to the involved governments, which is now primarily the U.K. government but also the Ecuadorean, the United States and the Swedish governments, which have each contributed, in my assessment, to the medical effects that we have observed now."

First of all know that Nils Melzer did not want the assignment.

"When I was first approached by his defense team to—seeking protection from my mandate in December last year, I was reluctant to do so, because, me, too, I had been affected by this prejudice that I had absorbed through all these public, you know, narratives spread in the media over the years. And only when I scratched the surface a little bit, I saw how little foundation there was to back this up and how much fabrication and manipulation there is in this case. So I encourage everybody to really look below the surface in this case." (my emphasis)

“In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution, I have never seen a group of democratic states ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonize and abuse a single individual for such a long time.”

"...I must say that I’m appalled at the sustained and concerted abuse that this man has been exposed to at the hands of several democratic states over a period of almost a decade. And I’m gravely concerned about the prospects of a possible extradition to the United States. As I have indicated this morning in Geneva, I worry that he would be exposed to a politicized show trial in violation of his human rights.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about your role as U.N. special rapporteur on torture.."

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/31/seg_1_julian_assange_please_update

The whole transcript needs to be read if one wants to dare question the official narrative and along with them faux progressive talk show mouthpieces that even repeat the claim Julian Assange "spread feces on the walls of the embassy".
It doesn't get questioned about how that happens in the most tightly surveilled place on earth where every inch (including the restroom)is being watched and recorded yet there are no pictures of it happening.

Nils Melzer's article worth is well worth reading if you want to know more than what mainstream, and many so-called 'progressive' sites echo.

But before I post a piece from it I want to say that this upcoming trial is more important than anything before it about freedom of the press, of speech and the right for people to know what their ruling classes do not want them to know, and it ain't about 'national security'. So it is much bigger than Julian Assange himself.

Dismantling the Swedish ‘Rape’-Narrative against Julian Assange

"But surely, I found myself pleading, Assange must be a selfish narcissist, skateboarding through the Ecuadorian Embassy and smearing feces on the walls? Well, all I heard from Embassy staff is that the inevitable inconveniences of his accommodation at their offices were handled with mutual respect and consideration. This changed only after the election of President Moreno, when they were suddenly instructed to find smears against Assange and, when they didn’t, they were soon replaced. The President even took it upon himself to bless the world with his gossip, and to personally strip Assange of his asylum and citizenship without any due process of law.

In the end, it finally dawned on me I had been blinded by propaganda, and Assange systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed.

Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide. And thus, a legal precedent is being set, through the backdoor of our own complacency, which in the future can and will be applied just as well to disclosures by The Guardian, the New York Times and ABC News..." (bold is original)

"Fourth, according to their own accounts, neither AA nor SW ever alleged to have been raped, and neither of them intended to report a crime. Rather, evidence shows that AA took SW to a police station, so SW could enquire whether she could force Assange to take an HIV-test. There, they were questioned together by an investigating officer who knew AA personally and ran on the same political party ticket as AA in the general elections three weeks later. When superior investigators insisted on registering SW’s enquiry as a report of “rape” and to immediately issue an arrest warrant against Assange, SW reportedly refused to sign her statement and became so emotionally distraught that the questioning had to be suspended. While at the police station, SW even texted that she “did not want to put any charges on Julian Assange” but that “the police were keen on getting their hands on him” (14:26); and that she was “chocked (sic shocked) when they arrested him” because she “only wanted him to take a test” (17:06). Once Chief Prosecutor Finné had intervened and closed the case, it reportedly was again the police (not SW) who “revised” her statement lodged in the police system to better fit the crime of “rape” before it was resubmitted by a third Social Democrat politician to a different prosecutor who was prepared to re-open the case."
(emphasis mine)

https://medium.com/@njmelzer/response-to-open-letter-of-1-july-2019-7222...

Submitted by TheOtherMaven on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 3:30pm

Ha. What Assange did wrong was walk into a honey trap

@edg

with his eyes wide shut.

He KNEW that TPTB were out to get him, he KNEW "they" often use sex for entrapment, and he dropped his guard (and his pants) anyway.

Once he was in the trap, it didn't matter what he did or didn't do, or when or how or with whom, it was all going to be massively publicized with the worst possible interpretations and insinuations.

It should have been obvious, even to him, right from the very beginning. But he thought with the wrong head, and that was his undoing.

—

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 2:36pm

How can people be this dense?

It would seem to me that J Assange would be the first person D Trump would pardon. He (J A) doesn’t have to be a citizen for D T to absolve him, does he?

And the follow up reply.

I’d the say immediate goal is to stop his extradition bc of what would come out. Those actors on his behalf are all over the internet. However, this report gives the general public their first taste, and I don’t know about you all, but I’m thirsty for more, not less.

Good lord, who do they think is trying to extradite Assange here? Why it'd be Trump who is doing this. But when you have blinders on because of who you do and don't support facts don't matter. Do they?

Some sanity;

You’re nailing your own coffins shut. This prosecution serves two purposes for the Blob: go after a man who helped expose American misdeeds around the world, especially in Iraq thanks to Chelsea Manning; and lay the groundwork to prosecute anyone in the press who reveals “classified” information. The goal is to shut off the public’s access to what its government is doing completely.

The U. S. bought the Ecuadorians with some aid and a loan. Now they make shit up. They made up a meeting between Assange and Manafort that never took place.

Assange is not a perfect human being, but you don’t have to be perfect to be on the right side of history and accomplish a lot of good. His efforts to expose wrongdoing around the world has advanced the cause of transparency, and elites worldwide hate him for it.

So if you love an oligarchy that has nothing but contempt for their fellow citizens, an oligarchy that wants to rule the world with no input from citizens, then cheer our government’s persecution of Assange.

More insanity

I see you chose to ignore the report and insert propaganda. Please stick to the contents of the report, and this diary. Refute it with facts, but please keep propaganda out of this. Thank you.

More sanity

What about the facts in the Salon article about the Ecuadorians making up an impossible meeting with Manafort? Care to address that or are you going to limit your discussion to true believers in your propaganda?

It really saddens me to see how what was once a site driven by antiwar sentiment has become a fan club for the CIA, FBI, NSA and all the other agencies that are destroying the Bill of Rights.

I'm going to have to a special wash of my scuba gear.... but I visit the site to see how far people have swallowed the government and dnc propaganda and what happens when people try to hit back with facts and reality. Not one diary has been written on the judge tell Mueller he cannot make accusations that the Russian government was involved with the IRA charges.

While I was encouraged by his support in Chelsea Manning’s exposure of atrocities, Assange took an active role in subverting an election. He threw away any credibility by becoming a partisan for the Republican Party. His antics at the embassy show him to be simply a pathetic ass.

Aw yes his antics at the embassy. Now what would those antics have been? Smearing feces on the wall? Not showering? What?

This is why we are hit with so much propaganda. It works because people can't bother to look for all the facts to see if what we are being told is the truth or not.

—

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

- Kevin Alfred Strom

Submitted by wendy davis on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 11:06am

one subtweet:

As usual - this #FakeNews report comes with a misleading timeline: It starts on June 14 - omitting Assanges announcement of pending leak on June 12. pic.twitter.com/IKCkf6vX9I

— Cassandra T. Alhambra #ProtectJulian #FreeAssange (@ct_alham) July 16, 2019

and of course one purpose of this smear is 'impeach trump the illegitimate president'. the queen of russiagate has a better story, though.

On CNN’s WikiLeaks Exclusive: Remember the Other Document Dumps, July 15, 2019

you'd likely seen that 'Lady' judge arbuthnot will not recuse herself as the presiding judge at julian's feb. (?) kangaroo court 'trial'.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 6:33pm

I said at the beginning of the Mueller investigation

@wendy davis

that if he came back and found Trump guilty of anything he would have made it up. And lo and behold he did.

Looks like Russia Gate is coming back into the news for some nefarious reasons. Just out of the blue we get the Isakoff article that was total propaganda. This was just after the judge ruled against half of his case blaming Russia for Hillary's loss. The PTB are not going to let the truth stand because they want people's permission to extradite Assange and try him under the espionage act where of course he won't get a fair trial. And the media has been non existent on Chelsea being locked up for contempt.

Madcow has staked her self on Russia Gate and she can't afford to let people know that she snookered them. F'ck her.

ETA

Of course emptyhead would have to write about this. Not sure why she included the other files or what it adds to the story, but then I just skimmed it. But your BFF bmaz is still riding herd over there. He told someone off because they (he) has been there forevah!

And why does she still have that disclaimer up? Just so people know that if they divulge something juicy she'll turn them in to the FBI?

—

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

- Kevin Alfred Strom

Submitted by wendy davis on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 11:30am

you were right as rain,

@snoopydawg

not to mention that it boggles my mind that both you and pluto have such memory for the details, and have followed the case like actual detectives. i hadn't even seen the isakoff hit piece.

marcy? ach, i've kinda forgotten already, but she'd added other agitprop timelines that in her mind...made even more of a case for cnn rubbish (ive read too many other things including the original disinformtion room guilt by innuendo 'exclusive'. but bmaz smacked around vergan mark for bringing the seth rich/bukowsky/ellen ratner lawsuit, whatever it is. i'm just not quite buyin' that myself, nor do i buy black black-hat PI rod wheeler's rubbish; iirc it was mike whitney at CP who'd cause me to follow an invisible rabbit down a long hole that ended up...nowhere.

as for her FBI disclaimer, i reckon it's cuz her commentariat gave her buckets of money so she could hire lawyers to save herself from bad russians, or whoever she'd hinted had threatened her...or something. maybe repeating in on every post causes more $$$ to pour into her coffeers.
but bmaz goes crazy on that story

but here's ‘CNN peddles intelligence agencies’ lies against Assange’, Oscar Grenfell 17 July 2019, wsws.org (a few oottakes)

“The extensive surveillance of Assange in the embassy was being investigated as a potential breach of international law by the UN Special Rapporteur on Privacy, shortly before he was illegally dragged out of the building by British police on April 11.

It is not clear whether UC Global’s briefings are being passed around solely by Western intelligence agencies, in a bid to discredit Assange, or by individuals seeking to cash in on the material. Similar files compiled by an Ecuadorian firm which replaced UC Global at the embassy in 2017 were used by Spanish criminals earlier this year in an attempt to extort millions of euros from WikiLeaks.

It makes much of the fact that German computer expert Andrew Müller-Maguhn visited Assange twelve times in 2016.

The broadcast cites the Mueller report as stating that he “may have assisted with the transfer of these stolen documents to WikiLeaks.” As CNN is compelled to note, however, the reference to Müller-Maguhn in the Mueller report was in the context of its highly conditional and unconvincing statement that it “cannot rule out that stolen documents were transferred to WikiLeaks through intermediaries who visited during the summer of 2016.”

Mueller never questioned Müller-Maguhn, Assange, or any of his associates, including former British diplomat Craig Murray, who have categorically stated that Russia was not the source of the 2016 leaks.

The CNN report is far from the first hit-piece against Assange by the network, which has a documented history of working with the CIA. CNN reporters have previously told their audience that it is “illegal” to read WikiLeaks files. The network also allowed a CIA official to claim, on air, that Assange was a pedophile, without contradicting his wholly made-up and defamatory assertion.

as to Müller-Maguhn, the cnn piece had also said that when contacted, he'd denied ever having 'the hacked materials'. riiiiiight. but marcy w. still maintains that claim, no matter what the VIPS have demonstrated again and again.

i suppose what's bothered me the most that noone has mentioned (at least that i've seen) is the alleged screenshot of the 'wikileaks team' spiriting out of the embassy all those har discs, and tons of other tech gear. what was shown looked like paintings wrapped in cloth or something. "but their hands were tied! they weren't allowed to examine the hard drives!" yeah, right.

and what we'd learned earlier was that when metro po-po had dragged julian out of the embassy, no one was allowed to retreive any of his belongings.

Submitted by lotlizard on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 9:11pm

Twitter has wiped clean all of Julian’s tweets for five years

Twitter has wiped clean all of Julian’s tweets for five years. The most recent tweets are from 2013. Let that sink in.

h/t The Automatic Earth