"L'affaire Assange" has nothing to do with rape or diplomatic cables.

[GliderGuider]

It's all about Assange's threat to expose BoA. That's when the shit hit the fan.

Let's look at the time line...

Wikileaks was launched in 2006. Little happened to the organization or Assange for the next 4 years, despite releasing vast volumes (2 million or more) of embarrassing diplomatic traffic.

Then in early 2010 Assange revealed that Wikileaks had a bank executive's hard drive, at first suspected then later pretty well confirmed to be from BoA.

And my, how things changed...

Aug 2010: The first arrest warrant for Assange is issued in Sweden, but dropped a day later - then reinstated a week and a half after that.
Oct 2010: Daniel Domscheit-Berg defects from Wikileaks and subsequently deletes the BoA files he stole from the Wikileaks server.
Dec 2010: Second Swedish arrest warrant issued for Assange;
Dec 2010: Wikileaks web site is shut down, and its financial conduits are closed.
Feb 2011: Anonymous hacks HBGary's servers. The resulting email dump reveals that BoA had hired HBGary to take down Wikileaks by any means available.

And we all know what's happened since then.

All this fuss and drama about war crimes and rape, when all along it was about the money.

That's the way the system works - throw up a smokescreen and have a bunch of willing dupes (paid disinformants? useful idiots? naive? single-issue people who are invested in rape or security issues? Probably a combination of all of them) ready to blow the smoke around, to obscure the actual movement of the troops.

It's not about rape.
It's not about war crimes.
It's not about diplomatic embarrassment.

It's about money.
It's always about money.

[struggle4progress]

1. Sweden took out the European warrant on 20 November 2010:

Timeline: sexual allegations against Assange in Sweden
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11949341

And here's some of the BoA timeline

December 2010:
... On Tuesday, the Times of London published the first newspaper interview with WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange since his release from Wandsworth prison in London. In it, Assange elaborates slightly on the planned release in 2011 of a trove of documents from a major U.S. bank, which I first reported last month. “We don’t want the bank to suffer unless it’s called for,” Assange told the Times‘ Alexi Mostrous. “But if its management is operating in a responsive way there will be resignations” ...
12/22/2010 @ 7:15AM
No, WikiLeaks Has Not 'Confirmed' It Will Target Bank Of America
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2010/12/22/no-wikileaks-has-not-confirmed-it-will-target-bank-of-america/

December 2010:
... Do you have an account at Bank of America? If so, you may want consider the latest warning about the bank’s stability from Wikileaks’ Julian Assange. In a series of tweets this morning, Wikileaks warns that Bank of America may be unstable and that users should consider moving their money to another banking institution ...
Wikileaks Warns on Bank Of America: ‘Place Your Funds Somewhere Safer’
Mac Slavo
December 18th, 2010
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/wikileaks-warns-on-bank-of-america-place-your-funds-somewhere-safer_12182010

January 2011:
... Whether Mr. Assange is bluffing, or indeed has Bank of America in its sights at all, the bank’s defense strategy represents the latest twist in the controversy over WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange ...
Facing Threat From WikiLeaks, Bank Plays Defense
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
Published: January 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/business/03wikileaks-bank.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

January 2011:
... "I think it's great," Assange told the venerable US television news magazine 60 Minutes on Sunday evening. "We have all these banks squirming, thinking maybe it's them ...
Assange relishes US banks 'squirming' over 'megaleak'
Accuses America of chucking free speech in rubbish bin
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
31st January 2011 05:06 GMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/31/assange_says_us_cant_take_wikileaks_down/

February 2011:
WikiLeaks has data from Bank of America Corp., but founder Julian Assange isn't sure whether it holds any big news and it may be difficult to interpret ...
Assange doubts value of Bank of America e-mails
Posted on Friday, February 11, 2011
Rick Rothacker | Charlotte Observer
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/02/11/108626/wikileaks-assange-doubts-value.html

April 2011:
What ever happened to the cache of banking secrets Wikileaks was supposedly going to release early this year? ...
The Great Wikileaks Bank of America Hoax
Published: Tuesday, 26 Apr 2011 | 9:49 AM ET
By: John Carney
Senior Editor, CNBC.com
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42762811/The_Great_Wikileaks_Bank_of_America_Hoax

[GliderGuider]

2. Your last two links are spin.

WASHINGTON | Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:53pm EDT
(Reuters) - Some internal Bank of America files obtained by WikiLeaks have been destroyed, according to a former close collaborator of Julian Assange, the whistleblowing website's founder.

In an email to Reuters, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who last year was fired by Assange as WikiLeaks' co-spokesman, confirmed that he had destroyed "roundabout" 3,000 submissions WikiLeaks received related to Bank of America.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/22/us-bankofamerica-wikileaks-idUSTRE77L55P20110822

It was all over the net and in the newspapers on August 22 and 23.
http://www.google.com/search?q=wikileaks+bank+of+america+destroyed

He doesn't say when between September 2010 (when he was fired from Wikileaks) and August 2011 he destroyed the files.

The European warrant was part and parcel of the enormous flurry of activity from the end of August to the beginning of December 2010.

BTW, thanks for giving my thread some cred.

[struggle4progress]

3. The split at Wikileaks over the handling of issues associated with the sex-charges was significant

It wasn't merely a matter of Daniel Domscheit-Berg being fired or walking out the door.

Volunteer Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of the Icelandic parliament, also left around the same time. Her case is somewhat amusing, since she was shocked! and outraged! when the US government tried to get her Twitter records. In principle, I'd agree with her, but there's a sad irony here, because although she wants her privacy respected, she obviously doesn't feel the same about the privacy of others

Intern James Ball also left around the same time: he was concerned by evidence that Assange's friend holocaust-denier "Israel Shamir" was sharing unredacted US State Department cables in Belarus to help the government identify dissidents

If Daniel Domscheit-Berg was "fired" in September 2010, then how could he have access to Wikileaks assets a year later?

Assange was saying in February 2011 that the BoA emails weren't interesting after all. Presumably he still had them then, right? Or are you trying to tel me that the BoA emails were destroyed prior to February 2011 and Assange was just a lying blowhard in February?

[GliderGuider]

5. The split with D-B wasn't about sex.

The prevailing theory is that he either took the files with him on his way out the door or obtained them shortly after he left. Remember that Wikileaks was a very loosey-goosey, distributed organization. It's entirely possible that Assange didn't know the files had been purloined until much later. We do know that D-B admitted on August 22 2011 that he'd destroyed them.

And what Assange said was not exactly that the files "weren't interesting". What he actually said was:

WikiLeaks has data from Bank of America Corp., but founder Julian Assange isn't sure whether it holds any big news and it may be difficult to interpret, according to a Reuters report this week.

"Assange privately acknowledged the material was not self-explanatory and that he personally was unable to make much sense of it," the Reuters story Wednesday stated, citing the sources. "Assange indicated it would require a substantial amount of effort by financial experts to determine whether any of the material was newsworthy."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/02/11/108626/wikileaks-assange-doubts-value.html

Quite a far cry from "not interesting" or "a hoax".

[sabrina 1]

10. There you go again, leaving out some vitally important information about Domscheit Berg.

Information I already provided you with, btw. It's hard work keeping you on track with the facts.

Domshite, I like that spelling better, 'defected' and ran around the media smearing Assange but failed to reveal that when he decided on this defection, he stole Wikileaks Documents on the Banks that were supposed to be revealed in Jan. 2011.

When this was revealed, Domshite claimed he had not really stolen them, he was just keeping them until Wikileaks fixed some 'security problems'.

So as we all waited for him to keep his word, January came and went, much to the relief of the Big Banks.

And then we learned that Domshite had lied. He admitted to having destroyed those important documents, allowing the Banks to breathe freely completely.

Some people think that Domshite was 'turned'. He denies this. But just one more coincidence that just happened to help the Big Banks at a very critical time in their corrupt history.

Next time you mention Domshite, it would be appreciated if you would save me the trouble of having to fill in the details and do so yourself.

No one in the world trusts that man anymore, and his whining about Assange now that we know a lot more, is far from believable at this point. However, I can't say I completely blame him. Had he remained at Wikileaks, he too might be facing sex charges. Which I am sure he was aware of.

Wikileaks btw, had said they had been warned that Domscheit Berg had been in touch with the FBI. And we know the FBI was helping BOA with its attempt to destroy Wikileaks, we know this from the leaked HB Gary emails.

[Voice for Peace]

41. thanks, a lot of info I hadn't read before

[Aerows]

13. Sometimes

I wonder why in the hell you do this. You know that it is a losing proposition, and makes you look like a PR shill, but still you do it.

Honey, you have gone WAY past opinion. You are seriously in the department of "hang Assange now". I don't know whether the man did anything or not, but your offense of him as vociferous as it has become, is making me think that maybe he isn't as guilty as people say he is. He seems to SCARE you.

[struggle4progress]

15. I expect you can find no link in which I suggest hanging Assange, since I oppose the death penalty

But you're free to search the archives here or at DU2, in an attempt to find such as link

[Aerows]

16. Oh my

Semantics are the place you choose to attack me on. What is next, punctuation? I guess you do what you must when you have no ground on the actual issue at hand.

[GliderGuider]

22. Now that was weak.

BTW, what is your motivation for all the effort you're putting into this one topic?

[girl gone mad]

27. I suspect this might have something to do with it.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/4672

[GliderGuider]

33. I'd forgotten about Stratfor. Thanks.

That makes a lot of sense.

[struggle4progress]

38. You really should get in the habit of working towards verifiable facts, not just making accusations

It will do good things for your mind

[hobbit709]

50. you better look in the mirror on that statement.

[frylock]

60. you just pegged my irony meter

you're going to lecture people on verifiable facts. fucking rich!

[sabrina 1]

45. Interesting article, very interesting. So that's where that 'they've revealed nothing of importance'

talking point came from. Doesn't anyone just say what's on their mind anymore without hiring contractors to decide what they should think and say?

I've even seen it here. Thanks for that link. I wondered why anyone would make that claim. Mystery solved:

By the end of October, Stewart would write a draft article for Stratfor, titled “WikiLeaks, Lots of Fuss About Nothing” in which he takes the position that the Iraq war logs, released in October 2010, have “very few true secrets...that would cause serious damage to national security” and that “none of this is news.” (doc-id 970630)

That 'none of this is news' talking point used to make me wonder if those claiming that had ever really read any of the cables. Now we know where it came from.

[Cleita]

7. Some posters here want to throw Assange in the river with a rock tied to him.

If he drowns he's not guilty. They are refusing to look at facts when it doesn't agree with their preconceived ideas.

[GliderGuider]

8. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? There's an applicable quote from Mark Twain:

"Tell me where a man gets his corn pone and I'll tell you what his opinions are."

[sabrina 1]

4. The timing was perfect. One month after his interview with Forbes he was

suddenly wanted in Sweden on sex charges. BOA went into attack mode, even though he did not name them specifically. We only know this because of Anonymous' hacking of HB Gary's emails. And Wikileaks had published a leaked CIA memo showing agents talking about what would be the best way to 'get him'. They settled on a 'sex scandal'.

And then there's Rove in the background. Conveniently in Sweden at just the right time, good friends with Sweden's Foreign Minister and PM and the Tabloid that started it all, a Right Wing rag who got the story illegally, from whom? The cop who was a friend and political ally of one of the women who happened to be on duty the night she went to ask a 'question', instead of going to the much closer police station?

It is illegal in Sweden to give such information to the media, there was supposed to be an investigation into who was responsible. If it turned out to be that Police Officer, it would be just one more strange 'coincidence' in this saga of coincidences.

[GliderGuider]

6. What's the saying?

"Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action."

[Overseas]

34. How soon we forget the sequence of events. And those HB Gary emails.

And I missed the part about Rove's whereabouts at the time.

Thanks for the refresher.

[WillyT]

9. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[GliderGuider]

11. And I owe a huge thank you to a new member who reminded us to follow the money.

I misplaced the name, but I'll edit this with a shout-out when I find it.

[riderinthestorm]

44. Was it xchrom's OP, "The West Has Just Become A Banana Republic"? No clamourous crowd there

oddly enough, sank quickly as though the usual group didn't want it to stay at the top at all... no rebuttals. Oddly similar to your own OP.... The money issue seems to strike them silent!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021154990

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-west-has-just-become-a-giant-banana-republic-2012-8

Carthage, Tunisia

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has made an admirable habit of enraging western governments over the last few years, particularly the United States.

Most notably, his release of classified diplomatic documents in 2010 proved ruthlessly embarrassing, shining a spotlight on the absurd, petty little world of international relations.

Ever since, the US government has done everything it can to stop him. Short of assassination. They shut down his website, but mirror sites instantly popped up. They sought legal action, but their efforts have been impeded by the bureaucratic deftness of his attorneys. They froze his bank accounts… but donations have poured in from all over the world.

Along the way, Uncle Sam co-opted a number of allied nations to set aside their principles for the sake of US interests–Switzerland rolled over immediately and shuttered Assange’s bank accounts.

[GliderGuider]

46. Yes, that was it - it was spike91nz's post in that thread. Thanks!

I noticed that it dropped like a rock as well. Interesting.

[Aerows]

12. If you revealed

That it was actually because Assange ran into a burning building to save a baby, provided footage that he ran into the burning building with the infant in his arms and handed it to the mother, there are a few around here that would claim that baby will grow up to be Stalin and Assange is guilty.

Assange is guilty because he shook up the status quo, and that is enough to crucify him in the eyes of some. I don't know what he has done or not done - I do know that the man deserves a fair trial. He will not get one if he is extradited to the US, because I don't have any faith in our justice system anymore, thanks to extrajudicial incarceration, interrogation, and everything else. I love my country. I think we have failed ourselves by getting on board with extrajudicial punishment, and don't have any room to be discussing whether someone from another country should be giving themselves up.

If I was in Assange's shoes, I wouldn't give myself up, either, because we are hardly a world leader in human rights anymore. He has every reason to fear being a permanent resident of GITMO until death.

[GliderGuider]

14. +1

I agree with every point you make.

Assange made some very powerful people (probably in some big Yankbanks) very nervous. That's never good for your health. I would have gone to the embassy as well. As I see it, they maneuvered him into a corner and that was the only way out - for now.

I wonder what will happen as the years drag on.

[Overseas]

35. Sad +2

[Honeycombe8]

17. Akin doesn't believe women's claims of rape, either. You're in good company. nt

[GliderGuider]

24. "L'affaire Assange" is not about rape.

It's about the Bank of America. Don't let yourself be distracted by the flickering of the magician's fingers.

[Egalitarian Thug]

42. Do you ever bother to read anything? Would it matter if you did? n/t

[HangOnKids]

58. I don't think it would matter n/t

[frylock]

61. the women that assange raped don't believe their own claims of rape either

[treestar]

18. Doesn't the B of A already enjoy a horrible reputation?

We already know they are all fraudster banksters who steal money from Main Street.

OWS already exposed them.

[Aerows]

19. The truly horrible things that they have done

have not come to light.

That, and the practices of OTHER banks, is what scares them the most. It isn't that most of us don't know, it is confirmation of how dirty they are that is a ferocious and deadly wolf to them.

[woo me with science]

20. Huge K&R.....Of course it doesn't.

And now he is being threatened under trumped-up charges and made an example of - under a Democratic administration, no less - for daring to expose the corruption that is infesting our government and thieving from/impoverishing millions of Americans.

Wake the hell up, America, to what your government has become...under both Republicans *and* Democrats.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

21. when did sweden become a part of the US? n/t

[GliderGuider]

23. This kerfuffle isn't about Sweden.

It's about the BoA. Keep your eye on the ball, my friend.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

26. wouldn't that depend on which ball a person is focused on?

mine happens to be wanting the two women in Sweden getting justice

the whole US angle is in my eyes more or less a distraction by Assange and some of his supporters to have him avoid having to stand trial.

[GliderGuider]

29. That's very noble of you.

We have very different views of what's really going on here.

I'm reminded of an old expression about horses and water.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

32. An expression that would go both ways neh?

i will thank you for being so cordial tho

I think cordial would be the proper word unless i remember its meaning wrong

[GliderGuider]

37. Yes, that would be the right word.

I'm learning not to raise my level of animosity in Internet discussions, and threads like this are a great place to practice. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't

[woo me with science]

40. Riiiiight.

Yeah, the corporate pantload about rape is *just* as good an explanation...for all the reasons that have been repeated ad nauseum in other threads



It's always interesting to see which threads elicit this type of persistent, even desperate attention from the serial corporate/governmental apologists. It is *always* any thread that risks opening more eyes to the complicity of government in protecting/concealing the corruption that is devastating the lives of millions of human beings for the profit of a few. The desperation in these threads to spin an alternate narrative and keep this story from catching fire and taking root in public awareness is palpable.

You go ahead and keep posting. None of what you have written can even begin to drown out the authoritarian stench of this particular sequence of events.

[HiPointDem]

49. they don't want your justice. they just wanted assange to take an hiv test. the government

is the one who turned it into a rape case.

which it ain't.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

56. one of the women wanted him charged with rape

the other believes herself to have been a victim of sexual abuse/molestation but not rape.

So obviously i disagree.

[HiPointDem]

57. nope.

[woo me with science]

25. The corruption extends well beyond the US, of course.

The looting and misery caused by these criminal bankers is perpetrated across borders.

As is, we now see, the brazen misuse of government to threaten and punish those who attempt to reveal the corruption.

It all reeks....just like the obvious spinning manure we now see from those desperate to control public response and opinion...

[Bodhi BloodWave]

28. what brazen misuse of government

is relevant in regards to Sweden?

[GliderGuider]

30. Sweden is irrelevant. If they are not outright pawns, they are getting rooked.

nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

43. And a huge K&R for your huge K&R. I frequently wonder just what the hell happened

to us. I swear there used to be a large number of sane people living here.

[leftstreet]

31. Remember BOA and Blagojevich?

Nothing to do with Assange. Just hearing BOA made me remember.

Bank of America

Blagojevich threatened to stop the state’s dealings with Bank of America Corp. over a shut-down factory in Chicago. On December 8, 2008 (the day before his arrest), all state agencies were ordered to stop conducting business with Bank of America to pressure the company to make the loans. Blagojevich said the biggest U.S. retail bank would not get any more state business unless it restored credit to Republic Windows and Doors, whose workers were staging a sit-in. John Douglas, a former general counsel for the FDIC and attorney for Bank of America, called Blagojevich's gambit dangerous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Blagojevich#Bank_of_America

[Overseas]

36. No, I had forgotten this too.

[tama]

39. War crimes are all about

more money and power to MIC. And MIC and WS are a symbiotic creature.

[muriel_volestrangler]

47. No, if you look at timing, governments, especially the US, would have to remain the chief suspects

if you do think the sex allegations are a set up, that is.

Assange gave an interview in Oct 2009 saying they had the BoA material.

Bradley Manning was arrested in June 2010. The cables go until February 2010.

Newspapers started publishing the main bulk of the cables on 28th Nov 2010*, after a period of negotiation with Wikileaks.

Meanwhile:

August 2010: The alleged events take place; a Swedish arrest warrant for Assange is issued, then withdrawn. After the withdrawal, he is questioned by the Swedish police, and he denies the accusations.

Sept 2010: A different Swedish prosecutor reopens the investigation.

18 Nov 2010: The Stockholm district court issues a new arrest warrant for Assange. Since he is, by now, in the UK, this is soon followed by a European Arrest Warrant.

Thus the leak of the diplomatic cables is far closer to the events of August, or November, than the BoA disk drive. I think you don't show anything implying the BoA stuff was important. During 2010, Wikileaks was overwhelmingly about the diplomatic cables.

-----------------

*: On February 18, 2010, WikiLeaks posted on its Web site a U.S. State Department diplomatic cable dated January 13, 2010, from the embassy in Reykjavik, Iceland. It was an intriguing, if not earthshaking, document that would later earn the tag “Reykjavik13.” In the cable, the U.S. deputy chief of mission, Sam Watson, described private talks with Icelandic leaders over a referendum on whether to repay losses from a bank failure, with the real possibility that Iceland could default in 2011.

In the “chat log,” Manning would claim that he sent Reykjavik 13 to WikiLeaks as a “test document” from much more to come.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/160754/one-year-ago-unmaking-bradley-manning#

[GliderGuider]

51. Two things aren't explained by it being just about the cables.

One is the timing of the closing of the web site and the financial conduits (Paypal, Visa etc.) These came within the week following his Forbes interview on Nov. 29, in which he stated that he'd be going after banks next.

The other is the firing of Dumbshit-Berg (sic) and his destruction of the BoA records.

I don't doubt that the cables played some role in all this - we can see clearly in the Stratfor information that the bugged the snot out of the intel community. But the fact that he had released similarly sensitive information for the previous four years without any significant interference suggests that the cables alone weren't enough to trigger an immune response from the system.

Of course all of this is tea-leaf reading to one degree or another. But the banks, the MIC, both the executive and legislative branches of government. and the intel community are incestuously interwoven. The probability that the Forbes interview was a triggering event (perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back) seems clear from the timeline.

One thing I'm convinced of is that the case isn't about Assange being an inconsiderate lover.

[muriel_volestrangler]

52. That's quite different from "nothing to do with rape or diplomatic cables"

While the financial strikes against Wikileaks may have come after an interview, they also came after the publishing of the cables, and Assange's European Arrest Warrant. And the possession by Wikileaks of the BoA material had been public knowledge for over a year by then. But, anyway, "L'affaire Assange", as you put it, is surely not primarily about the banks stopping payments to Wikileaks?

As for the firing of DDB, it seems he managed to get the only copies of several leaks, not just the BoA stuff:

Five days short of a year ago, on 25 August 2010, WikiLeaks suspended former employee "Daniel Domscheit-Berg". Over the last 11 months, we have tried to negotiate the return of various materials taken by Mr. Domscheit-Berg, including internal communications and over 3000 unpublished, private whistleblower communications to WikiLeaks. Mr. Domscheit-Berg has repeatedly attempted to blackmail WikiLeaks by threatening to make available, to forces that oppose WikiLeaks, these private communications and to which Mr. Domscheit-Berg is not a party. He has stated he will commit this action, should WikiLeaks move to charge him with sabotage or theft. Mr. Domscheit-Berg has refused to return the various materials he has stolen, saying he needs them, solely, to carry out this threat. Mr. Domscheit-Berg has already, secretly, and with malicious intent, disclosed portions of the private communications content to other parties, to the harm of WikiLeaks.

The negotiations have now been terminated by the mediator, Andy Müller-Maguhn, who has stated that he doubts Mr. Domscheit-Berg's integrity and claimed willingness to return the material and that under those circumstances Müller-Maguhn cannot meaningfully continue to mediate. In response, Mr. Domscheit-Berg has stated that he has, or is about to, destroy thousands of unpublished whistleblowers disclosures sent to WikiLeaks. The material is irreplaceable and includes substantial information on many issues of public importance, human rights abuses, mass telecommunications interception, banking and the planning of dozens of neo-nazi groups. Our sources have in some cases risked their lives or freedom attempting to convey these disclosures to WikiLeaks and to the public.

http://wlcentral.org/node/2171

I can't see that you can boil that down to just the banking leaks. The banks may have been eager to help hurt Wikileaks, since their ox was being gored too, but that doesn't involve them in the accusations against Assange himself.

One thing I'm convinced of is that the case isn't about Assange being an inconsiderate lover.

Well, no, it's about whether he committed rape. There are jerks who talk about him just being 'inconsiderate'. They shouldn't be listened to.

[GliderGuider]

54. I've modified my position regarding the significance of the cables

Largely as a result of your post. Thank you.

The legal case against him may rest on potential charges of rape, but in a stitch-up the visible charge depends on what's available. In this case, as in so many others thoughout history, Assange's tendency to let his dick do his thinking for him presented a very convenient opportunity.

In order for the case to be "about" rape, the motivation for the charges would have to have been the charges themselves. As far as I and many others are concerned, that's not the case here.

[malaise]

48. Agreed

Rec

[Odin2005]

53. BING! Assange PO'd the Masters of The Universe.

And now they are going after him.

[GliderGuider]

55. Pretty much.

Threaten their ability to bleed the system in secret and you have created yourself a world of hurt.

[truth2power]

59. A great big vote of thanks to you, GliderGuider! It's. about. the. money.

Don't piss off the Lords of Finance.

[redqueen]

62. K&R