Assange accuser may have ceased co-operating

[Swagman]

Source: crikey.com.au

Thursday, 9 December 2010
Assange accuser may have ceased co-operating
by Guy Rundle

Anna Ardin, one of the two complainants in the rape and sexual assault case against WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, has left Sweden, and may have ceased actively co-operating with the Swedish prosecution service and her own lawyer, sources in Sweden told Crikey today.

The move comes amid a growing campaign by leading Western feminists to question the investigation, and renewed confusion as to whether Sweden has actually issued charges against Assange. Naomi Klein, Naomi Wolf, and the European group Women Against Rape, have all made statements questioning the nature and purpose of the prosecution.

Ardin, who also goes by the name Bernardin, has moved to the West Bank in the Palestinian Territories, as part of a Christian outreach group, aimed at bringing reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. She has moved to the small town of Yanoun, which sits close to Israel’s security/sequestration wall. Yanoun is constantly besieged by fundamentalist Jewish settlers, and international groups have frequently stationed themselves there.

Read more: http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/12/09/rundle-r-pe-case-complainant-has-left-sweden-may-have-ceased-co-operating/

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Curses." - RepubliBorg International, Inc.

[EFerrari]

2. Guy Rundle may be a new favorite.

That was a good article. I liked "The Man who played with Fire" in The Age, too. Thank you.

[boppers]

3. Her causes often seem well intentioned.

Her actions may not be.

[TorchTheWitch]

4. unmentioned sources

And her attorney disputes it. I'd think her attorney would know whether or not she was cooperating.

I don't get it... is there some reason she's supposed to just sit on her ass in Sweden and wait for however long it takes until she may be needed for something on the case?

Why is it that this publication doesn't just type the words "rape" or "sex"? Instead they use "r-pe" and "s-x". That is really weird. Is this the grade school sanitized version?

[Ex Lurker]

5. might be a way of getting through nanny filters nt.

[TorchTheWitch]

6. then it must not be a legitimate media outlet

No legitimate media outlet has such silly nanny filters.

I'm also not seeing this story anywhere else on the internet. Surely news as big as they claim here would be plastered all over the place if there was a grain of truth to it.

[EFerrari]

7. Guy Rundle is an award winning journalist.

And he was careful to say that her noncooperation was a rumor at this point.

[TorchTheWitch]

9. They're a Wikileaks partner - major bias

Wikileaks may as well have written that article themselves.


Popular Partner Pages
o 101 business startup tips
o Business Plan
o Business to Business
o Changemakers
o Crikey's Christmas Guide
o Franchise
o Start a business
o Technology in Business
---> o WikiLeaks Cables

[Violet_Crumble]

15. Yeah, it's so biased to link to Crikey's own information on Wikileaks!!

http://www.crikey.com.au/wikileaks-cables/

And do you think seeing as how 'Crikey's Christmas Guide' is telling us that Crikey is a partner of Crikey that makes it even more heavily biased? ;)

on edit: to be fair, it looks like the menus need a bit of a clean-up, as what's under the heading 'popular partner pages' is a jumble of links. It looks like the area may have started out as being a list of partner sites, but over time has included links to Crikey pages containing links to content on Crikey. So they should rename the heading or move the non-partner content, including the link to the Wikileaks articles, to another area on that bottom menu area...

[TorchTheWitch]

18. Crikey being a partner to Wikileaks makes it a biased source

And I'm still not seeing anything at all about this claimed "rumor" that shows up anywhere else that isn't sourced right back to Crikey. Three guesses where the "rumor" came from?

[Violet_Crumble]

19. I thought it was clear that it's not a partner...

Did you click on the link and see what it led to? Also, having some experience in site IA myself, I added something to my earlier post telling you what it looks like has happened with that part of the lower menu. But it should be very clear to anyone who clicked on the link that the link is leading to a category in Crikey which stores all the Wikileaks articles and it doesn't mean that they're a partner site. It's wrong to make accusations about Crikey that aren't correct...

[TorchTheWitch]

21. They IDENTIFY it as a partner

And of course I read it. Bunch of biased pro-Assange stuff.

Get back to me when a legitimate unbiased media outlet reports on this that doesn't source back to Crikey.

[Violet_Crumble]

23. No, they've got a heading with a bunch of links underneath that don't fit...

Lots of sites, especially ones that don't have large and dedicated web teams, tend to have links creep into categories that don't describe them. Most people can spot it when they see it. I gave you another link in that category where Crikey was linking to its own Christmas guide, and that alone should have been enough for anyone who doesn't have an axe to grind with Crikey that some links don't belong under that heading....

Also, you've been told more than once by more than one person that Crikey IS a legitimate media source. Just because you don't like the articles you read there (which explains the 'biased pro-Assange' comment), doesn't mean it's not a legitimate news source, nor does anything you've said about Crikey so far show that it's biased. As someone who reads Crikey, I find it strikes a good balance between stuff I agree with and stuff I don't...

[Swagman]

26. crikey is not associated in any way with wikileaks...the site is

owned by a well known and respected media entrepreneur Eric Beecher-former editor in chief of Fairfax Newspapers.

the reason they write s*x instead of sex is something to do with search engines

[Teaser]

10. No, Australia has been hard at work

Making sure its internet is censored.

[Violet_Crumble]

11. Crikey is definately a legitimate source...

I'm not sure why going r*pe instead of rape makes it suspect. Crikey's a very well-known Australian news site. Probably if you were Australian, you'd know that :)

[Heywood J]

8. According to an answer in the comments,

"The censorship is to avoid the Crikey daily emails being trapped in spam filters."

As far as I know, the entire country is on a nanny-style filtering system now.

[TorchTheWitch]

13. that's nuts

I can see filtering out profanity but words like rape or sex? This so reminds me of when AOL filtered out the word "breast" back in the '90's.

[Violet_Crumble]

16. I'd rather have a little star instead of the letter 'a' and get it in my emails...

As you don't live in Australia or recieve emails from Crikey at a work address that does have some heavy-duty filtering, I'm not really what the big issue is. It affects me and if that's what it takes to be able to read something, I'd rather have that than nothing...

[sabrina 1]

14. Crikey is a respected Australian publication.

As for the censorship of words like rape and sex, talk to the Australian Government who have become censors of the internet for quite some time.

I am not surprised that she might have decided to get out of this mess she created. Getting revenge on a cheating lover, which she advocates, might have seemed like a good idea when she was personally insulted that he slept with another woman, but she always did say 'there was no rape, no violence, and no fear of violence' and she did not file any complaint. She knew the law in Sweden and knew she could to go jail for false charges, as it should be. So, instead she 'asked for advice' and someone leaked it to a rightwing tabloid, and then, this 'lawyer' stepped in AFTER the case was thrown out.

Do you know anything about this lawyer btw? I would think any true feminist WOULD Run far away from him.

She knows she left a trail of evidence proving that she was a very happy woman the morning after the alleged incident of the broken condom, boasting about her relationshop with Assange, planning a party for him and telling people how 'wonderful' it was to be with such 'interesting people'. But then, she found out she was not the only one.

I think she was used by the lawyer, we'll see, but anyone following this case from teh start never believed the lies told by this lawyer and they do not have a chance of winning it, not that they care, the case is merely an excuse to get Assange back to Sweden and from their to the U.S. to silence him.

[Violet_Crumble]

12. I'm glad feminists are now starting to question the Swedish investigation...

Given the timing and context of the whole thing, I think it's wise to not blindly swallow the accusations...

[ChumbawambaFan]

25. Weird, I thought it'd be easier to extradite him from England ....

...what with the US - UK Extradition Treaty .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extradition_Act_2003

And that the rape charge was just a way to get hold of him plus bonus points for
really smearing his name before the bank data comes out.

Ahem , if it ever does. They may seriously 'pressure' him into bargaining it away. I don't know.

Lastly, doesn't AU have a law saying all sex shops must be on the first floor and women in adult movies cannot be 'flat' chested...though that seems a cruel way to describe something many people prefer quite a bit.

http://boingboing.net/2010/01/28/australian-censor-bo.html

...strange world.

[Hannah Bell]

17. someone on another thread just said that anyone who goes to the west bank to promote peace is a

terrorist.

therefore this young woman is a terrorist.

and since assange is also a terrorist, this is a fine kettle of fish.

they're all terrorists!

[Turborama]

20. 4 of my favorite female DU posters getting in on the debate in the same thread THIS is classic DU...

:popcorn:

[Violet_Crumble]

22. Assuming I'm one of the 4, I'll leave it to the other 3 from here...

I know when I start waffling away about menus and IA that I'm way too tired and need to get some sleep :)

[Turborama]

24. You assumed correctly.

Sleep well and hopefully see you back on the case tomorrow.

:hi:

[The Backlash Cometh]

27. What? She's too proud to play the Paula Jones role in this engineered ploy?

[glitch]

28. Nah, just transfered to another op.

Her part, the smear, is mission accomplished. An actual trial for this crime is not needed for rendition.