Re: Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture/now under political attack by/“women’s advocacy group" Archived Message
Posted by dovetailjoint on July 3, 2019, 8:49 pm, in reply to "Re: Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture/now under political attack by/“women’s advocacy group""
I think the media's coverage of the Assange Affair has been absolutely dreadful, right from the start. What looked like a coordinated campaign of misinformation designed to destroy the reputation of Assange and by association, Wikileaks, both of which were perceived and defined as non-loyal, adversaries to Western power, especially the power to commit warcrimes with impunity, in secret, and pass this tsunami of blood-letting and mass destruction, as humanitarian interventions designed to protect the innocent from tyranny. That anyone can imagine that the accusations levelled at Assange, their nature and the way they've been hyped up beyond anything reasonable, weaponised in fact in the service of the state... anyone who thinks this just happened and is somehow 'natural' and the law is being deployed freely and neutrally in relation to Assange... well, they must be nuts. 'Rape' has become a crime of such potency that even mentioning it and linking it to an individual almost automatically destroys their reputation overnight. This clearly gives the state a powerful propaganda weapon in relation to people it wants to destroy. The left and women's groups are especially easy to manipulate and nudge in the right direction, towards the interests of the state. I've lost count of the people over the years who've I've talked to about the Assange Affair, mostly typical highly educated liberals and leftists, who believe Assange raped two women in Sweden and is on the run because of this double crime. He's a serial rapist, apparently. Then it's rather odd that he doesn't have a history or a trail of women claiming he raped them following him around. When one informs people of the actual facts of the case. That he didn't jump out of a bush in a park and attack the nearest woman he could find and then do it all over again, perhaps when he was bored with working to bring down western democracy... people are amazed that the reality is so different from the stories they've heard in our media. My attitude to Assange and the events in Sweden would be radically different, if Assange had actually been charged with 'rape' by the Swedish authorities, or charged with some kind of sexual offence, only he hasn't. I think charging him would make a big difference to me. Most people I know, the same ones who think Assange raped two women, also think he's been charged with these two offences in Sweden. Why have 'average' middle class universtity educated professinals been so badly informed? How can this be merely accidental? And of course there doesn't have to be a concious conspiracy for lots of people to hold views on Assange that are completely wrong, they only have to believe the lies spread by the media. Convincing people that the Guardian is an arm of the state, is hard work. It's like telling people the world is round, when the evidence of their own eyes tell them it's flat. The case against Assange is so transparently weak and fragile, without evidence, without witnesses, with any real hard evidence that any crime could possibly be proven to have taken place, that I don't believe Assange will ever be charged with any serious sex offence by the Swedes and their will be no trial, because the Swedish court will throw it out on the first day. This is why the Swedes have taken so long to get anywhere at all and have deliberately dragged things out for years, allowing statute of limitations to solve their problems for them, whilst still letting doubt remain. If the Swedes had a strong case Assange would have been charged years ago. Only they don't, which is why they haven't charged him with anything. It's difficult for the Swedes to save face and not look ridiculous, as ridiculous as the allegations levelled at Assange. So there's a possibility that they might 'cook up' something, some minor sexual offence, to justify the time, money and energy invested in this judicial farce, but I doubt it very much.
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