The Assassination of Julian Assange

I want a show of hands:

How many people have kept doing it after the condom broke?

How many people out there believe that Julian Assange raped or otherwise sexually assaulted the two women in Sweden who came forward to accuse him?

The mainstream media (The Guardian, Der Spiegel and especially the New York Times) have benefited greately from Wikileaks material. They all spent the last two weeks hashing through the diplomatic cables and splashing every detail they could glean out of them onto their front page.

But then when Assange is accused of rape, they don’t point to the obvious conclusion: that these charges were manufactured by the US and the UK in order to not only seize Assange and begin to “try him in a court of law,” but more insidiously, divert attention and sully discourse:

The charges of rape are meant to Assassinate Julian Assange’s character and drag the populace’s eyes away from the doings of the governments and focus them on the private doings of two admittedly consensual sexual acts.

The tactic is so crude and simplistic that, once again, I find myself alternating between hysterical laughter and sorrowful disgust.

So for those of you who realize that indeed, the governments of the world are engaging in the age-old tactic of dragging their opponent in the muck, check out this article on Julian Assange by Counterpunch, in which the story behind the rape allegations is illuminated.

This blogpost right here from Charlie Stross’s antipope.org links that Counterpunch story and much more — be sure to go through some of the more than 200 comments to further flesh out the story behind Wikileaks, Assange’s arrest and the way corrupt governments use and abuse women …

The mainstream media was behind the ball when the leaks were dropped — remember, every story they wrote was a GIFT from Assange — and now when Wikileaks is under attack, they turn on their benefactor like mangy mutts. Because here is what’s happening:

bloggers, netizens and web rags are beating the big mainstream media to the real stories, the real issues and above all to the truth behind the smoke and mirrors that governments place in front of the people. We the Many are a threat to the Few who hold control of the media but are losing their grip over the Internet. They can’t allow the people access to what is really going on because then wars for oil and territory will be much harder to wage …

On a final note, I would like to see a show of hands:

How many people believe that there is a difference between Julian Assange and Liu Xiaobo?

Update:
Asia Times has a great little read about the rank hypocrisy of the “Western Democracies” (/facepalm) by that superbly snarky writer, Pepe Escobar. Check it out here