Sweden’s investigation into Julian Assange was a political frame-up from the outset
20 May 2017
On Friday, Swedish authorities announced they were dropping their investigation into sexual misconduct charges against WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange. In fact, they have no case whatsoever and never did. The entire affair was a “dirty tricks” operation from the outset, aimed at discrediting and paralyzing WikiLeaks and creating conditions under which Assange could be extradited or abducted to the US, to be executed or condemned to a lifetime in prison.
WikiLeaks’ sole “crime” was to shed light on the illegal and murderous activities of American imperialism and its allies in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the globe.
The fraudulent “rape” charge campaign against Assange has been conducted over the past seven years by the combined forces of the American military-intelligence apparatus and media, on the one hand, and pseudo-left politics, on the other. The former has provided the muscle, while the latter has contributed the “brains” of the operation, legitimizing the attack against Assange every step of the way in the name of supposedly defending women from abuse.
The dropping of the Swedish investigation does not mean that the drive to suppress exposures of Washington’s criminality will come to a halt. Far from it. The terrain and conditions have simply shifted. The US authorities and their allies have not for one instant given up on the notion of making WikiLeaks an example.
The US has let it be known that it has prepared charges against Assange, and Washington would like to see Assange extradited to the US. The British authorities, moreover, said they would still arrest Assange if he left the Ecuadorian embassy, where he has been trapped for five years,…