RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events WikiLeaks founder charged with rape, molestation

WikiLeaks founder charged with rape, molestation

• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose whistle-blowing website caused uproar last month with a leak of secret U.S. military files on Afghanistan, is wanted in Sweden on charges of rape and molestation, the National Prosecutor’s Office said on Saturday.
  
  Assange, whose whereabouts are unclear, denied the allegations on WikiLeaks’ Twitter page.“The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing“.
  
  Assange, an Australian, was in Sweden last week to discuss his work and defend his intent to publish further documents on the war in Afghanistan. He has close contacts in the Nordic country, where WikiLeaks has said it keeps some of its servers.
  
  U.S. officials have called the leak, including more than 70,000 documents detailing the war in Afghanistan, one of the biggest security breaches in U.S. military history.
  
  WikiLeaks promotes the leaking of information to fight government and corporate corruption. Earlier this year, it leaked a classified video showing a 2007 helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists.
  
  The Pentagon said this month it would be the “height of irresponsibility” if WikiLeaks went through with a new threat to publish outstanding documents it had on the Afghan war.
  
  It wants the site to expunge all classified material from the Internet and return the material it had to the U.S. government.

One good thing about Bush being out of office: we probably won't have to hear liberals rant and rave about how these are trumped up charges designed to silence heroic truth-tellers who dare oppose the Republinazi war machine.

i assumed that this guy was a pedophile based on his liberal tendencies.

STOCKHOLM — Swedish authorities revoked a short-lived arrest warrant for the founder of WikiLeaks on Saturday, saying a rape accusation against him lacked substance.

Julian Assange, who was believed to be in Sweden, remained under suspicion of a lesser crime of molestation in a separate case, prosecutors said.

The nomadic 39-year-old Australian dismissed the allegations in a statement on WikiLeaks' Twitter page, saying "the charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing."

WikiLeaks is preparing to release of a fresh batch of classified U.S. documents from the Afghan war, despite warnings from the Pentagon that they could endanger American soldiers and their Afghan helpers.

A Stockholm prosecutor issued the arrest warrant on Friday, saying Assange was suspected of rape and molestation in two separate cases. But chief prosecutor Eva Finne withdrew the warrant within 24 hours.

"I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape," Finne said in a brief statement.

Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority, said Assange remains suspected of molestation, a less serious charge that would not lead to an arrest warrant.

"The prosecutor hasn't made a decision" on that count, Rosander told The Associated Press. "The investigation continues."

Molestation covers a wide of range of offenses under Swedish law, including inappropriate physical contact with another adult, and can result in fines or up to one year in prison.
Story continues below

Assange was in Sweden last week seeking legal protection for the whistle-blower website, which angered the Obama administration by publishing thousands of leaked documents about U.S. military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The first files in Wikileaks' "Afghan War Diary" revealed classified military documents covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. Assange said Wednesday that WikiLeaks plans to release a new batch of 15,000 documents from the Afghan war within weeks.

The Pentagon has demanded WikiLeaks return all leaked documents and remove them from the Internet.

Assange has no permanent address and travels frequently – jumping from one friend's place to the next. He disappears from public view for months at a time, only to reappear in the full glare of the cameras at packed news conferences to discuss his site's latest disclosure.

Assange declined to talk about his background at a news conference in Stockholm a week ago. Equally secretive is the small team behind WikiLeaks, reportedly just a half-dozen people and casual volunteers who offer their services as needed.

A WikiLeaks spokesman, who says he goes by the name Daniel Schmitt in order to protect his identity, told AP in a telephone interview from Iceland that the "extremely serious allegations" came as a complete surprise.

Apart from the comment from Assange, WikiLeaks' Twitter page had a link to an article in Swedish tabloid Expressen, which first reported the allegations.

"We were warned to expect 'dirty tricks.' Now we have the first one," it said.

On its official blog, WikiLeaks expressed "full support" for Assange and said it "will be continuing its regular operations."

Assange was in Sweden partly to apply for a publishing certificate to make sure the website, which has servers in Sweden, can take full advantage of Swedish laws protecting whistle-blowers.

He also spoke at a seminar hosted by the Christian faction of the opposition Social Democratic party and announced he would write bimonthly columns for a left-wing Swedish newspaper.

A physics Ph.D, Assange hasn't shied from taking on both government officials and the press. Media profiles have detailed an unsettled upbringing – the Australian press has reported Assange attended dozens of schools growing up – and he still seems to live on the move, his computer traveling with him in a backpack.

Assange told Der Spiegel in an interview that he likes confronting the powerful. "I enjoy creating systems on a grand scale, and I enjoy helping people who are vulnerable," he said. "And I enjoy crushing bastards. So it is enjoyable work."

___

I'm not saying I feel this way as I really don't give two shits to look into the facts but this is what most conspiracy movies would do as a plot twist. It's practically a cliche. No matter who's in office there are some evil fuckers in spy agencies will do evil shit. So who knows.

Being a rapist would be a step up from being a liberal. He should ask to be charged again.

So you're saying that the act of rape is worse in your mind than holding differing views on the role of government in society?
that's just sick.

Being a rapist is better than being a hippie douche who thinks the world would come to an end if we don't recycle.

wow. so forcibly violating another human being is worse, in your mind, than environmentalism? wanting to curb pollution and greenhouse gases for better air quality in the future is a greater sin, to you, than rape?
that's just sick. i know it's the internet and everything, but you should be ashamed of yourself.

Liberals and environmentalists rape the entire country.

Thinking that you can "fix" something that isn't broken is worse than rape. The earth has been around way before us and will be around long after we all die. It will take care of itself.


Besides, you used to live in a city where it was legal to poop on the sidewalk, that invalidates all of your opinions.

Does that meant that we can start judging you based on all the hippie laws where you live, rex?

The only hippie law I acknowledge is the one where women are allowed to walk around topless. All the others ones do not exist in my world.

Neither does steady employment, apparently.

Was that too low even for a shot at rex?

It hurt my feelings.

True, the Earth will heal itself. But it will also be uninhabitable for quite awhile and all human life will die out. We're not just any old species that evolved here, we create artificial things and release a lot of pullutants. We're altering the planet with the amount of methane and C02 we release, the toxic waste we produce, the water we fuck up, the ecosystems we screw up, and there will come a point when the planet won't have enough clean water or air to support us and the animals we eat.
This planet is strong, but it's still a balanced ecosystem and a slight change has a domino effect.
Surely, you're not so retarded as to believe that the planet magically be fine one night while we sleep?



I don't think it was ever "legal," but that's what happens with mentally unbalanced homeless people. And there is a difference between regular homeless and the mentally unbalanced (nutjobs).

So you oppose recycling? You oppose smog checks on cars? You don't like to breathe, don't like clean water?

By your logic, opposing rape means opposing all sexual relations, simply because you can't fathom the import of something being compulsory and not voluntary.

We've been over this before, rex. You have to have feeling in order for them to be hurt.

rage and frustration are feelings.

I would respectfully disagree, fuckface. Polluters are more akin to rapists for forcing their smog and waste down the throat of innocent mother nature. You can't argue that mother nature is "asking for it" by looking so appealing.

If you're so worried about pollution to plant a tree. If you're so worried about global warming stop spewing all that hot air.

Innocent? Mother Nature? With her droughts and floods and poison monkeys? Nature started this and now she wants to quit? Well I say "hard cheese!"

ahoy hoy?

actually environmentalism is forcibly violating other human beings. why should i pay more for my electric bill because some hippie worships scientific theory?

WikiLeaks' Assange rape case reopened: A senior Swedish prosecutor reopened a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange today, the latest twist to a puzzling case in which prosecutors of different ranks have overruled each other.

nwo