Just read this article at Counterpunch – Assange: The Amazing Adventures of Captain Neo in Blonde Land….

Here’s the gist:

Swedish bloggers uncovered the full story in a few hours. The complaint was lodged by a radical feminist Anna Ardin, 30, a one-time intern in the Swedish Foreign Service. She’s spokeswoman for Broderskapsrörelsen, the liberation theology-like Christian organization affiliated with Sweden’s Social Democratic Party. She had invited Julian Assange to a crayfish party, and they had enjoyed some quality time together. When Ardin discovered that Julian shared a similar experience with a 20-year-old woman a day or two later, she obtained the younger woman’s cooperation in declaring before the police that changing partners in so rapid a manner constituted a sort of deceit. And deceit is a sort of rape. The prosecutor immediately issued an arrest warrant, and the press was duly notified. Once the facts were examined in the cold light of day, the charge of rape seemed ludicrous and was immediately dropped. In the meantime the younger woman, perhaps realizing how she had been used, withdrew her report, leaving the vengeful Anna Ardin standing alone.However, before we absolve the Swedish police as unwitting, if zealous, dupes, please note that Swedish law strictly forbids police and prosecutors to release to the media the details of any rape-connected complaint. The Expressen had all the details of the case, including the names of the accused and the complainant, within a matter of minutes. Please note further that the right-wing tabloid Expressen belongs to the Bonnier family, the biggest media owners in Sweden, who are not only pro-American but very much pro-Israel, too. As you know, the pro-Israeli lobby is warmly supportive of America’s Middle Eastern wars, while Assange and his WikiLeaks have the potential to undermine America’s weakening support for the war.

Sounds like the name of Assange’s accuser has been out there for a little bit but it’s the first time I’ve seen her name mentioned.

The article is admittedly a bit flippant and I’m not familiar with either of the authors at all.  I generally find Counterpunch to be quite credible although I have noticed a clunker or two posted there.  Generally those are pure op-ed pieces which I find misguided though – I haven’t noticed them playing fast and loose with facts.  That being said I really don’t know what to make of this article or some stuff I found after searching around a bit.

The Pirate Party will host several new WikiLeaks servers. This was agreed during Julian Assange’s visit to Stockholm last weekend, and the Pirate Party is happy to announce that everything has been finalized.- The contribution of WikiLeaks is tremendously important to the entire world, says Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Pirate Party. We desire to contribute to any effort that increases transparency and accountability of power in the world.

Last week, the Pirate Party challenged the other Swedish parties to assist WikiLeaks in its democratic effort. The Pirate Party has been the first to step up uo the plate, and keeps calling on others to defend freedom of the press in Sweden. As a result, WikiLeaks have commissioned a number of new servers that will be hosted and taken care of by the Pirate Party.

Apologies if Jack already mentioned this here – if so I missed it.  Anyhoo, the interesting bit is the contact info at the end:

For more information, contact:Rick Falkvinge, party leader for the Swedish Pirate Party
Anna Troberg, deputy party leader for the Swedish Pirate Party
Anna Ardin, press secretary for Julian Assange

So this woman was his press secretary in Sweden????  Haven’t seen Assange comment on the accusations against him except to say the charges were a fabrication. I haven’t heard him say whether or not he claims to know this woman at all.

So is this just the case of a jilted lover taking advantage of Swedish rape laws that give a lot of deference to the accuser?  If so, why were the laws that prohibit info being released to the media ignored, allowing the story to get worldwide recognition in a matter of hours?  Maybe the Counterpunch article isn’t reliable at all?  Who the hell knows?

Anybody reading this have a clue as to what is going on?  All I know is that the timing of these accusations is incredibly suspicious, especially considering Assanage had recently announced his intentions to release even more documents, which he did just a couple days ago.  So far it appears that the media has been concentrating much more on the accusations against Assange far more than the new leaks.  Maybe that will change in upcoming days.  Again, who knows?  I for one have no idea what the hell is going on.

Anybody else have any ideas?

UPDATE:  Guess I’m not alone in being confused.  Just found the following from Scott Horton at Harper’s which I would consider a very reliable source – False Charges Ricochet in the War on WikiLeaks.

He reiterates many of the details from the Counterpunch article and concludes:

…as this incident makes clear, the war on WikiLeaks will be fought with unconventional tools and those following the story are advised to accept nothing at face value.

http://www.freespeechzoneblog.com/diary/6437/the-wikileaks-saga-curiouser-and-curiouser-swedish-pirate-party-involved