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How The Rape Claims Against Julian Assange Sparked An Information War
Since Julian Assange was first accused of sex crimes against two Swedish women in August, his defenders have asserted his innocence and dismissed the allegations as malicious, or trumped up, or part of a politically driven conspiracy.
To his powerful critics, however, the rape charges have become elided with what they consider his other crimes, including accusations of espionage, for which a number of US political figures have already called for his execution.
But if the WikiLeaks controversy has seemed ferocious in its intensity to date, the fact that Assange is tonight in custody as an accused rapist means that the political, technological and moral culture wars that have been skirmishing for months around the website have reached a new pitch of vitriol, in which conspiracy theories, slander and misogyny have become every bit as central to the debate as high-minded principles of justice or freedom of information.
Certainly there are some, not only in the Australian's legal team, who argue that a rape accusation based on the details of the allegations in the public domain – some of them placed there by the women themselves – would be highly unlikely to come to court in this country. Others counter, however, that even those who support Assange or the principle of free speech must let the law decide on serious criminal accusations.
Two women who say they are victims of serious sex crimes find themselves key players in a very ugly reputational slanging match. Named in court only as Miss A and Miss W, their identities have nonetheless been circulating widely online since very soon after the attacks. And with Assange's arrest, parts of the internet have declared open season on the two women, vowing to enlist an army of tech-savvy research assistants skilled in squirrelling out information that others might wish to keep hidden — described with ill-disguised glee today by one blogger as "the First World Infowar".
Rarely can there have been a rape case where the personal details of the alleged victims have been so eagerly sought out by so many. "Is [Miss A] a lesbian?" asks one blog, accompanying its text with photographs of Miss A alongside another woman. "If [she] is gay, and she sleeps with Assange, that's a contradiction. So, I'm inviting the blogosphere to look for the evidence. Be a WikiSleuth! There must be a lot of people who know about [Miss A] and her behavior. Speak up!"
Partisan bloggers have obliged, digging up and publishing previously deleted tweets sent by one of the women while at a party with Assange, details of texts sent by the other, Miss W, following her sexual encounter with Assange, blog entries by Miss A in which she talks about her political outlook and opinions, even a document written by the same alleged victim entitled "7 steps to legal revenge", in which she writes: "Go to it and keep your goal in sight. Make sure your victim suffers just as you did."
These are now part of a distasteful and unsettling story, many details of which, thanks to a Swedish police leak and an interview given by Miss A to a Swedish paper, are in the public domain.
The story appears to proceed as follows: Miss A, having invited Assange to speak to a leftwing campaign group in the town of Enkoping, suggested he stay in her flat, although the two had not met. Both agree that they slept together on the night before the event, during which the condom split.
The following day, the woman attended and helped facilitate the event, at which Miss W was also present. According to her police interview, Miss W accompanied the Australian and some male guests to lunch at which he flirted with her; afterwards the pair went to the cinema, where she told police she had performed oral sex on him. They slept together that night, using a condom, and again the following morning, when both parties appear to agree that a condom was not used, after which Assange left.
What happened next will be the subject of any legal process, but according to her testimony Miss W, for some reason, got in touch with Miss A (they did not previously know each other); some days later the two went to a Stockholm police station where they said they were "seeking advice" on making a complaint against Assange. Miss A is understood to have told police that he had ripped the condom on purpose, while Miss W said the unprotected sex act had been without her consent. They were reportedly advised by the police officer that these allegations amounted to rape against Miss W and sexual molestation against Miss A.
The accusations leaked to the press two days later, shortly after which Miss A gave an interview to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. She said: "The responsibility for what happened to me and the other girl lies with a man who had attitude problems with women."
A Swedish court may yet be called upon to adjudicate on the facts of the case in due course; that has not stopped an unedifying and arguably unprecedented assault on the reputations of the two women. Described as "a seasoned feminist warrior" in the Daily Mail – not a publication that regards that term as a compliment – details of Miss A's CV, from her feminist campaigning at university, where she was the campus equalities officer, to her role in the Swedish political party that in August invited Assange to speak, are widely available. Another website that reasserts the voice of men in the mainstream media calls her a "psychotic feminist".
What has most engaged the conspiracy theorists and Assange's more excitable defenders, however, are a few key incidents in Miss A career, in particular that she is said to have worked in the Swedish embassy in the US, and wrote her university thesis in 2007 on a vision of Cuba after the death of Castro.
This has led to widespread allegations that the woman is a CIA agent, planted as a honeytrap to bring down Assange. One blogger notes: "[Assange] just happens to meet a Swedish woman who just happens to have been publishing her work in a well-funded anti-Castro group that just happens to have links with a group led by a man at least one journalist describes as an agent of the CIA: the violent secret arm of America's foreign policy.
"Cuba … just happens to be the global symbol of successful defiance of American foreign policy … [while Assange] just happens to be the man America's political class – the people who run America's foreign policy – have been trying to silence."
Video footage of the other woman attending the event addressed by Assange is also available, meanwhile; her details and the name of her partner, an American artist, are also circulating.
Assange's defenders will argue that he, too, has been the subject of a vigorous online and media assault, that has intensified with the rape arrest. The NBC journalist Matt Lauer greeted news of Assange's arrest by declaring "the international manhunt for Julian Assange is over", although no warrant was issued until Monday night, after which the Australian, whose whereabouts were not unknown, immediately presented himself at a police station.
With Assange due to reappear in court on 14 December, his immediate future is clear, even if what will happen after that date, to the man and his website, is anyone's guess. The lives of his two accusers, however, whether he is guilty or not, are likely to be depressingly predictable. "Spread the word," reads another site, "Julian Assange's lying rape accusers are [Miss A and Miss W]. These women need to be exposed for what they have done. I'm adding some more pictures that my readers have found. Here's one …," says one website.
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Sources: Guardian.co.uk, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps
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