WikiLeaks about to hit the fan

The US finding European standards for human rights violations to be an "irritant," does not mean that the US finds human rights to be an irritant or has no interest in protecting them.

America’s Terrorist Training Camp
Posted October 30, 2001
What’s the difference between Al Qaeda and Fort Benning?

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 30th October 2001

“If any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents,” George Bush announced on the day he began bombing Afghanistan, “they have become outlaws and murderers themselves. And they will take that lonely path at their own peril.” I’m glad he said “any government”, as there’s one which, though it has yet to be identified as a sponsor of terrorism, requires his urgent attention.

For the past 55 years it has been running a terrorist training camp, whose victims massively outnumber the people killed by the attack on New York, the embassy bombings and the other atrocities laid, rightly or wrongly, at Al-Qaeda’s door. The camp is called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or WHISC. It is based in Fort Benning, Georgia, and it is funded by Mr Bush’s government.

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2001/10/30/americas-terrorist-training-camp/

Your three votes down may come from USers who aren't happy with the eloquent "defences" you offer for the US's numerous crimes.

holy hell....

Give him a court ordered HIV and std test and take it from there based on the results!

It is impossible to make judgments about what happened in private circumstances: that will be for the Swedish courts eventually to decide. But it is wrong that the notion that the allegations are simply a conspiracy or smear should go unexamined. Having been given access to the relevant Swedish police papers – including the womens' claims and Assange's rebuttal – we have felt it right to present a brief summary of the nature of the complaints, together with Assange's response. It is unusual for a sex offence case to be presented outside of the judicial process in such a manner, but then it is unheard of for a defendant, his legal team and supporters to so vehemently and publicly attack women at the heart of a rape case.

The Guardian understands that the recent Swedish decision to apply for an international arrest warrant followed a decision by Assange to leave Sweden in late September and not return for a scheduled meeting when he was due to be interviewed by the prosecutor. Assange's supporters have denied this, but Assange himself told friends in London that he was supposed to return to Stockholm for a police interview during the week beginning 11 October, and that he had decided to stay away. Prosecution documents seen by the Guardian record that he was due to be interviewed on 14 October.

The US finding European standards for human rights violations to be an "irritant," does not mean that the US finds human rights to be an irritant or has no interest in protecting them.

If there is a material difference between the US and European standards there must be a reason and it doesn't necessarily follow that the reason is the US is less concerned than Europe for human rights.

What are the accusations or charges?

Four were outlined at the hearings:

• That Assange "unlawfully coerced" Miss A by using his body weight to hold her down in a sexual manner.

• That he "sexually molested" Miss A by having sex with her without a condom when it was her "express wish" one should be used.

• That he "deliberately molested" Miss A "in a way designed to violate her sexual integrity".

• That he had sex with a second woman, Miss W, without a condom while she was asleep.

None of those mentions rape, so why is Assange being described as an alleged rapist?

The accusation in the fourth point, involving Miss W, falls into the category of rape under Swedish law.

An arrest warrant, issued on 20 August, was withdrawn the following day, when one of Sweden's chief prosecutors, Eva Finné, said she did not think there was "reason to suspect that he has committed rape". On 1 September, Marianne Ny, the Swedish director of prosecutions, overturned Finné's judgment. "Considering information available at present, my judgment is that the classification of the crime is rape," said Ny.

What is the Swedish law on rape?

Three categories of rape are defined, with different sentencing guidelines. These were described in court on Thursday by Assange's barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC, as "severe rape", "normal rape" and "minor rape". While the first carries a maximum 10-year sentence, he said, the last has no minimum sentence. The accusation relating to Assange and Miss W is held to fall into the third category.

Does this mean it would not be a crime under British law?

The charge that he had sex with Miss W while she was asleep would be a clear allegation of rape in this country. Legal experts consider that the third charge would directly correlate to an accusation of indecent assault in Britain.

Bodice ripper
Meaning
A sexually explicit romantic novel; usually in a historical setting and always with a plot involving the seduction of the heroine.

Origin
These books owe much in style to the work of English romantic novelists like Jane Austen and Emily Bronte. Nevertheless, the term itself is American. The first reference in print is from The New York Times, December 1980:

"Women too have their pornography: Harlequin romances, novels of 'sweet savagery,' - bodice-rippers."

It soon caught on and appears numerous times in the US press from that date onward. Here's an early example, in a story about [then] emerging novelist, Danielle Steel, from the Syracuse Herald Journal, New York, 1983:

"I think of romance novels as kind of bodice rippers, Steel says."

The genre is commercially highly successful, but isn't taken seriously by most literary critics. Most examples are judged by more base criteria than the classic works of Austen or the Brontes. Bodice Rippers are strictly formulaic and the plot usually involves a vulnerable heroine faced with a richer and more powerful male character, whom she initially dislikes. Later, she succumbs to lust and falls into his arms. The formula requires the books to be fat 'page turners', i.e. a plot device, usually a seduction scene, must happen at frequent intervals. Depending on the author or publishing house style, the principal characters must marry. It is virtually obligatory for the cover picture to show the swooning, ample-bosomed heroine.

US officials regard European human rights standards as an "irritant", secret cables show, and have strongly objected to the safeguards which could protect WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from extradition.

In a confidential cable from the US embassy in Strasbourg, US consul general Vincent Carver criticised the Council of Europe, the most authoritative human-rights body for European countries, for its stance against extraditions to America, as well as secret renditions and prisons used to hold terrorist suspects.

But it is wrong that the notion that the allegations are simply a conspiracy or smear should go unexamined

If the Wikileaks expose our governments' complicity in these events, & expose our governments' efforts to silence the critics of these events, then well & good, I say. Our governments should be exposed for such activities. We should know what our governments' actually condoned, despite what they were telling us at the time. Our governments should be held accountable for what they actually did in our names.

Certainly, MsOlga that's what the editor of the New York Times said as well - and this doesn't apply solely to the United States - any government should be held accountable.

In addition, every country should be held accountable if it violates against the Geneva convention.

I'm surprised that there was so little response to your post, Jane.:

In addition, every country should be held accountable if it violates against the Geneva convention.

Apparently the Guardian is convinced that any and all discussion with US officials involves those officials applying pressure on their counterparts.

But then we know all too well how those crafty and duplicitous American diplomats reveal their perfidy in one section of a secret cable but take great pains employing misleading euphemisms in another. Of course, when they wrote "review," they meant "pressure."

Of course the Council of Europe's position on human rights safeguards effects so many more people than just Julian Assange. For the Council to be treated as an "irritant" by the US government is very disturbing.