Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Pentagon Manhunt for Julian Assange Preceded Swedish Rape Allegations
Ann Garrison, BAR contributor
01 May 2019
Pentagon Manhunt for Julian Assange Preceded Swedish Rape Allegations
Pentagon Manhunt for Julian Assange Preceded Swedish Rape Allegations

The US government has disregarded due process and elemental honesty in pursuing its vendetta against Julian Assange.

“We are complicit in crimes against humanity when we know about them and when we don't stop them.”

Since April 11th, when British police forcibly removed Julian Assange from Ecuador’s London Embassy, there has been talk of renewing an investigation of rape allegations made against him in Sweden in 2010, even though the case was closed after all parties had been interviewed and Assange was never charged. As with most rape allegations, the only evidence is witness testimony, evaluated on the credibility and consistency of the witnesses, and the context. On the April 26 Unity4J YouTube vigil for Julian Assange, Kiwi journalist and exile Suzie Dawsonsaid that the context of the allegations against Assange included a Pentagon manhunt initiated well before the incidents in Sweden. 

“Assange was never charged with rape.”

“At the Hackers on Planet Earth Conference in New York City, Jacob Appelbaum appeared in Julian Assange’s place on July the 7th, 2010, six weeks prior to the incidents in Sweden. The reason that Jacob Appelbaum appeared on Julian’s behalf is because the Pentagon had already issued a manhunt notice on Julian Assange. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were already searching for him. And you can actually go on YouTube and watch Jacob Appelbaum’s keynote speech, and you can see him call out Homeland Security agents who stomped into that event looking for Julian Assange. And Jacob Appelbaum, at the end of his speech, actually had a doppelganger dressed as him leave through the main theatre while he took off out the back door because he was so concerned that he might be arrested and detained simply for speaking in Julian Assange’s place.

So the fact that the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security were launching this manhunt for Julian Assange six weeks prior to the Swedish incidents completely reframes the context of the situation that Julian was in in 2010. And the idea that he was only wanted for any issue relating to Sweden is a complete fallacy. They were after him six weeks prior to the Swedish incidents.”

“Homeland Security agents stomped into the event looking for Julian Assange.”

Here’s what Jacob Appelbaum said in his opening remarks at the 2010 Hackers on Planet Earth Conference.

“I want to make a little declaration for the federal agents that are standing in the back of the room and the ones that are standing in the front of the room and, to be very clear about this, I have on me, in my pocket, some money, the Bill of Rights, and a driver's license and that's it. I have no computer system. I have no telephone, I have no keys, no access to anything. There's absolutely no reason that you should arrest me or bother me. And just in case you were wondering, I'm an American born and raised. I’m an American who’s very unhappy with the way things are going.”

Shortly thereafter, Appelbaum explained his motivation for working with Wikileaks:

“I believe that we are complicit in crimes against humanity when we know about them and when we don't stop them. I think that it is quite clear that every single person in this room has in some way contributed to the War in Iraq and the War in Afghanistan, and I wonder how you all feel about knowing that you were the ones, I am the one who has funded every bullet that has shot a child and every woman who has to come home to a family that has been decimated by troops, where there is no justice, where people don't have recourse of any kind whatsoever, and where the standard operating procedure is for someone to take a 50-caliber machine gun, shoot across the engine block, and kill the driver.”

He also said that Wikileaks’s goal is justice and that it is fundamentally democratic.

“When you're talking about how some information might be worth hiding and maybe there are sometimes some secrets that should be capped, remember what you're saying is that someone else is more qualified to make a decision than you are. This is an extremely anti-democratic thought process, and you should reject it.”

At the end of Appelbaum's speech, conference organizers played the full version of the Collateral Murder videoof US soldiers shooting Iraqi civilians from an Apache helicopter. Appelbaum, who lives in Berlin, did not return to the podium.

Ann Garrison is an independent journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prizefor her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at [email protected].

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected]

Wikileaks

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Why We Must Defend Julian Assange
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Why We Must Defend Julian Assange
14 December 2021
Julian Assange is one of the political prisoners that the US claims not to have.
U.S. Corporate Media Watch: An Interview with Richard Medhurst
Richard Medhurst and Roberto Sirvent
U.S. Corporate Media Watch: An Interview with Richard Medhurst
14 December 2021
Richard and Roberto would like to dedicate this feature to Glen Ford, one of the fiercest critics of U.S.
The Julian Assange Media Blackout Must End
Branko Marcetic
The Julian Assange Media Blackout Must End
15 July 2021
Embarrassed by revelations, the Biden administration has now offered several “assurances” they would allow Assange to apply for transfer to a priso
Assange Faces Extradition For Exposing US War Crimes
Marjorie Cohn
Assange Faces Extradition For Exposing US War Crimes
14 October 2020
The prosecution of Assange would set a disturbing example for journalists and media outlets that publish information critical of the government.
Eyewitness to the Agony of Julian Assange
Timothy Erik Strom and John Pilger
Eyewitness to the Agony of Julian Assange
07 October 2020
The defendant was caged behind thick glass, and had to crawl on his knees to a slit in the glass to make contact with his lawyers.
WikiLeaks, Still Revealing Truths About Power, Officially Launches Bibliography
Patrick D. Anderson
WikiLeaks, Still Revealing Truths About Power, Officially Launches Bibliography
02 September 2020
The interpretations of and commentaries in the bibliography vary widely, from unquestionable support for WikiLeaks to outright hatred of Assange.
Free All Political Prisoners –- Including Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning
Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
Free All Political Prisoners –- Including Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning
13 February 2020
Julian Assange and his protégés have made common cause with Black revolutionaries in their zeal to lay bare the dictatorial nature of the omni-perv
Assange and Manning are Being Persecuted for Speaking Truth to Power
Leonard C. Goodman
Assange and Manning are Being Persecuted for Speaking Truth to Power
08 January 2020
Had WikiLeaks existed in 2002, a patriotic officer like Chelsea Manning might have leaked the official intelligence reports and stopped a war.
The Trials of Julian Assange
review by Michael Steven Smith
The Trials of Julian Assange
04 December 2019
A new book offers a sweeping defense of the imprisoned Wikileaks publisher.
WikiLeaks, the Global Fourth Estate: History Is Happening
Ann Garrison , BAR contributor
WikiLeaks, the Global Fourth Estate: History Is Happening
03 July 2019
WikiLeaks made it possible for whistleblowers to expose government and corporate criminals anonymously. 

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio July 1, 2022
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio July 1, 2022
    01 Jul 2022
    Reproductive justice in the wake of SCOTUS overturning Roe v. Wade, campaign to free Mumia Abu Jamal, and Frederick Douglass speech "What to the Slave is the 4th of July" read by Ossie Davis.
  • Reproductive Justice
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Reproductive Justice
    01 Jul 2022
    We discuss reproductive justice in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling which overturned the Roe v. Wade decision. Loretta Ross is co- author of the book Reproductive Justice, and co-founder of…
  • Campaign to Bring Mumia Home
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Campaign to Bring Mumia Home
    01 Jul 2022
    Gwen Debrow of the Campaign to Free Mumia joins to tell us what we can do to go all out for Mumia during the July 3rd nationwide actions.
  • "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" read by Ossie Davis
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" read by Ossie Davis
    01 Jul 2022
    On July 5, 1852 Frederick Douglass was asked to speak on the topic of the nation’s independence celebration. Now known as What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, the speech was a stinging…
  • Democrats Exposed By the End of Roe v. Wade
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Democrats Exposed By the End of Roe v. Wade
    29 Jun 2022
    The full extent of Democratic Party treachery was exposed when the Roe v. Wade decision was overturned. Only right wing Americans have any expectation of getting what they want from the electoral…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us