Assange - The Stain of Blood Is Upon Their Hands

SCROLL down for blog comment & further information LINK to transcript of VIDEO - here COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news report Julian Assange to RT: WikiLeaks gives 'most accurate picture of war' Uploaded on 24 Oct 2010 SOURCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBsMK1eQ7A8 ⟴   We Expect A Counter-Attack RT News Reporter Last question.  The Pentagon have put their PR machine into operation after you released the Afghan War Diaries.  What are you expecting from them this time around? Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Well, we expect a similar sort of counter-attack.  Every time you release something like this, we expect a counter-attack.  You're never quite sure what it is.  It tends to be a different thing, [that] each time is seized upon and then amplified [cough].  here ⟴ Sex Allegations Sweden ⟴ " ... Assange has previously suggested that the allegations are part of a smear campaign following his website's release of thousands of secret US Army documents relating to Afghanistan."  here ⟴ Stain of Blood On Their Hands ⟴ Well, it looks like America eventually found a less predictable and waaaaaay more creative solution, than mere propaganda as the follow-up, counter-response to WikiLeaks releases  ... ... or Sweden just happened to fortuitously and coincidentally oblige with: (a) a pretext to legally assault and decommission, WikiLeaks editor, Julian Assange (via Sweden police 'allegations', minus proper procedures, minus proper recording of prosecution witnesses, minus a key sworn statement, obtained as result of 'informal' interview between friends and police associates, police database tampering, dismissed by  Stockholm's chief prosecutor Eva Finne for lack of sufficient evidence, etc);  (b) arrest Julian Assange. Oddly, by proxy (UK authorities, on behalf of Sweden, on behalf of USA, rather than direct arrest by Sweden, on behalf of their acknowledged US masters - see links below), when Sweden had ample opportunity to interview and arrest, while Assange remained in Sweden, before asking Swedish authorities for permission to travel from Sweden). Allegations against Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, took an unexpected turn yesterday when Sweden's top prosecutor announced she was reopening a rape investigation. It is the second time the country's authorities have made a U-turn over whether the Australian-born journalist should face charges. The warrant was abruptly rescinded within 24 hours and last week Stockholm's chief prosecutor Eva Finne said all charges against the 39-year-old would be dropped. But Ms Finne's boss, Marianne Ny, Sweden's chief prosecutor, has overruled that decision after new information reportedly came to light on Tuesday.  [above, source - here] ⟴ It looks like the Stockholm prosecutor Finne has most likely been overruled from the top. And I'm not talking overruled merely by Ms Marianne Ny. Overruled by whoever Marianne Ny answers to in government, which has stake (and is lawfully entitled to intervene) in matters concerning the state and foreign diplomacy. ⟴ Perhaps arrest by proxy was chosen, in an attempt to mask this farce and to create an appearance of the assault on Julian Assange as a 'genuine' article, in a way that a direct Swedish arrest may not have conveyed. Delayed, proxy arrest (which included the spectacle of a EAW, Interpol Red Notice, Swedish leak to press, and a London arrest), was also possibly effected to get maximum PR mileage (propaganda, manufacture of consent, smear) out of staging a performance for all that fenzied (and expected) media coverage.  (c) de facto imprisonment of Julian Assange for almost 5 years in total now without charge, trapping WikiLeaks editor in the Ecuador embassy in London for 3 years now (where he has been granted political asylum), at the threat of arrest and extradition to Sweden (which would pave the way to subsequent extradition to USA). The arrest of Assange was executed to decommission Assange, while no doubt allowing the US time to build its 120-man taskforce case in America. Note:  Assange has committed no crime, so the US has to work towards creating such 'crime' - and that's heading in the direction of redefining journalism as 'terrorism').  I find it very hard to believe Assange has been detained for 5 years and is in grave danger of extradition to the US,  simply because of mere 'accident,' 'misunderstanding,' 'bad luck', or merely the result of jealousies which arose from obliging those Swedish women ... who were keen to bed Assange. I'm more inclined to believe  the events in Sweden were a set-up. ⟴ Breathtaking Hypocrisy & Flagrant Political Persecution British Foreign Office minister, Hugo Swire, hypocritically spoke of a 'stain' on Ecuador's reputation for (rightfully and lawfully) granting politically persecuted journalist, Julian Assange, political asylum:  British Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire said in a statement Thursday that it would make a formal protest to Ecuador over its decision to provide asylum to Assange. "Ecuador must recognize that its decision to harbor Mr Assange more than three years ago has prevented the proper course of justice," said Swire in a statement. British police have guarded Ecuador's London Embassy around the clock at an estimated cost of more than US$15.6 million, which has placed pressure on the British government to resolve the long-standing issue. Swire alleged that the harboring of Assange constituted an abuse of diplomatic relations and was a “growing stain on the country’s reputation." This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuador-Says-UK-Criticism-Over-Julian-Assange-Unacceptable-20150817-0021.html ⟴ As witnessed by the British Foreign Office propaganda attack on Educator, instead of censure of Sweden's refusal to progress this matter and to interview Julian Assange in London, it's plain to see that Britain and Sweden have obviously colluded (and continue to collude) with US authorities to deprive Julian Assange of liberty, with a view to eventually handing up Julian Assange to USA.  ⟴ From where I stand, Sweden's politicians and public servants - along with their British and US counterparts - collectively have the stain of Julian Assange's blood on their corrupt hands. By that I mean, theirs is the guilt of taking life - the life of Julian Assange, presently detained 5 years without charge, at the threat of arrest and extradition to a country in which he will be entombed alive, for daring to expose American war crimes. ⟴ The footsoldiers of the powerful have stolen 5 years of Julian Assange's life by imposing a corruptly engineered, and politically motivated, de facto captivity that is in flagrant breach of international law, aimed at only one thing:  extradition of Julian Assange to the United States to face life imprisonment or a death sentence, on trumped up 'espionage' charges or the like, that the US Dept of Justice team is probably banging out in some form or other, right now. (Hey, this contempt for international law and conventions, and the fondness for trumped up accusations, seems to be a recurring theme ... lol). The players also happen to be same footsoldiers of the powerful, who, in turn, are stained with the blood of tens of thousands of civilians killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon them is the stain of actual blood of war crimes (exposed by Assange), and they and their public representatives are grimly determined in their aim to put Assange away. So, behind the recent public propaganda statement attack on Ecuador, behind the pending official complaint/attack on Assange,  and behind the 5 year de facto without-charge imprisonment of Julian Assange,  are the same powers that are responsible for the war crimes in Iraq & Aghanistan exposed by WikiLeaks.  In the case of Iraq:  from war waged following US manufacture of false pretext for invasion  (ie 'weapons of mass destruction'). How psychopathic does this get? Rightfully, British Foreign Office ought to be condemning Sweden for its inaction and failure to progress this undemocratic and baseless legal assault on journalist-publisher, Julian Assange. Despite ample opportunity, it is Sweden that has failed to act - over the space of 5 years.  And the world knows it. ⟴ Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the British role in the political persecution of  journalist, Julian Assange (who was excluded in 2014 from changes in British law to prevent exactly this kind of without-charge unjust detention), the British Foreign Office has slunk as low as to resort to publicly smearing and condemning Ecuador. Perverse conduct, in the form of attack on Ecuador by the British, is a 'tell' that patently shows the British hand in this injustice and ongoing political persecution. With straight faces, British officials call for 'justice' as a leverage and as media smear, in an attempt to impose injustice upon Julian Assange, based on the falsehood of Sweden police allegations and the farce of Sweden government's and Sweden prosecution's failure to take appropriate action (carefully sidestepping even interviewing Assange during the 5 years he has been a political prisoner in England). The same British authorities that assault the sovereignty of Ecuador insult the intelligence of the watching world. But the world knows that these same colluding authorities are behind the Sweden set-up, the politician persecution, and denial of justice - and denial of rightful, internationally recognised, protections - to whistleblower journalist Julian Assange. Naturally, Ecuador rejects this outrageous political smear ⟴  ⟴ Bring the Sick Bucket ⟴ USA Threatens Sovereign Nations ⟴ USA Seeks to Influence Foreign Court Cases ⟴ USA Even Targets United Nations ⟴ Sweden Could Not Say 'No' To USA (Even If It Wanted To) ⟴ source | slate | here ⟴ ⟴ Sweden's US-Anglo Alliance Ties Sweden US Subservience & Collaboration A troubling History  ⟴ Sweden Secret Mass Spying Agreement With USA & UK After 50 years of secret cooperation, in 2004, Sweden established formal and even closer ties between the Swedish FRA (National Defence Radio Establishment - more info here) and the Authority's signal scout colleagues in the US:  namely, NSA (world famous for mass surveillance of entire countries, allied heads of government and corporate spying), and the British GCHQ - in direct cooperation. [here] ⟴ ⟴ LINK  |  Sweden's secret mass spying agreement with the US & UK http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.svt.se%2Fnyheter%2Fsverige%2Fdokument-avslojar-fra-s-hemliga-avtal-med-usa Sweden | More http://wikileaks.org/IMG/html/Affidavit_of_Julian_Assange.html [source:  here] ⟴ Sweden Joins 'Five Eyes' US, UK & Allied Intelligence Cooperative British investigative journalist Duncan Campbell gave an indication of the scale of collaboration between Sweden, the US and Britain at a European Parliament hearing on state surveillance in early September. “A new organization has joined the “Five Eyes” and is seen as the largest cooperating partner to [the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters] GCHQ outside the English-speaking countries—and that is Sweden,” he said. [here]  ⟴ Interesting that, journalist, Duncan Campbell makes an 'appearance'. Cambell revealed the existence of the ECHELON surveillance program in 1988 (US-Anglo 'Five Eye' alliance satellite trunk communications sweeping intercepts). Campbell knows all about intelligence, security, and British political persecution from up close and personal - here. ⟴ Sweden Bows to US Pressure Copyright Infringement According to an unreleased US Embassy cable in possession of Swedish Television, the US pressure on Sweden to deal with file-sharing issues continued in the years that followed. In the cable, which dates back to 2008, the US Embassy presented a list of six items that they wanted to see addressed, all related to online copyright infringement. A year later, five of these six items were indeed turned into action, including the appointment of more copyright police and prosecutors, backed up by educational anti-piracy campaigns. Of course, the Pirate Bay wasn’t left unmentioned in this cable either. The cable writer mentions that it was hard for the Embassy to get openly involved in piracy related issues, because most of the press coverage was unfavorable towards the copyright industry. “The Pirate Bay raid was portrayed as the Government of Sweden caving in to United States Government pressure. This delicate situation made it difficult, if not counter-productive, for the Embassy to play a public role in IPR issues,” it adds.  [here] Bear in mind, that the above Sweden-US (& allies) collaboration history is not  an exhaustive study in Swedish-US collaboration.  Even so, the above is sufficient as an indication of where Sweden likely stands with regard to USA and its 'problem,' WikiLeaks and journalist-publisher, Julian Assange. If Sweden bends to American pressure and will do so on relatively insignificant matters (ie not designated as 'national security' issues) such as copyright, imagine the pressure the US would bring down to bear.  And imagine the Swedish (& other government) inclination to bend to such US pressure ... if we pretend for one moment that Sweden (or UK) were an 'unwilling' accomplices in the persecution and de facto imprisonment of Julian Assange, publisher-journalist who exposed US and allied war crimes.  Defence Secretary Robert Gates on the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange 7 December 2010 "Gates said it sounded good to him." 91,000 Afghans killed (incl. civilians, soldiers & militants) Number who have died through indirect causes related to the war est. additional 360,000 people [here] coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents (ie concealment of civilian casualties) ⟴ 6 US soldiers killed [ Sec Def Robert Gates Video 7/12/2010 ]  while Gates refers to 'serious losses' before telling us how he's revived by visiting the scene of mass scale death visited upon Afghanistan by USA US War Casualties - Afghanistan Total US Dead:  2,316 as at June 2015 [here] For some perspective on what may count as 'serious losses,' maybe Gates ought to take a look at the Afghan dead figures (*) 2010     30     31     24     19     34     60     65     55     42     50     53     33     2010 TOTAL:  496 Considering this is an invasion of another country, just shy of 500 dead in 2010 isn't exactly big numbers, when you compare this to losses on the other side. The grand total of US dead for the entire Afghanistan operation is: 2,316 But the US figures don't look so good when it comes to injuries sustained:  massive number of US injured, which comes at an immediate & long-term cost to the taxpayer. Military US War Casualties - Iraq 'Operation Iraqi Freedom'  - page 22 Total US Dead:  4,412 mostly Army then abt. 1/4 Marines as at Dec 2014 MASSIVE number of wounded US Wounded Total:  31,949 as at Dec 2014 [here] US War Casualties - Afghanistan Total US Dead:  2,316 as at June 2015 (ie During 14 Years of US Occupation) [here] Further Confirmation US Deaths -  here ⟴ [Note:  Above Nations Complicit] ⟴ WikiLeaks Exposes War Crimes IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN [ Slate  |  here ] ⟴ Arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange 7 December 2010 "Gates said it sounded good to him." ⟴  WikiLeaks Collateral Murder IRAQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0 Uploaded on 7 Dec 2010 Defence Secretary Robert Gates Afghanistan COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Robert Gates airforce |  recruited CIA 1966 Strategic Air Command as an intelligence officer intelligence briefings rejoined the CIA as an intelligence analyst left the CIA in 1974 > staff of National Security Council returned to the CIA in late 1979 [ Gates nominated as Director of CIA  1987 Withdrew his name after it became clear the Senate would reject the nomination due to controversy about his role in the Iran-Contra affair. ]  1991 -  nominated 2nd time by Pres George H. W. Bush confirmed & sworn Director of CIA (under President George H. W. Bush) "...former division chief Melvin Goodman testified that the agency was the most corrupt and slanted during the tenure of William Casey with Gates serving as Deputy. According to Goodman, Gates was part of an agency leadership that proliferated false information and ignored 'reality'. National Intelligence Council chairman Harold P. Ford testified that during his tenure, Gates had transgressed professional boundaries" close to many figures who played significant roles in the Iran-Contra Affair and was in a position to have known of their activities. served for 26 years in CIA and the National Security Council MA history Indiana Uni 1966 PhD in Russian & Soviet history | Georgetown Uni in 1974 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates I'm going to hazard a guess and say that US Secretary of Defence & CIA man Robert Gates knew exactly what kind of predicament Julian Assange was in when he was arrested on those rather handy Sweden police 'sexual misconduct' allegations  on 7 Dec. 2010. Mood Music   COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Red Right Hand source:  https://youtu.be/RrxePKps87k ⟴  (I like the drama of this song & it fits in with vision I have of the entire across-borders psychopathic government alliance and political persecution of Assange. Mute Robert Gates & watch him while also listening to Nick Cave.)  ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- Other PLEASE SUPPORT Journalist, Julian Assange Under Siege Ecuador embassy, London (3 Years) Detained 5 Years No Charge FAQ & Support https://justice4assange.com/ Collateral Murder WikiLeaks Iraq https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0 ⟴ While I may have encountered Afghanistan war death figures in the media before, I don't have a recall of what little I may have read.  So this is probably the first time I've given the figures any real thought. I'm yet to read articles relating to WikiLeaks and the Afghanistan War Logs (although by now I must have encountered some, since forgotten, mentions in the press).  ꕤ

Video - RT News - Transcript - Julian Assange - Iraq War Logs

TRANSCRIPT [For quotations, confirm audio] Final SOURCE - VIDEO Title YouTube Upload:  Julian Assange to RT:  WikiLeaks gives 'most accurate picture of war' Channel:  RTNews Duration:   [8:17] Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBsMK1eQ7A8 RT News Reporter So these documents come from the US military, so lot of them are obviously about US involvement.  What about implications for the UK? Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Well, it's 400,000 classified reports:  field reports by the US army, and some intelligence reports are by marines intelligence in there, as well. The US Army, of course, was the - was and *is* - the dominant military force in Iraq.  Its presence is everywhere.  So it intersects with the operations of the CIA; it intersects with the operations of US Special Forces; it intersects with the operations of the UK military and other coalition partners.  It intersects with Iraqi police and so on. But it is not reports by those other groups, they are reports through the eyes of the US army. RT News Reporter What have we learnt that's new from these documents, or is it just the sheer scale of that we're talking about? Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Well, you know, when you increase the scale of something, it does become new.  So we have learnt that the - we have counted now, 122,000 civilian casualties in the war.  This material has revealed 15,000 previously unreported, undocumented, civilian casualties. That's an extraordinary number of people to have never have been spoken about before. That's the equivalent to five (5) 9-11s.  That is something that is very important. We also see the cover-up of torture by coalition forces, well after  Abu Ghraib; a concrete policy - secret policy - to not intervene with torture conducted by the fledgeling Iraqi government, and thousands of cases relating to that.  Some of them, to give an example, of how bad the situation is; some of them resulted in detainees in the custody of the Iraqi government deliberately confessing to being terrorists, in order to get transferred into US custody where the conditions were better. So, if you think about it, this is - you're retained by the Iraqi police and you stand up and say "I am Osama bin Laden" equivalent, in order to be treated better.  That's how severe their conditions were. Flagrant violations of the rules of law, such as the deliberate slaying of people in the act of surrender. RT News Reporter I mean, you've talked yourself before about the everyday squalor of war.  I mean, a war scenario is something extraordinary. We've done quite a lot of work with soldiers who have PTSD and other sort of combat related conditions.  I mean, it's just a different environment that we can't possibly imagine. Should our sort of - our kind of ... moral ... moral opinions be applied to that scenario? Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Well, we should start imagining it or stop doing it.  Or stop supporting it. It's not good to support things that you do not understand, and this is the most accurate description of a war that has ever been released into the historic record.  There is nothing comparable. It is the details of the deaths of 109,000 people; the wounding of some 170,000 people; the detainment of nearly 200,000 people during a course of six (6) years. And, of course, that's only about half the military action that went on during that period, because it's only the US view on things.  But, even so, extraordinary. We see that there's nearly no street corner in Baghdad that didn't have a body found that had been killed through violence in one form or another.  This everyday squalor of war, of course, for the people in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq was *their* everyday life for years and years, and we need to understand what the reality of war is, if we're going to choose to engage in it. And it's clear that the reasons for getting into this war - the 'weapons of mass destruction' and so on - this is a clear lie.  There's no debate about this anymore. And the other - the second most stated reason that we would - 'we,' being the West - would clean up the government system of Iraq, introduce rule of law and prevent torture, has completely failed.  During that period of time lawlessness, absence of rule of law, and arbitrary killing, were much higher than they were under Saddam Hussein; and now we are left with an Iraqi government that commits torture. RT News Reporter Last question.  The Pentagon have put their PR machine into operation after you released the Afghan War Diaries.  What are you expecting from them this time around? Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Well, we expect a similar sort of counter-attack.  Every time you release something like this, we expect a counter-attack.  You're never quite sure what it is.  It tends to be a different thing, [that] each time is seized upon and then amplified [cough].  Last it time it was names appearing in the material, which the Pentagon managed to successfully fool the press into believing was going to be a great big assassination list for the Taliban.  But, in fact, nearly all of those names were right to appear:  they were the names of governors who were taking bribes by the US military, or the names of radio stations that were taking bribes to put on propaganda content.  Not at all something that can lead to a proper, democratic state and, as recently as last week, NATO officials in Kabul said that they could not find a single person that needed protecting or moving. The Pentagon says that not a single person has been wounded or killed, and a letter has come out that was originally written on August 16th by Defence Secretary Gates to a US Senator, stating that no sensitive intelligence sources or methods - no sensitive intelligence sources or methods - were revealed in that material.  But, of course, that wasn't the public line. The public line was that, in fact, many had been revealed.  So we  this was just some kind of propaganda. I don't think - they've tried that in the - that was the first card that they played in the release of this material about Iraq.  We expected that it would be the first card that they would play, which is why we went through extra steps to make sure it couldn't be distracted from in that way.  But I also think that they have overstepped their previous position and the  press and the public knows this now, so they can't keep on trying the same old trick. People should understand that - not the Pentagon as a whole, because there are good people in it, but at the top - the Pentagon issues statements which are simply not credible.  It has done so for years.  It has been exposed by various members of the press (including us), and, you know, from our point of view, looking at these attacks on us, the Pentagon's public statements are about as credible as that of North Korea. ..............  8:17 end   .............. COMMENT Best line was: "Pentagon's public statements are about as credible as that of North Korea". Find it had to believe that there's any nice people at the Pentagon. Text checked against audio.  Couple of corrections made. OTHER Link to related blog post - here ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- Please support journalist, Julian Assange Under Siege Ecuador embassy, London (3 Years) Detained 5 Years No Charge FAQ & Support https://justice4assange.com/ ꕤ

Bush's Hatchet Man Unelected 'Co-President' of USA & His Special Relationship With Sweden

LONG READ BUCKLE YOUR SEATBELTS   Karl Rove Bush advisor / unelected  'co-President' "Karl Rove's career in U.S. President George W. Bush's administration began shortly after the first inauguration of George W. Bush in January 2001." [here] "... authors of [book] Bush’s Brain produce material that underscores the fact that for the first time in modern history a president attained office through outright criminality." [WSWS] Rise of Bush & Rove, apparently, coincided with the rise of "semi-fascist elements from the Christian right," and Rove is said to "represents the rise of political gangsterism in the Republican Party." [below & here] "In 2002 and 2003 Rove chaired meetings of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), an internal White House working group established in August 2002, eight months prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. WHIG was charged with developing a strategy "for publicizing the White House's assertion that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the United States." [here] Long-term friend of then Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt (prior PM, said to be the power behind the Sweden PM 'throne' - PM said to defer to him.  Bildt exposed as US spy & in English (elsewhere) here (re Expressen's attempt at casting this as 'smear', see WikiLeaks press release - here. More on Bildt: This is the same Carl Bildt who was recruited by the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a lobby group trying to garner support for a US invasion of the country, and who even went so far as to defend the idea of a preemptive strike against the country. This same Carl Bildt, through investments in holding companies, profited in the millions by the invasion he helped bring about.  [source] Long-term friend & advisor of then Swedish PM, Fredrik Reinfeldt Julian Assange, journalist/publisher, WikiLeaks, who released: the Collateral Murder video on 5th April 2010 (depicting US war crimes); and the Afghan War Logs: 2004-2010 (comprising 91,000 US reports), on 25 July 2010); before going on to release the Iraq War Logs (comprising 391,832 US reports) that same year:  October, 2010.   EXTRACTS  [this section - not strict order] Bush’s hatchet man: two biographies of Karl Rove Bush’s Brain and Boy Genius By Joanne Laurier 19 July 2003 Both volumes are muckraking accounts of Rove’s career, but despite their varying levels of criticism, the journalist/authors cannot help but express admiration for him. At various moments, it becomes clear that the authors measure Rove by the standards of contemporary American culture: Rove is a success, a “winner” and not a “loser,” no matter how unattractive he is as a personality and political type. Bush’s Brain begins by claiming that Rove is “something grander” than a presidential advisor. “His influence marks a transcendent moment in American politics: the rise of an unelected consultant to a position of unprecedented power,” which may “raise” constitutional questions. The book’s authors describe Rove as the “co-president of the United States.” This is a remarkable assertion, but even more remarkable is the failure of the authors to grasp that the rise of an unelected consultant takes place as the consequence of the rise of an unelected president! Rove’s prominence is one expression of the quasi-Bonapartist character of the Bush administration. “Cabinet appointments were vetted through him [Rove], judicial nominations crossed his desk, as did the details of a proposed energy bill, administration policy on stem-cell research, steel tariffs, and health care policy. Nearly every speech was shown to Rove before it was delivered,” asserts Boy Genius. This wide portfolio is all the more significant because Rove seems to have little interest in the substance of policy, outside of its impact on maintaining political office. He rose through the ranks of the Republican Party as a career political operative, concerned mainly with the process of manipulating public opinion to produce a desired electoral result. While a hard-core right-winger, Rove is not a product of the Christian fundamentalists, the neo-conservatives, the Southern racists or other factions of the contemporary far right. He comes from a slightly earlier, but equally foul, political tradition—the McCarthyite red-baiter. Born in Denver in 1950, Rove grew up in Colorado, Utah and Nevada. Beginning his political career as a die-hard Nixonite (from age 9), Rove “escaped the Vietnam draft, but loathed everything those anti-war protesters on TV stood for,” according to Boy Genius. “I came from a relatively conservative state, Utah, and it was hard to sympathize with all those Commies,” proclaimed Rove. After dropping out of college, Rove’s first foray into dirty tricks campaigning was in Illinois in 1970. The notion that Bush is unchallengeable, a quasi-mythical being, is patently absurd and, more than anything, demonstrates the political outlook of these supposed critics. The temporary success of the Bush-Rove team has less to do with their innate strength than with the historic collapse of liberalism and the prostration of the Democratic Party. The current crisis arising from the exposure of Bush administration lies about Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction,” whatever its immediate outcome, demonstrates the fundamentally narrow social base of the present regime and its inherent political weakness. Bush’s eventual victory was only due to the machinations of the Republican Party on election night and in Florida in the subsequent weeks, a conspiracy in which Rove was centrally involved, culminating in the anti-democratic ruling by the US Supreme Court that shut down vote-counting. To help his clients win office, Rove conducted “whisper wars”—a genteel way of saying slander campaigns—against political opponents. Whispers of homosexuality in the Texas state government purportedly undermined the gubernatorial campaign of incumbent Ann Richards in her unsuccessful 1994 fight against Rove’s client George W Bush. The same tactic was used in the 2000 GOP primary against John McCain. Rumors were circulated that McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, had become mentally unhinged as a result of his imprisonment. Although Bush was Rove’s premier asset—“the keys to the kingdom”—the latter maintained a list of private business clients who paid for his political advice. Among them was tobacco giant Philip Morris, which hired Rove to provide “political intelligence.” Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Angolan anti-communist guerrilla leader and mass murderer Jonas Savimbi also paid Rove to lobby for them. The authors of Bush’s Brain produce material that underscores the fact that for the first time in modern history a president attained office through outright criminality. Documents released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) some 19 months after the election reveal that the Bush team flew an estimated 250 operatives to Florida to disrupt the vote recount. Dubbed the “Brooks Brothers Riots” (after the upscale clothing worn by the disrupters), a successful effort was organized to stop the recount in Miami-Dade county of the estimated 10,000 “undervotes”—ballots for which no presidential choice had been registered by the original machine count. The authors of Bush’s Brain contend that “Rove represents a new species of advisor,” a “product of the permanent campaign, the co-president, whose relationship with Bush, and his faithful guidance, have put him at the heart of power in a manner unknown to previous political consultants and U.S. electoral history.” But Rove must be placed within the appropriate political context—the takeover of the Republican Party by semi-fascist elements from the Christian right. He represents the rise of political gangsterism in the Republican Party, and his current political “success” is the product of the alliance of these forces with the Christian fundamentalists, for which he has been a leading facilitator. In general, the authors elevate Rove’s role at the expense of other members of the Bush administration, such as Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Both books tend to exaggerate his significance in order to avoid a more probing analysis of the present government and the political and social crisis in America. Nonetheless, the ascent of this right-wing mediocrity, whose only apparent skill is manipulation and deceit, to the highest levels of power is telling. It is one expression of the decay of bourgeois democracy in the US and the degeneration of the ruling elite as a whole. In the final analysis, semi-criminal elements like Rove come out of the woodwork to attempt to rescue, by any means necessary, a fatally diseased American capitalism. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/07/rove-j19.html ************************************************* “The attacks on us are extraordinarily revealing” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks with WSWS By Richard Phillips 16 March 2012 Richard Phillips: Can you comment on the latest details of the United States grand jury indictment and what happens if you’re extradited to Sweden? Julian Assange: The new evidence that emerged from the Stratfor files—emails from a Texas-based private intelligence agency—show that the US government has obtained a secret grand jury indictment against me. The US ambassador to the United Kingdom, Louis Susman, stated in February 2011 that the US government would wait and see what happened with the current Swedish extradition case as to whether it would pursue extradition itself. The US ambassador to Australia [Jeffrey L. Bleich], one week prior to Obama’s recent visit, also told the Australian media that the Australian government might have to consider its extradition obligations in relation to me, presumably in case I returned to Australia. And while WikiLeaks has many of its people under legal attack, the organisation itself is also under an extra-judicial financial blockade. There are some 40 people who have been swept up in operations by the FBI, Scotland Yard or other police forces. ...  Even if we are successful in the Supreme Court, the situation will be similar because the United States is likely to unseal its espionage charges through the grand jury and apply directly for my extradition from Great Britain. RP: Do you have any detailed information on direct collusion between Britain, the US and Sweden over your extradition? JA: What we can say publicly is that on December 8, 2010, the Independent newspaper published a report about informal contacts that were already occurring at that stage between the US and Sweden in relation to my extradition. The Australian embassy in Washington also sent a cable to Canberra round this time, stating that the US intelligence and criminal investigation into WikiLeaks was of “unprecedented scale and nature.” It also said that the criminal prosecution in relation to me was “active and vigorous”. That material was the result of a Freedom of Information request and printed in the Sydney Morning Herald a few months ago. The UK crown prosecution service has also refused a request under the Freedom of Information Act in relation to communications over potential extradition arrangements, stating that it would affect Great Britain’s diplomatic relations with other countries. In the middle of last year, the UK’s extradition reform panel, which was appointed by the home secretary, met with Eric Holder, the US attorney general, and a number of members of the Defence Department in the United States. In addition, there have been other recent meetings between Carl Bildt, the Swedish minister of foreign affairs [and close friend of Karl Rove], and William Haig, the UK foreign affairs minister. RP: Can you comment on the role being played by Australia’s Gillard government? JA: The reaction by the Gillard government to WikiLeaks activities, in particular our release of the US diplomatic cables, was publicly the worst of any nation. Gillard falsely stated that our organisation was engaged in illegal activities. This was found to be false by an Australian Federal Police investigation. Together with the attorney general, she initiated a “whole of government task force” against WikiLeaks, recruiting the Australian Federal Police, the external intelligence agency ASIS, the domestic intelligence agency ASIO, the defence department and the attorney general’s department. Publicly, Gillard has not issued a single statement of support and we are not aware of any private support. The US government is trying to erect a new interpretation of what it means to be a journalist. It wants any communications with a source to be viewed legally as a conspiracy. In other words, it wants journalists to be completely passive receptacles for others. But this is simply not how national security journalism has been traditionally done. If they succeed, it will be the end of national security journalism in the West as we know it. These attacks on us have also been picked up by other countries and used to legitimise their own crackdowns. For example, two Swedish journalists are currently being jailed in Ethiopia. They were investigating a Swedish oil company by the name of Lundin—Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt had previously been a director of the company—but have been sentenced to 11 years jail in Ethiopia on terrorism charges. The Ethiopian prime minister says that it is perfectly acceptable to treat journalists this way and has pointed to my circumstances as justification. The issues facing WikiLeaks are entirely political and therefore a matter of public concern. My message to people everywhere is: do not wait until WikiLeaks is bankrupted or its members extradited to the United States before acting. It will be too late then. If people act strongly now, then the organisation will succeed. WikiLeaks has a lot of support and we’re battle hardened now. We’re not going down without a fight and if everyone pulls together then we will win. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/03/jass-m16.html *************************************************   MUST READS Rove Suspected In Swedish-U.S. Political Prosecution of WikiLeaks  EXTRACT Rove has advised Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt for the past two years after resigning as Bush White House political advisor in mid-2007. Legal Schnauzer blogger Roger Shuler scooped me on the story about Rove's Swedish work in a Dec. 14 column, "Is Karl Rove Driving the Effort to Prosecute Julian Assange?" But a big part of our role as web journalists should be following up on each other's work. Shuler is an expert on how Rove-era "Loyal Bushies" undertook political prosecutions against Democrats on trumped up corruption charges across the Deep South, including against former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, his state's leading Democrat. The Siegelman case has turned into most notorious U.S. political prosecution of the decade, as readers here well know. It altered that state's politics and improved business opportunities for companies well-connected to Bush, Rove and their state GOP supporters.   FULL ARTICLE AT SOURCE http://huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kreig/rove-suspected-in-swedish_b_798737.html ************************************************* Is Karl Rove Driving the Effort to Prosecute Julian Assange?  EXTRACT That Assange's legal troubles would originate in Sweden probably is not a coincidence, our source says. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has been called "the Ronald Reagan of Europe," and he has a friendship with Rove that dates back at least 10 years, to the George W. Bush campaign for president in 2000. Reinfeldt reportedly asked Rove to help with his 2010 re-election in Sweden. On the hot seat for his apparent role in the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, Rove sought comfort in Sweden. "When [Rove] was in trouble and did not want to testify on the three times he was invited [by the U.S. Congress], he wound up in Sweden," our source says. "Further, it was [Reinfeldt] that first hired Karl when he got thrown out of the White House. "Clearly, it appears that [Rove], who claims to be of Swedish descent, feels a kinship to Sweden . . . and he has taken advantage of it several times." Why would Rove be interested in corralling Julian Assange? To help protect the Bush legacy, our source says. "The very guy who has released the documents that damage the Bushes the most is also the guy that the Bush's number one operative can control by being the Swedish prime minister's brain and intelligence and economic advisor." FULL ARTICLE AT SOURCE  http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2010/12/is-karl-rove-driving-effort-to.html  ************************************************* PM's Biographer Sees Rove Influence In Swedish Politics EXTRACT George W. Reinfeldt: The art of making a political extreme makeover Dr. Brian Palmer of Uppsala University in Sweden provided an illuminating interview on the Jan.13 edition of my Washington Update radio show regarding the influence of Karl Rove on Swedish politics as an advisor to the governing Moderate Party. FULL ARTICLE AT SOURCE  http://www.justice-integrity.org/faq/359-professor-links-rove-to-swedish-politics  Tape Five - Tequila (Gardener of Delight Remix) https://youtu.be/hyt8h2FlzMI