“what does the u.s. have to do with a swedish extradition process?” assange asked. “why is it that me, a non-profit free speech activist, is subject to a $360,000 bail? why is it that i am kept under electronic house arrest when i have not even been charged in any country, when i have never been a fugitive?” well the answer mr. assange, is that you revealed the truth.  and not “all” of the truth is generally required.

if you don’t know much about this start reading yourself, but here’s a TV guide version of this tragedy. wikileaks founder julian assange finally lost his uk supreme court fight against extradition to sweden to face accusations of sex offenses (apparently having consensual sex in sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment for a minimum of two years for rape). some of the claims were filed by anna ardin, an accuser with alleged CIA ties. ardin had worked with “las damas de blanco” a feminist anti-castro group in cuba backed by the CIA. apparently ardin had slept with assange on more than one occassion and after the last one had thrown a party in assange’s honour at her flat after the alleged ‘crime’ and tweeted to her followers that she is with, “the world’s coolest smartest people.” somehow, she turned on him afterwards. ardin also happens to be the author of a 7-step guide on legal revenge of cheating boyfriends. the plot thickens. whatever it was, the CIA or the jealousy we could actually understand both. what we can’t understand is sweden? the assange case was originally thrown out of the court by one judge for lack of evidence, months later another “lay judge” (lay judges are appointed in sweden because of their political affiliations to adjudicate in criminal proceedings and have no formal legal training), this lay judge suddenly reopened the case and issued a warrant for assange (all of this as clinton and the rest of world powers were condemning wikileaks). now what has resulted in england is also expected, but of all places sweden? we saw the nords as the pillars of true democracy without the for-sale sign. it appears sweden is no longer any different than the rest. they best take good care of him, we will need people like that. by jm (george orwell’s niece)