Julian Assange; Hero or Rapist? Sheesh!

This is the oddest thing. I was scanning my email today and I read an urgent report from last night from CNN's urgent news report service, that Julian Assange, of Wikileaks fame, had been charged with rape in Sweden. I was sort of taken aback but figured I'd look into it today and see if its some ginned up attempt at discrediting him for lack of anything else to do about stopping Wikileaks. Interestingly, not 10 posts later was another special CNN report saying something to the effect of 'oh never mind, the charges have been dropped'...huh?

It appears that Assange is hiding out in Sweden, where the main set of Wikileaks servers are located, because of their laws protecting journalists, while the likes of Michael Moore call him a hero and raise money for his defense. According to the San Francisco Chronicle two women who knew each other, one in her 20's and one in her 30's, came forward and charged him with rape and molestation, but the refused to file official reports....huh? They supposedly knew all about the wikileaks issue and were "afraid of his power"...huh? I'll be looking for them both, weeping on Larry King, looking for their own reality show. Apparently all charges have been dropped and this is just another strange blip in this story, which which would make this guy either a patriotic folk hero or a war criminal/rapist....huh? Assange responded on Twitter thusly:

the charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing.

According to Reuters, Co-workers have said that they were expecting the attacks and that they were all purely to discredit Wikileaks content. But Wikileaks is well beyond being just about Julian Assange and anyone who doesn't realize that is a fool.

I believe that what he has done for this country in his brave publication of documents that have definitely made him a target, and his strong stand on continuing this work is no less than patriotic and brave. The information in the documents stands as the real testament of its own worth and lacking a real press in America these days, this guy has done us a huge service.

I also know that when the powers that be are at the end of their collective ropes and can't stop something like this, they resort to this sort of discrediting of those who, at one time, might have been the Woodward and Bernsteins of this war. The playing field is so different and our information network is huge and global, but this feels to me like duct tape left over the lock on a door at the Watergate Hotel.

Michael Moore is raising money for Assange's defense and encouraging us to support him. Of course, even the floated hint of this sort of sexual impropriety could ruin not only that support, but also his life. Its a chance that you take when you go up against the big boys, and I'm sure that Assange was well aware that they would try everything to stop him. But this is so heavy handed as to seem almost like a private extortion attempt by some local assholes. It would be truly sad if this was the work of the CIA, as the SF Chronicle suggested, because if that's so then we need to pump more training into our intelligence divisions.

I hope to see more on this as it unfolds; its too good for the tabloids not to pick up. My advice to Mr. Assange is to keep your head down and, as someone smart recently said to me, draw a line around yourself, close your doors, and just stay inside until things die down.
Godspeed.

RIP Coco...you cant get there from anywhere...still working on it...