David Garcia on Fri, 12 Apr 2019 09:49:32 +0200 (CEST)


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Re: <nettime> Guardian Live on Assange's arrest



The bluring of the Swedish allegations and request for extradition and the US request for 
allegations have proved a useful smoke screen for the authorities. 

This deliberate bluring makes it particularly important that we don’t add to the fog by eliding
all the allegations into one conspiritorial box..

IMHO it means keeping the Swedish and US allegations separate and not assuming
that we know who is conspiring with whom and why. However In the midst of yesterday’s fog 
of misinformation and political posturing one fact stands out

The Swedes do not seem to have been informed in advance of arrest. The Swedish prosecutor 
expressed surprise and were unprepared.

Whatever US and Ecuador knew in advance, Sweden does not appear to have been in the loop

https://news.cision.com/aklagarmyndigheten/r/statement-regarding-media-information-on-arrest-in-london,c2786974

Whereas the US authorities had clrearly been well prepped.

We should not assume that the Swedish allegations are a groundless fabrication. The was a request for extradition in
2010 but Assange jumped bail but the request was left outstanding until 2017 when it was dropped despite the prosecutor believing 
there was a case to answer. Yesterday after Assange’s evicton and arrest the request, the Swedish prosecuting body has now confirmed 
it is reviewing whether to resume the investigation and thereby renew its extradition request.


Sweden may be less of a stooge for US ambitions than the UK (who is desperate to please the US as they imagine that it offers a 
solid alliance economic and geo-political alliance post-brexit).   

David Garcia


On 12 Apr 2019, at 01:58, Morlock Elloi <morlockelloi@gmail.com> wrote:

The principal sin is that Wikileaks undermined (by explicitly exposing crimes) the wide spread belief among subjects of modern states: "it is OK for my state/party to behave criminally, because I benefit from it, as long as they keep it quiet". This is the unpardonable offense.

If documenting crimes requires "super-empowered individual" it just means that criminals are expending enormous efforts to hide them.


Assange (and Wikileaks) has become a prime example of what military
theorist in the early 00s called a "super-empowered individual" capable
of marshaling technology and resources available to non-sate actors to

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