Julian Assange Gets The Bog Standard Smear Technique 1895


The Russians call it Kompromat – the use by the state of sexual accusations to destroy a public figure. When I was attacked in this way by the government I worked for, Uzbek dissidents smiled at me, shook their heads and said “Kompromat“. They were used to it from the Soviet and Uzbek governments. They found it rather amusing to find that Western governments did it too.

Well, Julian Assange has been getting the bog standard Kompromat. I had imagined he would get something rather more spectacular, like being framed for murder and found hanging with an orange in his mouth. He deserves a better class of kompromat. If I am a whistleblower, then Julian is a veritable mighty pipe organ. Yet we just have the normal sex stuff, and very weak.

Bizarrely the offence for which Julian is wanted for questioning in Sweden was dropped from rape to sexual harassment, and then from sexual harassment to just harassment. The precise law in Swedish, as translated for me and other Sam Adams alumni by our colleague Major Frank Grevil, reads:

“He who lays hands on or by means of shooting from a firearm, throwing of stones, noise or in any other way harasses another person will be sentenced for harassment to fines or imprisonment for up to one year.”

So from rape to non-sexual something. Actually I rather like that law – if we had it here, I could have had Jack Straw locked up for a year.

Julian tells us that the first woman accuser and prime mover had worked in the Swedish Embassy in Washington DC and had been expelled from Cuba for anti-Cuban government activity, as well as the rather different persona of being a feminist lesbian who owns lesbian night clubs.

Scott Ritter and I are well known whistleblowers subsequently accused of sexual offences. A less well known whistleblower is James Cameron, another FCO employee. Almost simultaneous with my case, a number of the sexual allegations the FCO made against Cameron were identical even in wording to those the FCO initially threw at me.

Another fascinating point about kompromat is that being cleared of the allegations – as happens in virtually every case – doesn’t help, as the blackening of reputation has taken effect. In my own case I was formerly cleared of all allegations of both misconduct and gross misconduct, except for the Kafkaesque charge of having told defence witnesses of the existence of the allegations. The allegations were officially a state secret, even though it was the government who leaked them to the tabloids.

Yet, even to this day, the FCO has refused to acknowledge in public that I was in fact cleared of all charges. This is even true of the new government. A letter I wrote for my MP to pass to William Hague, complaining that the FCO was obscuring the fact that I was cleared on all charges, received a reply from a junior Conservative minister stating that the allegations were serious and had needed to be properly investigated – but still failing to acknowledge the result of the process. Nor has there been any official revelation of who originated these “serious allegations”.

Governments operate in the blackest of ways, especially when it comes to big war money and big oil money. I can see what they are doing to Julian Assange, I know what they did to me and others (another recent example – Brigadier Janis Karpinski was framed for shoplifting). In a very real sense, it makes little difference if they murdered David Kelly or terrified him into doing it himself. Telling the truth is hazardous in today’s Western political system.


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1,895 thoughts on “Julian Assange Gets The Bog Standard Smear Technique

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  • Suhayl Saadi

    Kompromat: it sounds like a 1970s make of vaccum-cleaner. Here goes!

    ‘Kompromat’, it sucks up to power wherever and whenever any threats to power emerge and it kills them (or their reputations), stone-dead. 100% effective. Don’t go for any less. Kompromat cleans your house like it’s never been cleaned before. Kompromat makes you strong. Kompromat: 99% of spy companies use it. Kompromat: buy it, use it. It’ll never let you down. Kompromat.

  • wendy

    ‘Telling the truth is hazardous in todays Western polotical system” You may be right Craig. However here in Oz one whistleblower, Andrew Wilkie, along with 3 other independents and a ‘green’ will help govern this country. Et voila. I’m lovin it!

  • JimmyGiro

    Here’s a quote from Atlas Shrugged:

    “Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris.”We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against. We’re after power and we mean it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted ?” and you create a nation of law-breakers ?” and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

  • MikeD

    Great post

    Is this woman going to be charged with making a false report and why not reveal her name???

    Her links would make a good wikileaks report!

    Craig – do you know her name?

  • Ishmael

    Once they smear it is very difficult to remove that suspicion from the minds of the brainwashed. With comments like “well they would not have made those accusations if not true” Like you say your experience should be cleared and the FCO should make a public statement on your case. Its so easy to smear and dead difficult to clear. In a world were we have bent police, councils, in fact everything to control you is bent. Take the Scottish Parliament for example. Over a comparative period look at the number of new laws and regulation in comparision with the same at Westminster relating to Scotland and you will see these monkeys have nothing to do but create more legislation, more rules. The police make the law up as they go along and there is no one to enforce it. The ombudsmen protect the guilty and councils act outwith the law to which is it a waste of time reporting it to anyone as that complaint will get no where. More cops + more regulation = dictatorship. Maybe Anne Moffat was right about Salmond.

    The Conservative are worse than the Labour party, they all stink

  • GT

    MikeD – the entire world knows her name by now. Anna Ardin.

    One thing to clarify though: it’s not at all clear that she worked at the Swedish Embassy in DC. She certainly was a Foreign Office intern/junior functionary, but the DC appointment may be the result of a bad translation.

    Craig – you will not be surprised to hear that a former colleague (Andrew Wilkie, formerly of Australia’s Office of National Assessments) was also the subject of an attempted kompromat by the apparatchiki of the Australian government when he came out against the Iraq war. Funnily enough, he is about to be elected to a seat in Parliament (as an independent) and will play a HUGE role in the balance of power, given that the new government will be a minority government.

    Cheerio

    GT

    (and yes – of COURSE I have also been the target of smears… no decent chap living hasn’t).

  • bix

    You are correct in your analysis of the swedish legal concept “ofredande” which basicly covers anything unpleasant or annoying that you can do to another person without harming or threatening them.

    The translation “harassment” may not be completely right, intstead the term is used as kind of a last resort. There will be need of evidence for this to to trial however and I seriously doubt that this is the case here.

  • Tom

    The attacks on Julian Assange are a disgrace. Keep up the excellent work Wikileaks!!I will this weekend make a financial donation for this great work. We only want the truth.

  • whoever anywhere

    hm and a page (a smaller medium, working with journalists who in fact do own press passports for a longer time and write for press newspapers) – that this page got a hint about an interesting time jump re the operation of the publication itself. from expresen to a commentator at abc.

    http://tinyurl.com/33hfcyj

    comments to this?

  • MJ

    My fear is that, if they haven’t already, security services will start to use Wikileaks as a conduit for spreading disinformation, under the guise of being from genuine whistleblowers.

  • Clark

    The gradual reduction of charges – I wonder if this helps to protect the accuser from being charged with false accusation.

  • cid

    wikileaks is part of the CIA..think about it. Assange would have been killed by now if he was genuine

  • jungle

    “Telling the truth is hazardous in today’s Western political system.”

    Although I struggle to think of a time or political system under which it was substantially less hazardous.

    Powerful politicians and the truth have always had an uneasy coexistence. Here’s hoping for the truth to get more respect in the era of the internet, anyway…

  • John McNeil

    This is a historic battle between the forces of light and darkness. The dark side revels in deception, chaos, cruelty, corruption, greed,lawlessness, & war.

    The other side abhors all that, and stands for truth and justice.

    Finally in the history of this weary earth, the time for war has past. Humanity is rousing from a deep sleep. Some very good & courageous people are standing up for what is right. The truth will set us free (from all the horrors caused by corrupt leadership).

    All sane people who care about the human family, should do whatever they can to help wikileaks. If they get enough support, corrupt leaders everywhere will have to accept that there is no place to hide dirty dark secrets concerning how they’ve screwed the people.

    The corrupt ones will be replaced by competent leaders, and together we’ll build a new world on the principles of justice & peace. That is much more than just a pipe dream. It’s how it’s going to be.

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq

    Ruth,

    We remember David Cameron blaming Pakistan for helping the Taliban.

    Further to this the BBC have said today that the Taliban will kill aid workers in Pakistan.

    Hamid Gul former ISI views in 2001 still hold true today:

    veteranstoday.com/2010/07/28/arnaud-de-borchgrave-2001-interview-with-hamid-gul-former-isi-chief/

    In my opinion America ‘helped’ the ‘leaked’ documents reach Wikileaks as part of their ‘psywar’ to oust Gul’s military forces that are fully aware of the strength of deterrent of Pakistan’s nukes.

    It is these nukes that have delayed the strike on Iran. Washington is not 100% sure whether Pakistan would not retaliate after a strike on the cradle of Islam, especially if thousands of Muslims are murdered.

    I have said before and say again, America is searching for Pakistan’s nukes now aided by the terrible floods affecting a quarter of this impoverished country; it HAS to disrupt/dismantle them BEFORE Iran is crushed.

    Elite forces are left in Iraq and special forces are close to the Iran/Pakistan borders, while US financed PKK or PJAK groups attempt false-flag operations necessary to arrogate the pysops needed for another American take-over.

    Why?

    Western democracy is failing, we are bankrupt and power has moved East; the so called ‘truth’ movement is gaining strength; time is running out; past atrocities can be seen through the mist of deception; WWIV is imminent or we succumb to a new era of worshipping our existence instead of Hollywood idols.

  • Pandemic

    Was there anything in this leak that was previously unknown to the public?

    The fact that the IRA had been receiving money from wealthy Irish-Americans has been well-known for a long time.

    Wikileaks has all the hallmarks of counter-intelligence. By feeding the public with these ‘leaks’ it is diverting time and attention away from even more sinister goings on.

    Not until I see some convictions will I believe that Wikileaks is the real deal.

    If I had confidential information that I wanted to be made public, the last place I would send it would be to wikileaks.

  • Larry from St. Louis

    Craig Murray, your delusions of grandeur continue to amaze me.

    Also, pretty desperate of you to bring up Karpinski and Ritter. They seemed to be themselves part of the conspiracies against them, as they gave rise to such conduct that resulted in the accusations.

    Is Ritter suggesting that there’s a secret agent conspiracy against him? When he is soon convicted by a jury, will you then say that the jury was tainted by the conspiracy?

  • Craig

    Larry,

    I know them both – I suspect unlike you. Janis Karpinski I know really quite well. I find the allegations completely incredible. If you think that Brigadier Janis Krpinski, the most senior woman in the US Army, decided yo go shoplifting while she was revealing that Donald Rumsfeld ordered the torture at Abu Ghraib, you are extraordniarily gullible.

  • ghuyjk

    From Sweden.

    This is fore dead frets against Lars Vilks

    If muslims kill Sweden artists, is it self defense to kill muslims?

    Help to cure muslim children from islam and send this info to there internet HOME page.

    “prophet” mohammed and islam is haram.

    When “prophet” mohammed was 50 year old he marry Aisha a 6 year old child, when Aisha was 9 year old “prophet” mohammed rape Aisha so he was a fucking pedophile and a slave owner so fuck him.

    Girls read quran sura bina 60.

    Watch and read mohammed T-shirt art from Sweden at,

    http://www.mohammedt-shirt.com

    Not mine ip nr

    Don

  • Roderick Russell

    Kompromat ?” Nothing new. Julian Assange will have to put up with this type of smear for the rest of his life. And he will have many more smears, coming from all angles. There was an excellent article by Dean Baker in The Huffington Post, the gist of which is that the elected politicians in the USA no longer represent those who elected them, and I have commented that it is much the same in the UK and Canada.

    http://tinyurl.com/2en9jjg

    So it is not surprising that our elites turn to the intelligence services, and that this results in Kompromat. Nothing new, It is just part of what used to be called “The Big Lie” technique and has been in operation for centuries. What is new is the extent to which it is being applied in the western world, as we lose our democracy.

    As Craig says “being cleared of the allegations – as happens in virtually every case – doesn’t help, as the blackening of reputation has taken effect” I was originally slandered by the Grosvenor Guttersnipes in Vancouver 20 years ago and though everybody is in total denial these old smears still affect me. As one top headhunter told me ?” I’m 95% sure you are telling the truth; but how could I take the risk of recommending you to a client unless I was 100% sure. So Craig you have to fight back all the time, because you have no other choice.

    Roderick Russell

  • Suhayl Saadi

    ghuyjk, you are something even less credible than a routine spambot, and that is a shallow, silly and illiterate spambot.

    Buy tee-shirt, get dictionary, learn dictionary, become intelligent, do deal with tee-shirt company, eat prophets, eat prophets, make big profits! Hey!

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Pandemic, so, if Bradley Manning is sentenced to 500 years in prison, then you will believe the the leaks are genuine? But the information in the leaks will be the same, regardless of whether or not Manning gets convicted. So where’s the logic?

  • Suhayl Saadi

    John McNeil, I love what you’re saying and wish it were true. Let’s work for it, right. But I’m not going to hold my breath! Nonetheless, on a lighter note, I do wish I could some of whatever it is you’re on (!)

  • Suhayl Saadi

    cid, not necessarily – and it might still happen (though I hope not). Sometimes – usually, in fact – it is more effective to damage someone’s credibility. Unless, it seems, they work as a microbiologist.

  • eddie

    Paranoia. You are not Ritter. To start with.

    No one seems able to refute the fact that Assange failed to read all the documents passed to him and as a result has put at risk the lives of many Afghans.

  • Clark

    Suhayl Saadi,

    John McNeil,

    it seems to me that John McNeil could be right. Humanity seems to be approaching a crisis point, a convergence of many influences. Technology enables remote controlled war and widespread, choreographed propaganda, but simultaneously liberates information and communication, and enables global grass-roots organisation. Populations grow, overlap and intermingle, bringing traditional beliefs into both conflict and synthesis. Technology (again) at once threatens catastrophic climate change and resource depletion, but also promises the means to avoid them. The disciplines of physics, chemistry, biology, neurology, psychology, etc, have all expanded to the point where they begin to merge at their boundaries; for the first time in Human history we are within reach of knowing just what and who we really are. We seem to be on the verge of being able to either wipe ourselves out as a species, or create the sort of world we really want to live in.

    Maybe it has seemed like this at all points in Human history, but I suspect that something unprecedented is happening, a ‘make or break’ point is being approached…

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