I wasn't the only Agonista to be suspicious of the timing and circumstances behind the "rape" charges leveled by the Swedish government against Julian Assange. Now the story behind those charges is emerging, and it looks more and more like a government conspiracy to smear the face of WikiLeaks.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/12/02/when-it-comes-to-assange-r-pe-case-the-swedes-are-making-it-up-as-they-go-along/

This part I found particularly interesting:

The women here are near to and over 30 and have international experience, some of it working in Swedish government embassies. There is no suggestion of drugs nor identity concealment. Far from it. Both women boasted of their celebrity connection to Assange after the events that they would now see him destroyed for.

Both women first brag about bagging the famous Julian Assange, and then later accuse him of sexual misconduct? How weird is that? There must be a fascinating explanation for such a radical, belated reinterpretation of a sexual frolic.

Oh yeah. There was:

"The damage to Assange’s reputation is incalculable. More than three quarters of internet references to his name refer to rape."

Then of course, there is this:

In the case of Ardin it is clear that she has thrown a party in Assange’s honour at her flat after the “crime” and tweeted to her followers that she is with the “the world’s coolest smartest people, it’s amazing!”. Go on the internet and see for yourself. That Ardin has sought unsuccessfully to delete these exculpatory tweets from the public record should be a matter of grave concern. That she has published on the internet a guide on how to get revenge on cheating boyfriends ever graver. The exact content of Wilén’s mobile phone texts is not yet known but their bragging and exculpatory character has been confirmed by Swedish prosecutors. Niether Wilén’s nor Ardin’s texts complain of rape.

But then neither Arden nor Wilén complained to the police but rather “sought advice”, a technique in Sweden enabling citizens to avoid just punishment for making false complaints. They sought advice together, having collaborated and irrevocably tainted each other’s evidence beforehand. Their SMS texts to each other show a plan to contact the Swedish newspaper Expressen beforehand in order to maximise the damage to Assange. They belong to the same political group and attended a public lecture given by Assange and organised by them. You can see Wilén on the YouTube video of the event even now.

Mission Accomplished. It gets even worse when you read how their "lawyer" explains how consensual sex became non-consensual. Very twisty.

I would not have believed this kind of thing could happen in Sweden, but there it is.