STOCKHOLM — A senior Swedish prosecutor reopened a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday, the latest twist to a puzzling case in which prosecutors of different ranks have overruled each other.

Assange has denied the allegations and suggested they are part of a smear campaign by opponents of WikiLeaks – an online whistle-blower that has angered Washington by publishing thousands of leaked documents about U.S. military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read this story on Huffington Post.

Tomorrow, President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver a speech about the Iraq War. August 31 marks the official end to combat operations in a war that has dragged on for more than seven years.

It’s also been seven years since President George W. Bush delivered his famous “Mission Accomplished” speech on May 1, 2003. “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” Bush boasted. “In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”

Obama won’t be landing on any air craft carriers wearing a military uniform costume and boasting about victory. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine the end to the Iraq War as a victory. Since the war began in March 2003, “victory” has never been defined.

What Obama will talk about are the sacrifices that the soldiers made for their country. They were asked to fight and die in Iraq, and nearly 4,500 soldiers have been killed and close to 32,000 wounded.

Obama most likely won’t mention that he never supported the war. In 2002, Illinois Senator Obama gave a speech at an anti-war rally in Chicago and said, “I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.”

Obama warned that “even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.”

And when he became a US Senator he continued to oppose the war. In 2007, Obama introduced a bill, “Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007.” The bill was designed to stop Bush’s proposed troop surge and to begin a phased redeployment of US forces out of Iraq. It was referred to committee, but failed to become law.

In 2008, Obama campaigned heavily on ending the war. When he took over as president on January 20, 2009, Obama issued presidential memoranda and executive orders for the military to develop a plan to end the war.

But now, conservatives are claiming that the withdrawal of troops by Obama is proof that Bush’s “troop surge” worked and that Obama’s taking credit for his predecessor’s success. Sarah Palin tweeted that Obama is a failed leader who opposed the troop surge and isn’t giving “credit where credit’s due. Credit due GW, McCain, troops.”

While Palin is correct that Obama did oppose Bush’s “troop surge” tactic, however, the troops are leaving Iraq not because the war has been won, but because of a 2008 Statement of Forces Agreement between the US and Iraq.

Article 24 of the agreement says, “All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 31, 2011.”

And this phased draw down of combat operations has been ongoing since last year.

“All United States combat forces shall withdraw from Iraqi cities, villages, and localities no later than the time at which Iraqi Security Forces assume full responsibility for security in an Iraqi province, provided that such withdrawal is completed no later than June 30, 2009,” the agreement says.

Violence in Iraq has not subsided, despite the American public’s lack of interest. Just last week dozens of people were killed when a series of bomb attacks rocked Iraq.

So this troop withdrawal doesn’t mean the US won the war. It doesn’t mean that Bush’s troop surge “worked.” It doesn’t mean anything other than that the government of Iraq wants all occupation forces out of Iraq by the end of next year. Keep that in mind when you listen to politicians and talking heads boast about victory in Iraq. And don’t forget about the more than $1 trillion the war cost taxpayers now and for generations to come.

WikiLeaks leaks again. This time it’s a CIA document analyzing the implications if the world knew how much homegrown terrorism is created inside the US and exported to other countries. The report covers not just Middle Eastern terrorists, but also European ones too. Read the document.

Much attention has been paid recently to the increasing occurrence of American-grown Islamic terrorists conducting attacks against US targets, primarily in the homeland. Less attention has been paid to homegrown terrorism, not exclusively Muslim terrorists, exported overseas to target non- US persons. This report examines the implications of what it would mean for the US to be seen increasingly as an incubator and “exporter of terrorism.” (S//NF)

Contrary to common belief, the American export of terrorism or terrorists is not a recent phenomenon, nor has it been associated only with Islamic radicals or people of Middle Eastern, African or South Asian ethnic origin. This dynamic belies the American belief that our free, open and integrated multicultural society lessens the allure of radicalism and terrorism for US citizens.

* Late last year five young Muslim American men traveled from northern Virginia to Pakistan allegedly to join the Pakistani Taliban and to engage in jihad. Their relatives contacted the FBI after they disappeared without telling anyone, and then Pakistani authorities arrested them as they allegedly attempted to gain access to al-Qa’ida training facilities.

* In November 2008, Pakistani-American David Headley conducted surveillance in support of the Lashkar-i-Tayyiba (LT) attack in Mumbai, India that killed more than 160 people. LT induced him to change his name from Daood Gilani to David Headley to facilitate his movement between the US, Pakistan, and India.

* Some American Jews have supported and even engaged in violent acts against perceived enemies of Israel. In 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American Jewish doctor from New York, emigrated to Israel, joined the extremist group Kach, and killed 29 Palestinians during their prayers in the mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron which helped to trigger a wave of bus bombings by HAMAS in early 1995.

* Some Irish-Americans have long provided financial and material support for violent efforts to compel the United Kingdom to relinquish control of Northern Ireland. In the 1880s, Irish-American members of Clan na Gael dynamited Britain’s Scotland Yard, Parliament, and the Tower of London, and detonated bombs at several stations in the London underground.In the twentieth century, Irish-Americans provided most of the financial support sent to the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The US-based Irish Northern Aid Committee (NORAID), founded in the late 1960s, provided the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) with money that was frequently used for arms purchases. Only after repeated high-level British requests and then London’s support for our bombing of Libya in the 1980s did the US Government crack down on Irish-American support for the IRA. (S//NF)

Read the document.
Original Source: WikiLeaks Access on Aug. 25, 2010 approx. 2:15 p.m. Eastern US time.

If you’ve ever traveled to non-Western countries, you’ll notice that the people there are a lot different than the people here. At first, you might think, “These people are weird.” If you did think that, you’d be wrong. New research is proving that it’s actually us Westerners that are weird.

The National Post’s Adam McDowell wrote a story about a recently published paper from University of British Columbia researchers about psychology that suggests most humans don’t think like Westerners – we’re outside of the norm. Who cares? Well, the problem is that in the field of psychology, where the vast majority of the research is carried out with Westerners as the test subjects, the results are probably wrong.

The Ultimatum Game works like this: You are given $100 and asked to share it with someone else. You can offer that person any amount and if he accepts the offer, you each get to keep your share. If he rejects your offer, you both walk away empty-handed.

How much would you offer? If it’s close to half the loot, you’re a typical North American. Studies show educated Americans will make an average offer of $48, whether in the interest of fairness or in the knowledge that too low an offer to their counterpart could be rejected as unfair. If you’re on the other side of the table, you’re likely to reject offers right up to $40.

It seems most of humanity would play the game differently. Joseph Henrich of the University of British Columbia took the Ultimatum Game into the Peruvian Amazon as part of his work on understanding human co-operation in the mid-1990s and found that the Machiguenga considered the idea of offering half your money downright weird — and rejecting an insultingly low offer even weirder.

“I was inclined to believe that rejection in the Ultimatum Game would be widespread. With the Machiguenga, they felt rejecting was absurd, which is really what economists think about rejection,” Dr. Henrich says. “It’s completely irrational to turn down free money. Why would you do that?”

Read this story on the National Post.

In less than 24 hours, the Swedish police issued a warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and then they canceled it.

In a statement issued Saturday, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said:

Chief prosector Eva Finné has come to the decision that Julian Assange is not suspected of rape. Considering that, Assange is no longer arrested in his absence.

Eva Finné will make no other comments during Saturday night.

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Other news about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange:
WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Sought By Swedish Police on Suspicion of Rape (Update) August 21, 2010.
Interview with WikiLeaks Co-founder Julian Assange April 6, 2010.
Democracy Now Provides More Context for the July 12, 2007 Massacre in New Baghdad/a> April 8, 2010.
Reaction to the WikiLeaks Video Showing Journalists Gunned Down in Iraq April 6, 2010.
WikiLeaks Video of US Military Killing Innocent Civilians in Iraq April 5, 2010.

Update: Only minutes after publishing this story, the Swedish police canceled the warrant for Julian Assange’s arrest on suspicion of rape. Swedish Prosecution Authority Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne said, “I don’t think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape.”

–

A Swedish tabloid, Expressen, reported late Friday night that the Swedish police have issued a warrant for Julian Assange’s arrest on suspicion of rape.

Criminal charges have yet to be filed said Karin Rosander, a spokewoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority. She explained that investigators want Assange in custody to prevent the destruction of evidence.

“The next step is that we interrogate him,” Rosander told the Associated Press. “Then we’ll see what happens.”

Assange’s whereabouts are not known, but he responded to the allegations on Twitter.

“The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing,” he tweeted.

Last month, WikiLeaks ticked off the Obama administration and the Pentagon by releasing 77,000 classified documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Wednesday, Assange said WikiLeaks plans to release a new batch of 15,000 documents from the Afghan war within weeks.

The Pentagon says that releasing the information could put US troops and their Afghan counterparts at risk. They have demanded WikiLeaks return all leaked documents and remove them from their Web site.

The former hacker and WikiLeaks founder, Assange has no known address and moves from country to country, sometimes disappearing for months only to reappear at a press conference announcing the site’s newest disclosure.

Assange was in Sweden last week to apply for a publishing certificate to make sure the Web site, which has severs in Sweden, can take full advantage of Swedish laws protecting whistle-blowers. He also met with the Social Democratic party and announced that he will write a bimonthly column for a left-wing Swedish newspaper.

On Twitter, WikiLeaks claimed the arrest warrant was retaliation by the Pentagon and the Obama administration for leaking classified information such as the “Afghan War Diary” and the “Collateral Murder” video shot Iraq.

“We were warned to expect ‘dirty tricks.’ Now we have the first one,” the Tweet said.

At first, WikiLeaks questions the validity of the Expressen story.

“Expressen is a tabloid; No one here has been contacted by Swedish police. Needless to say this prove hugely distracting,” WikiLeaks tweeted late Friday night Eastern US time.

However, on Saturday morning WikiLeaks issued an official statement about the charges against Assange.

On Saturday 21st of August, we have been made aware of rape allegations made against Julian Assange, founder of this project and one of our spokespeople.

We are deeply concerned about the seriousness of these allegations. We the people behind WikiLeaks think highly of Julian and and he has our full support.

While Julian is focusing on his defenses and clearing his name, WikiLeaks will be continuing its regular operations.

The WikiLeaks team

The Swedish police have not released any details about the case, other than that the charges are from two women in their 20s and 30s.

–
The Expressen article that broke the story can be found here (translated to English).

Previous reporting about Assange:
Interview with WikiLeaks Co-founder Julian Assange April 6, 2010.
Democracy Now Provides More Context for the July 12, 2007 Massacre in New Baghdad/a> April 8, 2010.
Reaction to the WikiLeaks Video Showing Journalists Gunned Down in Iraq April 6, 2010.
WikiLeaks Video of US Military Killing Innocent Civilians in Iraq April 5, 2010.

The new cover story for The Atlantic says, “Israel is getting ready to bomb Iran: How, Why and What it means.”

Inside there’s a story by Jeffrey Goldberg, “The Point of No Return,” which details how and why Israel will launch a bombing campaign against Iran.

Unfortunately, Goldberg isn’t a journalist. He’s a propagandist. He pushed for the war with Iraq for the same reason he’s promoting a war with Iran – the New Hitler. In 2002, Saddam Hussein was the New Hitler. Now, Iran represents the New Hitler.

Well, Slate’s Glenn Greenwald peels back the veil of “objective journalist” that Goldberg likes to hide behind and exposes the real Goldberg. So check out his piece: “How propagandists function: Exhibit A.”

He asks an important question, “How many times can we be persuaded to attack the New Hitler?”

Wyclef Jean is the most famous Haitian in the world. He’s best known as a member of the multi-platinum Grammy award winning hip hop group The Fugees. Now it looks like Wyclef might be running for president of Haiti.

The Le Droit newspaper reported that an anonymous source “close to the government” in Port-au-Prince said Wyclef is only waiting on the paperwork before he makes his decision public.

The current president, René Préval, can’t run for re-election because of a two term limit law.

The presidential election should have been held in February and March, but devastating earthquakes rocked the poor nation and the elections were cancelled. Now elections will be held on November 28.

Since the crushing earthquakes destroyed much of Haiti, Wyclef has been one of the most vocal celebrities trying to keep attention on Haiti.

This weekend in the UK’s Daily Mirror he wrote: “Haiti still needs our help – more than ever. People around the world made lots of promises, and we want those promises to be kept. My wife Claudinette and I are passionate about rebuilding Haiti. We’ve seen the situation with our own eyes, and we’ve been listening to others.”

“Rebuilding has been delayed by land disputes, bureaucratic roadblocks, customs problems, differences of opinion about strategy and even delays in getting the actual pledged money to Haiti,” he wrote. “I’m a warrior and can’t stand by quietly while promises aren’t kept. I won’t ever surrender.”

However, as of today, Wyclef says he’s not running. In an interview with Fox Business today, he said, “I would say right now, currently at this minute, no.”

Sources:
Wyclef Jean to run for Haitian presidency: report. National Post. July 26, 2010.

President Obama is ratcheting up the war in Afghanistan with more troops and more money. What the hell is he doing?

There was a story the other day in the Portland Daily Sun about a young soldier killed in Afghanistan. What did he die for? Does Obama really think he’s going to be able to do what Russia couldn’t do when they killed a couple million Afghanis before heading home in 1989 with their tail between their legs?

Bob Herbert said in his column today that the Bush administration screwed up the war in Afghanistan from the get-go and no amount of money and troops is going to salvage it.

Why do we keep doing this? Why do we keep repeating the mistakes of Vietnam? I mean, it wasn’t so long ago that we should have forgotten it already. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have claimed the lives of more than 5,000 US soldiers, hundreds of thousands of civilians and more than a trillion dollars.

It makes no sense. Obama should be ashamed of himself. Every death is on his hands now. He has no excuse. This isn’t change we can believe in. Hope? Whatever.

Here’s a brief by ITN about the Iranian show trial against reformers who protested the election in June.

If convicted of being “an enemy of God,” the defendants could be executed.

The Telegraph has a full story here.