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Trenter's Grand Plan

There isn't one. But there is a straw man - and it's being used to silence Flashback.


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NEW YORK/STOCKHOLM (Rixstep) — Flashback is the Google News of the Assange case in Sweden. Begun a mere twenty five minutes after the story first broke 21 August 2010, the Assange thread is a unique document. Today it has over 40,000 posts and close to 4,000,000 views.

Anything of merit in the Assange case turns up at Flashback sooner or later, more often sooner than later too: the Flashbackers have consistently trumped the mainstream media and become the de facto source for all news, used by everyone from the Daily Mail to obscure crackpots.

They have accredited experts in forensic medicine. They have active and retired court magistrates (the real kind and not the politically appointed). They have journalists too - the kind who wish their editors would let them dig into the Assange case but instead must research in anonymity because of the media blackout.

Brita Sundberg-Weitman, a witness at the Belmarsh hearings, has been a contributor.

It was Flashback who uncovered the identity of 'T20' or 'the second girl'. They did this through hard work. They collated public records and gradually eliminated all possibilities but one. They also helped identify the embassy attaché in Turkey who attended the infamous crayfish party and stood up and shouted 'NEXT YEAR'S CRAYFISH PARTY - NO MEN!'

It was Flashback who gave the world access to the police documents, subsequently translated by this site. Others had boasted for months about having the documents but kept them to their 'Smeagol selves'.

Confidential email between the major players in the Swedish police and prosecution authority were leaked to Flashback.

And so forth.

The Flashback Mods

Flashback exists for the benefit of its users. At time of writing there are 30,125 site visitors, there are 36,318,762 posts, and there are 668,656 registered members. And this, don't forget, for a lilliputian country whose total population is less than that of several of the planet's biggest cities. Their motto, seen in the title of their home page, is 'yttrandefrihet på riktigt' ('real freedom of speech'). This is also seen in the HTML metatags.

<meta name='description' content='Flashback Forum, Sveriges största forum för yttrande- och åsiktsfrihet samt självständigt tänkande.' />

<meta name='description' content='Flashback Forum, Sweden's largest forum for freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and independent thought.' />


There have been attempts to stifle the discussion about the case, intimidate the contributors, and even to 'out' them. The Flashback moderators are generally not that involved in the discussion themselves. There have been several occasions when crucial work has disappeared because the moderators misinterpreted what they'd read.

The main Assange thread was branched off a few months ago after protests against the mods rose to a fever pitch. The new thread never amounted to anything. The original thread kept on going as before. The mods who'd been criticised by the members didn't seem to dare return.

Then a few months back a strange thing happened. A regular contributor to the Assange thread was asked to be a moderator and accepted the request - and has since then demonstrated an inability to keep separate the roles of contributor and moderator.

Offering one's own opinions is fine - that's what Flashback is supposed to be about - but kicking people out because of those opinions: that's not nice.

Checking the 'professional record' of this moderator reveals what's really going on and also explains where some of the thread's favourite contributors have gone off to - they've been kicked out.

And now with everyone outside Sweden in agreement - under the weight of overwhelming evidence - that the Assange case isn't about sex or broken condoms but in fact is being actively exploited to get the WikiLeaks founder rendered to the US - it's rare to find anyone who's both aware of the situation but still thinks the opposite.

But the Assange thread moderator thinks otherwise. And is basically alone in that opinion. They treat their mods well at Flashback. But this poor mod couldn't take it, simply couldn't handle being overwhelmed by contrary facts, so what happens? The famous Assange thread is demonstratively moved to the website's 'tinfoil section'.

An example of the kind of company Assange now keeps:

  • 156 topics on 911 conspiracy theories.
  • 9 topics on the assassination of Olof Palme.
  • 416 topics on NWO, illuminati, and freemasons.

Some of the new threads:

  • 'What happened to that mysterious circular object in the Baltic Sea?' (119 visitors)
  • 'So the scientologists are just homos who don't want to come out of the closet?' (0 visitors)
  • 'The social democratic tabloid Aftonbladet is really run by the right wing Sweden democrats?' (0 visitors)

Then suddenly:

  • Poll: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sought for rape in Sweden (3450 visitors)

Reactions

The Flashbackers have been hit and knocked down before. But few things got a rise out of them as this latest manoeuvre did. Although not all believe this will bring them down, none of them are in favour of it and several say outright they'll fight harder than ever before.

But perhaps no one expressed it as eloquently as veteran TrenterX.



Originally posted by Creatur

Perhaps this is only customary Swedish justice, as Anna Emelie Wåhlström of Arbetaren and Pentyl believe. Maybe it's only a clique within the social democrats, as BaalZeBub believes. Maybe it's Swedish sexual politics as Oscar Swartz claims. Maybe it's pressure from the US as TrenterX suggests. Maybe it's a series of coincidences and the clumsy actions of various individuals. Or maybe most of it is for Assange's shuffling. The likelihood is the sequence of events is caused by a combination of several of these factors. So let's continue to discuss all of these (and any others I've missed).


I believe the bold print represents the consensus in this thread. I am sick and tired of all the accusations about conspiracy theories in the mainstream media and here in this thread. The word 'conspiracy' has been a troll's weapon. There are real conspiracies in real life, and at least one such conspiracy against Assange and WikiLeaks is well documented: Bank of America, HBGary, Hutton & Williams. But to be smeared as a conspiracy theorist, or even worse as a paranoid conspiracy theorist, seems to mean one doesn't care about facts. And of course it's a devastating criticism.

To be clear: I don't think there is a central anywhere (for example in the US) that planned the entire affair of the allegations against Assange from beginning to end, including Marianne Ny's shuffling. Of course not. On the other hand, there's one - perhaps several - central in the US (and elsewhere) that's been actively working to exploit the situation right from the get-go, that is to say 20 August 2010 and possibly even earlier.

Not so much a conspiracy theory as a game theory: a number of 'players' are conducting an active game around the Swedish judicial process against Assange. We're speaking for example of the prosecution authority in Sweden, Assange himself, the US government, and a number of additional players both big and small. Nothing is decided in advance. The players 'improvise' with each new situation.

This is why Claes Borgström and Anna Ardin play dirty with Mats Gehlin and procure a bogus condom when Eva Finné's dismissed the allegations concerning Sofia Wilén as without merit. This is why the US ambassador to Britain says they're waiting for the supreme court verdict before they decide to continue with their grand jury. And so forth. This is why Assange, suddenly and unexpectedly, seeks asylum at the Ecuador embassy. This is why Jennifer Robinson confronts Carl Bildt in Almedalen. All players - even the Swedish prosecution authority - are improvising with each new situation in an attempt to achieve their goals. This isn't at all strange.

In other words: stop pretending that some of us believe it's all happening because of some 'grand plan'. On the contrary: there is no one who has the ability to trump everyone with a grand plan. But on the other hand, there are actors with different agendas who are in continual conflict. It's not easy interpreting that game, but in my eyes it's more clear all the time that we're not witnessing an ordinary case in a normally train-wrecked Swedish judicial process.

See Also
Justice4Assange.com
Assange Defence Fund
WikiLeaks: Support WikiLeaks
The Police Protocol (Translated)
Rixstep: JA/WL (Assange/WikiLeaks)
Rixstep: Assange/WikiLeaks RSS Feed
Radsoft: Assange/WikiLeaks RSS Feed

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