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Assange Case: Closing in on Sofia Wilén?

She's the key, say the Flashbackers, as their investigation continues.

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NEW YORK/ENKÖPING (Rixstep) — A recurring discussion in the mystery of 'Assange in Sweden' has been whether the 'unfriendly forces' were working in concert or each on their own. Assange spoke of this with Swedish TV4 news already in the autumn of 2010.

Comments at Craig Murray's blog now shed new light on the case. In focus are the comments by Chief Inspector Mats Gehlin upon receipt of the results of the tests of two 'condom objects' at the state crime lab. These comments can be found on page 85 of the original document submitted to the Magistrates Court and in the chapter 'The Lab Results' in the book 'Assange in Sweden'. Gehlin seemed a bit surprised and consequently contacted the lab to get a clarification.

Vid samtal med SKL fram kom följande. På kondom från MÄ2 bostad [alltså Tjurbergsgatan] har det inte hittats något DNA. På vaginaltops från MÄ1 [SW alltså hon är fortfarande med i leken] hittades DNA från MÄ1 och DNA från en man. På kondombit som hittades i MÄ1 s lägenhet hittades DNA från MÄ1 och från samme man som fanns på vaginaltops. MÄ1 har inte märkt att någon kondom har gjorts sönder då det var mörkt i rummet och hon hörde att då misstänkt tog på sig kondomen var det en del ljud som om han drog i en ballong. Kondombiten hittades under sängen, under den del av sängen som misstänkt låg då han tog på sig kondomen.

The translation from Assange in Sweden:

A conversation with the lab yielded the following. The condom from the residence of complainant 2 [Ardin] had no traces of DNA. Vaginal swabs from complainant 1 [Wilén] had DNA from complainant 1 and a man. The bit of condom found in the residence of complainant 1 [Wilén] had DNA from complainant 1 and the same man found on the vaginal swabs. Complainant 1 [Wilén] did not notice that a condom broke as it was dark in the room, and when the suspect put on the condom, she heard a noise as if he were pulling on a balloon. The bit of condom was found under the bed, under the part of the bed where the suspect was lying when he put on the condom.

At issue here is the report of hearing 'balloon' sounds. Nowhere is this mentioned in Sofia Wilén's actual testimony, yet Gehlin clearly recalls Wilén mentioning this, to him personally or more likely to policewoman Linda Wassgren who greeted the two girls upon their arrival at the police station.

It's been heard many times that both Anna Ardin and the Klara police found striking simillarities in the tales the girls told, yet a study of both official statements yields nothing of the kind. The statements have nothing in common in this regard.

It's known that it was Sofia Wilén who contacted Anna Ardin and not the other way around. It's also known that the two girls were not acquainted with one another, having only met on 14 August and having eaten lunch together with Assange and two reporters.

It's possible - but very unlikely - that the meticulous Mat Gehlin had made a mistake in his report, confusing the two girls, and a month later still hadn't bothered to correct it. It's also very unlikely because without the popping balloon story, the statements of the two girls - said to have striking similarities - have no similarities whatsoever.

To what extent was Sofia Wilén involved in a possible orchestration of events in Stockholm in August 2010? Sofia Wilén is a remarkable figure, thought to be a bit 'dumb' ('but cashmere jumpers and good tits can make up for it', said Ardin at the time). She mysteriously came out of nowhere only a few days before Assange arrived in the Swedish capital, and then was gone again, this time with a professional web scrub that's mystified IT experts with its efficacy. But was she consciously engineering a 'trap' for Julian Assange?

Opinion is slowly but surely shifting in that direction. The social engineering needed to accomplish what Sofia Wilén did cannot be attributed to someone who's as Anna Ardin believed her to be. Further web activity in recent weeks points to Sofia Wilén being very much online, observing developments in her case, and exercising an incredible control over her network of friends, both in Sweden and abroad. This isn't the 'random girl' Ardin made her out to be.

As researchers at Flashback, long stymied by the lack of information on Sofia Wilén, have begun to look at her friends and acquaintances, they've seen obscure websites and blogs disappear within hours of their finding them. Sofia Wilén had a page of her own at the Saatchi art gallery - it was taken down as soon as the link was posted at Flashback. Pictures of friends and family, both in Sweden, Germany, and the United States, were found, and again, within hours, were scrubbed from the web. There is also some evidence that Sofia Wilén is very interested in suppressing the police documents submitted to the Magistrates Court.

One commenter from Craig's blog has suggested Wilén did a bit of 'cold reading' on Ardin, that the plan all along was to implicate Ardin as she's so easily duped, and that Wilén simply offered 'oh that happened to me too', which was enough to flip Ardin and trigger her into action. Ardin told the police that she believed Wilén's story 'because our stories are so similar'.

The two stories would bear a marginal similarity if in fact both girls had offered details of 'condom difficulties' to the police. But that's not the case. The only mention of this by Wilén would have been when she first met constable Wassgren.

But the Wassgren interview was not a formal interrogation, and the only record of that interview is Wassgren's response Sunday 22 August 2010 to Chief Prosecutor Eva Finné, a document that to this day is still not available. Wilén's formal testimony occurs two hours later, and by that point there is no longer any mention of any 'balloon' sounds to bind the two stories together.

The cases are open, the wheels are set.

Closing in on Sofia Wilén?

Many of the most dedicated researchers at Flashback are today prepared to admit they were fooled. The operation surrounding Sofia Wilén was so smooth that 'Mossad' has been mentioned. More and more about Sofia Wilén is learned for every day, and it's no longer possible to see her as a 'random cashmere girl'. Members of Flashback have gone to ground in the greater Stockholm area, in Enköping, and they've even established contacts in California.

The accusation is the condom, a condom, was damaged after the act and Anna is of the opinion that at one point when you withdraw your penis there was a sound like you first removed the condom but when you entered her again she reached down and felt and she could feel you still had the condom on.
- Mats Gehlin, interrogation of Julian Assange 30 August 2010
This accusation, I might sound like a nag but I still have to ask. It's a rather clear picture Anna has of what happened. And this part of her hearing a sound from the condom.
- Mats Gehlin, interrogation of Julian Assange 30 August 2010

I'm so sick of it all. Will it never end? At any rate I want to say the other girl's just as much to blame.
- Anna Ardin

Apparently Swedish laws are unique. If you have a penis you're half a rapist before you even get through customs.
- Scott Adams

If I am able to reveal what I know, everyone will realise this is all a charade. If I could tell the British courts, I suspect it would make extradition a moot point.
- Björn Hurtig

I can tell you that the Swedish prosecution still hasn't provided copies of those SMS texts that have been referred to. Those texts are some of the most powerful exculpatory evidence. In Australia prosecutors have a very grave duty to disclose such evidence to courts when seeking the grave exercise of a court's power against an individual. Yet in Sweden in this case, in the first hearings to obtain an arrest warrant, those texts were not submitted to the Swedish court, which is highly improper.
- James Catlin

The prosecutor could achieve this broadening of the law during Assange's trial so he can be convicted of a crime that didn't exist at the time he allegedly committed it. She would need to. There is no precedent for this. The Swedes are making it up as they go along.
- James Catlin

Julian Assange will surely learn that considering what WikiLeaks has published, he's got a few enemies in the Pentagon, the CIA, and the White House. Sweden began an investigation into rape which was later dismissed. Assange was even denied residence in Sweden. One can only speculate to what extent the security agencies of the US were involved. And considering the obvious interest of the US to silence WikiLeaks, is it likely Assange will have an accident of the 'Boston brakes' kind in the coming years? Or will he be snared with compromising information of the 'honey trap' kind?
- 'Drozd' at Flashback 23 October 2010

The truth will out, the truth wins out. Let no journalist ever again speculate into what the protocols say. Six months of digging and the people at Flashback have the actual documents. The sleaze printed by rags such as the Daily Mail, Sweden's Aftonbladet and Expressen, and perhaps above all the toxic Nick Davies of the Guardian, can stand no more. Yet more: these documents are an indictment of the 'news organisations' who've printed deliberate inaccuracies all along or even worse: refused to print anything at all. Nick Davies' account of the protocols was maliciously skewed; both Aftonbladet and Expressen had copies early on and printed nothing. Bloggers had copies but arrogantly kept the information to their Smeagol selves.
- The Assange Police Protocol: Translator's Note