Bergman & Fridén

Astute of the former, overexposure of the latter.

Get It Try It

THE INTERWEBS (Rixstep) — Helene Bergman and Calle Fridén ended up in a bit of a tussle on Twitter the other night. Things start off with Helene tweeting the following.

If Julian Assange ends up in a US prison, who's next? asks Nobel Peace Prize winner: bit.ly/Qd6t7h

Calle's right in there, and then the story begins.

@CalleFriden: He won't end up there. But he will be interrogated about sexual abuses.

@helenebergman O RLY? And what do you know about that?

@CalleFriden: Swedish law and judicial praxis. The US didn't even ask for rendition from the UK as they've done in other cases. So why from Sweden?

@helenebergman Strange then that no one in Sweden can give him a guarantee he won't be rendered to the US!

@CalleFriden: Our judicial system doesn't provide for guarantees like that. Our courts aren't influenced by politics.

@helenebergman: Good thing you're so sure about that! What a pity JA's lawyers don't trust the Swedish judicial system!

@CalleFriden: It's most likely more about what JA has been accused of doing, behaving like a cad towards women and not wanting to answer for what he's done.

@helenebergman: Did you know he offered to be interrogated in London?

@CalleFriden: He's dodged a summons to interrogation, which in itself is a crime. So he has to be interrogated in Sweden. We're all equal before the law.

@helenebergman: Did you know he remained in Sweden five weeks so he could be available for interrogation?

@CalleFriden: No, jurisprudence is enough.

@CalleFriden: In addition: JA demanded to be interrogated according to British jurisprudence, so he could take the 'fifth' and respond through legal counsel. Nonsense in other words.

@helenebergman: Have you read the police documents? Are you forming your opinion on what the MSM write?

@CalleFriden: Are they available? They're made public first when charges are brought, and that's not happened yet.

We can stop there. What we see is typical for what's been going on in the Duckpond. Let's recap a bit.

1. Helene cites a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
2. Calle is right there to claim it's all bogus.
3. Helene asks him what he can possibly know that no one else knows.
4. Calle cites 'Swedish jurisprudence' and goes on to say JA's been a cad.
5. Helene reminds him that JA has asked to be interrogated in London.
6. Calle incorrectly claims that JA evaded questioning.
7. Helene tries to correct him on that but he's not listening.
8. Calle claims JA sought an 'out' to take the 'fifth' amendment - something that applies to US law.
9. Helene asks Calle if he's has even read the police documents. These were given to JA's legal counsel Björn Hurtig and thereafter forwarded to Jennifer Robinson in London in November 2010. They're also public documents.
10. Calle claims - 18 months after they were made public - to not know of their existence.
11. Calle then refers to an article by the radical Swedish rag 'ETC' that desperately attempts to refute the international consensus in the matter. Helene does a facepalm.

The two parties then tired of the exercise and presumably got some good sleep. But there are important lessons to take home from this innocuous exchange.

1. Helene Bergman is a noted Swedish feminist of the old school who really likes men. She's also taken a great interest in the miscarriage of justice in this case and even traveled to London to meet with Julian - to see for herself what kind of man he was. She says she wasn't disappointed.

2. Calle is reputed to have ties with the infamous 'talk about it' smear campaign. He's also closely associated with Anna Ardin. His method of research relies on the type of facts available on the grapevine through his friends and associates. It's not exactly ready for prime time, but it's symptomatic of Sweden for this case.

3. The hate campaign against Assange (for it is none other) has been built on associations and idle informal conversations and little more. None of the most vociferous detractors have bothered looking into the facts of the case. Calle is totally unaware of the fact that the actual official police documents in the case have been available for the past 18 months, yet he feels qualified to fell his opinions on the case - Julian is a cad, etc.

4. Being a cad doesn't correspond to a higher level Interpol alert than given Gaddafi.

5. Assange isn't even a cad until proven to be one.

6. Anna Ardin - an associate of Calle - is a trophy hunter.

7. Sofia Wilén is a groupie who pursued Julian Assange like she did Lou Reed back in 2006.

Helene Bergman isn't afraid of the facts. (None with a greater interest in the case are.) Calle Frién doesn't care about the facts.

Whether he wants to admit it it or not, Calle Fridén proves the case is political. And he also proves Julian Assange can't get a fair trial in Sweden.

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