I'm curious how you were able to come to the conclusion that the charges are "clearly false." The charges sound serious to me, and while I have not concluded on their truth, I cannot dismiss them. They sound like they have enough merit for a trial. For example, "Given that one of the women said she awoke to find Mr. Assange having unprotected sex with her, she could not possibly have given her consent, Ms. Montgomery argued." (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/world/europe/12assange.htm...)
The evidence suggests it is highly unlikely they are true.
Most rape victims don't tweet about how it's "amazing" to hang out with "cool" and "smart" people after being raped, or throw a party for their rapist.
It's also a rather implausible coincidence that after these events, the rape charge only surfaced after a) Assange failed to call either Anna Ardin or Miss W. back and b) Ardin and W each discovered he was sleeping with the other one.
I think the story itself justifies a very low probability of being true - in my estimation, probably considerably less than 1%.
Most rape victims don't tweet about how it's "amazing" to hang out with "cool" and "smart" people after being raped, or throw a party for their rapist.
Nor do they usually invite their rapist to stay at their house 4 days after the rape.
And how did your playfulness bring any relevant information to the discussion? There's nothing wrong with being funny but it should go alongside with usefulness; otherwise you end up with pun-festing.
I too think the charges are trumped up, but Stockholm is a possibility until one or both of these women come out with the truth of what actually happened.
It's also possible Anna Ardin is suffering from multiple personality disorder and one of her alternate personalities threw the party for Assange, tweeted about how cool he is, and invited him to stay with her 4 days after the rape.
We could make up all sorts of implausible, but theoretically possible scenarios.
But at this point, the most likely possibility seems to be that Ardin and W are jilted lovers who want revenge against Assange.
.. or that as his lover, she was convinced to give testimony that lets authorities go after him while simultaneously hurting his reputation. Something very useful if you don't want to prevent further leaks.
>We could make up all sorts of implausible, but theoretically possible scenarios.
That is the entire point, none of us know with any degree of certainty what has happened, the evidence does not suggest anything concrete for or against the validity of the charges, so to immediately dismiss one way or dismiss the other way is flawed.
It's not a possibility, because he did not hold them captive. Stockholm Syndrome only refers to situations where people who are held against their will have positive feelings towards their captors.
Sure it's a possibility, but the burden of proof would be on you to demonstrate that it was Stockholm syndrome. You can't get by just claiming possible scenarios that explain something. You have to actually provide evidence that your claim is true (unless you're defending creationism)
Not sure what you're trying to say there. Men go to jail on all the time purely on the strength of the victim's testimony. Seems like every week I'm reading a story in the newspaper about a guy who got released from jail after being cleared by a DNA test.
I agree that the accusations aren't clearly false, but note that he hasn't been formally charged with a crime. He will be extradited to Sweden to be questioned (!). AFAIK nobody said he's not going to court yet.
That's another scandal. Swedish prosecutors never issue international arrest warrants to question random Joe Sixpacks, certainly not for very dubious accusations like these. It's a shame that such a civilized country is being dragged through the mud by politically-motivated scumbags.
Agreed, I do not believe the rape accusations were politically motivated but the international warrant obviously was. It is probably the first time ever sexual misconduct with weak evidence has resulted in an international arrest warrant.
