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Freelance journalist Nicholas John Meade posted a blog diary on the Swedish charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange early this past weekend. Soon afterward, the comments thread exploded, much of it in Swedish. The comments seem to have outpaced even Glenn Greenwald’s and Justin Raimando’s abilities to keep up on emerging information.
Essentially, what has emerged in the thread comments, especially on Sunday, is that the probable first complainant, Anna Ardin, posted a blog entry in January about the stages of revenge, and may have worked for a time, in an intern-like job, for the Swedish government in Washington DC and possibly elsewhere. Although the second of these is still up in the air she is an utterly fascinating and extremely complex person, to say the least.
Here’s her recipe for revenge:
7 Steps to Legal Revenge by Anna Ardin
January 19, 2010
I’ve been thinking about some revenge over the last few days and came across a very good side who inspired me to this seven-point revenge instruction in Swedish.
Steg 1 / Step 1
Tänk igenom väldigt noga om du verkligen ska hämnas. Consider very carefully if you really must take revenge. Det är nästan alltid bättre att förlåta än att hämnas
It is almost always better to forgive than to avenge . . .
Steg 2 / Step 2
Tänk igenom varför du ska hämnas. Think about why you want revenge. Du behöver alltså inte bara vara på det klara med vem du ska hämnas på utan också varför. Hämnd ska aldrig riktas mot bara en person, utan även möta en viss handling.
You need to be clear about who to take revenge on, as well as why. Revenge is never directed against only one person, but also the actions of the person.
Steg 3 / Step 3
Proportionalitetsprincipen.
The principle of proportionality.
Kom ihåg att hämnden inte bara ska matcha dådet i storlek utan även i art.
Remember that revenge will not only match the deed in size but also in nature.
En bra hämnd är kopplad till det som gjorts mot dig.
A good revenge is linked to what has been done against you.
Om du till exempel vill hämnas på någon som varit otrogen eller som dumpat dig, så bör straffet ha något med dejting/sex/trohet att göra.
For example if you want revenge on someone who cheated or who dumped you, you should use a punishment with dating/sex/fidelity involved.
Steg 4 / Step 4
Gör en brainstorm kring lämpliga åtgärder för kategorin av hämnd du är ute efter. För att fortsätta exemplet ovan så kan du paja ditt offers nuvarande relation, fixa så att dennes nye partner är otrogen eller se till att han får en galning efter sig.
Do a brainstorm of appropriate measures for the category of revenge you’re after. To continue the example above, you can sabotage your victim’s current relationship, such as getting his new partner to be unfaithful or ensure that he gets a madman after him.
Använd din fantasi!
Use your imagination!
Steg 5 / Step 5
Tänk ut hur du kan hämnas systematiskt.
Figure out how you can systematically take revenge.
Kanske kan en serie brev och foton som får den nya att tro att ni ännu ses bättre än bara en stor lögn vid ett enstaka tillfälle?
Send your victim a series of letters and photographs that make your victim’s new partner believe that you are still together which is better than to tell just one big lie on one single occasion
Steg 6 / Step 6
Ranka dina systematiska hämndscheman från låg till hög i termer av troligt lyckat genomförande, krävd insats från dig samt grad av tillfredsställelse om du lyckas.
Rank your systematic revenge schemes from low to high in terms of likely success, required input from you, and degree of satisfaction when you succeed.
Den ideala hämnden ligger givetvis så högt som möjligt i dessa staplar, men ofta kan en ökad insats av arbete och kapital ge säkrare output för de andra två, egentligen viktigare parametrarna.
The ideal, of course, is a revenge as strong as possible but this requires a lot of hard work and effort for it to turn out exactly as you want it to.
Step 7 / Step 7
Skrid till verket. Get to work. Och kom ihåg vilket ditt mål är medan du opererar, se till att ditt offer får lida på samma sätt som han fick dig att lida.
And remember what your goals are while you are operating, ensure that your victim will suffer the same way as he made you suffer.
Entry Filed under: politik . Entry Filed under: politics . Taggar: hämnd , revenge , laglig hämnd , hämnas , återgälda , straffa .
Tags: revenge , revenge , revenge lawful , avenge , reciprocate , punish.
Apparently, Ardin was either one of the people or the person who invited Assange to Sweden:
The politics of Ardin are bizarre to me, but Sweden is different from Wasilla. I think.
And here is information on her internship/employment with the Swedish government. It is found on pages three through five (PDF).
From the comment thread, it appears that this story is going to get very complex, very strange this coming week. Even though Ardin’s possibly having been put up to making her tentative complaint to the authorities by some agency representing the U.S. government appears to be unlikely, we may be about to learn a lot about how complex underground politics in Sweden have become in the early 21st century.
16 Comments
Fascinating.
Yes, politics in Sweden likely differ from politics in Wasilla. But, somehow, I think your Wasilla political experience will serve you well wherever else you opt to examine….
This is going in a very predictable direction. Men on liberal leaning blogs are now writing about how women liked to be raped and how accusations of rape are easy to fabricate. If I recall the old stereotype, revenge is usually the motive. Now everyone is digging into a woman’s past (Do we even have the right woman?). Isn’t this lovely. Are you going to tell us that she wasn’t a virgin?
For the record, I don’t trust these allegations but that’s more because the controversial nature of the person accused and his organization, not because of the accuser. In spite of that, Assange’s propensity towards violence or lack thereof has no bearing on the validity of the work he’s been doing.
Total BS.
There may be men trash-talking as you suggest, but it’s easily slapped down.
Pick any other form of violence and substitute it for a charge of rape or molestation here. Why did the Swedish media outlet run with the story? Why is there so little validation of the charges? Why were other media outlets willing to run with this crap without validation consisting of two or more vetted sources? That’s the problem here; rape and molestation are merely being used as red herrings, push-button words designed to provoke an automatic negative response instead of curiosity about the real situation and context.
Further, if this victim is credible, where’s other reporting from Swedish media outlets other than a tabloid? Is there no reporting because there’s no story?
It’s not as if there are no rational outlets in Sweden. They worked on the story of rendered detainees, expelled from Sweden in 2001.
And perhaps that’s the real story nobody’s looking at, because everybody’s all up in arms about rape/not-rape. The Swedish security apparatus was involved in and cooperated with the Bush administration on rendition of persons to torture, a violation of UNCAT. Why aren’t we asking about the possible relationship between SAPO (Swedish security) with the U.S. intel/military apparatus?
One of the good points you raise.
I thought about posting a link to this thread yesterday, soon after I read it, following a link at a comment at fdl (sorry – hat tip to somebody). But I slept on it. Then got up early, thinking other blogs might have noticed something important amongst the many Swedish language links. That hasn’t happened yet, but I suspect Glenn Greenwald, who has been the most thorough and credible reporter on wikilinks, is rather busy today.
This is the first day of classes at school, so my time to follow through is severely limited.
cheers.
Could you be more specific and name names, which “liberal leaning” blogs. But I hope they are Daily Kos and Crooks and Liars because that would confirm my stereotype of them being sort of leaning liberal similar to Obama, That is not much liberal but a lot of leaning.
Please don’t conflate ignorance and bias about the violent crime of rape with the political ideology of other liberal sites. They are completely different issues, and painting all liberal men at different sites as ignorant/biased about rape is quite wrong; we don’t know at this point given the lack of information whether the so-called liberal men referenced were actually liberals or not, for starters.
Frankly, I erred in not coming down harder about this issue in my first comment. I don’t want this line of inquiry going further.
The topic here is about the credibility of the person who accused Assange of a violent crime, not about the allegation itself which has already been thrown into doubt. If this person has written about revenge, has worked for the Swedish government, and we already have evidence of cooperation between the Swedish security apparatus and the U.S. mil/intel community on other unsavory deeds, we should be digging deeper, not flogging trash about other left-ish blog sites.
We’ve got a motive right now under our noses for the cooperation between Sweden and the U.S. What if Bradley Manning’s leaked documents, or those leaked by others to Wikileaks implicate Sweden in the rendition of innocent people to country/ies which torture, at the request of the U.S.?
Would someone in Sweden’s government have a vested interest in shutting up Assange? And how does this person Ardin fit into this possible scenario? Who does she know, who did she work for?
Details?
I urge everyone to read the entire Meade thread. There is a lot of information in there.
Anna Ardin is a radical feminist lesbian in the Andrea Dworkin mold…yet, Swedish authorities act on the premise that AA was raped when AA herself says that the sex–with Assange, a man–was consensual. That is curious. I’m not totally on board with the idea that any sex ever happened. Radical feminist lesbians don’t tend to have many casual sexual encounters with men. Not that it could never happen…just that it seems unlikely. Fishy, even.
Read Stephen Grey’s Ghost Plane. Here’s a key excerpt.
Quite the conspiracy theory Rayne
Bradley Manning and Assange are heroes. Sad to think that there are people anywhere who do not want to know about what has really taken place in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, drone killings. Very very sad
Total distraction. Assange was not willing to be a minister of war propaganda as the U.S. MSM has and often still is (Rachel Maddow covered the Iranian protest more than she covered pro health care advocates) Rachel as well as other MSMers have not only been repeating some of the anti Iranian neo con progaganda Rachel has repeated the debunked “Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map” hooey herself.
The only thing that the U.s. military and the U.S. government learned from the horrific and unnecessary war in Vietnam was to make sure the MSM went along this time. Don’t show the American people the pictures of the Iraqi people dying, don’t count the dead and injured and for goodness sake do not tell them the truth or show them the pictures.
Bradley Manning and Assange blew that plan. Although have you noticed most of the American people do not give a rats ass. (that is the most frightening part)
Can you imagine who is after Assange and what they will use to go after him.
ET/All Mondoweiss and Informed Comment filled to the brim with news on the Middle east
antiwar.com good site for debunking USG propaganda. Esp Scott Horton’s interviews.
love that site. Have been going there for quite some time. Justin was hitting homeruns before the unnecessary and immoral invasion of Iraq. The I/P issue is addressed and focused on with brutal honesty and facts.
ot
ProfJuan Cole nails it again
“Now U.S. should get out of Iraq’s politicsBy Juan Cole, Special to CNNAugust 23, 2010 9:38 a.m. EDT
Juan Cole says some in U.S. worry leaving Iraq will reignite chaos, but that fear is misplaced
U.S. meddling has caused the chaos, he says, and Iraq should be left to settle its own affairs
U.S. presence has muddled politics without improving situation
Cole: U.S. can best help Iraqis by allowing them to return to being an independent country
Editor’s note: Juan Cole is the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History and the Middle East scholar at the University of Michigan. He blogs about the contemporary Middle East at Informed Comment. His most recent book is “Engaging the Muslim World.”
(CNN) — Americans may worry that the end to the U.S. combat mission in Iraq will reignite violence and chaos there. But the fear is misplaced”
Unable to link. Great clips
Rayne –
Wasn’t a controlling interest in BP purchased by a Swedish company? Perhaps the Swedish government is helping the US with Assange and Wilileaks as a favor for the US government doing all it can to shield BP from the repercussions of the Gulf oil spill?