The hysterical anger of the British foreign office toward Equador supports the idea that the whole rape accusation against Wikileaks' Julian Assange was just a trumped-up smear to undermine Assange's support and get him to the US for trial.
As a woman, I'm insulted to see a sexual assault accusation cynically used as a weapon. But as Dawg says:
...far too much about this case is suspicious. The timing of the rape accusations. The refusal of Sweden to question Assange in Britain, or to give any guarantees that he won’t be whisked off the the US—where he could face the death penalty—when he sets foot on Swedish soil. And, most of all, the staggering resources expended to hunt the fellow down and render him to Sweden. . . . Assange is being targeted because he not only spoke truth to power but stuck his finger in power’s eye.Interpol has put Assange on its "most-wanted" list -- for having sex without a condom, for crying out loud - and Britain and Sweden are both acting like Assange is history's greatest monster. As Ian Welsh notes, Pinochet had women raped by dogs and Britain wouldn't extradite him.
Why the US would actually want Assange is puzzling, given how controversial such a trial would be, but that’s another story, I guess.
We should never underestimate the vindictiveness of an insulted bureaucracy, regardless of how irrational or nonsensical.
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