The Seven Pillars Of Deception. Part I – Is Sweden “the less corrupted country in the world”?

WikiLeaks cables in the disclosing of further episodes of political corruption in Sweden. Further Vendetta expected?

A remarkable aspect in this sample of political corruption scandals here reviewed, is that at the end the corrupted deeds were covered up and the responsible politicians NEVER taken to justice. This, and that the Media or the elected Parliament do not properly exercise their democratic role of control, is in my opinion the most peculiar of all.

“Corruption”, independently if of political or economic nature, is a very sensitive thing among Swedes – a country that has ranked among the top least corrupted countries in the world – positioning that Swedes have all reason to feel proud of. On the other hand, one aspect of “political corruption” in any democracy is the conspiracy behaviour that certain governments deploy against their own citizens.  Precisely because of the secret nature of those deeds, they have not been known by the Swedish public, some times neither by the Parliament. The WikiLeaks cables have disclosed several of those democracy-corruption episodes regarding Swedish rulers (see down below and previous post), exposure that has ostensibly damaged the Sweden trademark. Further, Wikileaks cables have lead investigation into huge economic corruption scandals as enacted by the Swedish state-owned Telia Sonera – discussed also in this article.

But WikiLeaks cables were NOT specifically directed to target just Sweden, neither authored by WikiLeaks. The cables are instead based in reports from the US embassies all over the world. Is this Vendetta justified at all?

The Swedish establishment – i.e. the government, the military complex, the mainstream media, the “cultural elite”, and the established political parties – have a) partly reacted with vengeful and draconian measures against WikiLeaks – the messenger. Therefore, among other ill-fated accusations, the world has also witnessed the vilifying attacks on the person Julian Assange by the Swedish Foreign Office and the Swedish press; and b) partly with a vigorous PR campaign towards a restatement of their uncorrupted-country status. This has eventually been done at times in an exaggerated or untruthful fashion, such as  in the chauvinistic Twitter-campaign “Sweden No. One uncorrupted country in the world” which is touched upon here, only by the side, with a minor statistical rectification.

 

A remarkable aspect in the sample of political corruption scandals here reviewed, is that at the end the corrupted deeds were covered up and the responsible politicians NEVER taken to justice. This, and that the Media or the elected Parliament do not properly exercise their democratic role of control, is in my opinion the most peculiar of all.

This series

This new series against the backdrop of the Swedish case against the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, deals with fallacious myths about correctness in some Swedish institutions, advertised cultural norms or legal praxis. Specifically, the series analyses known trademark delusions (i.e. "neutrality", "rule of law", etc) on which the government of Sweden has built upon the international offensive aimed at the decimation of WikiLeaks and their declared Number One Enemy Julian Assange. It is important to bear in mind that what is analysed is the political behaviour of Swedish establishment politicians, particularly in the context of Human Rights. It is NOT about the Swedish society as such or much less regarding the dignified and honest Swedish nationals – equally victims of a political deception. The series also examines the political and moral issues behind Sweden’s recent international collapse of 2012, when Sweden obtained the lowest preference among the voting delegates regarding Sweden’s own candidacy for becoming a member of the United Nations’ Human-Rights organization. And this is the Sweden that just some years ago was internationally acclaimed for its Olof Palme, and for a noble commitment for peace, fairness in justice and human rights for all. It is high time for the Swedish people to wake up from this political nightmare. 

The first part in the series questions the repeated assertion of Sweden as "the least corrupted country in the world" which often goes together with the official claim that instead Assange is "the cause of the international discredit of Sweden". Others parts in the series analyse: 2. “Is Sweden is a neutral country?” 3. “Do Swedish rulers abide with United Nations resolutions on Human Rights?” 4. “Is Sweden a modern monarchy strictly under the rule of law (Rättstat)?” 5. “Is Sweden an ethnic and gender-equal country?” [not a theme about immigration policy right/wrong or immigrants good/bad. It only examines the actual situation of ethnic and gender-equality in regard to government actions] 6. “Has Sweden a free press in contrast to Ecuador, and how professional are Swedish journalists?” 7. “Are the majority of Swedes really behind the government and plutocratic Mainstream media in the official smearing against WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange?

By Marcello Ferrada de Noli

A personal foreword about the title, and on Palme and Assange in MSM

The friendly proof-readers in my previous series (@TreisiRoon and @Li_Rex9) may be at this point familiar - if not fatigued - with my constant query: “what title should I be giving to the article?” For, sincerely, I am no good at heading articles. So, unwilling to bother them during this holiday-time, this time I tried to manage on my own. In the process (see here below) certain associations – even amid displeasure - drove me to nostalgia. If it was not vice-versa, that nostalgia was instead which led me to recollections of book "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", by T.H. Lawrence. I explain here.

It was seen the SvT documentary on the great Swedish socialist, the late Olof Palme, aired on the 2 of January. The documentary – by Kristina Lindström and Maud Nycander – showed also sequences of Palme’s visit to Cuba 1975 (I lived by then in Sweden).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF8B1cBhD-0?feature=player_detailpage&w=640&h=360]

Above video with a synopsis of the documentary

The Palme documentary had a vast audience. Of course it was to be used by the (needless to say, right wing) Swedish MSM for political propaganda. The day after the documentary, on the 3 of January, I faced with sorrow the ferocious attack against Palme’s memory in an editorial in the leading Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN). The vilifying editorial “Olof Palme. Politicians are rarely saints” signed by a journalist of name Erik Elmerson, falsely accused Palme – among other things - of nothing less than having personally bribed the Indian authorities to help sell (Bofors) weaponry purchased by India.  [(Palme) sålde krigsmateriel till diktaturer (Saudiarabien) och med hjälp av mutor (Indien).]

Of course this is an attempt by the plutocratic MSM to “balance” recent accusations by a team of honest journalists at SvT, which have recently exposed the international bribe-scandal of Swedish giant telecommunications company Telia Sonera (it will be also treated here in this article).

The “Bribe”-accusation on Palme was a particular vilifying and ad hominem lie in the editorial, and which forced DN to publish a retraction afterwards. A retraction - I thought – that it is not likely we will ever hear from the Swedish MSM regarding the lying and personal insulting (e.g. 1,2,3,4,5,) on the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – declared in Sweden No. One enemy of the state. For which political organizations or “cultural elite” defends Palme in Sweden? In fact no other political figure has been so smeared in Sweden after Palme – who eventually was assassinated – than Julian Assange. Why this solid, compact smearing? Some explanations here: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

 

To helping the establishment’s MSM smearing of Palme, the sate-sponsored Film Institute nominated for the most important Swedish award the anti Palme film “Call Girl”. This perfide alliance between the MSM and the so-called Swedish “Cultural Elite” occasioned a variety of twitters by professors blog - eventually with some replying by the American media Professor Christian Christensen, employed at the University of Uppsala.

Further, the DN editorial of 3 January pinched a very sensitive node in of my recollections on Cuba, memories re-enacted with the documentary just the day before. The said DN editorial runs a sub-headline in text directly related to the statement: “Among the most aggravating are the (documentary) sequences of Palme’s “Cuba trip” visit to Cuba where he (is seen) fairly creeping in front of Fidel Castro’s uniform”. [Till det mest graverande hör scenerna från Palmes Kubaresa 1975. Han mer eller mindre kryper innanför Fidel Castros uniform] (DN’s enphasis).

None of these things happened in the documentary. Instead, what is seen in the streets of Havana are the images of that dignified proletarian crowd, that, while waving Cuban and Swedish flags to Palme the hero mirrored on their faces the tragic struggle of David against Goliath: Cuban women and men, and children, seen wearing clean but impoverish clothing tailored by the US blockade; Cuban soldiers are seen parading with pride while holding their hope of survival in old Kalashnikovs. Etc, etc. Here in that editorial DN is simply being unfair, vulgar, and above all deceiving to the readers.

I can tell that also because all those scenes are taken only some years after I was in Havana myself – and not much had changed by then. And of course all those scenes showing the military reminded me of the time when I received combat training on guerrilla warfare in the very same Cuban capital in 1964. I was then 20 years old; but combat memories are for life, for the good or not.

The recollections by association continued. That guerrilla training was interesting in many ways but I had already received combat baptism. In fact, I have participated in the uprisings of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil December 1963, and in Panama City  - where I was ricochet-wounded on the 10 January 1964 while taking pictures of the event. I was later transported to Mexico for assistance at the Thorax Hospital in Mexico City. Excelsior published the pictures I took in Panama. My doctor in Mexico City was Carlos Noble, also the Hospital Director, and thus  he could also manage to provide me there shelter.

It was a long wait in Mexico for my Cubana de Aviación flight to Havana. Blockade, scarce flights, scarcity of seats and a long waiting list. My Cuban contact - the Cultural Attaché at the Embassy in Santiago of the name Payán (not originally from the Communist Party, but from the Directorio Revolucionario 13 de Marzo) suggested that I should – while waiting for my flight - occupy my time with a certain reading list.

In that list among other titles was "The seven pillars of wisdom", for the book told also in detail about tactics of guerrilla warfare. It was the only book in the list that I managed to read and actually not even finished for the reading was interrupted by the Cuban embassy’s communication that my flight to Havana was due. The associations triggered by the infamous DN editorial of 3 January 2013 inspire the title of this new series, a following of  “Sweden Versus Assange – Insider analyses”:

The seven pillars of deception

Introduction to the series

Main characterization of the Swedish psyop strategy in tackling their blunder on the “Assange case”

First, the Swedish psyop strategy in tackling their blunder on the 

“Assange case” is devised by the authority to target both 1. The domestic public, and 2. International audiences. International audiences are targeted by the government agencies of Sweden and their collaboration with journalists in the MSM aiming both to counter arrest the decrease of the international prestige Sweden has suffered consecutively since the assassination of their Prime Minister Olof Palme, but in an avalanche-like fashion since Sweden’s initiation of hostilities against WikiLeaks through a fashion many consider unfair, if not preposterous, such as the phony legal process against the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

I wish to make clear abut this point above: There is not - to the best of my knowledge - a single article in the Swedish press, signed by a serious journalist, which would be of the opinion Assange will be ever charged, or if charged convicted, on the accusations put forward against him in the process reopened by Claes Borgström, of the Bodström & Borgström firm (both are high-ranking politicians within the Swedish establishment - Bodström was Justice Minister at the time his office authorized the secret rendition of political prisoners to CIA).

On the contrary, either this nodal issue is totally ignored or when taken up gives the assessment that there is no evidence as to make a case. And this is of course known by the Swedish prosecutor authority, and of course this is one of the reasons why they are not interested in concluding the interrogation of Assange using actual possibilities in Swedish legal praxis – which includes the interrogation abroad or by video conference!

Further, we have the international commitments of Sweden principally with US and NATO-governments, in accordance to Sweden’s current geopolitical design. In this regard, the commitment of Sweden with EU is to be considered secondary. An illustration of this is the campaign of the Swedish Ministry of Defence to convince EU countries for an enhanced support to NATO strategy specifically named US interests.

Article authored by Swedish Defence Minister Sten Tolgfors in Svenska Dagbladet 15 Jan 2012.

The primary commitment with the US has an enormous impact in the Assange “case”, particularly when considering that Assange has been partly signalled as “terrorist” or “cyber terrorist” by high-ranking US politicians – including Vice President Biden and the now open declarations around the US military process against Bradley Manning implicating him with Assange and WikiLeaks.

1. The domestic front

On the domestic front, the case has served a variety of purposes. In its turn, these purposes would serve both:

a) The ruling political establishment through direct political gains such as the re-election of the right-wing conservative government. Assange is first portrayed as Sweden’s No. 1 enemy and thereafter the government is portrayed as representing “all Sweden” contention or defence against the enemy.

In fact, most of Swedes are ignorant of this case in details. More over, the absolutely majority of “standard” Swedes replying about the case declares that even they do not know details, or are not interested, one strange thing is that an Interpol arrest order has been issued against a man accused by two women of sexual misconduct – “while thousands of worse  such cases in Sweden are not investigated at all” (“det är ju konstigt att medan man i Sverige inte ens undersöker anmälningar som är värre än sådana anklagelser, man till och med utfärdar en Interpol arrestering order för at ta Assange hit”. Conclusion expressed in a talk with author by a group of health-care female staff at a Swedish hospital).

b) The “opposition” through propagandistic claim for “radicalization” of legislation under a fascist feministic perspective. In this aspect the Assange “case” is used as “symbol” for such political campaign. This is described in Part I of this series.

2. The international front

In the International front, the strategy of the Swedish rulers has been twofold:

On the one part it is directed in compliance with secret agreements with USA/NATO. In this regard, WikiLeaks denounced the secret agreements in the Diplomatic Cables released 2010.

On the other part the aim is targeting other countries’ governments and international public advocating with a variety of expressions referring to “the Swedish model”. The ultimate aim is trying to regain the ostensible losses on international prestige. (See below). One simple indication about this sad phenomenon is the lowest-votes defeat Sweden obtained in the election at the United Nations for a seat in the Human Rights committee, recently in 2012.

The anti-Assange crusade is used to attract international attention towards the “modern Swedish legislation” which in its turn the Foreign Office tries to sell to Third World countries. (See professors blog article on the forgotten WL cable “. . . “)

The Swedish psyop strategy in tackling their blunder on the “Assange case” can be characterized with this main duplicity: The contrasting a purported trademark of a “good”, “clean”, “modern”, “geopolitically balanced” (neutral) country with  the “terrorist” “dirty” “paranoid” “Russian agent” Julian Assange – and by extension the free-information project directly associated with Assange, WikiLeaks.

The international disinformation campaign has been conducted for instance

• Directly through publications in the websites of for instance the Ministry of Justice or the Swedish Prosecutor Authority (I will come back with details on that);
• Through direct actions by stationed ambassadors (e.g. Sweden’s ambassador to Australia) according to instructions delivered for the occasion by the Swedish foreign office, and
• Through the use in social media by direct twitter accounts and anonymous troll accounts or so-called sockpuppets.

The tactical elements in the implementing of such campaign are organized around these seven items here called the “seven pillars of deception”:

1. Sweden is "the least corrupted country in the world”  ergo it cannot be assumed a bias action against Assange

2. “Sweden is a modern democracy and strictly under the rule of law (Rättstat)”

3. “Sweden is a neutral country” ergo it cannot be assumed a cooperation with US in the issue of extradition on a geopolitical level

4. “Sweden is only abiding with United Nations resolutions”

5. “Sweden is a gender-equal country”

6. “Sweden has a free press in contrast to Ecuador”

7. “Sweden only cares for a fair administration of justice in the case Assange, not other”

 

Part I “Is Sweden the less corrupted country in the world?”

According to figures from Transparency International 2012, Sweden is definitely NOT the least corrupted country in the world (see statistic below). This may pose a huge social-psychology or idiosyncratic challenge to sectors of the Swedish society, which has been educated in the conviction that Sweden is "the model of the world". For example, in an article by the English BBC "Extreme world: Is Sweden as clean as it seems?" it is quoted repeatedly an archetype impression from Swedes themselves, as declared by a woman from the street" "We see ourselves as a model for other countries". Perhaps it says it all.

The second aspect is that corruption in Sweden is also seen as a growing problem. This is also aggravating because cases of company corruption have been associated with the political sphere or even directly with the Swedish government. Such was the case in 2012 of the Defence Ministry's FOA deals with Saudi Arabia, or the current corruption scandal of Telia Sonera - a giant telecom whose main owner is the Swedish state both subjects treated below]. A most recent article in the Swedish Wire, "Swedish firms more worried about corruption" (7 January 2013), refers the result of survey indicating that "Swedish companies are more worried about corruption being a threat to business than their Nordic peers and also to a higher degree view graft as a growing risk."

Another problem is that, unlike in many countries, both rich and poor, in Sweden does not exist an independent institution for the assessment of corruption. Which does not mean absence of concern about this problem.

Research on corruption - or comparative corruption indexes -  can be break-down for analyses in different spheres. According to the themes treated on this series,  the corruption categories relevant here are only a) political corruption, b) company or corporate corruption only insofar has to do with the political sphere, and c) corruption in the legal system - a main theme to be soon treated in these columns.

I have chosen to use here statistics from the highly reputed Transparency International - of which Sweden also is forming part with own chapter in Sweden, and own academic research  published in Swedish. In an upcoming article I will be treating specifically the Swedish legal/judicial system.

National-chauvinists and cultural racism

The equation comprising an exaggerated appraisal that nationals-chauvinist individuals have about their own countries, together with the notion that their cultural model should prevail as example for the rest of societies or cultures in the world, is a tragic social-psychiatric phenomenon that every democracy has to deal with in times of peace - for it has been quite too often a cause of war.

By giving a biased picture or exaggerated data of their country, and insisting to demand in a public forum as Internet that their bias is to be tenable as fact by everybody,  these individuals actually contribute to damage the international credit of the very country they  say to defend. This is not Munich 1938. This is the Internet forum of 2013 comprised by an educated international audience having instant cybernetic access to historical, epidemiological or statistical information.

Here below are examples of the biased portrait that propagandists of the Swedish government have launched in the international social media, in direct reference to the accusations against WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange

Above and below, Twitters by sockpupppets (anonymous Trolls with multiple accounts) implementing the Swedish government anti-WIkiLeaks psyop.

Let us first get clear that, generally, I would definitely not consider Sweden as a "corrupted country" in the traditional denotation. On the contrary, the average Swede is in comparison - I repeat here my opinion - remarkably honest, sincere and hard-working. However, Sweden is definitely NOT the country indexed as the least corrupted in the world. What the anti WikiLeaks campaigners declare over and over again in the social media is purely misleading. Besides, Sweden has worsened successively during the last few years its positioning in the ranking of less-corrupted / more-corrupted countries (see sources, details and illustrations below).

My second statement is that there is another sort of corruption, what I would call Democracy-related political corruption, and about which I regard Sweden as doing worse during recent years amidst the society of democratic countries. Here I refer to these three aspects:

a) The participation of the citizens in the political business and their trust of politicians;

b) The trust of the public on the journalists; Johanne Hildebrand wrote in Svenska dagbladet that “Among all professions practised in Sweden, journalists have the least credibility among the Swedish people”

c) The “conspiracy” style kept by the government towards both the public and the democratically elected Parliament, for instance by - against the law - keeping secret from the Swedish Parliament agreements with foreign powers. In this article is reviewed also one of this episodes in which the Swedish government deliberately keep illegal transaction with foreign powers hide from the Parliament. This is the case of the missile-factory deal with Saudi Arabia, seen far down below in this text.

Is this not corruption in the highest degree?

Well, that the government kept - illegally - things secret from the Parliament,  is only a part of this political corruption scandal. The other parts, equally scandalous are that the Parliament never really accomplished any measure to take the responsible to court; and that the Swedish media left the issue shortly thereafter or straight cover it up.One of the few exceptions was, for example, the team at SvT's Dokument Inifrån (see further below).

Also, one minor political party presented allegations upon the "Constitutional Committee". However, as the same fashion as it did happen with the accusations against Thomas Bodström and Göran Persson for the Egyptians rendition-torture scandal (also in secret agreement with CIA), things were left without any action at all. And what then the rest of political parties did? nothing. Is this not corruption in the highest degree?

The position of docility that characterizes the Mainstream media and journalists in general in their relationships with authorities, is also another aspect that would denote corruption of the democratic proceedings, which are vital for democratic health and survival. For this element, the so-called “Fourth power” – added in modern times to Montesquieu’s democratic trilogy  - is suppose to exercise control over the other “powers” (executive, judicial, and legislative), which in Sweden is particularly not the case among journalists in general. Principally, this docility is most noticeable in themes of foreign policy or that may compromise the international prestige of Sweden. I have devoted a full article on this issue, "On Torture. The Swedish-media paradox and the case against Assange".

I have in different passages in these columns placed the above “in general” observandum, for in fact there are quite honourable exceptions to that docility rule among Swedish journalists. It is much thanks to these exceptional reporting and journalist research  that I and other authors writing from Sweden (or from abroad using Swedish materials) have been able to source several analyses or articles. One of these reportage was the exposure of the arms dealings with Saudi Arabia here commented down below.

Not to mention the political corruption denounced by the program Dokument Inifrån in the reportage “The secret cables” [De hemliga telegrammen], and which partly sourced my article “Swedish/U.S. Intelligence co-operation in the Bodström Society. Part IV of the series “Sweden VS Assange” – Insider Analyses

Another formidable reporting of corruption at high level in the Swedish corridors of power is the disclosures done by a team at SvT on the bribes scandal in Telia Sonera – a giant telecom mainly owned by the Swedish state. It is described in more detail down below.

These are some sources the reader can visit in order to get a direct appraisal about the true positioning if Sweden in the “corruption” ranking, and which invalidate the Troll statement “Sweden is the less corrupted country in the world”

Sample of statistics on corruption perception referred to Sweden's ranking according to the most recent data published in Transparency International

A. The actual position of Sweden in the 2012 Ranking

From: "Corruption Perceptions Index 2012": Sweden is No. 4 (and Not No. 1)

Source: http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2012/results/

The deception campaign in social media on these items have also referred - specifically against the backdrop of the judicial case against Assange - that  Sweden would have the less corrupted legal system in the world.

However, according to the last available special report from Transparency International with specific reference to "corruption in the judicial systems", Sweden does not either occupy the first position, but the 6th (!) one among the following European countries:

It should be added that Sweden has a rate of 8.9 Prosecutors per 100,000 population (compared to Italy 3.8 ; Germany 6.1; England & Wales 5.8). Source: International Statistics on Crime & Criminal Justice, 2006.

Further, the rate for professional judges is 16.8 in Sweden (compared with Italy 10.9; Germany 17.8; England & Wales 7.0). Source: International Statistics on Crime & Criminal Justice, 2006.

The most recent political and bribe corruption scandal in Sweden: The Telia Sonera Affair - exposed after a lead provided by the WikiLeaks cables

As the professors blogg anticipated on Twitter on the 16 of December 2012, a team of reporters at SvT's Uppdrag granskning revealed that information they found in a diplomatic cable publisehd by  WikiLeaks led to the formidable disclosure which can be better seen in the original publications. Here below follows a Goggle translation that can be accessed by clicking on the clipp. The original in English can be found here.

Click on clip above for the full SvT article

In the clip below it can be seen a Google translation of a related artocle published in the SvT site. I here transcribe a complementary translation:

"- Two top executives at (mainly state-owned) Telia Sonera are suspected of bribery in the investigation that is currently under way (at the Prosecutor Authority), while Telia Sonera has ordered its own (internal) investigation. But the Question is: Would the Swedish telecom giant allow the truth mes out? "

Above, Gooogle translation of the original article in SvT [Mutrapport = Bribe Report, report on bribes]. It should read:

Other political corruption scandals of 2012: The missile-factory illegal deals with Saudi Arabia. The Swedish government responds by accusing WikiLeaks of blackmailing Sweden

I have addressed this issue previously in Professors blogg:

Defence Minister Sten Tolgfors (at right), politician of the Moderate 

Party (right-wing conservative), most known for his vehement advocacy for a further military collaboration with the U.S., said yesterday on the 6 of March 2012) to SvT [picture at right]:

"I cannot totally confirm the picture as given by the media today".

Tolgfors - which at the end resigned voluntarily, never accused or taken to any court - had the supreme institutional command over FOI (the Swedish Defence Research Agency) agency which - as known in the news - established a fake company in order to implement the secret agreements with Saudi Arabia; The name of the company is Swedish Security Technology and Innovation, SSTI. In this way FOI thought the operation it could not be traced by the Swedish Parliament. Namely, "none of the committees of the Swedish Parliament was never informed och such operation" (statement of the Vänster Party's chairman in the SvT evening news 6 March).

On the other hand, as Dagens Nyheter informs 7 March, the said fake company "Swedish Defence Research Agency" given the same address and telephone number as the Swedish Defence Research Agency".

It is highest unlikely that the Intelligence services at disposal of Defence would not have alerted Tolgfors of the upcoming disclosure. In this scenario, it is likely that Tolgfors' subordinate, FOI's Vice Research Director Mike Winnerstig (below) had the assignment of sending a chauvinistic smoke courting to the public, by spuriously accusing Assange and WikiLeaks of non-existent criminal behaviours, such as blackmailing the Nation of Sweden.

This measure was one among the variety of articles and aired programs aiming to discredit WikiLeaks and presenting Sweden under an attack from "Sweden's Number One Enemy" Julian Assange, as he has previously been named in Sweden's mainstream media both by the pro-government press and the "opposition" press.

Former PM Göran Persson and his Justice Minister Thomas Bodström

The Swedish military collaboration with the Saudi Arabia dictatorship commenced under the previous social democratic government of the pro-Bush PM Göran Persson and his Justice Minister Thomas Bodström -- the main partner in the firm Bordström & Borgström which instigated the reopening of a process against the WikiLeaks founder.

The Swedish mainstream media - State or corporate owned -  will in these days give the impression that they, or the political establishment, is "reacting" to the disclosures. For instance, it is announced that the Green Party have reported Minister Tolgfors to the Parliament's Constitutional Committee. It will not happen a thing. Professors blogg can absolutely promise: Nothing it will happen at the end, unfortunately.

Another way from the Swedish political establishment of faking a reaction is  calling for a modification of the current legislation on arms/weaponry export. With this they let people "understand" that in the agreements with Saudi Arabia dictatorship were nothing illegal, that the law permitted such things even if "one could think it would be inappropriate". Such is the posture for example of Folkpartiet (a party of the government coalition), in declarations made today by chairman Jan Björklund.

According to TV4 News 6 March (19.00) The chairman of such Constitutional Committee has already declared that the above it will not be considered in any case before year 2013. This because their agenda is fully booked for this year!

The King of Sweden recently bestowed Saudi Arabian dictator with a Swedish medal

In October 2011, the Swedish monarch bestowed his Saudi Arabia counterpart with a Swedish medal, the Wolf Bronze Award. This caused just a minor "storm bubble" in Sweden, almost unnoticed in the country but known abroad thanks to a reportage by The Local of 4 October 2011.

In spite of the documentation gathered by Ekot, officlas at the FOI still denies. And PM Reinfeldt appeals to a "secrecy matter", according to SvD.

Jan-Olof Lind, FOI's General Director: "No. And I do not wish to comment on discussions that may or may not have occurred between Sweden and Saudi Arabia. These discussions are classified." [1]

Anna Troberg, Sweden’s Pirate Party chairman comments “Sweden’s secret arms assistance is not an accident, it is a symptom” (“Sveriges hemliga vapenhjälp är ingen slump, den är ett symptom”).

The Swedish governmental initiative of military collaboration with the dictatorship of Saudi Arabia (cristalized in the construction of a misile and arms factory) was in fact implemented by the very same agency which few days ago – possibly in a “preventive strike” fearing cables revelations ? – accused in the State Television WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of, among other, blackmailing the entire nation of Sweden.

Mike Winnerstig [above], is a high-ranked official (Deputy Director of Research) at the Swedish Defence Research Agency – institution under the Swedish Ministry of Defence. He also holds  a PhD in Political Sciences and he is member of the Royal Swedish  Academy of War Sciences. He has been Research Fellow in the International Security Program at Harvard University (Belfer Center, J Kennedy School of Government), Boston - USA. Winnerstig's formulations on WikiLeaks in the SvT main program Aktuellt are to be considered as highly interpreting the Swedish political/military establishment; For instance, he recently (8 February 2012) addressed the seminar on US/Europe military partnership organized by Society and Defence "in collaboration with the US Embassy in Stockholm". 

Mike Winnerstig declared that “WikiLeaks had from the beginning an agenda to nail principally the U.S. and its allies in different scenarios”,  implying also that according to such agenda WL’s neglected “for instance Russia”. Winnerstig questioned as to whether WikiLeaks is an independent organization, and that it would explain why “we have not been seeing disclosures of Russian or Chinese archives”.

It cannot be by accident that at the same time the main Swedish newspapers - in occasion of the elections in Russia -  have dedicated tremendous space to remind us of "the horrors of Russia / Soviet Union". In these regards, the Swedish anti-WikiLeaks/Assange campaign stands as purely chauvinistic, old fashioned Macarthysm.

Further, formulating a serious imputation, the high-ranking analyst representing on the State Television a governmental institution subordinated to the Minister of Defence, stated that WikiLeaks / Julian Assange are now indulging in blackmail or extortion towards Sweden. See below:

In fact, the WikiLeaks/Assange accusers are the ones that to the highest extent discredit Sweden by the assistance in weaponry and arms factory one of the worst dictatorships. Who is in fact violation Swedish legislation?