Australia: WikiLeaks questions for Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt's trip to Australia

The Swedish press are timid due to the small overlapping political and media class in Stockholm (essentially, everyone is related). Consequently it is important that foreign press ask the hard questions:

a) QUESTION You have said that it is not a secret that you are an old friend of Karl Rove. When was the last time you met with/spoke to him. When was the last time Mr Rove formally or informally advised you? Have you every spoken to Mr. Rove about WikiLeaks or Julian Assange? When did you first meet Mr. Rove? Isn't it true you met in a hotel room together during 2012, in London?
Context: Karl Rove lists on his website only one foreign consultancy job: for the conservative party in Sweden, Carl Bildt's Moderaterna (http://www.rove.com/bio). From an interview with Assange (early 2012) "Carl Bildt, became a U.S. Embassy informant in 1973 when he was 24 years old. He shipped his personal effects to Washington, to lead a conservative leadership program, where he met Karl Rove. They became old friends and would go to conferences together and so on.
Q: Karl Rove? How do you know this?
A: Cables.
See http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/julian-assange-the-rolling-stone-interview-20120118#ixzz2M38umVim
Carl Bildt, in an interview with the tabloid Expressen (23 February 2012): "Bildt has never tried to hide that he knows Karl Rove, they "meet regularly" and Bildt described Rove as "one of my oldest friends".
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/wikileaks-carl-bildt-ar-usa-informator/

b) What is your relationship with Niklas Svensson (that first published the allegations against Assange) at the Expressen newspaper- your wife was present at his birthday party- why?

Context: Niklas Svensson, editor of Expressen, has had an extremely hostile editorial line against both Assange and WikiLeaks, publishing fabricated stories claiming that WikiLeaks "internal memo" was planning a 'smear campaign' against Sweden and that WikiLeaks 'managers' were monitoring Swedish journalists in Sweden, including Niklas Svensson, including by taking pictures of their homes and breaking into confidential tax records.

c) What is your relationship to Lundin Petroleum. There have been reports in the Swedish press that you have helped arrange business deals for them while you have been in office, is this correct?

Context: Carl Bildt was a member of the board of directors of Lundin Oil (now Lundin Petroleum) 2000-2006. Lundin Petroleum, one of the largest Swedish oil company was managed by built and is now criminally embroiled in a crimes against humanity case in the Sudan from the time of Bildt's management.
June 2010, ECOS (European Coalition on Oil in Sudan) report Unpaid Debt http://www.ecosonline.org/reports/2010/^index.html/UNPAID_DEBT_fullreportweb.pdf.html
More: http://www.thelocal.se/36112/20110913/
http://rixstep.com/1/20120214,01.shtml


d) IT HAS been noted in the Swedish press that your government has allowed the largest media conglomerate (the Bonniers) to break anti-monopoly laws in exchange for political support. Can you comment on that?

Context: The consolidation of ownership in Sweden’s main newspapers reduces the number of owners basically to two: Bonnier (with the biggest share) and Schibsted. The Bonnier family are the "Murdochs" of Sweden and have large international holdings. Dagens Nyheter is owned by Bonnier. Svenska Dagbladet is owned 99,4% by Schibsted. Aftonbladet owned 49,9% by Schibsted. Expressen is owned by Bonnier. Kvällsposten by Bonnier. GT by Bonnier and Stockholm City by Bonnier. The Swedish News Agency TT is owned by "the big newspapers and media companies" (Bonnier and Schibstedt).


e) YOU HAVE granted Mr. Torbjörn Törnquist (co-owner of oil company Gunvor) a status as honorary consul in Geneva- why did you do that? What kind of buisness projects have you had in the Russian oil sector, in the Russian land purchasing sector?

f) HOW do you reconcile your position on the rule of law in Sweden when you yourself, and members of your cabinet, have made slanderous comments that harm Mr. Assange's prospects for a fair trial in Sweden?
- why has there been no attempt to sanction members of the Swedish executive from making hostile comments against an Australian citizen who has not been charged with any crime?
- Why has there been no formal retraction by Minister Hagglund, yourself (on the 'smear campaign' remarks about Wikileaks), or the Prime Minister, who falsely stated that Mr. Assange had been charged? Would you say that for the most part the media is Sweden is respecting the presumption of innocence and Mr. Assange's personal integrity?
- You commented to Australian lawyer Jennifer Robinson in June 2012 that Assange 'is not above the law'. However , Ms. Robinson reminded you that it is within the law of Sweden and the bilateral agreements between Sweden and the UK to interrogate Assange in the UK. Why does Sweden refuse to hear Mr. Assange's side of the story? MORE: http://justice4assange.com/extraditing-assange.html#LONDON
- If the decision to interrogate Assange in the UK is discretionary, and not prevented by law, what is the reason behind Sweden refusing to interrogate him? MORE: http://justice4assange.com/extraditing-assange.html#LONDON
- Are you aware that Sweden has sent a prosecutor to interrogate a murder suspect in Serbia, and that suspects have been interrogated similarly in the Swedish embassy in London, and that Sweden has sent an entire court to Rwanda?

MORE: http://justice4assange.com/extraditing-assange.html#LONDON

More on the Swedish media/politicians public comments about Assange:
http://theconversation.edu.au/lunch-and-dinner-with-julian-assange-in-prison-12234
A guide to the following claims:
The claim: "easier from the UK than Sweden" http://justice4assange.com/extraditing-assange.html#UKEASIER
The claim: "there are political exceptions"
http://justice4assange.com/extraditing-assange.html#POLITICALEXCEPTIONS
The claim: "there are death penalty and torture exceptions"
http://justice4assange.com/extraditing-assange.html#TORTUREEXCEPTIONS
The claim: "the rendition was an isolated incident"
http://justice4assange.com/extraditing-assange.html#RENDITION

g) DO you recognise the Ecuadorian government's finding that Mr. Assange is a political asylee and has a well-founded fear of persecution by the United States due to his work as the Wikileaks publisher?

h) YOU have accused WikiLeaks of planning a 'smear campaign' against Sweden without any factual basis. Aren't you just a bit thin-skinned? Isn't this odd behavior for a foreign minister to be engaging in? How can Assange have any confidence in Sweden when you make statements like this:

"I take note of the information in Expressen that Wikileaks is preparing a smear campaign, you can figure out yourself what I think of that"

QUESTION In an interview with Expressen, you say that you are taking note that Wikileaks is planning a "smear campaign" on Sweden. You also made several tweets referring to the 'smear campaign' that Wikileaks says is baseless. Have you seen the documents that purport to be Wikileaks 'internal documents'? Are you aware that WikiLeaks says that these documents are forged and that this is false.


http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/carl-bildt-orolig-for-wikileaks-kampanj/

Context: The story came out just a week before Julian Assange was expecting to be extradited to Sweden. It appeared to be designed to undermine the impact of the release of the information about Bildt's relationship to the US and to Karl Rove (see b). Expressen ran a story exaggerating Assange's words (claiming Assange had said Bildt was a US spy), and claimed that they had obtained an 'internal Wikileaks memo' with plans to harm Swedish prestige and economic interests. It followed up the story with claims that Wikileaks 'managers' were spying on Swedish media editors and photographing their homes.
Wikileaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson's response:
http://wikileaks.org/Kristinn-Hrafnsson-The-Great.html
And Wikileaks response: http://wikileaks.org/Press-release-WikiLeaks-on-Recent.html

BEST BACKGROUND ON BILDT:

http://rixstep.com/bildt
http://rixstep.com/1/20120214,01.shtml
http://rixstep.com/1/20120214,02.shtml
http://rixstep.com/1/20120214,03.shtml
http://rixstep.com/1/20120214,04.shtml
http://rixstep.com/1/20120214,05.shtml
http://rixstep.com/1/20120214,06.shtml

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