Johanna Faust, a mixed race Jew, prefers to publish pseudonymously. She is committed: first, to preventing war, ecological disaster, and nuclear apocalypse; last to not only fighting for personal privacy & the freedom of information, but, by representing herself as a soldier in that fight, to exhorting others to do the same. She is a poet, always. All these efforts find representation here: "ah, Mephistophelis" is so named after the last line of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, whose heretical success flouted the censor for a time.

Assange, US, Trading Words: State Department Credibility Deficit


This gorgeous portrait of Julian Assange by Abode of Chaos.
Do check his
photostream out.  It kicks ass.
Used with permission (
Creative Commons, some rights reserved)

So Julian says, from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy, he says,




Assange Accuses U.S. of a ‘Witch Hunt’
By RAVI SOMAIYA: August 19, 2012
Since June, Mr. Assange has been confined to the embassy, a small office in a red-brick apartment block where he fled and was granted asylum from British efforts to extradite him to Sweden. He is wanted for questioning on accusations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion brought by two women in Stockholm in 2010, allegations he has denied.

Read more.

and so what does the Obama Administration reply?

U.S. says WikiLeaks' Assange trying to deflect rape allegations
(Reuters) WASHINGTON | Tue Aug 21, 2012 12:41am

The United States on Monday accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of making "wild assertions" about an alleged U.S. vendetta against him to deflect attention from rape allegations he faces in Sweden.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland dismissed Assange's latest broadside, which he delivered on Sunday from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London where he has sought refuge from arrest.

(continued below)



"So let me get this straight: 
The US is complaining... 
about Britain not being able to extradite... 
an Australian citizen... 
to Sweden... 
because he is in the Ecuadorean embassy."

 (h/t Corporanon)

May I add: 
The US is 'worried' 
Assange might not face justice... In Sweden...  
For not using a condom. 

(Reuters, continued from above)

"He is making all kinds of wild assertions about us," Nuland told a news briefing, saying Assange's current legal problems stemmed from allegations of sexual misconduct and were unrelated to the WikiLeaks case.

"He is clearly trying to deflect attention away from the real issue, which is whether he's going to face justice in Sweden, which is the immediate issue. So that case has nothing to do with us. It's a matter between the UK, Sweden, and now Ecuador has inserted itself," Nuland said.

Read more

 "Inserted itself. " 
Where would that be?
Had the US thought Ecuador took its place in line?  
Will that be mutually consensual?
Will that insertion have had safety first in mind?

Sheesh.

Good luck, Julian.  Try not to call attention to yourself.  



Be seeing you.