Rove and Wallenberg Are At The Heart Of The Julian Assange Prosecution

Anonymous Operation Want

Update at 11:25 CST, Friday, Feb. 11, 2011: The following post has been updated with editing changes to illustrate the distinctions between Anonymous and Anonymous Operation Want, two groups that support WikiLeaks but are not one and the same.

A federal grand jury in California is considering evidence against a group of activists that supports the efforts of WikiLeaks to expose official wrongdoing by release of secret documents.

Anonymous was the target of a multi-state FBI raid on January 27, reports Bloomberg. Another pro-WikiLeaks group, Anonymous Operation Want (AOW), has released a video that spotlights the role of GOP political strategist Karl Rove and the wealthy Wallenberg family of Sweden as key players in an effort to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on sex-related charges in Europe.

The FBI reportedly is investigating Anonymous attacks on the Web sites of four companies that had blocked contributions to WikiLeaks. Reports Bloomberg:

Among the evidence seized by the FBI during multistate raids on Jan. 27 was data taken from an individual who controls one of Anonymous’s primary servers, identified by the organization only by his cyber-handle ‘Owen,’ Brown said.

“The FBI is breaking down people’s doors with guns drawn,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a member of the board of the National Lawyers Guild, which has talked with Anonymous organizers about their legal defense. “A group of people are engaged in a modern day electronic sit-in, and the FBI wants to treat that like it’s terrorist activity.”

Anonymous has a tendency to retaliate against those who try to shut it down. In fact, the group uses a mask-wearing character from the film V for Vendetta in its literature and videos:

Anonymous responded on Feb. 6 by hacking a California-based security firm that it said was aiding the probe, hijacking 60,000 company e-mails and making them public on one of the organization’s servers. The e-mails included a proposal by the company to develop a malware tracking program for the U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), among other confidential documents. . . .

Several cyber-security experts declined to speak about the group or its activities on the record because of its history of retaliating against critics, such as the Feb. 6 attack on a cyber security firm HBGary Federal, which Anonymous accused of aiding the government’s investigation.

The two pro-WikiLeaks groups, with similar names, can be easily confused. It appears that Anonymous focuses on hacking efforts against WikiLeaks' opponents. Anonymous Operation Want (AOW) is a research group that examines embassy cables released by WikiLeaks.

AOW says in its new video that Rove used his "dirty tricks" expertise to launch a bogus prosecution against Assange--to the benefit of a Swedish family with strong ties to war-making machinery. The Wallenberg family, through its company Investor AB, controls about 40 percent of the value of companies listed on the Swedish stock exchange. How do the Wallenbergs make their money? AOW explains:

What is not widely understood, outside of Sweden, is that INVESTORS AB http://www.abb.com industrial sector is creating some of the world’s most deadly war machines, e.g., Saab’s Gripen NG fighter jet with AESA radar. The Gripen was the subject of leaked U.S. Embassy-Stockholm cables, which revealed that the U.S., while pretending to help Saab get AESA radar capabilities to sell Gripen fighter jets to Norway, was actually helping Boeing get the contracts. While costing the Wallenbergs'/Investor's Saab a great deal of money, the U.S. did eventually facilitate General Electric and Honeywell entering into a partnership to equip the Gripen with AESA radar.

AOW points to a company called ABB as a driving force behind the Assange prosecution:

The largest single stake in ABB is held by Investor AB. Headquartered in Zurich, ABB is one of the largest conglomerates in the world, a global leader in power and automation technologies, and the world's largest builder of electricity grids.

Why is ABB important? It is pushing for a $4.2-billion purchase of Baldor Electric, which requires anti-trust review from the U.S. Department of Justice. Also, Investor AB has initiated the purchase of a large number of shares of the NASDAQ OMX stock exchange. If approved by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the deal would give the Wallenbergs a seat on the exchange.

In short, the Wallenbergs stand to make billions from a pair of issues before the U.S. Department of Justice. And AOW says that is driving the Assange case:

Did Jacob Wallenberg seek advice from Karl Rove on how to "deal" with Attorney General Eric Holder? It appears quite probable that Rove helped with a strategy—given that U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and Attorney General Holder would want to stop any further evidence of war crimes and other inappropriate government activities being revealed to the public. One thing they all had in common was that they wanted Assange and to stop WikiLeaks from sharing the truth about the war crimes.

You've heard of the term "follow the money"? That appears to apply when looking for motives behind the curious Assange prosecution:

Attorney General Eric Holder worked for Lehman Brothers and understands the importance, financially and psychologically, of a return on an investment. Hillary and Holder get Julian Assange. Jacob Wallenberg/Investor AB get a massive NASDAQ OMX purchase approved and a seat on the board of NASDAQ, along with the merger of ABB and Baldor.

The following video from Anonymous Operation Want helps lay out the story. And it highlights the group's motto, which we consider a virtual manifesto for dealing with official corruption:

We are Anonymous. 
We are Legion. 
We do not forgive. 
We do not forget. 
Expect us.