Noted Swedish Journalist, Assange Critic Exposed As Police Agent

"But that is not consistent with Fredriksson's own Twitter confession, in which he writes that the second period of the collaboration occurred in 2009 - 2010. The Research Group was formed in autumn 2009."

The Indicter then followed up March 6 with a Ferrada de Noli column, Former paid agent of Swedish Security Police dictated Amnesty Sweden's stance against Assange, placing the story into a broader context.

One finding involved efforts by Foreign Minister Carl Bildt to steer Sweden's foreign policy toward the views of the United States and NATO. Bildt, shown in a photo with Bush Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was foreign minister from 2006-20014, and previous served as both prime minister and leader of the Moderate Party.

Also, the Indicter showed how authorities wanted to crack down hard on Assange Affair because the WikiLeaks he founded had released so many secret cables embarrassing Western officials and enlightening the public about diplomatic chatter that is normally secret.

The article focused in detail on Fredriksson's use of his reputation as a left-leaning journalist to persuade Sweden's Amnesty International chapter to disdain Assange, whose court case might normally be expected to attract sympathy from a human rights group.

The Indicter published a second follow up on March 13, Paid agent of Swedish security services implicated in second disinformation campaign against Assange. The column analyzed a radio/podcast series created by a research group that Fredriksson founded in 2007 with funding that is secret and identified a systematic anti-Assange and fierce anti-Russia bias, "particularly targeting Russia's president Vladimir Putin."

The last word goes to Swedish journalists, including Fredriksson and Sundberg, author of the SVD column March 2. Sundberg quotes leftish activist, Peter Sunde, co-founder of The Pirate Bay, as asking on Twitter why he should trust that Fredriksson has not leaked chat logs to the Security Service.

Sunde served a year in prison after convictions for copyright violations. The Pirate Bay was a controversial file-sharing search engine developed in Sweden in 2003. It is different (albeit with some overlapping support) from the Pirate Party, founded in 2006, and now Sweden's third largest political party with affiliates elsewhere in Europe.

Sunde also wrote on Twitter to his onetime Pirate Bay colleague Fredriksson: "Good luck with the loneliness."

Fredriksson, however, has described himself as a former Security Service agent, saying he wants to get rid of his past and live more normally. "I am transparent about this," he was quoted as saying, "and tell you now, even though I did not directly profit from it."

"On the other hand," the SVD reporter Sundberg wrote of Fredriksson, "he is writing a book about its history: The thrilling documentary thriller about the struggle between left and right violence, and when the real Salander sold out to SÃ ¤po."

"With the right agent (a literary one)," the reporter continued, "it will be a bestseller."

Published on the Justice Integrity Project site is an expanded version of this column with an extensive appendix of relevant articles and links.