THE TELEGRAPH: Hail Julian Assange, international man of mystery, brave anti-war crusader, ultimate cyber-hero and now, according to his cultish followers, victim of a smear campaign orchestrated by the CIA, the Pentagon and other dark, oppressive forces. On Friday, Assange, who recently posted 90,000 unexpurgated United States military reports from Afghanistan on his Wikileaks.org website, was revealed by the Stockholm newspaper Expressen to be the subject of a Swedish arrest warrant on suspicion of rape. Less than 24 hours after the rape allegation emerged, Swedish prosecutors withdrew the warrant, citing a lack of evidence, while maintaining that Assange, an Australian, remained accused of sexual molestation after separate complaints from two women. Confused? Concerned you may be reading a synopsis of a Stieg Larsson novel? You don’t need to be. According to Assange’s myriad supporters, he is clearly the target of a conspiracy orchestrated by an American government through agents within the Swedish legal system. Assange has flatly denied the allegations, stating that he had never had non-consensual sex with anyone anywhere. He is, of course, entitled to be regarded as innocent unless and until he is convicted in court of a crime. Judging how the Swedish authorities have handled matters thus far, a large dollop of scepticism is justified. Interestingly, however, Assange and his loyal band are using this strange episode to fuel the myth that envelopes him. Wikileaks has broadcast seven messages about the story on Twitter, beginning with: “We were warned to expect ‘dirty tricks’. Now we have the first one.” MORE