Assange signs $1.5m book deal

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

December 26, 2010 - 7:25PM

WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange has said in an interview he had signed deals for his autobiography worth more than £1 million ($1.57 million).

Assange told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that the money would help him defend himself against allegations of sexual assault made by two women in Sweden.

"I don't want to write this book, but I have to," he said. "I have already spent £200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat."
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The Australian said he would receive the equivalent of $800,000 from Alfred A. Knopf, his American publisher, and a British deal with Canongate is worth about $500,000.

Money from other markets and serialisation is expected to raise the total to £1.1 million, he said.

The latest project of Assange's whistleblower website is the gradual release of tens of thousands of US diplomatic cables.

Since this latest project began Assange, who is on bail in Britain fighting a bid by Sweden to extradite him over the sex assault claims, has faced problems financing WikiLeaks.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/assange-signs-15m-book-deal-20101226-197uj.html

from US/CIA to withdraw the contracts -- ??!!

The Australian said he would receive the equivalent of $800,000 from Alfred A. Knopf, his American publisher, and a British deal with Canongate is worth about $500,000.

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make him a rich man as he'll probably get royalties also ~

Until they targeted him so viciously, Wikileaks was having trouble keeping itself going because as it grew, it needed more money. I think I read they could not handle all the material they were getting and needed more funding.

What a great way to fund it now. So, they thought they could impoverish him ~ instead they may, ironically have saved Wikileaks.

I am starting to think TPTB are over their heads, out of their league, they have badly misjudged the situation. Not that that is new.

It's one of the clumsiest pieces of mismanagement I can recall. The
more they try to demonise him, the bigger he gets. And they just can't
see it.

One of my weakest students, who nearly failed 7th grade last year and seldom shows interest in anything but fashion, asked me, "What is Wikileaks and what's the talk about?"

When it gets to the middle school level with a student who has no interest in history, politics, government secrecy or reading, you know you're onto something BIG. :)

on file sharing sites. :)

And being discussed in comments on the individual torrents and most likely in their forums as well.

Two things:

1 - They are clueless about anything, and the only thing that counts is the number of digits in their own bank account(s), and those of their Master$.

2 - They know what they're doing (they are co-conspirators in the never-ending scams that destroy the good ole US of A).

Now theys givin' Assange freedom of the press! They got no right!


Arrest the Constitution RIGHT this minute!




And what's the Constitution sleepin' with Assange for?

Societies are too complex to be "managed", and any attempt to do so will only blow up in their faces via the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Wikileaks raised raised $1 million in four months. :D

I think they're his single largest contributor, but don't quote me on that.

I'll have to do some digging now that you mention it...

WikiLeaks has failed to deliver on a months-old pledge to contribute financially to the defense of Bradley Manning, according to a group raising money for the imprisoned Army private suspected of providing WikiLeaks its most important U.S. releases.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/manning-defens/

Manning's Defense fund doesn't have information about this being paid.

If people knew that Wikileaks donated a large amount, they'd probably be less likely to donate themselves...

I thought I had read it had been cleared up. Apparently that was from around the same time as the above article. I was able to find one ABC News article from a few days later that reaffirmed that the money had not been received but that could have just been rehashing old info.

http://cryptome.org/0003/wikileaks-renege.htm
Jeff Paterson, Steering Committee, Bradley Manning Support Network
jeffbradleymanning.org
+1-510-488-3559

Oakland, CA, December 8, 2010 - Since July 2010, the Bradley Manning Support Network, in collaboration with Oakland, CA based Courage to Resist, has solicited and distributed funds in support of accused Wikileaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning. Over 1,200 individuals and organizations have responded with contributions totaling over $90,000, either to the defense fund or to Bradley's legal trust account. Thus far $50,000 has been transferred to Bradley's lead civilian attorney, David Coombs, half of the total expected legal expense of $100,000.

...

Immediately following Bradley's arrest in late June 2010, the whistle-blower website Wikileaks publicly solicited donations specifically for Bradley's legal defense expenses. In July 2010, Wikileaks pledged to contribute a "substantial amount" towards Bradley's legal defense costs. Since Bradley's selection of David Coombs as his civilian defense attorney in August 2010, the Bradley Manning Support Network has unsuccessfully attempted to facilitate the pledged Wikileaks contribution.

"We understand the difficult situation Wikileaks currently faces as the world's governments conspire to extinguish the whistle-blower website," explained Jeff Paterson, Bradley Manning Support Network steering committee member and project director of Courage to Resist (couragetoresist.org). "However, in order to meet Bradley Manning's legal defense needs, we're forced to clarify that Wikileaks has not yet made a contribution towards this effort. We certainly welcome any contribution from Wikileaks, but we need to inform our supporters that it may not be forthcoming and that their continued contributions and support are crucial."

.

:rofl: What a tool.

or the ones who believe it and continue to see him as a victim forced to write this with the evil govt corpo etc after him

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No, none at all. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Milk those 14 minutes, Julian!

his life, his family's and his freedom were threatened, it was difficult for people to even get an interview with him. So, sorry, but you are wrong. They have forced him into the public arena and to avoid being 'suicided' or assassinated in some other way, he will have to stay there.

Anyone following him for the past four years, knows he means that. He is already an author so this is not something new at all. But now he will have the money Wikileaks needs to work on all the leaks they have. Very foolish of this government, if shutting him is what they wanted, to have acted the way they have. Wikileaks was short of funding before any of this happened. Makes you wonder who is running things in this government.

leakage of our classified information?

Why isn't it a justification for why we, as a nation, have apparently no right to diplomacy like other countries?

the cable?

Julian is doing this book deal to defend himself against the corporate military empire which had swallowed USA... He is fighting with every resource he has against the gazillion dollar multi-national military industrial complex...

to classified information on behalf of our state department.

And Julian is writing his autobiography, not a book about the corporate military empire or the gazillion dollar multi-national military industrial complex.

Wikileaks is publishing whislebrower's submission, as a public service. Julian is writing his autobiography to defend himself from legal attacks by the Military Industrial Complex machinery. Two different things... Don't get mixed up. It is not that difficult to understand the context if you are following how all these attacks have been developed against him. I do hope you are not a willfully confused person....

As for why it is an autobiography, that is obviously the offer that was made.

Did someone say the U.S. has no right to diplomacy? The leaks have revealed very little diplomacy going on.

Like using the State Dept to illegally spy on the U.N. Secretary Gen. and other allies. I wouldn't call that diplomacy.

Pressuring Spain not to prosecute war criminals? More diplomacy?

Attacking some of the most respected Human Rights Judges in the world because the EU Human Rights Court rightly criticized the U.S. policies on torture? Revealing that the U.S. has zero respect for Human Rights which clearly explains why this government, this administration will not prosecute war criminals. We are the bad guys. Both parties support torture as a policy. The words they speak publicly mean nothing. I prefer to know this so I don't waste time 'hoping' for different policies. What a waste of the years of advocating for an end to what we thought was Bush policy. Now we know.

Plotting how to smear the democratically elected government of Venezuela, to lie about it etc. confirming the suspicions we had about where the lies were coming from. That's diplomacy?

Confirming the support for one of the world's worst and most brutal dictators, Karamov of Uzbekistan and justifying it 'because he lets us build bases in his country'. Is that diplomacy especially over the objections of so many of our allies?

Diplomacy would be nice but that is not what has been revealed in these documents. What has been revealed is a disrespect for other sovereign nations, bullying of those who disagree with us even though we are so very wrong, about torture eg. So far, I see little in those releases to make me believe that diplomacy is what our State Dept. has been involved in at all.

Now we know a little about what they are doing in our name, maybe we can devise different strategies than the ones we've been engaged in for nearly ten years now. Knowledge is power, we were barking up the wrong tree all along. But, thanks to Wikileaks now we have vital information to proceed with.

Do you support torture btw? Do you oppose the European Court of Human Rights which keeps on eye on humans rights violations around the world? You are very opposed to real news being published which is why I asked.

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Why some people are so wrapped up in the personality of Assange as opposed to the very good organization that is wikileaks, I have no idea.

As far as the Assange cult of personality goes, it's natural, since he is the only public spokesman for Wikileaks. (Incidentally, he's quite good at it.)

Besides, his personal life has become a matter of public interest because several governments are using accusations about his personal life to try to squash him and Wikileaks.

Actually it seems like a rather low amount for a worldwide deal.

Did anyone NOT see this coming?

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Sounds like he's had an interesting life.

Source: KC Star/AP

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he's being forced into penning an autobiography to keep his organization from going under.

New York publishing house Alfred A. Knopf confirmed Monday that it had struck a deal with the 39-year-old Australian to bring out his autobiography, whose publication date has yet to be determined.

Assange, speaking to The Sunday Times, said the deal would bring in more than $1 million, with $800,000 from Knopf and another 325,000 pounds ($500,000) from U.K. publisher Canongate. But he said he only agreed to it because he was under financial pressure.

"I don't want to write this book, but I have to," he said. "I have already spent 200,000 pounds for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat."

Assange shot to worldwide prominence on the back of a series of spectacular leaks of classified U.S. material, including the ongoing publication of some 250,000 classified State Department cables.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/27/2544805/publisher-confirms-julian-assange.html#ixzz19NVunf9L

the wording in the article "says he's being forced to...."
is not what he said.

if you want to know what is really going on. If there are no quotes, you might want to ignore the whole story.

Wikileaks. This whole story has graphically demonstrated who is part of the U.S. government and who is not.

Amazon, Paypal, BOA, Visa and Master Card. The Swedish Government, especially its DOJ appear to be working in collusion with the U.S.

But then there are the millions, maybe even billions world-wide who view Wikileaks as a vital necessity in today's world of non-journalism and who are not intimidated by the calls of 'terrorist' or the Swedish smears or anything else.

I've noticed too that there are more and more 'Global' social networking and activist blogs emerging, where the PEOPLE of the world can unite for causes like human rights eg. Finally, citizens of all those countries whose treasuries were robbed by Global Capitalists can do what they did, join forces against them and work to stop the wars, or at least make it impossible to ever again fool people into an illegal war.

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