WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was once so frightened of being followed by the CIA he dressed up as an old women to drive out to the Norfolk house from which launched the first US diplomatic cables.
The Assange biography, WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy was published today.
It was revealed that Assange once wore a wig to travel to Ellingham Hall, where he is now staying as he fights extradition to Sweden. The book claims that even though there was no sign of pursuit, Assange insisted on pulling the car off the road and sitting in the darkness.
In another surprising revelation, WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy, claims that the Australian initially rejected pleas to protect information sources.
At an early meeting with international reporters in a restaurant Assange told them: “‘Well, they’re informants. So, if they get killed, they’ve got it coming to them. They deserve it.’ There was, for a moment, silence around the table.”
Meanwhile, Assange spoke out during an interview for CBS saying that he was enjoying making banks “squirm”.
Assange was asked about the speculation that WikiLeaks has a cache of internal Bank of America documents.
“I won’t make any comment in relation to that upcoming publication,” Assange said.
There would be a “process of elimination” if we “denied some [banks] and admitted others,” he said. “I think it’s great to have all these banks squirming thinking maybe it’s them.”
Assange went on to sum what he sees as WikiLeaks’ purpose.
“We are free press activists,” he said. “It’s not about saving the whales. It’s about giving people the information they need to support whaling or not support whaling.”
