Assange says signed 1.1 million pounds in book deals

Assange says signed 1.1 million pounds in book deals

WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange said in an interview published Sunday he had signed deals for his autobiography worth more than one million pounds (1.2 million euros, 1.5 million dollars).
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 pounds for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat."

The Australian said he would receive 800,000 dollars (600,000 euros) from Alfred A. Knopf, his American publisher, and a British deal with Canongate is worth 325,000 pounds (380,000 euros, 500,000 dollars).

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

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I figured this was only a matter of time before the money element came into play. Its hard to accept a person who states their intententions claimin the moral highground, only to turn around and make money off of his actions. This ranks right up their with accusations about Halliburton.

Assange is now moving from information being released for a good cause, to holding info back in order to be paid for it. Before anyone goes off on the autobiography vs. wikileaks argument, Assange would not be in the position, or known for that matter, except for wikileaks.

The term hypocrite is now becoming more and more appropriate for him.

im sure you realise its also the wikileak fame
that got him into hot water with the ladies
that and his libedo but as a guy i can say
i dont blame him for sexing it up because of his wiki fame
i dont blame him for making money to pay for legal bills

im not sure of you sex but if you were a guy accused of rape by the media
you would want those charges faught and faught hard to clear your name

so i it was me i would take money to clear my name

because rape acusations DESTROY people

GUILTY or INNOCENT it doesnt matter you are ruined for good

so please dont blame the guy for making money to defend himself

because his name is already ruined and this type of thinking

only shows how little you know of the effects of these charges

xploder
leigion

reply to post by XPLodER


I dont blame him for trying to defend himself. What I take note to is the manner he is using wikileaks in order to support himself. To me this is one of the reasons that he releases information in pieces, and at varying lengths of time (4-6months). To me its no longer about the info being released, but how he can string people along to keep the donations coming in.

Also, hindsight being 20/20, he would not need to defend himself had he not went down the road he did. Assange has stated many times he fears US criminal prosecution, so he knew that was one possible outcome to his actions that he ignored.

It would be one thing if the info he released actually made a difference, but it has not. To me its like he is attempting to make money off the actions. The book deal is not going to be eaten up by his legal defense, as other celebrities and individuals are providing him donations for that.

He is making money off his autobiography, which is because of his affiliation with wikileaks. I am going to wager that the autobiography will be incomplete, since his legal problems are not over yet. I wager that we will continue to see assange drag out the info release, and I will wgaer that assange will make some pleas at somepoint about donations to help support "wikileaks" cause.

I am curious how assange is going to deal with his former employees who left to form their own leak release site.

This is a publicity stunt, and his main goal is himself, his stardom and the continuation of his actions. A person with an ego the size of assange is not in it for the little guy.

Originally posted by Xcathdra

What I take note to is the manner he is using wikileaks in order to support himself.

What is the problem with a man trying to honestly support himself? Would you rather he be on unemployment? Or maybe a lying telemarketer or crafty insurance salesman?

Originally posted by Xcathdra
To me this is one of the reasons that he releases information in pieces, and at varying lengths of time (4-6months). To me its no longer about the info being released, but how he can string people along to keep the donations coming in.

The info is being released in a timely manner so as not to overwhelm. People need to chew slowly and digest what is being revealed. Do you read the first chapter in a book and then skip to the ending? There are a lot of important details in-between.

Originally posted by Xcathdra
Assange has stated many times he fears US criminal prosecution, so he knew that was one possible outcome to his actions that he ignored.

It is the good shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep.

Originally posted by Xcathdra
It would be one thing if the info he released actually made a difference, but it has not.

Maybe it makes no difference to you because he has not said what you want to hear. Everyone wants some ear tickling UFO disclosure. What he is giving is documentation of why our world is falling to pieces, why species are dying off, evil plots based on greed without concern or feeling for the creation, why peace cannot be achieved because of backstabbing and ego. He is giving you the documents for the reason this world is about to be destroyed. It better make a difference to some people!

Originally posted by Xcathdra
To me its like he is attempting to make money off the actions. The book deal is not going to be eaten up by his legal defense, as other celebrities and individuals are providing him donations for that.

He said he does not want to write the book. This is going to be a chore for him. Apparently this is the only opportunity presenting itself for the guy to try to make some money to support himself.

Originally posted by Xcathdra
He is making money off his autobiography, which is because of his affiliation with wikileaks.

Everyone wants to be hopeful in hearing how good triumphs over evil. Too many times our courageous people who speak out end up mysteriously dead. I want to see truth win out and defeat the evil. I think it will be an interesting story and will look forward to the book. Obviously truth is a priority with him and he is willing to put his life on the line for it. I imagine that's why he dedicated himself to being available to protect others who wanted to speak out and expose the evil. I think the origins of WikiLeaks will be interesting to hear.

Originally posted by Xcathdra
This is a publicity stunt, and his main goal is himself, his stardom and the continuation of his actions. A person with an ego the size of assange is not in it for the little guy.

I don't think he needs a publicity stunt. LOL. Stardom? He seems rather camera shy to me, but speaks well. I see no ego with this man. He is soft spoken and direct. I don't think you recognize the difference between sincerity and logic and someone who displays a trumped up ego. Go watch more television and politics and come back when you can discern.

reply to post by Xcathdra


look im a realist
i really beleive the slow realease of these cables is for effect
if you look at the iraq logs and how they were released
wiki was in the firing line for duping hard to sort info all in one chunk
now you complain its too slow
IMHO
a dripping bucket of realeases starting with the more mundane leaks
then ramping up to the more scandelus ones IS the way to go
when people are shocked outright they quickly lose focus
but to build the outrage over time
is priceless

by the way you avoided stating your position on weather
YOU would do what ever is nessacery to clear you name from rape alligations

you do know what implecations from rape charges are?

loose your kids or rights to visit
loose your job or any future job
loose respect
loose creadability

so if this money is to defend his right not to loose everthing he holds dear

then i say you are just plain wrong
and remember HIS life IS on the line here

xploder

reply to post by XPLodER


I actually dont think he should be releaseing any information period, but im in the minority there. I would prefer the manner in which wikileaks participated with Pvt. Manning by supposedly provising him wth encryption software be investigated.

Raising money legally to defend himself is fine. The manner in which he does it is the issue since it flies in the face of his stated goals.

reply to post by Xcathdra


if telling the truth is a crime
all you will here is lies
your democracy depends on imformed citizens
or is sticking your fingers in your ears and shooting the messenger
a good example of democracy in your world?

xploder

take some time to watch this video



tell me who other than you has been hurt by these leaks?

in a world where telling the truth gets you killed
you find fault in the way the messenger gets the truth out?

come on and be reasonable
your freedom depends on the truth
do you think the criminals who run your country
will ever tell you about their crimes

are you a good war supporter?
well what if the truth shows these wars are for profit?
and not for freedom

are your fingers now in your ears?

xploder

LOL

MONEY??

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH HE WILL SPEND TRYING TO DEFEND HIMSELF IN THOSE LEGAL ACTIONS??

... I wont post in this thread ... let others waste their time explaining ...

Originally posted by XPLodER
reply to post by Xcathdra

 

if telling the truth is a crime
all you will here is lies
your democracy depends on imformed citizens
or is sticking your fingers in your ears and shooting the messenger
a good example of democracy in your world?

xploder

Well for starters the US is not a democracy, it is a representative Republic.

Since you invoke the truth argument lets look at that. We know assange got top secret files, and we know he has been releasing them. The problem we run into is the lack of information to the released documents. There are many branches of the government that run their own intelligence ops based on the topic.

State Department and its diplomatic cables. Military intelligence which ecompases many areas that overlap. Releasing documents that show only partial information is the problem. Our intelligence services do not take all of their collected information and dump it into one report. You will have references with varying degrees of information.

Example:
A state department cable talks about Iranian politics, taking note that the REvolutionary Gaurd has a new commander. The DoD would then take that info and do their analysis based on there area of responsibility. During their deal, they come across weapons that are heading out of Iran and going to say rebels in Russia, and on and on.

What you will find is a diplomatic cable that discuses in depth the polotics change in Iran, referencing the Revolutionary Gaurd change in the report by statin it was turned over to DoD. The DoD report will go into detail and put in their report where the info came from, State Department as well as a blurb about the weapons issue being turne over to the CIA.

Just because a personhas top secrete access does not mean it carries over from department to department. If you hold top secrete clearence for say Spaced based operations, that clearance will not get you access to say submarine based efforts.

So while people make the argument these files are the truth, they are not understanding how that system works. Its to easy to take information that contains partial references and get a wrong conclusion because the partial info was not the full accounting.

@ another comment by someone else

As far as Assange goes he has every right to ask for money to help with his legal defense. As of right now it deals with the rape accusations out of Norway and not wikileaks related per se. His troubles are just getting started though, and from the looks the delayed release of this info appears to be done in incriments that hit jsut as the media is shifting focus to something else.