WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange claims Google is in bed with U.S. government in new book

 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sets his sights on Google in a new book, claiming the Internet giant is in bed with the U.S. government.

Assange specifically pounces on Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and Google Ideas director Jared Cohen in "When Google Met Wikileaks."

In the book, Assange goes into details of his meeting with Schmidt and Cohen three years ago. The pair had asked to interview him for their own book, "The New Digital Age," which came out last year.

"I was intrigued that the mountain would come to Muhammad," Assange writes in an excerpt of "When Google Met Wikileaks," posted on the WikiLeaks website. "But it was not until well after Schmidt and his companions had been and gone that I came to understand who had really visited me."

Assange describes Schmidt as "a good foil," and says the interview was "the best I have given."

"I asked Eric Schmidt to leak U.S. government information requests to WikiLeaks, and he refused, suddenly nervous, citing the illegality of disclosing Patriot Act requests," Assange writes.

Assange also writes that Schmidt "might not have been an emissary of Google alone." The Wikileaks founder described Schmidt as having "a well-documented relationship with President Obama" and close ties to Hillary Clinton.

"While WikiLeaks had been deeply involved in publishing the inner archive of the U.S. State Department, the U.S. State Department had, in effect, snuck into the WikiLeaks command center and hit me up for a free lunch," Assange quips.

As for Cohen, Assange writes that the Google Ideas chief "could be wryly named Google’s 'director of regime change.'"

Assange notes that Cohen "was trying to plant his fingerprints on some of the major historical events in the contemporary Middle East."

The WikiLeaks founder also provides a scathing review of "The New Digital Age," claiming it "failed to deliver."

"The book was not a serious attempt at future history," Assange states. "It was a love song from Google to official Washington. Google, a burgeoning digital superstate, was offering to be Washington’s geopolitical visionary."
Assange even calls the scholarship of the pair's book "poor — even degenerate."

The 43-year-old Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for two years in the wake of rape allegations in Sweden. He filed an appeal against the arrest warrant, and a long-awaited decision is expected sometime Monday.