Assange memoir published against his wishes

THE INNERMOST thoughts of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange are revealed to the world today after the British publishing company Canongate released the first draft of his autobiography, against the whistleblower's wishes.

Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography, which was ghost-written by Andrew O'Hagan, has been secretly printed and distributed by Canongate, with whom Assange  signed a book deal last December reported to be worth £930,000.

Assange worked with O'Hagan on the book in the early months of this year, but on seeing the first draft in March he got cold feet and told Canongate that he no longer wanted to do it.

The WikiLeaks founder had apparently become "increasingly troubled" by the contents of the book, fearing that revelations in it could be used against him by prosecutors who were seeking to extradite him to America to face espionage charges following the release of US diplomatic cables by Assange's outfit.

In June Assange formally withdrew from his contract with Canongate. However, he failed to return his £500,000 advance to the publisher, which he is believed to have spent on funding his fight against extradition to Sweden, where he is facing charges of rape and sexual assault.

There are also said to be passages in the book which could affect his trial in Sweden - Assange denies the allegations which are levelled against him, but he is understood to admit that he was not a "reliable boyfriend".

Canongate, which the Guardian reports as being financially challenged at the moment, gave Assange a two-month ultimatum to work on the book after O'Hagan asked for his name to be taken off it. After that deadline expired, they allowed Assange a 12-day window to seek an injunction against them publishing the tome, which the Australian failed to do.

"Despite sitting for more than 50 hours of taped interviews and spending many late nights at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk discussing his life and the work of WikiLeaks with the writer he had enlisted to help him," a spokesman for Canongate said, "Julian became increasingly troubled by the thought of publishing an autobiography.

"After reading the first draft of the book that was delivered to the publishers at the end of March, he declared: 'All memoir is prostitution.' On 7 June 2011, Julian told Canongate he wanted to cancel his contract.

"However, he had already signed his advance over to his lawyers to settle his legal bills and has not repaid the advance owed since. So the contract still stands and Canongate has decided to honour it and publish the autobiography."

At the time of posting, Assange had yet to comment on Canongate's decision. ·