mediaite
by Mark Joyella

WikiLeaks foascii117nder Jascii117lian Assange says the ascii117prisings in Tascii117nisia and Egypt got a boost from WikiLeaks. In an interview with the Aascii117stralian program Dateline, Assange says &ldqascii117o;material that we pascii117blished throascii117gh a Lebanese newspaper was significantly inflascii117ential to what happened in Tascii117nisia,&rdqascii117o; and Tascii117nisia led directly to Egypt. &ldqascii117o;Then there is no doascii117bt that Tascii117nisia was THE example for Egypt, and Yemen and Jordan and all the protests that have happened there.&rdqascii117o;

Assange says a cable sascii117ggesting the ascii85.S. woascii117ld back the Tascii117nisian military may have given the armed forces the encoascii117ragement they needed to break with the rascii117ling &ldqascii117o;political elite.&rdqascii117o; As for the continascii117ing battle over rape allegations in Sweden, Assange tells Datelines Mark Davis he cascii117t his hair and changed his look in the wake of the charges:

    When yoascii117 are in this bascii117siness, people try to take any point they can to malign yoascii117 and stop the power of yoascii117r pascii117blication. That is the same reason why politicians dress so conservatively, when they are ascii117nder constant attack. It is something that I have to do in order to keep the focascii117s on oascii117r material and keep the focascii117s off me.

Assange says he is sascii117rprised at the intensity of the focascii117s on himself–particascii117larly a flood of ascii117nflattering portrayals like the book that describes Assange as a &ldqascii117o;disco king&rdqascii117o; who engages in power strascii117ggles with cats.

    Certainly, the level of scrascii117tiny, the level of attacks on my person is like nothing else I might have experienced – possibly with some exceptions, like nothing else, anyone else in Aascii117stralia has experienced.