WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Fires Back at 'Idiot' Critics

From his house arrest in a British mansion, beleaguered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is firing away at his critics, including the unlikely trio of Vice President Joe Biden, Sarah Palin and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. All have taken shots at Assange as he fights extradition to Sweden where authorities want to question him about sexual misconduct complaints.

In an interview with MSNBC Wednesday, Assange said he wondered whether the United States was descending into a "state of anarchy" after the withering criticism of him by those outraged over WikiLeaks' publication of classified war and diplomatic documents. Assange called them idiots, "trying to make a name for themselves."

Biden has likened him to a "high-tech terrorist." Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, said he should be pursued with the "same urgency" the U.S. exerts going after al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. And Huckabee, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, said "whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason and I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty."

Some critics, Assange said, have even "called for my assassination." If "we are to have a civil society," he told MSNBC, "you cannot have senior people making calls on national TV to go around the judiciary and murder people. That is an incitement to commit murder." Is the legal tradition of due process "just thrown to the wind whenever some shock jock can use it to make a name?" he asked.

In an interview with the Times of London, Assange compared himself to Martin Luther King Jr. When he was locked up briefly in London's Wadsworth prison, he said a black guard handed him a note that read: "I have two heroes in the world, Dr. King and you." That sentiment, Assange said in a New York Times account, "is representative of 50 percent of people." He also referenced the "persecution" of Jews in America in the 1950s, saying there was a common thread between them and WikiLeaks' supporters as "people who believe in freedom of speech."

Even in semi-detention, Assange is waging what the New York Times calls a media offensive. He asserts that he is a victim of a smear campaign led by the United States because his whistleblower website is posting tens of thousands of classified State Department cables. Though the Justice Department is considering a criminal case, officials deny the U.S. government is part of any organized publicity campaign against Assange, a 39-year-old Australian.

Assange again said he did not know whether Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is under arrest on suspicion of involvement in an earlier leak, is the source for the State Department documents given to WikiLeaks.

Assange is at a 650-acre estate just outside of London where he is required to wear an electronic tag on his ankle and report daily to a police station to sign a register. In Sweden, two woman have accused Assange of forced, unprotected sex over a four-day period last summer. He has denied the allegations and is resisting extradition.

Watch the MSNBC interview below:

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