Assange: Prosecutors ‘are going to lose’

WikiLeaks founder says he has enough material to make major US bank head resign

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he spent his prison time housed with “child killers” and lost a tooth while in custody.

“There were crazy pedophiles who shouted all night about their crimes,” Assange told the Spanish newspaper El Pais. “You heard these cries all night.”

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Assange said he lost a tooth when he bit into a piece of metal on his food plate. He said he didn’t know “if it was put there or if it was a simple accident,” according to a translation at the Telegraph.

“It will soon be for sale on eBay,” he joked.

The tooth disappeared from his cell shortly thereafter, Assange said. “I suppose [it was taken] because they didn’t want any kind of evidence that such an episode had occurred,” he added.

The 39-year-old Assange also said police were so concerned that he would be assassinated after being freed on bail that they cut short a press conference on the courthouse steps after four minutes.

“I receive death threats all the time,” he said. “My lawyer receives them, my [20-year-old] son [Daniel] receives them. … Most of them seem to come from members of the United States armed forces.”

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ASSANGE: PROSECUTORS ‘WILL LOSE’

The founder of WikiLeaks had tough words Monday for US prosecutors mulling espionage-related charges against him.

“No doubt, some prosecutors [are] seeking to gain their bit of fame and reputation by taking us on, but they’re going to lose,” Assange told CBS News’ Katie Couric.

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According to news reports, federal prosecutors are investigating the possibility of charging Assange with conspiracy to steal classified material. To make a case, they would have to prove that Assange aided the alleged source of WikiLeaks’ State Department cables — PFC Bradley Manning — before Manning allegedly took them.

On CBS Monday, Assange denied having any contact with Manning and asserted that the first he ever heard of him was when Wired published online chats between Manning and hacker Adrian Lamo, who turned Manning in. In those chats, Manning allegedly boasts of knowing Assange.

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“We never heard the name of Bradley Manning before,” Assange said. “But it … it’s interesting you’re raising that particular question, because it’s something that appears to be coming out of attempts to conflate media activities with espionage. That’s a serious business.”

ASSANGE: ENOUGH MATERIAL TO TAKE DOWN CEO OF MAJOR US BANK

Assange is expected to tell a Times of London interviewer that WikiLeaks has enough documentation on a major US bank to force the institution’s leadership to resign.

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According to a Tweet from the Times‘ Alexi Mostrous, Assange claims to have “enough material to make bosses of a major US bank resign.”

Speculation has abounded for weeks that WikiLeaks’ next target may be a major US financial institution, on which the secrets site has reportedly obtained five gigabytes’ worth of data.

Though it hasn’t been confirmed, many believe that the bank in question is Bank of America, which last weekend blocked payments to WikiLeaks.