Police bundle WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy into a police van in London after he was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken into custody Thursday April 11, 2019. Police in London arrested WikiLeaks founder Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy Thursday for failing to surrender to the court in 2012, shortly after the South American nation revoked his asylum. (@DailyDOOH via AP)
April 12, 2019 - 2:05 PM
NEW YORK - The arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made a book of interviews with Gore Vidal an unexpected bestseller.
Assange was carrying a copy of "Gore Vidal: History of the National Security State & Vidal on America" when he was arrested Thursday at the Ecuadoran embassy in London.
By Friday afternoon, the 2014 publication was No. 35 on Amazon.com. "Gore Vidal" features conservations between the author-playwright and Paul Jay, founder of The Real News Network, a non-profit with a stated mission of "independent, verifiable, fact-based journalism."
Vidal, who died in 2012 at age 86, had a longtime aversion to U.S. military force and surveillance.
Assange hadn't left the embassy since 2012 for fear of arrest and extradition to the U.S. for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019