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Talk about gall: In his first formal public appearance since being arrested for sexual assault charges, Julian Assange said WikiLeaks is more directly responsive than democratic governments because it accepts donations from the public, rather than culling money from big businesses for elections. “You vote with your wallets every week if you believe that our work is worthwhile or not,” the WikiLeaks founder said to an audience of 700 people during a London debate about the organization’s transparency. “The only way we can know whether information is legitimately kept secret is when it is revealed,” Assange added, citing the Vietnam and Iraq wars as “bloodbaths” that could have been avoided if public informants had spoken up. But political commentator Douglas Murray fired back at Assange and his website, questioning its source of funding and its dubious connections with Israel Shamir, a widely recognized anti-Semite who denied the Holocaust ever took place.
