Apparently, being an anti-American hacker who sets himself up as a selfless crusader for truth can be quite profitable:

WikiLeaks.org founder Julian Assange has inked a $1.3 million book deal to cover legal costs relating to his arrest and any lawsuits aimed at his controversial whistle-blowing website.

The book is to be published in the U.S. by the Alfred A. Knopf publishing house, part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House, and British publisher Canongate.

In an interview with the UK's Sunday Times, Assange, 39, said he is writing the book in order to cover his mounting legal fees.

"I don't want to write this book, but I have to," he told the Sunday Times. "I have already spent £200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat."

Does anyone else find this explanation a little hollow? The best attorneys in the western world are lining up to represent this guy for free, so the idea he needs money for attorneys is suspect.

Keeping Wikileaks afloat is another matter but judging by the reaction from much of the western left to his exploits, he should have no trouble raising many times the $1.3 million he's getting from this book deal.

Methinks he doth protest too much with regard to his reluctance to write. I think he's dying to see his name out there and revels in all the attention he is getting. At the very least, we will get to read more of his sophomoric conspiracy theories and juvenile world view. Perhaps exposing this charlatan for the carnival barker he is might lessen his impact with some.