Greg Palast is a New York Times bestselling author and fearless investigative journalist whose reports appear on BBC

Newsnight and in The Guardian. Palast eats the rich and spits them out. Catch his reports and films at www.GregPalast.com, where you can also securely send him your documents marked, "confidential". New York The cover for my meeting with the WikiLeaks chief with the weirdly white hair [in which way is the haircolour / style important for an article about WikiLeaks / Assange? Learn how to journalist in a not-yellow-press way] was brilliant. Last week, I was misled into believing Id be interviewing a member of Icelands parliament, the poetess Birgitta Jonsdottir. Which, initially, seemed about as exciting as watching some doofus on YouTube pretending to make his cat talk. [a fearless investigative journalist who doesnt know or doesnt care about the important political role of Jonsdottir, but describes her as poetess? *Nice* indirect implicature (google it)] But Jonsdottir had come to New York in defence of an American political prisoner, Bradley Manning, the inestimably courageous source of the documents released by WikiLeaks. If Manning was willing to sit in a steel cage for the rest of his life for the truth, I could handle a few Nordic couplets in a downtown church. But they switched Vikings on me. It was actually a set-up for me to meet with Kristinn Hrafnsson, the spokesman for WikiLeaks whose hair is as icy white as Julian Assanges. [in which way is the haircolour / style important for an article about WikiLeaks / Hrafnsson? Learn how to journalist in a not-yellow-press way] I couldnt be told the name of my true interviewee until hed successfully gotten past US Customs agents, because the last time Hrafnsson had tried to get into the States, he was blocked at New Yorks Kennedy Airport and bundled back to Iceland despite possessing both an invitation to the UN and a valid passport. Hrafnsson was crucial in planning WikiLeaks' release of Mannings documents. But the US State Department knows that blocking an UN invitee is a no-no under the treaties that allowed the UN General Assembly in New York. So, the border cops, US Customs, told Hrafnsson the passport hed given them was stolen, though they confirmed his identity. In other words, they were claiming he stole his own passport from himself. Kristinn said, dryly, "They could come up with better stories, no?"

Above: Birgitta Jonsdottir (left, via) and Kristinn Hrafnsson (right, via). Of course, Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks, couldnt meet with me directly because hes in prison one he built for himself in the basement of Ecuadors Embassy in London. [Basement? Youve been there? No? Uhm] Should Assange ever step out of his diplomatic safe house, he assumes, not without reason, that, his next address will be a cage at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And let's face it; Julian would look terrible in orange. [Trying to be witty? People died in Guantanamo. They surely appreciate that kind of humor. Why dont you go there for a holiday?] Hrafnsson and I quickly cut out of the church and found a place where we could load up on cheap bottles of red and work over ideas for getting Manning out of prison. Or, at the very least, not forgotten by a world in which most stories tend to last for a maximum of 140 characters. [Because Meta/hypertext and Meta/hyperlinks (in the linguistic meaning) is something a journalist doesnt know about? :3) Did we also talk about, say, new documents? Well, I'm sure you can get the complete transcript of our meeting from the US Department of Homeland Security. (I had to laugh: when we left the bistro, a white limo pulled up and offered us a ride. Then a black one which we took. I wish to thank the folks at Langley for a sweet cruise.)

I can only tease you with, Yes, theres more. And when I see them, Ill show them to you. But for now, I am writing to publicly eat shit, or humble pie. To retract, recant and apologise to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

A pro-Assange protester outside London's Ecuadorian Embassy. Photo by Henry Langston. Three years ago, I accused Assange of jumping in front of the cameras to steal the limelight from the real hero, Bradley Manning. It seemed to me that Assange had narcissistically snatched away the public celebrity which would have saved Manning just as notoriety helped win public support for Daniel Ellsberg, the CIA agent who released the Pentagon Papers, the secret reports of Americas losing the War in Vietnam. I wrote, Who the hell is this guy with a silly silk scarf swanning in front of cameras? Meanwhile, Manning, in his cell, stripped down to underpants by his captors, is ignored while Assange sucks up the accolades and attention. In fact, Hrafnsson assured me, both he and Assange had thought that WikiLeaks would hardly get a mention. They assumed all the attention would focus on the content in the files. They assumed that US news outlets would be first and foremost focused on the video of the killing of the Reuters reporters and other civilians in Iraq by US helicopter gunships. Last week, I watched that collateral murder video again. Its horrific but vital: to look at the journalists dying on a machine gun's video screen. But of course, the press spun the story away from military murder into a story about the leaking itself. People like Joe Klein and stooges like Christiane Amanpour's houseboy, James

Rubin, piled on against WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks is just a bunch of "criminal hackers" who endangered innocent people and sources. [but writing about his weirdly white hair is better journalism I get it not] Assange, thrown before the cameras, with Manning absurdly silent (until last month), [Trying to find a way out of ending up in a prison cell with someone throwing the key away = absurdly silent? Seriously?] was stunned and clearly out of his depth. The story was spinning away from the substance and re-directed to Assange's cavorts. Assange, with his dandyish appearance, nightclub forays and beaming self-regard [and dont forget the weirdly white hair] , was an easier figure to vilify than a conscience-driven American soldier willing to face prison for life. And Assange was clearly visible in the gunships sites. You know the old saying, "If you dont like the message, kill the messenger." But, if you cant kill the messenger, the next best thing is to get him laid. Assange, despite warnings, couldn't resist a honey trap. Two women, one bed, no clothes soon on every front page worldwide. (I mean, if you have powerful enemies, youd have to be a complete idiot to let your dick take you where your brain fears to tread. Reminds me of that fool Greg Palast on the front page of The Mirror). Unfortunately, Assange handled himself with neither the humility nor grace required of the moment. But that's a lot to ask of a human. When you are suddenly surrounded by 20 camera crews, your brain gets weird on you. Remember the Kony 2012 filmmaker masturbating in the middle of the street, babbling crazy shit?

[This can be compared in which way exactly with the behavior of Assange going to the questioning, and then, after being allowed to leave Sweden, leaving Sweden?] Not a pretty sight, but no less cringeworthy than Assanges icky anti-Semitic brain-fart attacks on The Guardians stellar investigative reporter, David Leigh. (Without Leigh, the WikiLeaks-Manning documents would have never seen the light of day.)

[Without Leigh the unredacted cables would have never seen the light of the day. Worth telling people that, I think? Since Leigh gave the password away in his book.] I am sorry I shot my spit-wads at Assange for his idiocies it only encouraged the jackals.

Trying to support Manning, I joined in the pissing on Julian, and thereby I undermined Mannings own messenger. And for that reason, this apologia will hopefully be my last word, or anyone's, on the poor Julian, in the basement of the Ecuadorian embassy with nothing left but a silk scarf and a certain, if short, prison sentence. Even if Assange is guilty of the crime, the punishment in store is not for his bedtime antics but for his sincere attempt to help soldier Bradley Manning reveal to Americans the facts about our deadly rulers. [ 1.) There is no crime, there are no charges. 2.) Sweden could question a murderer (!) in Serbia, but not Assange in London over a broken condomn which btw didnt contain any DNA of any of the two people allegedly having sex using said condomn? 3.) If you want to write a sincere apology you dont focus on hair styles or cheap red. But hey who am I to lecture a bestselling author and fearless investigative journalist whose reports appear on BBC Newsnight and in The Guardian ]