Julian Assange on Snowden, disliking Google, and his …

It would be too much to say that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange feels optimistic. He's been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for more than two years now, withcameras and police"a 3 million surveillance operation," he calls itjust meters away.

"There's a sense of inevitability now," Assange saidwhen we asked if his situation mightchange.

Assange: "Thesituation is clarifying politically and legally."

Ars: "I just want to be clear on this pointare you saying you're hopeful you'll be free soon?"

Assange: "I wouldn't say hopeful. I would say it's inevitable. It's inevitable that we will win the diplomatic standoff we're in now."

It's getting late in London, where Assange is doing a barrage of press interviews on the eve of his new book, When Google Met Wikileaks(it goes on sale in the US later this week). We called at the agreed upon time, and a man who didn't identify himself answered the number, which was for a Londoncell phone. He saidcall back in five minutes, and onlythen was the phone finally handedto Assange.

We're supposed to focus on thebook.But first, we want to know whatlife trapped in the embassy involveswhere doeshe eat, sleep, do laundry?What isthe roomhe's in now like?

"For security reasons, I can't tell you which sections of the embassy I utilize," he said. "As to the rest, in a way, it's a perfectly normal situation. In another way, it's one of the most abnormal, unusual situationsthat someone can find themselves in."

Assange usheredWikiLeaks through severalmassive leaks of secret US government reports and a tumultuous relationship with some prominent newspapers. first came the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of military reportsonthe Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, thena leak of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables from the State Department.

Hesought asylum from Ecuador when he was on theverge of being extraditedto Sweden to face sexual-assault charges in that nation. If he leaves the embassy, he'll be arrested, although it isn't clear where he'll be sent first. It'swidely assumed the US has an ongoing investigation intoAssange over the leaks.

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