Rolling Stone to drop big Julian Assange interview next week

Posted by R.J. Jacob ⋅ January 14, 2012 ⋅ Leave a Comment

Michael Hastings is in the news this week for his latest book, The Operators, a 379-page follow-up to the journalist’s explosive June 2010 Rolling Stone profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, whose career-making spot as the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan came to a screeching halt after the article revealed him trash-talking Vice President Joseph Biden and some of the president’s top aides.

Now the 31-year-old war reporter has another potentially explosive Rolling Stone story in the pipeline: The magazine is gearing up to publish an extensive interview that Hastings recently conducted with elusive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Capital has learned.

The Q & A, which is expected to drop next week, according to people familiar with Rolling Stone‘s publication schedule, was conducted over three days just before Christmas at an undisclosed location in England, where Assange has been sequestered under house arrest as he fights extradition to Sweden to face charges of sexual assault.