The object of his ire was a Private Eye report last month that one of Mr. Assange’s associates in Russia, Israel Shamir, had denied the Holocaust. Mr. Assange complained that the coverage was part of a campaign by “Jewish” reporters in London to smear WikiLeaks. That conspiracy, he told Mr. Hislop, is led by The Guardian newspaper, naming Alan Rusbridger, its editor, and David Leigh, its investigations editor, and includes John Kampfner, a prominent London journalist who had recently reviewed two books about WikiLeaks for The Sunday Times of London.

When Mr. Hislop pointed out that Mr. Rusbridger is not Jewish, the article published Tuesday said, Mr. Assange countered that he was “sort of Jewish” because he and Mr. Leigh are brothers-in-law. Later, the article recounted, Mr. Assange asked Mr. Hislop to “forget the Jewish thing,” but he continued to insist there was a conspiracy against WikiLeaks, based on a friendship between the three men.