Six years after comparing him to Al Qaeda, Sarah Palin apologizes to WikiLeaks' Assange

Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has had a change of heart. She's no longer comparing Julian Assange to Al Qaeda as she did in 2010, but apologizing to the WikiLeaks founder.

In a post on Facebook Tuesday, Palin apologized to Assange, and told her followers to watch the movie "Snowden," in an apparent turn of heart towards the NSA whistleblower as well:

To Julian Assange: I apologize.

Exposing the truth re: the Left having been oh-so-guilty of atrocious actions and attitudes of which they've falsely accused others. The media collusion that hid what many on the Left have been supporting is shocking. This important information that finally opened people's eyes to democrat candidates and operatives would not have been exposed were it not for Julian Assange.

Assange is currently in house arrest at the Ecuadorian embassy in London after securing refuge from an extradition order to Sweden to face charges of rape. Assange vehemently denies the charges.

Palin had fumed about WikiLeaks in 2010 when they targeted her political campaign committee for a cyber-attack. She angrily questioned why he hadn't been “pursued with the same urgency we pursue Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.” But she's singing a different tune now.

She continued on Facebook:

I apologize for condemning Assange when he published my infamous (and proven noncontroversial, relatively boring) emails years ago.

As I said at the time of being targeted and my subsequent condemnation, though, the line must be drawn before our troops or innocent lives deserving protection would be put at risk as a result of published emails.

Julian, I apologize.

Palin concludes by recommending the "enlightening" Assange interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.

The apology comes at a time when tensions are high between the national intelligence services and President-elect Donald Trump, who has absolutely denied their assessment that Russia was involved in cyber-hacking intended to influence the election. He has more recently come around to holding off making conclusions until presented with the evidence by the U.S. intelligence community.

She's not the only conservative to make an about-face on Assange - Sean Hannity had excoriated Obama for not arresting Assange and shutting down WikiLeaks in 2010. He charged that the document leaks put our military in danger, but has since come around to defending the document leaker after discovering how damaging they were to Democrats in this last election. He even laughed along with Assange about how easy it was to hack the email account of Hillary's campaign chairman, John Podesta, which some have said eventually led to the crushing and unexpected defeat of the Democrat.