 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange 'will release poison pill of damaging secrets if killed or arrested' 
 
 
 
 Threat: WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has warned that if he he is arrested or killed his followers will release more damaging information 
 
 The founder of WikiLeaks has warned that his supporters are primed to publish a 'deluge' of leaked government documents should his activities be curtailed by any country. Mr. Assange, the 39-year-old Australian Internet activist whose online document-leaking service has embarrassed the United States and other countries by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic and military documents, has referred to the huge, unfiltered document as his “insurance policy.” 
 
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 The 1.3-gigabyte file, distributed through file-sharing services this summer and protected with an unbreakable 256-bit encryption key, contains full versions of all the U.S. documents received by WikiLeaks to date – including those that have been withheld from publication or have had names and details removed in order to protect the lives of spies, sources and soldiers. The 'doomsday files' which have been downloaded from the WikiLeaks website by tens of thousands of supporters are understood to include information on Guantanamo Bay, and aerial video of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan that killed civilians, BP reports and Bank of America documents. WikiLeaks, Mr. Stephens said, has “been subject to cyberattacks and censorship around the world and they need to protect themselves ... This is what they believe to be a thermonuclear device in the information age.” 
 
 He uttered that threat as his client was believed to be in hiding in Britain, with prominent U.S. and Saudi officials calling for Mr. Assange’s arrest or death, justice officials attempting to shut down his websites in many countries, and the Swedish justice system seeking him for questioning on the sexual-crime allegations. Mr Stephens told the BBC that legal moves to arrest Mr Assange, who is wanted for questioning over the rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion of two women during a visit to Sweden in August, appeared to be a 'political stunt'. This weekend he refused to respond to a European arrest warrant issued by Sweden, and an Interpol alert related to the accusation. High-profile politicians in the U.S. including Sarah Palin, a narrow loser in the race to become the Republican presidential candidate in 2008, have suggested the computer programmer should be 'executed' for publishing leaked U.S. state secrets.
– WikiLeaks' founder has a "thermonuclear device" of unreleased files that he says he'll detonate if he's killed or brought to trial. Julian Assange has widely distributed an encrypted 1.3-gigabyte file containing the full versions of all the US documents the site has received, and his lawyer says the encryption key will be released if Assange is forced to appear before Swedish authorities on sexual assault charges or American authorities on treason charges, the Globe and Mail reports. Assange has referred to the file as his insurance policy, claiming it contains names, addresses, and other details that were removed to protect spies, soldiers, and other sources. WikiLeaks "has been subject to cyber attacks and censorship around the world and they need to protect themselves. This is what they believe to be a thermonuclear device in the information age," said Assange's lawyer.