WikiLeaks founder warns of huge leak as last resort

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange detailed a plan to release a deluge of secret documents should the whistleblower website be permanently shut down. -- PHOTO: AFP

WASHINGTON - WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange on Sunday detailed a plan to release a deluge of secret documents should the whistleblower website be permanently shut down.

In an exclusive interview with CBS News's 60 Minutes, Assange said his group had a 'system whereby we distribute encrypted backups of things we have yet to publish.'

'There are backups distributed amongst many, many people, 100,000 people, and all we need to do is give them an encrypted key and they will be able to continue on,' he said.

The WikiLeaks founder, who is currently under US criminal investigation over the leaking of hundreds of thousands of secret military reports and diplomatic cables, said the key would only be released as a last resort.

'If a number of people were imprisoned or assassinated, then we would feel that we could not go on, and other people would have to take over our work, and we would release the keys,' he said.

In the same interview the 39-year-old Australian denied he was motivated by anti-Americanism or other political agendas, describing his group as 'free press activists.' 'It's not about saving the whales. It's about giving people the information they need to support whaling or not support whaling,' he said. -- AFP