From here:

Julian Assange said U.S. informants named in secret cables ‘deserved’ to be killed and initially refused to redact their names, a new book has revealed.

WikiLeaks published thousands of names of Afghans in 77,000 classified war files put on the whistle-blowing website, attracting criticism from international charities and governments.

In later releases of secret U.S. embassy cables in November around 15 per cent of files were withheld to protect lives and every file was checked before release.

Amnesty International said in a letter to WikiLeaks last year that all names in Afghan war logs should be redacted.

‘We have seen the negative, sometimes deadly ramifications for those Afghans identified as working for or sympathizing with international forces,’ it said.

Assange’s apparent gung-ho attitude in an early meeting to naming to naming U.S. informants stunned his media collaborators, the new book claimed.

The title said he told international reporters: ‘Well, they’re informants so, if they get killed, they’ve got it coming to them. They deserve it.’ The book continues: ‘There was, for a moment, silence around the table.’

If this is true – and there is little reason to doubt that it is – Assange has painted a rather large target on his back. Of course, if he is assassinated – well, he had it coming to him.