WikiLeaks founder holds online Q&A session

LONDON (Reuters) - The founder of the WikiLeaks website held an online question and answer session on Friday, having in recent days embarrassed the U.S. government by publishing confidential embassy reports.

Julian Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, also faces possible arrest on a Swedish warrant for alleged sex crimes.

Assange answered Guardian readers' questions on its website. The Guardian is one of a number of newspapers around the world with early access to material obtained by WikiLeaks.

Here are the highlights:

ON HOW MATERIAL IS DISTRIBUTED:

"The Cable Gate archive has been spread, along with significant material from the US and other countries to over 100,000 people in encrypted form.

If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically.

Further, the Cable Gate archives is in the hands of multiple news organizations. History will win. The world will be elevated to a better place. Will we survive? That depends on you."

ON GIVING WIKILEAKS A PUBLIC FACE:

"I originally tried hard for the organization to have no face, because I wanted egos to play no part in our activities.

"This followed the tradition of the French anonymous pure mathematicians, who wrote under the collective allonym, "The Bourbaki."

"However, this quickly led to tremendous distracting curiosity about who and random individuals claiming to represent us.

"In the end, someone must be responsible to the public and only a leadership that is willing to be publicly courageous can genuinely suggest that sources take risks for the greater good.

"In that process, I have become the lightning rod. I get undue attacks on every aspect of my life, but then I also get undue credit as some kind of balancing force."

ON REPORTED CLAIMS THAT HE SHOULD BE ASSASSINATED:

"It is correct that ... (those) seriously making these statements should be charged with incitement to commit murder."

ON ACTA:

"We have leaks on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a Trojan horse trade agreement designed from the very beginning to satisfy big players in the US copyright and patent industries. In fact, it was WikiLeaks that first drew ACTA to the public's attention -- with a leak."

ON SERVER PROBLEMS:

"Since 2007 we have been deliberately placing some of our servers in jurisdictions that we suspected suffered a free speech deficit in order to separate rhetoric from reality. Amazon was one of these cases."

ON DEATH THREATS:

"The threats against our lives are a matter of public record, however, we are taking the appropriate precautions to the degree that we are able when dealing with a super power."

ON WHETHER PRE-MEGALEAKS DOCUMENTS WILL BE RESTORED:

"Since April of this year our timetable has not been our own, rather it has been one that has centered on the moves of abusive elements of the United States government against us."

ON UFOS:

"It is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs."

(Writing by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Mohammed Abbas)