The cliché “publish or perish” seems appropriate here. :-)
And after all, if Zero had wanted him dead, he'd have been dead by now. I think Assange oversells his stolen info, sort of like Glenn Beck closing his shows on Friday with the claim that his Monday show will shake the country to its foundations. And btw, I wouldn't mind a bit if he were dead.
Publish or perish? You have it backwards, if anything happens to him, the Deadman switch activates and the data gets released in a 1000 places.