BERLIN – A tell-all book by a former WikiLeaks insider casts founder Julian Assange as an “emperor” who has become just the kind of public figure he is trying to expose.

Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the former WikiLeaks spokesman who left the secret-spilling website after a bitter dispute with Assange, writes about his euphoria at the website’s spectacular rise as well as his disillusionment with a leader he describes as delusional and power-crazed.

He said one of his motives for writing the book was that he wanted to clarify the events that led to the falling-out.

“We need to set the record straight before Assange turns into a cult, a pop phenomenon,” Domscheit-Berg said.

The AP reviewed a German-language copy of “Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website” ahead of its release Friday in 16 countries.

“WikiLeaks turned pale computer geeks, whose cleverness otherwise would not have been noticed by anybody, into public figures, who put fear into politicians, CEOS and military chiefs around the world,” he writes in the book.