WikiLeaks publishes millions of emails stolen from US think tank

[Jack]

The homepage of the WikiLeaks.org website is pictured in Beijing December 2, 2010. (REUTERS/PETAR KUJUNDZI)
Notorious whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has published five million emails from a geopolitical analysis company that Reuters likened to a “shadow CIA.”

The emails, stolen in late December from the U.S.-based company, could reveal private information on Stratfor readers and subscribers, the details of sensitive sources, and even throw light on the intelligence-gathering community, Reuters reported.

According to a WikiLeaks statement accompanying the posting of the documents, they reveal the inner workings of the intelligence publisher, which works with companies such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and various government agencies.

“The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods,” the website reads. It cites a Dec. 6, 2011, email from CEO George Friedman to Stratfor analyst Reva Bhalla, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on the medical condition of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

"[Y]ou have to take control of him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control ... This is intended to start our conversation on your next phase," the email reportedly reads.

The company released a statement early Monday morning on its Facebook page describing the release of the emails as “deplorable.”

“This is a deplorable, unfortunate — and illegal — breach of privacy,” the company said. “Some of the emails may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies; some may be authentic. We will not validate either. Nor will we explain the thinking that went into them. Having had our property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them.”

Read more; http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/27/wikileaks-publishes-millions-emails-stolen-from-us-think-tank/

 

[Vextor]

I am not a fan of WikiLeaks. The reason is they have published sensitive information. I don't mind this information being uploaded, such as any issues within the Government etc, however personal, or security information (such as Security Bases), shouldn't be published.

 

[Prorootect]

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Wake me when WikiLeaks publishes the Illuminati e-mails: on foreignpolicy.com: http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/02/27/wake_me_when_wikileaks_publishes_the_illuminati_e_mails

QUOTE:
'OK, seriously? Wikileaks thinks this is a big reveal? Seriously?' ..
'This kind of docu-dump says more about Wikileaks and Anonymous than it does about anything else. Wikileaks thinks it's groundbreaking that Stratfor CEO George Friedman had contact with Bush administration power-broker Karl Rove in the fall of 2011. I read the e-mail exchange, and if you think that's groundbreaking, you need to read more interesting things on the interwebs.

Seriously, am I missing anything? Is there anything being revealed that's anything close to revelatory?'

Posted By Daniel W. Drezner - So Thank you Daniel W. Drezner!
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[McLovin]

Their under the spot light again. I'm surprised this happened because I thought that last time when they exposed that military incident they would of learn't not to share such personall information on the internet. Plus who would really share this on the internet where everyone can see. Emails should be kept private.

 

[Prorootect]

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Stratfor Is a Joke and So Is Wikileaks for Taking It Seriously: on theatlantic.com: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/stratfor-is-a-joke-and-so-is-wikileaks-for-taking-it-seriously/253681/

QUOTE:
'The corporate research firm has branded itself as a CIA-like "global intelligence" firm, but only Julian Assange and some over-paying clients are fooled.'

'According to Anya Alfano's email, Stratfor's target was PETA, the animal rights group, and its client Coca-Cola. Their top secret mission was to find out "How many PETA supporters are there in Canada?" and other tantalizing global secrets that could only be secured through such top-secret means as calling PETA's press office or Googling it. Alfano concluded her chilling email, "I need all the information our talented interns can dig up by COB tomorrow." '

'Maybe what these emails actually reveal is how a Texas-based corporate research firm can get a little carried away in marketing itself as a for-hire CIA and end up fooling some over-eager hackers into believing it's true.

The group's reputation among foreign policy writers, analysts, and practitioners is poor; they are considered a punchline more often than a source of valuable information or insight.'

'A friend who works in intelligence once joked that Stratfor is just The Economist a week later and several hundred times more expensive.'

'So why do Wikileaks and their hacker source Anonymous seem to consider Stratfor, which appears to do little more than combine banal corporate research with media-style freelance researcher arrangements, to be a cross between CIA and Illuminati? The answer is probably a combination of naivete and desperation.'

'Wikileaks has been declining rapidly since first releasing Bradley Manning's trove of U.S. diplomatic cables; their finances are shrinking, their organization disintegrating (due in part to what former employees describe as Assange's poor leadership), and their credibility with his past media partners is mostly gone.

Assange would probably like to regain some of his former glory ..'
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