2012–13 Stratfor email leak

Internal emails between geopolitical intelligence company Stratfor's employees and its clients, referred to by WikiLeaks as the Global Intelligence Files, began appearing on WikiLeaks on February 27, 2012, with 5,543,061 emails published as of July 18, 2014.

Stratfor is a security group based in Austin, Texas. On December 24, 2011, hackers took control of Stratfor's website and released a list of names, credit card numbers, passwords, and home and email addresses. Those listed were affiliated with organizations such as Bank of America, the United States Department of Defense, Médecins Sans Frontières, Lockheed Martin, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the United Nations. The hackers included Jeremy Hammond, who worked with Anonymous to release Stratfor's emails to WikiLeaks. The emails revealed Stratfor's surveillance of groups such as Occupy Wall Street and protestors of the Bhopal disaster.

The e-mails are alleged to include client information, notes between Stratfor employees and internal procedural documentation on securing intelligence data. These communications date from July 2004 through to December 2011. WikiLeaks said it had obtained the e-mails from the hacker group Anonymous, who broke into Stratfor's computer network in 2011. In an initial announcement, WikiLeaks stated that they opened up a database of the emails to two dozen media organizations operating in several countries, including the McClatchy Company, ''l'Espresso'', ''la Repubblica'', ARD, the ''Russia Reporter'', and ''Rolling Stone'', along with a "sneak preview" to the Yes Men.

In June 2012, Stratfor settled a class action lawsuit regarding the hack.

Content

Stratfor stated that some of the leaked emails "may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies; some may be authentic", pointing to a phony email saying that Stratfor's CEO George Friedman had resigned. They stated that the emails represented candid internal language that would probably be ripe for misinterpretation.

One of the first items released was an email containing a glossary titled "The Stratfor Glossary of Useful, Baffling and Strange Intelligence Terms", which contained concise and sometimes humorously candid definitions, along with pointed assessments of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement. The glossary included items on how "background checks" can help "run up clients’ bill and makes it appear that you are busy" and how "briefs" for customers need to "make sh*t smell good".

Julian Assange

Julian Assange was a frequent topic of discussion in emails from Stratfor staff in the period 2010–2012. Emails from Fred Burton, who was Stratfor's Vice-President for Counterterrorism and Corporate Security and former Deputy Chief of the counterterrorism division of the Diplomatic Security Service, indicated that he knew in January 2011 about a United States Government secret indictment against Assange. Stratfor emails gave a suggested strategy for dealing with Assange: "move him from country to country to face various charges for the next 25 years" and " ankruptthe asshole first ... ruin his life. Give him 7-12 years for conspiracy". In one published email Burton allegedly wrote "Assange is going to make a nice bride in prison. Screw the terrorist. He'll be eating cat food forever." In another leaked email, a Stratfor employee wanted Assange waterboarded.

Governmental

The emails show Stratfor had contracts with Homeland Security. Mark LeVine, professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, described this as "troubling" because Homeland Security had coordinated police attacks on the Occupy movement.

An email involving a Stratfor analyst stated that it had been determined that up to 12 officials in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency knew of Osama bin-Laden's safe house.

''Ynetnews'' reported that, according to internal emails between Stratfor employees, Israel and Russia were engaged in an exchange of information in 2008. Israel gave Russia "'data link codes' for unmanned aerial vehicles Elbit Hermes 450 that the Jewish state sold to Georgia" and that Russia gave "the codes for Tor-M1 missile defense systems that Russia sold Iran". The emails also stated that, during the 2008 South Ossetia war, Georgia "realized that their UAVs were compromised and were looking for a replacement for the Israeli made drones".

''Business Insider'' reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was an intelligence source for Stratfor between 2007 and 2010. In emails, Fred Burton discussed his personal communications with Netanyahu. Burton stated by email that Netanyahu informed him of his success in consolidating power within the Likud party ahead of regaining the position of prime minister, shared thoughts regarding his distrust of US President Barack Obama, threatened assassination of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, and declared intentions to unilaterally start a war against Iran.

'' Al Akhbar'', citing internal emails from the Stratfor hack, reported former Blackwater director James F. Smith had a relationship with Stratfor and was for a time considered one of their major sources.

The emails indicate that Stratfor was receiving information about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's medical condition from an Israeli intelligence source.

Companies

Multinational corporations use Statfor to obtain intelligence on their critics. Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Coca-Cola have used Stratfor's services.

''The Times of India'' reported that some emails indicate Stratfor was hired by Dow Chemical to spy on activists seeking compensation from Dow for the Bhopal disaster. Dow Chemical Company responded with a written statement that read: "Major companies are often required to take appropriate action to protect their people and safeguard their facilities," and that it had not broken any laws.

The released emails indicated that the Coca-Cola paid Stratfor to determine "to what extent will US-based PETA supporters travel to Canada to support activism" at the 2010 Olympics. The Coca-Cola Company responded to the emails with a statement saying that they "consider it prudent to monitor for protest activities at any major event we sponsor". Stratfor offered its services to Bank of America to investigate journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Other

Stratfor received information from an informant at Occupy Austin, who was working as an undercover operative for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Responses

Stratfor

Around midnight on February 27, Stratfor released a statement saying that "the release of its stolen emails was an attempt to silence and intimidate it." It also dismissed rumors of CEO and founder George Friedman's resignation.

Stratfor stated that some of the leaked emails "may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies; some may be authentic", pointing to a phony email saying that Stratfor's CEO George Friedman had resigned. They stated that the emails represented candid internal language that would probably be ripe for misinterpretation.

Others

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Reuters that his concerns with Stratfor stem from it being a private intelligence firm relying on informants from government agencies with dubious reputations and especially its monitoring of activist organizations. He also accused Stratfor of making investments based on the intelligence it obtained.

Former NSA Director Bobby Inman stated that the leak would be damaging to Stratfor's business. He had previously stated that Stratfor was competent, delivering high-quality intelligence analyses.

After the release was announced, many analysts questioned the value of the firms emails, since they mostly used reports from newspapers, think tanks and political science university departments. Max Fisher, the associate director of ''The Atlantic'', argued that Stratfor has a poor reputation "among foreign policy writers, analysts, and practitioners" and that as a result Anonymous and Wikileaks have exaggerated the significance of the information they released. He also suggested that Assange may have targeted a relatively unimportant firm and over-hyped the results in order to "regain some of his former glory". Australian Broadcasting Corporation foreign correspondent and Stratfor subscriber Mark Corcoran also wrote that the e-mails showed Stratfor's methods used to gather information are similar to those employed by journalists, though he wrote that the quality of its reports are often inferior to news reports.

References

External links

The Global Intelligence Files
at WikiLeaks

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stratfor email leak
2012 scandals
Information published by WikiLeaks
Email hacking