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Title: WikiLeaks publishes security think tank emails
Source:
wiki leaks (piss on em)
URL Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/ ... stratfor-idINDEE81Q02020120227
Published: Feb 27, 2012
Author: staff
Post Date: 2012-02-27 03:43:06 by noone222
Keywords: None
Views: 84
Comments: 3
Reuters) - The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks began publishing on Monday more than five million emails from a U.S.-based global security analysis company that has been likened to a shadow CIA. The emails, snatched by hackers, could unmask sensitive sources and throw light on the murky world of intelligence-gathering by the company known as Stratfor, which counts Fortune 500 companies among its subscribers. Stratfor in a statement shortly after midnight EST (0500 GMT) said the release of its stolen emails was an attempt to silence and intimidate it. It said it would not be cowed under the leadership of George Friedman, Stratfor's founder and chief executive officer. It said Friedman had not resigned as CEO, contrary to a bogus email circulating on the Internet. Some of the emails being published "may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies; some may be authentic," the company statement said. "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," the statement said. WikiLeaks did not say how it had acquired access to the vast haul of internal and external correspondence of the Austin, Texas company, formally known as Strategic Forecasting Inc. Hackers linked to the loosely organized Anonymous hackers group said at the beginning of the year they had stolen the email correspondence of some 100 of the firm's employees. The group said it planned to publish the data so the public would know the "truth" about Stratfor operations. Stratfor describes itself as a subscription-based publisher of geopolitical analysis with an intelligence-based approach to gathering information. WikiLeaks and Anonymous maintain the emails will expose dark secrets about the company. Stratfor said in its statement it had worked hard to build "good sources" in many countries, "as any publisher of global geopolitical analysis would do." In December, hackers broke into Stratfor's data systems and stole a large number of company emails. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Reuters: "Here we have a private intelligence firm, relying on informants from the U.S. government, foreign intelligence agencies with questionable reputations and journalists." "What is of grave concern is that the targets of this scrutiny are, among others, activist organizations fighting for a just cause." Friedman, the chief executive, said on January 11 the thieves would be hard pressed to find anything significant in the stolen emails. "God knows what a hundred employees writing endless emails might say that is embarrassing, stupid or subject to misinterpretation. ... As they search our emails for signs of a vast conspiracy, they will be disappointed." MEDIA PARTNERS People linked to Anonymous took credit for the data theft. "Congrats on the amazing partnership between #Anonymous and #WikiLeaks to make all 5 million mails public," AnonSec Tweeted. AnonSec is one of several Twitter accounts used to promote and organize activities associated with Anonymous. It was not immediately clear what impact the release of the emails might have on Stratfor, its employees, clients and information sources. Previous releases from WikiLeaks, such as secret video battle footage and thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in 2010 have angered the U.S. government. WikiLeaks' disclosures also have raised questions about the safety of confidential sources quoted in previously secret documents. WikiLeaks said it was working with two dozen media organizations worldwide that have access to a database of the Stratfor emails. These include the U.S. newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. (MNI.N). "We have begun reviewing the emails and will publish as warranted," McClatchy's Washington bureau chief, James Asher, told Reuters. WikiLeaks said its other media partners include L'Espresso and La Repubblica newspapers in Italy, the NDR/ARD state broadcaster in Germany and Russia Reporter. The group gave a sneak preview of the emails to The Yes Men, an activist group that targets what it views as corporate greed. The Stratfor emails discuss an elaborate hoax the group staged to criticize Dow Chemical Co's (DOW.N) handling of the Bhopal chemical disaster in India, according to Andy Bichlbaum, one of The Yes Men. "What is significant is the picture it helps to paint of the way corporations operate," Bichlbaum told Reuters. "They operate with complete disregard for rule of law and human decency." After Stratfor's computers were hacked at least twice last December, the credit card details of more than 30,000 subscribers to Stratfor publications were posted on the Internet, including those of former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former U.S. vice president Dan Quayle. The FBI began investigating the matter in December. Australian-born Assange, 40, is currently under house arrest in Britain and fighting extradition to Sweden for questioning over alleged sex crimes. (Reporting by Stephen Grey. Additional reporting by Jim Finkle and Jim Wolf; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Todd Eastham)
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(CNN) -- The website WikiLeaks has begun releasing what it says are 5 million e- mails from the private intelligence company Stratfor, starting with a company "glossary" that features unflattering descriptions of U.S. government agencies. In a statement released early Monday in Europe (Sunday evening ET), the website promises a raft of juicy disclosures about Stratfor, a Texas-based firm that promotes itself to corporate and government clients as a source of intelligence on international affairs. The company has been targeted by hackers who have released private data about subscribers in recent months, prompting the company to offer its clients a year of paid identity-protection coverage. There was no immediate comment on the disclosures from Stratfor, and the authenticity of the documents could not be independently confirmed Sunday night. WikiLeaks, a website that facilitates the leaking of confidential information, says the documents will be released through a network of more than 25 news outlets and activist groups in the coming weeks. The first document out was titled "The Stratfor Glossary of Useful, Baffling and Strange Intelligence Terms," featuring brief and sometimes humorous definitions and blunt assessments of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement. Others focused on speculation about the health of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and who was behind a suspected campaign of sabotage against Iran's nuclear program. WikiLeaks has previously published hundreds of thousands of U.S. military and State Department documents, including field reports from the Iraq and Afghanistan and embassy cables that feature the candid assessments of U.S. diplomats. A U.S. soldier, Pfc. Bradley Manning, faces a court-martial on charges that he leaked the documents to the website. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, meanwhile, is in Britain battling an extradition request from prosecutors in Sweden who want to question him about unrelated accusations of sexual assault. Assange has not been charged with a crime and denies wrongdoing.
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