World Watch
By

Joshua Norman /

CBS News/ February 26, 2012, 11:06 PM

WikiLeaks targets U.S. security think tank

Julian Assange facing extradition to Sweden

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

WikiLeaks announced Sunday that it will be publishing millions of emails apparently hacked from the global security think thank Stratfor, based in Houston.

While WikiLeaks has provided no details about how it obtained the emails, Stratfor announced in December that the hacker collective known as Anonymous had breached its servers.

WikiLeaks is promising that "the material contains privileged information about the US government's attacks against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and Stratfor's own attempts to subvert WikiLeaks."

For its part, Stratfor executives seemed unconcerned at the time of the initial breach of its servers.

Complete coverage of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning

"As they search our emails for signs of a vast conspiracy, they will be disappointed," said Stratfor's chief executive officer and founder, George Friedman, according to Reuters.

In a press release, WikiLeaks wrote:

"The emails date from between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods."

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
6 Comments Add a Comment
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fwd23515 says:
Woohoo! Go, Wikileaks!

Expose the military-corporate revolving door.
Expose the bribery and corruption fostered by Stratfor, not just overseas but in the U.S.
Expose the cozy relationship between Stratfor and Israel.
Expose the commercialization of our national interests.
Expose the privatization and subversion of our democracy by our own countrymen.

Sunshine--gotta love it.
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josephp5 says:
These emails show that the US government has secretly partnered with companies like Stratfor to generate propaganda for the American people. This propaganda is not for fighting terrorism, but instead to convince the US citizens to continue to finance the huge defense industrial complex.

It is an outrage (but only too believable) that the US government is paying companies like Stratfor for propaganda, and yet attacks Wikileaks for revealing the truth. We have become a secret corporate-fascist state.
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wizardlady says:
Anything that the gov't wants to hide goes under the heading of "national security" and/or gets "classified". What an excellent way to "hide" wrongdoings, as well as the 'truth'!! Or, is it?
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dadrees-2009 says:
what do you mean "our government" this hasn't been "our government since the supreme clowns gave it to the koch brothers.
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skeezix06 replies:
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Good point.
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skeezix06 says:
The really sad thing about all this is the fact that this may be the only way we ever find out about the things our government has been doing which are clearly wrong.
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