Stratfor is US( Austin,Texas) based organisation specialising in the gathering of intelligence on behalf of its Clients,Corporates and Governments.
The Intelligence thus gathered is used by these to evaluate, decide and draw their strategies.
The organisation is reported to be run by Ex CIA personnel.
I do not know how far this is true.
The organisation has a website that would forward you its reports.
You have to sign in for the reports at their portal.
Some information provided there are shocking.
In the meanwhile Julian Assange of Wikileaks has accused Stratfor of compromising individual Freedom and violating Privacy.
The same job is being done on a grand scale by WikiLeaks, targeting Governments.
Case of Kettle calling the pot Black or the other way around?
Both WikiLeaks and Stratfor have one thing in common, Publicity and Money.
“February, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered “global intelligence” company Stratfor. 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, for example :
“[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” – CEO George Friedman to Stratfor analyst Reva Bhalla on 6 December 2011, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on the medical condition of the President of Venezuala, Hugo Chavez.
The material contains privileged information about the US government’s attacks against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and Stratfor’s own attempts to subvert WikiLeaks. There are more than 4,000 emails mentioning WikiLeaks or Julian Assange. The emails also expose the revolving door that operates in private intelligence companies in the United States. Government and diplomatic sources from around the world give Stratfor advance knowledge of global politics and events in exchange for money. The Global Intelligence Files exposes how Stratfor has recruited a global network of informants who are paid via Swiss banks accounts and pre-paid credit cards. Stratfor has a mix of covert and overt informants, which includes government employees, embassy staff and journalists around the world.
The material shows how a private intelligence agency works, and how they target individuals for their corporate and government clients. For example, Stratfor monitored and analysed the online activities of Bhopal activists, including the “Yes Men”, for the US chemical giant Dow Chemical. The activists seek redress for the 1984 Dow Chemical/Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India. The disaster led to thousands of deaths, injuries in more than half a million people, and lasting environmental damage.
Stratfor has realised that its routine use of secret cash bribes to get information from insiders is risky. In August 2011, Stratfor CEO George Friedman confidentially told his employees : “We are retaining a law firm to create a policy for Stratfor on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. I don’t plan to do the perp walk and I don’t want anyone here doing it either.”
Stratfor’s use of insiders for intelligence soon turned into a money-making scheme of questionable legality. The emails show that in 2009 then-Goldman Sachs Managing Director Shea Morenz and Stratfor CEO George Friedman hatched an idea to “utilise the intelligence” it was pulling in from its insider network to start up a captive strategic investment fund. CEO George Friedman explained in a confidential August 2011 document, marked DO NOT SHARE OR DISCUSS : “What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor’s intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments, particularly government bonds, currencies and the like”. The emails show that in 2011 Goldman Sach’s Morenz invested “substantially” more than $4million and joined Stratfor’s board of directors. Throughout 2011, a complex offshore share structure extending as far as South Africa was erected, designed to make StratCap appear to be legally independent. But, confidentially, Friedman told StratFor staff : “Do not think of StratCap as an outside organisation. It will be integral… It will be useful to you if, for the sake of convenience, you think of it as another aspect of Stratfor and Shea as another executive in Stratfor… we are already working on mock portfolios and trades”. StratCap is due to launch in 2012. ”
http://wikileaks.org/the-gifiles.html
Some information relating to India found in Stratfor.
“The Indian military is planning a 20,000-troop war drill, one of its largest, near the India-Pakistan border, an Indian army spokesman said Feb. 27, AFP reported. The spokesman said the maneuvers, which will include 200 Russian-made tanks and the country’s latest warplanes, will occur in the Indian state of Rajasthan from March to May. According to an army statement, frontline combat vehicles, artillery, tanks, fighter jets, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, air defense weapons and military radar will be used.”
http://www.stratfor.com/situation-report/india-military-plans-war-drills-near-pakistan-border
”
The website claims the e-mails, dated between July 2004 and late December 2011, “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.” Here is a sample of what “informants” were telling Dow about the Bhopal tragedy.
E-mail from morson@stratfor.com to Stratfor officials, on 23 December 2010: This e-mail appears to profile the leaders of Students for Bhopal Advisory Board, a US-based activist group. The Stratfor analyst describes the Board as “representing the North American grassroots supporters of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal”. The e-mail profiles the seven leaders of the Board in detail, describing their views and what they have done for Bhopal victims.
E-mail from Ann Sigsby, senior analyst, Allis Information Management to Dow officials, on 21 December 2010: Sigsby talks about PTI, the news agency, doing a report on ‘Bhopal gas verdict, compensation issues made headlines in MP’ as part it annual review of top annual stories. Sigsby tells Dow officials there were “multiple pickups through India media websites” of the PTI story. The e-mail talks of The Hindu’s front page carrying an article on the BJP criticizing the Congress for allowing William Anderson, Union Carbide chief during the gas tragedy “to get away”.
E-mail from Ann Sigsby, 3 March 2011, to Dow officials: “Things are much quieter today on the Bhopal issue,” Sigsby begins her mail. Sigsby refers to two Indian newspapers writing articles about a protest against Dow participating in a trade show. It quotes a New York Times reporter’s article questioning whether companies were influencing the Indian origin governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. Dow had reportedly contributed $100,000 to a charitable foundation run under Jindal’s wife’s name. The NYT article noted that Dow had not been fined for a December 2009 chemical spill in St. Charles parish, despite the state proposing a fine for the companies.”
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