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Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

WikiLeaks, Anonymous collaborate to release emails from intelligence firm

Some five million emails from the Stratfor intelligence firms appear to have been obtained when Anonymous struck in December.

WIKILEAKS HAS BEGUN publishing what it says are five million emails obtained from a private intelligence firm which claim to reveal massive corruption and bribery in the industry.

The emails, which are being released gradually over the coming days, appear to have been obtained from the affected firm – the Texan-based company Stratfor – in a hacking attack shortly before Christmas.

If this is true, the project marks a new departure for WikiLeaks – the first time it would have worked so closely with the Anonymous ‘hacktivist’ movement, which took credit for the breach before Christmas.

WikiLeaks says the emails in question span a seven-year window and, in total, make up five gigabytes of data.

One person affiliated to Anonymous told Wired.com that the data had been deliberately handed over to WikiLeaks because of its record of analysing and spreading large tranches of information.

“WikiLeaks has great means to publish and disclose,” the person told Wired’s Quinn Norton. “Also, they work together with media in a way we don’t. Basically, WL is the ideal partner for such stuff.”

Though WikiLeaks has once again partnered with a number of news agencies to distribute the content, it has shunned the mainstream partners it has used for previous leaks including The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel.

Instead, it has opted for a broader geographical range of outlets including Rolling Stone magazine, German public broadcaster NRD, the McClatchy group of newspapers in the United States, and The Yes Men – the ‘culture jammers’ who raise awareness of social issues.

The initial batch of documents contains only a few references to any Irish content, with only small references to Moody’s downgrade of the Irish credit rating in October 2010, and a media update on confirmation that Ireland would receive the Olympic torch this summer.

WikiLeaks itself says that the emails expose “Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods, for example”.

Stratfor itself said it was not going to “validate” the content of the emails or explain the thinking behind them, but said the mails were unlikely to contain any “scandalous” material.

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    Mute alan
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    Feb 27th 2012, 4:00 PM

    Merely doing what should be done. If there is no will on the part of those who should be following up on this kind of material than go ahead Assange and Anonymous

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    Mute Derek Durkin
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    Feb 27th 2012, 3:28 PM

    Nothing mindblowing so far but still paints a good picture of what is going on around Europe and the world in general at the moment. Cant imagine it helping Assange thou, dudes on a fast track to Gitmo.

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    Mute Daithí Byrne
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    Feb 27th 2012, 5:05 PM

    I don’t agree with this action at all. As far as I’m concerned, STRATFOR is probably the only source of reliable intelligence and information available on issues such as Iran, free of political and ideological bias.

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    Mute Andrew
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    Feb 28th 2012, 12:15 AM

    Reliable? Free of bias?

    On the first point, they are incredibly unreliable. Have you even read any of their email exchanges on Iran? They made ridiculously sloppy assumptions based on poor data that any idiot who reads a newspaper could make.

    In one particular exchange, one analyst merely asserted that Israel destroyed some of Iran’s infrastructure, totally baseless on any evidence and according to his colleague, extremely unlikely.

    During today’s Frontline Club conference (http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/20736311) One of the reporters, Yassin al Saadi, in the middle east described Stratfor’s understanding of Middle Eastern situation as extremely poor. “Stratfor are an institution that seems completely disconnected from the political and social realities of the situations they cover.” “Stratfor lack Arabic speakers or experts, and over-rely on single sources.”

    On the second point, their CEO is George Friedman, who is heavily influenced by the non-conservative agenda. He wrote a book on it. Not to mention that they are partnered with Goldman Sachs’. Stratfor are nothing if not biased. The middle eastern reporter also commented Stratfor’s outlook was fundamentally racist against Arabs.

    Also, they’re an intelligence company so incompetent they didn’t even have their emails secured. They included credit card numbers, unencrypted. They had contact details of all their sources, all unencrypted. http://goo.gl/nG4ch.

    Totally incompetent. Corrupt and ill-informed.

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    Mute Andrew
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    Feb 28th 2012, 12:16 AM

    That was in reply to Daithi, btw.

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    Mute Danny Kelly
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    Feb 27th 2012, 7:08 PM

    Wikileaks trying to stay relevant before Assange’s deportation case is decided, Anon purely in it for the lulz, still doesn’t answer the big problem I have with both – Who hacks the hackers?

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    Mute Andrew
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    Feb 28th 2012, 12:19 AM

    Wow Danny, you’re so informed. TELL ME MORE.

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