The mega-leaks website, WikiLeaks, has partnered with the
hackers cooperative Anonymous, to publish internal emails of the
American strategic intelligence company Stratfor. In one of the hacked
emails, Stratfor officials discuss information obtained from one of
their sources who reports that Israeli commandos, in cooperation with
Kurdish fighters, have destroyed Iranian nuclear installations. WikiLeaks founder, Julian
Assange, will hold a press conference today in London where he plans to
reveal new details from the Stratfor emails, including details on the
company's dealings with the American government and major corporations,
and its network of paid sources. In a WikiLeaks press release last night, the group said
that it had obtained over five million emails generated by the Stratfor
headquarters in Texas, from 2004 until the end of 2011. Though the
organization does not specify the source of the emails, it has already
been published that Stratfor was a target of the Anonymous hackers.
According to the emails, among
Stratfor's clients are American government agencies including the
Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the
Marine Corps, the Dow Chemical company, for whom Stratfor is alleged to
have kept tabs on activists fighting the company for compensation over
the Indian Bhopal chemical plant disaster in 1984, and defense giants
Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.
In addition, the WikiLeaks
staetment said Stratfor also "monitored" activists supporting the blight
of the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster on behalf of the US chemical giant
Dow Chemical.
In one of the emails from
November 2011, Startfor officials discuss the explosion at an Iranian
missile base near Tehran and quote a source who "was asked what he
thought of reports that the Israelis were preparing a military offensive
against Iran. Response: I think this is a diversion. The Israelis
already destroyed all the Iranian nuclear infrastructure on the ground
weeks ago."
One company analyst responded
dismissively to the possibility of an Israeli attack having already
taken place, asking: "How and when did the Israelis destroy the infra on
the ground?"
"Would anyone actually accept
that this could let the Europeans forget about the Euro crisis,
something they have been experiencing every day for over a year?!" the
analyst added, asking: "Do we attribute any credibility to this item at
all? I don't even see what possible disinfo purposes this could serve."
Some of the Stratfor analysts expressed the opinion that
Israel had sent commandos into Iran, perhaps with the assistance of
Kurdish fighters or Iranian Jews who had immigrated to Israel, to carry
out these operations.
The emails also mention a plan to
coerce an Israeli source into updating the firm on the medical
condition of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
"[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," Stratfor CEO
George Friedman is quoted of instructing one of the firm's analysts.
According to the emails, many Stratfor operatives are former employees of the U.S. government and they routinely pay sources for information in cash.
According to the emails, many Stratfor operatives are former employees of the U.S. government and they routinely pay sources for information in cash.
The WikiLeaks press statement
also mentions "private intelligence staff who align themselves closely
with U.S. government policies and channel tips to the Mossad – including
through an information mule in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Yossi
Melman, who conspired with Guardian journalist David Leigh to secretly,
and in violation of WikiLeaks' contract with the Guardian, move
WikiLeaks U.S. diplomatic cables to Israel."
Mr Melman who until recently
covered intelligence affairs for Haaretz said in response that at the
time "I worked for Haaretz and with the approval of my editors I
obtained the WikiLeaks documents."
"Harretz published some of them. I
am proud of my journalistic achievements which was praised by my
editors and the readers. Julian Assang of Wikileaks tried to prevent the
publication arguing that the documents belonged to him," he added,
saying, "I and my editors rejected his claim and went head with the
publication."
"Now [Assange] tries to take
revenge on me by hinting that I was a channel to the Israeli
intelligence community. This is a complete lie. He also by way of
innuendo tries to create the impression that I was a source for
Stratfor. This is another lie. I do not have any control whatsoever
about what Stratfor personnel wrote about me in their private in house
correspondence," Melman added.
In Novmber 2010, WikiLeaks
published, along with a number of major media organizations, including
the Guardian, Der Spiegel and the New York Times, a cache of U.S. State
Department diplomatic cables. American intelligence analyst, Bradley
Manning, is being court-martialed for allegedly leaking the cables to
WikiLeaks.
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