Stratforgate: WikiLeaks Releases Shadow CIA Mail

Whistleblower website WikiLeaks has exposed more than 5 million emails apparently obtained by the hacking of Stratfor, the private intelligence company dubbed the "shadow CIA". The leak may be as high-profile as that of the State Department cables. The emails, dated between July 2004 and late December 2011, give glimpses on the inner working of the company. They show how Stratfor gathers confidential information from paid insiders, including senior state officials, and provides it to large corporations and US governmental agencies. The private correspondence confirms that Stratfor's area of interests goes far beyond those of a merely civilian firm. In one report an insider in Russian defense revealed sensitive information on the tactical ballistic missile Iskander, including its development progress and the use during the August 2008 armed conflict with Georgia. The think-tank is operating as an outsourced spy agency, recruiting sources and pumping them for insider information, and, as skeptics say, disinformation. It lacks capabilities that true special services have, like using spy drones or secretly raiding governmental archives James Bond-style. But otherwise Stratfor operates successfully, turning secrets into cash outside of the usual restrictions and need for accountability that their state counterparts face. The company's spy network scoured for info on things ranging from health condition of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez to the laundering of drug profits by Mexican cartels, to the loss of of faith in the Obama administration by US business elites. WikiLeaks itself was also an important topic of research for Stratfor, with more than 4,000 of the emails mentioning the website of its founder Julian Assange.