Revealed in Stratfor emails

Leaked Stratfor Email Suggests Secret U.S. Indictment of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

www.democracynow.org —

The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has published an internal email from the private intelligence firm Stratfor that suggests the U.S. Justice Department has obtained a sealed indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. 

The email is one of around five million obtained from Stratfor's servers by the hacker group, Anonymous. "Somehow you have a private intelligence company, Stratfor, 'shadow CIA' as people have called it, having information about this sealed indictment, secret again, that Julian Assange does not have, that Wikileaks does not have, that his lawyers do not have," says Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is a legal advisor to both Assange and to WikiLeaks. "What you see is secrecy, secrecy, secrecy." 

News of the indictment comes less than a week after Army Private Bradley Manning was arraigned for allegedly leaking classified U.S. military and State Department documents to WikiLeaks. 

Wikileaks Stratfor Emails Devastating

"Some 5m internal emails from Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based company that brands itself as a "global intelligence" provider, were recently obtained by Anonymous, the hacker collective, and are being released in batches by WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing website, starting Monday.

The most striking revelation from the latest disclosure is not simply the military-industrial complex that conspires to spy on citizens, activists and trouble-causers, but the extremely low quality of the information available to the highest bidder..."

 Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks.

GIven the nature of Stratfor selling information to private companies that has been gained from security organisations, it has to be asked what are New Zealand organisations up to buying the service of 'a private CIA'?

Here is the corporate media representing the interests of both parties.

Hackers put NZ information at risk

Stuff,

28 December, 2011

A data breach at a private American intelligence company has put the credit card information and personal details of several New Zealand companies and government agencies at risk.

United States-based Stratfor is a think tank that provides reports and analysis of international affairs and security threats. Its subscribers include Apple, the US Air Force and the Miami Police Department.

New Zealand-based clients include the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Air New Zealand, the New Zealand Police and Fire Service, ANZ and BNZ banks.

A hacking movement known as "Anonymous" has claimed responsibility for stealing credit card numbers and other personal information belonging to the company's clients.

Personal information has been posted online and linked to Twitter. More than 100,000 individuals and companies may be exposed, according to the Associated Press.

Hackers have reportedly taken money from individuals' accounts to donate as Christmas presents and some people have confirmed unauthorised activity on their credit cards.

Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet spokesman Maarten Wevers said the department would expect Stratfor to improve security and would be keeping an eye on its account.

There had not been any unauthorised activity so far and Mr Wevers understood breaches were limited to individuals. "I'm sure they are working very hard to make sure security is not breached.

"I can't imagine we will stop buying them.

"They are an expert think tank and their views are of interest to a lot of people," he said.

An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said the airline had received advice from Stratfor in the past regarding global security issues but no customer data was at risk and no unauthorised transactions had occurred.

A spokesperson for ANZ New Zealand said: "We are confident that no customer data or credit card information has been compromised as a result of our relationship with Stratfor."

Other companies and government agencies could not be reached for a response yesterday.