Austin based Strategic Forecasting, more commonly known as Statfor and compared at times to a private, shadowey CIA, has had a trove of emails stolen and published on Wikileaks by the hacker coalition known as anonymous. One rumor going around about the stolen data is it was not encrypted. If that turns out to be the case, it could spell real financial trouble for an agency that depends on secrecy and security. Fox News link below, with my apologies:
(FoxNews) — The emails, stolen in late December from the U.S.-based company, could reveal private information on Stratfor readers and subscribers, the details of sensitive sources, and even throw light on the intelligence-gathering community, Reuters reported. According to a WikiLeaks statement accompanying the posting of the documents, they reveal the inner workings of the intelligence publisher, which works with companies such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and various government agencies.
The emails also make the absurd claim that the Mossad and its allies in the Iranian Kurdish community have already destroyed Iran’s nuclear capability. It sounds like this outfit is less then reliable.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-kurdish-fighters-destroyed-iran-nuclear-facility-email-released-by-wikileaks-claims-1.415066
I have to agree with slc1 here: I’m sure Mossad has allies among the Iranian Kurds, but the idea that said Kurds could destroy all of Iran’s nuclear capability, even with help from Mossad, is indeed absurd.
Oh, my hatred for Stratfor is boundless. I’m glad Wikileaks is destroying this place.
The following is anecdote, but might be of interest: My wife and I were both US Army intelligence, and when we got out of the Army, we both began looking for jobs in the civilian intelligence sector. While we were both more interested in government, not private-sector work, we came across Stratfor. They actually made an offer to my wife, who is much more qualified than I am. But here’s the thing: They have mandatory training which new employees must pay for. They don’t pay you during this training. That itself seemed suspicious enough to where we both went, “okay, this can’t be a real intelligence outfit,” and decided to look elsewhere.
I’ve been looking through the emails, and quite frankly, everything that comes out of this company seems more like it was made up by intelligence community outsiders who have no idea how the intelligence system really works. Most worryingly, all their “analysis” seems to be based on personal opinion and unsubstantiated rumors, which is antithetical to real intelligence analysis. This bothers me because this company advises many US government officials in some capacity or another.
They also imply throughout that they are running human intelligence black ops. It’s hard to say whether this is true or not, but if it is, there’s some serious legal issues, especially if they’re collecting on US citizens (which is also implied throughout).
Yeah, that claim is pretty far out there, and it seems Stratfor had serious doubts about it, themselves – the interesting thing, though, is that they couldn’t rule it out right away. Which, obviously, means that they have no precise information on the current state of Iran’s nuclear facilities. That’s…unimpressive.
@ ^ Phillip IV : Also worrying. For allthe US and Western civilisation / society is imperfect, the Iranian regime and its brutality and ideology is far scary and worse.
^ scarier that is.
Why are typos always invisible until afetr i’ve hit subit comment? Sigh.
Could have to do with being very tired and starting to get drunker I guess.