Wikileaks hat heute Nacht die „GI-Files“ veröffentlicht, rund fünf Millionen Mails der Firma Stratfor. Der US-Think-Tanks kam Weihnachten zum ersten Mal in die mediale Weltöffentlichkeit, als Hacker die Nutzer eines Stratfor-Newsletters samt Kreditkarten veröffentlichten. Nun folgt also der Mailserver.
Die Mails sollen Einblicke in die Arbeit eines „privaten Geheimdienstes“ (O‑Ton Wikileaks) werfen. Alleine 4.000 Mails sollen sich mit Wikileaks und Julian Assange beschäftigen, dazu kooperiert man mit The Yes Men, die sich auch gleich in den Mails wiedergefunden haben.
The material contains privileged information about the US government’s attacks against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and Stratfor’s own attempts to subvert WikiLeaks. There are more than 4,000 emails mentioning WikiLeaks or Julian Assange. The emails also expose the revolving door that operates in private intelligence companies in the United States. Government and diplomatic sources from around the world give Stratfor advance knowledge of global politics and events in exchange for money. The Global Intelligence Files exposes how Stratfor has recruited a global network of informants who are paid via Swiss banks accounts and pre-paid credit cards. Stratfor has a mix of covert and overt informants, which includes government employees, embassy staff and journalists around the world.
The material shows how a private intelligence agency works, and how they target individuals for their corporate and government clients. For example, Stratfor monitored and analysed the online activities of Bhopal activists, including the „Yes Men“, for the US chemical giant Dow Chemical. The activists seek redress for the 1984 Dow Chemical/Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India. The disaster led to thousands of deaths, injuries in more than half a million people, and lasting environmental damage.