CALIBRATED CONFIDENCE: The Global Intelligence Files

The geopolitical analysis company Strafor, based in Austin TX, is well known for their publications that are read by thousands of clients including the US military, law-enforcements groups, and other intelligence agencies globally. In December 2011 Anonymous hacked Stratfors database and captured credit card information on 90,000 users and disrupted the information records of 75,000 users. The attack also yielded 5.2 million email messages on December 7th and 24th, which Wikileaks released today under the heading The Global Intelligence Files. Though none of the information released is a shock to myself, my group, and apparently others, some of the documents from inside Stratfor are strikingly humorous and surprisingly unprofessional for a group that does business with the US armed forces, the ones who act in such a honorable way that they floated the dead corpse of their Number 1 nemesis at sea without showing proof to their own citizens, the same ones who had to watch their freedom disappear for the false veil of security. Speaking of the US nemesis, consider this from Wikileaks:

"Stratfor gave a complimentary membership to the controversial Pakistan general Hamid Gul, former head of Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service, who, according to US diplomatic cables, planned an IED attack on international forces in Afghanistan in 2006."

Furthermore disturbing is the blatant collusion of Stratfor's CEO George Friedman with Goldman Sachs Managing Director Shea Morenz to set up a Fund that would utilize Stratfor's inside intelligence as its "black box" strategy (the Fund is to launch this year, if it hasn't already):

Stratfor’s use of insiders for intelligence soon turned into a money-making scheme of questionable legality...."What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor’s intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments, particularly government bonds, currencies and the like"....Throughout 2011, a complex offshore share structure extending as far as South Africa was erected, designed to make StratCap appear to be legally independent. But, confidentially, Friedman told StratFor staff : "Do not think of StratCap as an outside organisation. It will be integral... It will be useful to you if, for the sake of convenience, you think of it as another aspect of Stratfor and Shea as another executive in Stratfor...

Aside from Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner, Stratfor also apparently knew that their inside investment scheme would be illegal, they decided to get in on the litigation arbitrage opportunity of making money through the complex legal system by structuring StratCap to appear as a legally independent organization, though the CEO made certain his employees knew that would not be the case. Anyways, there is some quality story lines to chew on here and surely anyone who reads enough of the emails will find their treasured conspiracy theory. What stuck out to use though, as we said earlier, was the Glossary of Useful Baffling and Strange Intelligence Terms. An explanation accompanying the document meets readers in the beginning and states "Every profession and industry has its own vocabulary, Using baseball terms to explain a football is tough. These are some of the terms we use". I've highlighted my personal favorites and embedded the entire PDF for your Sunday evening viewing pleasure. Following the embedded PDF you'll see a TedTalks video on Stuxnet and this is what the culmination of secret intelligence on never ending government funding/relationships may lead to.

Craft: