5 Million Stratfor Emails Released: What Company Says About Wikileaks

WikiLeaks has published over five million emails from a U.S.-based global security analysis and intelligence firm, Stratfor.

The emails were reportedly taken by hackers earlier this year. Wikileaks claims that these emails could potentially unearth sensitive information into the world of privatizing intelligence gathering. Stratfor said that the emails were stolen property of the company and were taken in an effort to intimidate the organization.

Stratfor is not a government organization, nor is it affiliated with any government. The emails are private property, said the statement according to ZDnet. Like all private emails, they were written casually, with no expectation anyone other than the sender and recipient would ever see them. They should be read as such.

The leaked emails allegedly prove that Stratfor had provided intelligence services to several organizations including Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. The emails suggest that they assisted the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marines and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency as well.

The material shows how a private intelligence agency works, and how they target individuals for their corporate and government clients, said a WikiLeaks press release, reported AFP.

Stratfor believes that some of the emails may have been altered or forged.

We will not validate either. Nor will we explain the thinking that went into them, said the statement according to Reuters. Having had our property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them, the statement said.

While WikiLeaks did not explicitly say how it received the mails, a loosely affiliated hacker group known as Anonymous announced at the beginning of the year that they had stolen correspondence's from the 100 of the firm's employees, reported Reuters. WikiLeaks and Anonymous claim that the leaked emails will reportedly expose the company and their secrets.

Here we have a private intelligence firm, relying on informants from the U.S. government, foreign intelligence agencies with questionable reputations and journalists, said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to Reuters.

However, George Friedman, Stratfor's founder and chief executive officer, said in a January interview with Reuters, that the hackers will not find anything incriminating against the company.

God knows what a hundred employees writing endless emails might say that is embarrassing, stupid or subject to misinterpretation, said Friedman. As they search our emails for signs of a vast conspiracy, they will be disappointed.

WikiLeaks has previously released a host of information from United States government agencies, including battlefield videos and thousands of classified diplomatic cables related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. WikiLeaks said it is currently working with media organizations worldwide to provide them with Stratfor's emails, including newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. Other media partners include Rolling Stone magazine, The Hindu newspaper and the Italy's paper La Repubblica, reported AFP.

We have begun reviewing the emails and will publish as warranted, McClatchy's Washington bureau chief, James Asher, told Reuters.