WikiLeaks will publish more than 5m emails from US-based global intelligence company Stratfor, which it says contains material about the US’ attacks against WikiLeaks.
The whistle-blowing website will release the emails over the next few weeks to the public. It has made an “investigative partnership” with more than 25 media organisations and activists to make the emails public.
According to WikiLeaks, the material which dates from 2004 to 2011, contains details on how the private intelligence agency works. It claims Stratfor “fronts” as an intelligence publisher, but provides “confidential intelligence services to corporations and government agencies.”
The site alleges the intelligence firm uses informants “paid via Swiss bank accounts and pre-paid credit cards,” uses “secret cash bribes” to get information from insiders and made “secret deals” with media organisations and journalists.
Stratfor claims its systems were compromised and that company emails and private information of its readers, subscribers and employees were stolen. The company was also hacked last year, which it claims was done for similar reasons.
“Some of the emails may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies; some may be authentic,” said the company in a statement.
“We will not validate either. Nor will we explain the thinking that went into them. Having had our property stolen, we will not be victimised twice by submitting to questioning about them,” it said.
“For subscribers and friends of Stratfor, we stress that the disclosure of these emails does not mean that there has been another hack of Stratfor’s computer and data systems. Stratfor’s data systems, which we have worked hard to rebuild since the December hack, remain secure and protected,” it said.
The company claims the attack is an “attempt to silence and intimidate the company” and that it will continue to publish its geopolitical analysis.
