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This Week in the Press: 29 March – 4 April, 2012
– 9 May, 2012Posted in: The week in WikiLeaks Press
Cable analysis reveals the US’ struggle to maintain its influence around the globe, particularly in Russia, China, and Iran. In Africa, politicians criticize each other in private and an Ethiopian journalist translates and analyzes the cables in Amharic. US ambassador criticizes human rights toll during Sri Lanka civil war. Chinese telecommunications company Huawei was under investigation by Australian authorities in 2008.
Subject index
Cablegate^
The Secret Life of a Superpower (Part II): The BBC part two documentary on WikiLeaks’ Cablegate release analyzes the US relationship with Russia, China, and Iran. The cables show details of Russia’s attempts to retain influence over Central Asia, particularly in its 2008 war with Georgia. The cables also showed that secret NATO defense plans, “Eagle Guardian,” were being formed for defense against further Russian attacks on Central Asian NATO countries. The December 2010 release of Cablegate revealed the existence of these plans to the public.
Publicly, the US has attempted to maintain warm relations with China, but cables reveal US anger over a 2007 event when the Chinese army shot down its own satellite in a demonstration of its anti-satellite technology. Other cables describe private US efforts to convince China to pay attention to human rights issues, and China’s retaliatory remarks.
Although the US fears Iranian development of a nuclear weapon, it has no embassy in Iran, and has thus created the structure for an “Iran Watchers Network,” which gathers intelligence from a web of informers around the globe who have connections to Iran. BBC claims that this network has succeeded in gathering important intelligence, including a confrontation between President Ahmedinejad and the head of the Revolutionary Guard Gorps, Jafari, in 2009.
Africa^
Zimbabwe elections: In 2000 elections, the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister noted the MDC party’s ease in winning the elections, informing Tom McDonald in a diplomatic cable, “The MDC could have put up a frog in those areas and still would have won against the ruling party.”
Mugabe Insulted Kabila: Public photos of an amicable meeting between Mugabe and Kabila portray a different reality than that recorded in the Wikileaks cable. The ambassador stated at the time, “Mawapanga also acknowledged that Mugabe had insulted DRC President Kabila when he visited Harare, but the young Kabila, unlike his father, does not believe in answering insult with insult.”
Journalist Abyi Afework – analysis of Wikileaks files on Ethiopia: Abyi Afework, a journalist who has been translating Wikileaks files on Ethiopia, discusses in an interview the impact of Ethiopian politics upon the release of the cables (video in Amharic).
Asia^
Sri Lanka – Alles Had Been Providing Free After-School Tutoring To Rajapaksa’s Son: Tiran Alles, arrested for suppressing the Tamil votes in the 2005 presidential election, admitted having a secret meeting with the Tamils. Alles’ parents educated many of Sri Lanka’s elite, including providing free after school tutoring to President Rajapaksa’s youngest son. Robert Blake wrote in the cable, “The family was bitter about the Rajapaksa’s ingratitude. They pointed out there is little doubt that the arrest of Alles was politically motivated.”
Rajapaksas Were Set On A More Authoritarian Course: Speculation surrounding the arrest of Sri Lankan presidential candidate Fonseka led ambassadors to disengage from Sri Lanka until after the elections. Intimidation in the media, increase of military and police, threats to NGOs and INGOs suggested that Sri Lanka’s deterioration may be on a permanent course towards an authoritarian regime. One ambassador commented in the original cable, “The plane seems to be heading for Singapore, but it might land in Burma.”
Palace, embassy and military junta coordinate: Analysis on a cable reveals coordination surrounding the 2006 coup in Thailand, when the Thai Royal Army overthrew the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. In a post-coup cable, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Krit Garnjana-Goonchorn is quoted as saying, “people as a whole seem to have welcomed the military intervention,” and “because the transition was peaceful, Thailand hopes to ‘win back the trust of the international community in our economy and in our deep commitment to democracy.’”
“We All Want An End To LTTE Terror, But Not In A Way That Kills Thousands Of Civilians”- Blake: In an attempt to end the civil war in Sri Lanka, Ambassador Blake discussed options and strategies towards persuading the LTTE to surrender peacefully. The cable says, “Ambassador noted he and others had held many bilateral meetings with senior Sri Lankan officials, including Army Commander Fonseka, Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa, and Foreign Secretary Kohona, all of whom had denied that Sri Lankan forces were shelling the safe zone. Ambassador stated that these denials were not credible.” The safe zone 48 hour threshold was intended to transfer 600 wounded civilians and provide much needed supplies.
Sri Lanka’s New Friends Cannot Compete With Her Old Ones – Butenis: Sri Lanka is revealed in a cable to be one of China’s fastest growing trading partners. Imports from China, however have resulted in a trade deficit with US of 1.44 billion. It is pointed out by Ambassador Patricia Butenis, “Though at times the Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) asserts it does not need the U.S. and the West since it can turn to new friends such as China, there is no indication that China can replace Western export markets.”
Thailand – the Democrat Party would follow orders if instructed by the palace
Security concerns over Huawei flagged years before NZ embraced them: Australia and America knew there were security concerns with the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei before New Zealand deepened its relations with the company. Wikileaks 2008 cables reveal Australian Intelligence agencies were investigating Huawei due to national security concerns over Chinese cyber attacks and the company’s investment in China’s Ultrafast Broadband fibre network. Another article notes that as a NBN provider, there were doubts as to whether the security risk was sourced from competitors. One cable says, “The NBN process gets even uglier. There is speculation that Telstra leaked this story, coming so soon after Telstra’s bid was disqualified”. The company denies that it is a security risk as its spokesman stated, “The company’s record speaks for itself. ”
Americas and Europe^
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| Graffiti calling for a raise in the minimum wage. The letters UN are crossed out, ostensibly in protest of the UN MINUSTAH peacekeeping force. (Photo by Ansel Herz). |
Wikileaks Shine light on US Role in Haiti: Police Chief Standoff Reflects Fierce Class Struggle: The Director of Haitan National Police(HNP), Mario Andresol, is refusing to step down after President Michel Martelly tried to fire him. Prior to WikiLeaks’ release of diplomatic cables, the deep ties forged between Mario Andresol and Washington that have shaped Haitian politics for nearly a decade were not publicly known. One cable says,
Our role in supporting the HNP and the reform plans remains central. Though MINUSTAH maintains primary responsibility for providing technical assistance, and other donors, notably Canada and France, have also discussed providing technical support, our material support for the HNP, which ranges from arms and ammunition to the uniforms on their backs and the food their cadets eat at the academy, is the critical factor enabling the HNP to assume greater responsibility for basic security and to even contemplate utilizing MINUSTAH resources in implementing more ambitious reform.
Norway on Mullah Krekar Extradition: A cable reveals that although there is a deportation order to send Ansar al-Islam figure Mullah Krekar to Iraq and face the death penalty, Norway cannot legally abide. The journalist union has called for his extradition to Australia for war crimes and murder of an Australian cameraman. Cherrie S. Daniels wrote in the cable, “Moran’s journalist colleagues are exasperated at the Australian government which has made no efforts to bring the issue to a resolution, but instead let Krekar remain in Norway “and mock the Australian government,” as Mark Corcoran puts it.”
The McCann’s Have Not Been Cleared: British girl Madeline McCann disappeared at the age of four in 2007 from a resort in Portugal. In contrast to media reports, a 2007 Wikileaks cable says that the police had a great deal of evidence against Madeleine McCann’s parents. Advising officials to avoid the media frenzy and keep comments private, “Ellis admitted that the British police had developed the current evidence against the McCann parents, and he stressed that authorities from both countries were working cooperatively. He commented that the media frenzy was to be expected and was acceptable as long as government officials keep their comments behind closed doors.”
Global Intelligence Files^
Obama Allegedly Took Russian Money: Stratfor analysts allege President Obama accepted a large donation from the Russians during the elections. Fred Burton stated in an email, “A little bird told me it was a “nice six-figure donation.”
Private Intelligence Company Paid to Monitor Activists’ Activities: WikiLeaks reveals how a private intelligence firm monitored legal activities of political groups around the world. Especially disturbing was the pattern of conduct within its organizational culture that promoted intimidating and harassing activists with the goal of censoring and inhibiting peaceful protest. Two of the most prominent examples are those associated with the Bhopal Medical Appeal and the interference with PETA activists.
Middle East^
US Security Firm helping Syrian rebels: Stratfor emails reveal how an American private security company helped Syrian opposition in its efforts to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. Chief Executive of SCG James Smith, a former CIA employee, stated he had “air cover from a US congress woman Myrick to engage Syrian opposition” who was on a “fact finding mission for congress.”
Azerbaijan “terrified” by potential Armenian attack: Growth in military spending and support from Russia has not eased concerns of hostilities surrounding energy security. Stratfor Analyst Reva Bhalla stated that Azerbaijan, under the influence of Russia, is terrified of an Armenian attack. Adjacent to the warning made by Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev in a Wikileaks cable, “the threat of conflict with Armenia was rising fast.”
Gülen community organization busiest in the U.S.: Stratfor analysis on the Gulen movement and its infiltration in the US education system presents a perplexing picture. Analyst Reva Bhalla states in a report on FGC(Fethullah Gulen Community), “The FGC’s influence in the Emniyet and a significant part of Turkish domestic intelligence apparatus is a contentious issue, challenging the movement’s claim to be a spiritual organization. Critics and opponents of the FGC and the AKP, even some top brass in the Turkish military, fear that they are under surveillance by the FGC through the Turkish police. Giving credit to such claims, intelligence leaks involving the Turkish military often start in FGC-owned newspapers, such as Zaman.”
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This Week in the Press: 22 – 28 March, 2012
– 5 May, 2012Posted in: The week in WikiLeaks Press
Independent journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye is still incarcerated for his story on how a US drone strike in Yemen killed civilians, backed up by WikiLeaks cables. Stratfor emails contain extensive discussion of a potential attack on Iran. Other emails discussed the importance of Spain’s 15-M protest leaders. Columbia newspaper El Espectador was a Stratfor source for Colombian news, and was also a former WikiLeaks media partner for Cablegate.
Subject index
Stratfor Emails: regional conflicts
Russia, Bulgaria, Poland
Chaika reports on Medvedev’s meeting with Stanishev and South Stream natural gas pipeline: Stratfor source Yuri Chaika, Prosecutor General of Russia, reported on Russian President Medvedev’s reasons for delaying a meeting with the Bulgarian Prime Minister Stanishev and also discussed the South Stream natural gas pipeline project.
Russia and Bulgaria relations tracked by Stratfor: Stratfor reports on Russia-Bulgaria relations since Prime Minister Boyko Borisov came to power, in particular Russia’s control over Bulgarian affairs. Stratfor analysis Marko Papic concludes that “Borisov’s moves to freeze progress on South Stream [gas pipeline] and the Belene power plant are more likely about rooting out his predecessor’s control of those lucrative projects than about fundamentally moving Bulgaria away from Russia.”
Stratfor email from 2010 claims that Russia deliberately prevented Polish plane from landing
Uprisings and protests
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| Puerta del Sol in Madrid during the 2011 Spanish protests (Source: Fotogracción). |
Stratfor analysts argue over Spain’s 15-M movement: Stratfor emails report on the 2011-2012 protests in Spain, called the 15-M movement, which was noted to have begun “in reaction to Spain’s high youth unemployment (46%!) and dire future prospects for the young.” The analysts argue over the question “Are these protests going to breed the future leaders of Europe?” Analysts argued about whether or not the protests would turn violent or similar to the Arab Spring.
Israel, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and push for attack on Iran
Stratfor discussions on Israel-US relations and the possibility of attack on Iran: One 2009 email thread praises Netanyahu as a “man of honor” and questions why Obama chose to address the Israel-Palestine issue so early in his presidency. Another thread discusses the possibility of Israel attacking Iran in light of some strain on US-Israel relations in March 2010. Other emails mention that Iran will attack when their intelligence window closes because Netanyahu doesn’t trust Obama, and the relationship between the two leaders was not good.
Discussing the real reasons behind the push for attack on Iran: Stratfor emails discuss information from their source David Virgil Dafinoiu, the current president of NorAm Intelligence and former IDF military intelligence agent. According to Dafinoiu, media reporting on Israel preparing for a military strike against Iran “were only ‘a diversion’ and [sic] the Israelis ‘already destroyed all the Iranian nuclear infrastructure on the ground weeks ago.’ He added, ‘The current “let’s bomb Iran” campaign was ordered by the EU leaders to divert the public attention from their at home financial problems.’” The emails between the analysts continue with discussion on Israel using proxies and subversive tactics against the Islamic Republic.
Mossad-Saudi Cooperation: One 2007 email said that Cyprus was a “primary transit hub … to assist the Saudi intelligence services with intelligence collection and advice on Iran” for Mossad. Another quoted a source who said that “about 3,000 Syrian troops were executed since mid-March 2011 and a similar number arrested ‘for refusing to open fire on protesters,’” adding that a military coup was “virtually impossible” since Sunnis were not in “ranking positions.”
Close Azerbaijan ties could give Israel staging ground for an attack on Iran
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Armenia
Pakistan ISI did not want Taliban to dominate Afghanistan: A 2011 Stratfor email report on a meeting with Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, former ISI chief, said that Pakistan did not want the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan. Instead, he said, “we want to see a broad-based government that can end the civil war in that country, which has had a disastrous fallout for us. Of course, the Talibs will be a key player in a post-NATO Afghanistan…But that is just an acknowledgment of a reality [rather] than a desire on our part to see Talibs rule Kabul.”
Pakistan ISI could have been spying on itself
Former Blackwater director a Stratfor source working on regime change in Syria
Armenia defense minister Seyran Ohanian helps strengthen ties with the US
Reaction, Impact, and Followup
The dangers of reporting the ‘war on terror’: In 2009, news around the globe broke out claiming that Yemen’s air force killed 30 suspected Al-Qaeda members. WikiLeaks cables have since confirmed that Yemen had agreed to take credit for the US drone strike. A year earlier, journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye discovered that the missiles were marked, ‘Made in USA,’ and 14 women and 21 children were among the dead. Abdulelah Shaye’s report led to his incarceration and accusations that he was a member of Al-Qaeda.
Columbia newspaper El Espectador was both a WikiLeaks media partner and a Stratfor source: An interview with Fidel Cano, director of the newspaper El Espectador, includes some discussion on his relationship with WikiLeaks. El Espectador was a WikiLeaks media partner during the Cablegate release, but in the latest GIFiles release, the media organization was found to be included in Stratfor’s list of journalistic sources. Cano said that he thought WikiLeaks was a good source of information, and denied giving Stratfor any information other than current news on Columbia.
Hacking book: how ‘serious’ media consigned WikiLeaks cables to the shadows: A book largely devoted to the phone hacking scandal takes a critical view on how journalists in the mainstream media have utilized Wikileaks cables. Rather than upholding integrity, the reporting successfully “deligitimized Wikileaks” in the public eye and “marginalized public interest.” In the extract, Justin Schlosberg writes, “British officials had assured the US government that they had ‘put measures in place’ to protect US interests during the Iraq war inquiry.”
DHS walking a thin line in involvement with OWS: The Business Insider has obtained emails via FOIA from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and claims that they show the DHS was hesitant about internal reporting on Occupy Wall Street. The article says the 5 page report on OWS leaked through the GIFiles was a “memo was posted to the DHS’s Tripwire intelligence sharing database without being cleared, and was taken down soon after.” One email from the DHS is quoted as saying,
We maintain our longstanding position that DHS should not report on activities when the basis for reporting is political speech. We would also be loath to pass DHS requests for more information on the protests along to the appropriate fusion centers without strong guidance that the vast majority of activities occurring as part of these protests is protected. To do otherwise might give the appearance that DHS is attempting to circumvent existing restrictions, policies, and laws.
Cablegate and the Gitmo Files
Investigation into torture and deportation of Maher Arar: A 2005 cable from Ottowa discusses the inquiry into circumstances surrounding the 2002 deportation of Syrian-born Canadian citizen Maher Arar from the United States to Syria, where he was allegedly tortured. Canadian officials met with National Security advisor Bill Elliott, who advised the Canadian police, “they cannot let Arar stop them from doing what they need to do — the safety of Canada depends on the ability to share information with its allies, in particular the U.S.”
Cables reveal Venezuela and Cuba ties – What will happen after Chavez?: In light of recent preparation for October elections and speculations about President Chavez’ health, Nikolas Kozloff writes on Venezuela cables which show the close ties that have developed between Venezuela and Cuba in past years. According to cable reports, Cubans have trained Venezuelan intelligence officers, have a large presence in Venezuelan ports, and collaborate extensively in health and legal sectors. Kozloff notes some public concern about the future of the Cuban-Venzeuelan relationship if Chavez does not continue the presidency next year.
IAEA director Amano criticized for Western stance in Iran nuclear reports: Former IAEA officials have raised concerns over the quality of reports on Iran’s nuclear program since the start of Yukiya Amano’s directorship in 2009. Cables from 2009 have shown that Amano had been courting US support before his election and that the US had criticized external relations and policy co-ordination (Expo) officials within the IAEA, “some of whom have not always been helpful to US positions.” Under Amano, the Expo office has been dissolved.
Interview with Ali Hashem, who resigned from Al Jazeera in protest over biased coverage of the Arab Spring: Interviewer Paul Jay from the Real News Network notes that cables also reveal that the US approved of Al Jazeera coverage in line with Qatari foreign policy.
US not furthering their interests in Africa? Don’t be naive: This article discusses the controversial role played by the Kony 2012 video in drawing attention to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and cites a Stratfor Intelligence Report that suggests that the US “exaggerated the threat posed by the LRA” in order to establish a military presence in Uganda because of the oil reserves recently discovered near Lake Albert. Cables released by Wikileaks reveal how the Ugandan government asked for US assistance with “training and equipping a lake security force” that would “protect Uganda’s oil assets”, and that the US provided intelligence information to the Ugandan military knowing that it might be used in carrying out war crimes.
An Afghan In Guantánamo Sold To US Forces 10 Years Ago: After it was revealed in December that the US government was secretly negotiating with the Taliban on five of the seventeen detainees, little emphasis was made on the remaining twelve. One particular case is Shawali Khan, who has been detained for nine years, but never been charged. The Government counsel relied upon a note allegedly written by Shawali Khan, despite him being illiterate. Upon request to see the alleged note it was then deemed ‘highly classified’. A reference of the note was found in a Department of Defense file from WikiLeaks’ Gitmo Files release.
Corruption Scandal in Burma: The Canadian Connection: American diplomatic cables expose a corruption scandal involving Canadian-owned Ivanhoe Copper Co. Burmese regime crony Tay Za charged a 50 million dollar fee as broker whilst making a profit for the Burmese government by selling 50% of Ivanhoe’s stake to the government-controlled entity the Ministry of Mines, and then at a steep price to a consortium led by Norinco. Ivanhoe consequently made a press release stating,
After acquiring Ivanhoe’s former interest in the Monywa Project, the independent trustee engaged an independent service provider to help the Trust identify potential buyers. Ivanhoe Mines had no involvement in discussions between the Monywa Trust and its service provider with potential purchasers or with the ultimate sale of the interest.
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This Week in the Press: 15 – 21 March, 2012
– 20 April, 2012Posted in: The week in WikiLeaks Press
Stratfor emails discuss how Mossad infiltrated businesses and a global nonprofit organization. Ta Nea reports that the Greek Pasok party purposefully inflated the budget deficit in 2009. Cables from Mexico are reported to have predicted the decline in Mexico’s oil production and USG concerns. Stratfor reported on Venezuela’s declining oil production. A former Blackwater director was a key Strlatfor informant.
Subject index
Cablegate and the Gitmo Files
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| The leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony (AP photo). |
Wikileaks And Kony 2012: Does the U.S. Allow The Ugandan Government To Commit War Crimes?: The article notes that a 2009 cable makes clear that the Ugandan People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) was “not allowed to use U.S. intelligence for operations that would violate the law of armed conflict, unless the U.S. gave the UPDF some sort of permission to do so in advance.” The article also cites cables which shed light on a “positive, sometimes collaborative, relationship between the State Department and Invisible Children,” (the NGO which produced the Kony 2012 film) including their public outreach support for Operation Lightening Thunder.
The financial weakness of Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex): A 2007 Wikileaks cable reveals that Jordy Herrera’s concerns and predictions on declining oil production in Mexico have held true five years later. The decline has produced a crisis that reduces Mexico’s GDP by an estimated 2.5%.
Mexico, about to become an oil importer: It was acknowledged in a Wikileaks cable that oil in Mexico had peaked and it was in the process of becoming an importer. Being the third supplier of US oil, the impact of the decline was a concern for US officials. Carlos Pascual stated, “Mexican officials have requested assistance in recent months the U.S. government on issues related to the implementation of the reform (oil) in October 2008.”
Andy Worthington: Guantanamo prisoners released in 2007 (part 3): Worthington continues his work on detailed biographies of all Guantanamo prisoners, using the leaked detainee assessment briefs in the Gitmo Files.
GI Files
Greece and Turkey
PASOK “Source” snitches on the 2009 deficit: A Ta Nea article describes how Stratfor’s Greek informer says the newly elected Pasok government purposefully inflated the budget deficit by paying some bills early, in order to throw all blame for economic problems to the previous government and get more assistance from international institutions. Although the source is described as highly credible, the information he conveyed was rated by Stratfor as “hearsay.” The article puts into context Stratfor’s reporting on the issue by explaining that a week before an email was sent (January 2010), Eurostat had issued a damning report about the 2008 Greek statistics analyzing three reasons why 2.5 billion euro worth of hospital expenditure should not have been included in the 2008 budget, as the figure was wrong and it should not have been allocated to a single fiscal year. Finally the article explains that a day before the e-mail was sent, Dominique Strauss-Kahn mentioned in an interview that the IMF representatives only visited Greece because this was requested by the Greek government. Whilst in the e-mail the Greek source commented about the IMF visit “assuming that they will be shown the correct books,” The article also describes claims that Karamanlis used the Fire crisis in Attica 2009 to call for early elections in order to avoid dealing with the spiraling economic situation.
The secret movement of the Turkish Islamists has tentacles everywhere: A Ta Nea article re-iterates Stratfor informers’ claims that there are families who act like agents of the pro-western Islamist Gulen movement. Such claims seem to be ideologically closer to President Gul and Foreign Monister Davutoglu rather than Prime Minister Erdogan and diametrically opposed to kemalists. The article describes Stratfor source’s statements about the movement’s founding father Imam Gulen and his growing influence within the police and the secret service. The movement’s followers might be as many as 8 million, Ta Nea suggests. And even in the army, their numbers might account up to 30% of the military. Stratfor Turkish sources number about 35 people including individuals very close to the prime minister Erdogan.
‘Neo-cons in the United States had the power, the AKP ezemezdi army’: Hurriyet journalist, described by Stratfor staff as a “left-leaning secularist” provides analysts with insight on politics. Upon describing the Turkish army’s strong stance in maintaining the status quo of the AKP he states, “Over-stepping is really a danger for the government here, but if the military decides to cross the line and go harsher against AKP, it will have to do it despite the US. As a NATO-member, I doubt they have the courage to do this.”
Turkey, 15 km inside the border from Syria to enter without permission’: Emails show how Turkey was planning to create a buffer zone across the border into Syria to pursue the PKK without the permission of Syrian authorities: “The source said that the Turks have readied 500 tanks for a limited invasion of northern Syria.”
Israel and the Mossad
Israeli Agent: Mossad Claims Fictional Feats: In emails leaked from Stratfor, an Israeli intelligence agent revealed that Mossad makes false claims about assassinations in order to be perceived as “an … organization that terrorists should be afraid of.” In addition, it is asserted that Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (Carlos the Jackal) was never targeted by Mossad because “he was never a threat to the Israeli national security..” but instead “sold information he collected on Arab countries also to Western [intelligence] agencies for good money”; and that the reason Carlos was arrested in 1994 by the French and Americans was to “protect him” from “a coalition of Arab [intelligence] agencies led by the Iraqis…on their way to assassin [sic] him.”
Fred Burton: Mossad Stealing Companies’ Secrets: According to emails leaked from Stratfor, Mossad has infiltrated a global non-profit organization called The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professional (SCIP), which claims to be “the global organization of choice for professionals engaged in competitive intelligence and related disciplines.” In the emails Fred Burton, Stratfor’s vice-president of counter-terrorism, said “There is a MOSSAD [sic] operative under business cover stealing other companies’ secrets from this group…”, along with agents from Chinese intelligence, although no Americans since “…CIA can only infiltrate an American company with witting knowledge of the American company.” Burton goes on to discuss how difficult it is for the US to insert “Nocs” (Non-cover operatives) as plants in foreign businesses, and suggests a few approaches by which this might be accomplished.
Hamas Terrorist Killed in Dubai Once Dressed as Orthodox Jew: This article summarizes the contents of a number of interesting emails from Stratfor about the Middle East, the issuing of US visas to “former Niger Delta militants to study courses related to oil and gas and engineering”, hacking attacks on US satellites (possibly by China), a leader of the Black Panther movement in the US and the presence of al-Qaeda sympathizers in “sensitive jobs in vital industries that could be the target of terrorist attacks” in the UK. The title refers to one of the emails which contained an article from Der Spiegel on Mossad’s assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, chief weapons negotiator for Hamas, who at one time disguised himself by dressing as an Orthodox Jew.
US involvement
SCG CEO and former Blackwater director was a key Stratfor source: Al Akhbar reports email correspondence between Stratfor and James F. Smith, the former director of Blackwater and current Chief Executive of SCG International. In his emails, Smith said that the US Congress had asked SCG to be in touch with Syrian opposition so they could guage how to enact regime change and for that mission also claimed to be getting air cover from US Congresswoman Myrick. Smith became a major source for Stratfor, providing intelligence on Libya while the company was involved in contracts to “protect Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) members and train Libyan rebel fighters after the implementation of the no-fly zone in March 2011.” Other emails say that Smith gave intelligence on missing surface-to-air missiles and was involved in the killing of Muammar Gaddafi.
The “black box” of the big crisis on Wall Street: A series of Stratfor emails discuss a meeting involving US treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and hedge fund manager John Paulson, where it was agreed to let the Lehman Brothers collapse. Kevin Stech informed analysts, “There are talks on of splitting into 2 entities, a “good” bank with salable assets, and a “bad” bank that will sit there and hold the bag of worthless subprime and alt-a backed MBS’s and other shaky derivatives.”
International relations
Stratfor reports on Chavez power structure and declining oil production in Venezuela: McClatchy newspapers writes on a Stratfor report which said that Chavez’ removal would be a “significantly destabilizing event for the country be “significantly destabilizing event” for Venezuela because of the power structure Chavez had put in play. The report also mentions Venezuela’s deteriorating oil production, and claims this is due to lack of investment by the state: “Without serious and technologically adequate investments of tens of billions of dollars the industry faces a slow and inevitable decline.”
Stratfor reports on potential consequences of a military strike on Iran
Stratfor researcher reported that ISI feared Taliban takeover of Afghanistan
Impact and Reactions
Stratfor reports Gülen explanation: Fethullah Gullen made a public statement denouncing Stratfor analyst claims to be “utterly baseless and a detailed product of fantasy”. One email by the analysts noted a string of arrests of journalists stated, ” the movement has become recently pretty controversial due to some arrests of journalists who were writing books about Gulenist infiltration into police service.”
“They were not accounted for at all”: The article describes the response of [Minister for the Environment, Energy and Climate Change] Giorgos Papakonstadinou [former Minister of Finance in 2009 under the Giorgos Papandreou government] to the Ta Nea article about the revision of the 2009 deficit figures, based on WikiLeaks. Papakonstadinou claims that the report stating that debts of previous years had been added into the deficit figures of 2009 was in error and explains in detail his side of the story. The article also re-iterates his claim that under the [previous] Karamanlis governement, hospital debt was not accounted for in detail but was estimated at 500 million a year and that explains how the Pasok gov. faced hospital debts of 6.5 billion by 2009.
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This Week in the Press: 8 – 14 March, 2012
– 8 April, 2012Posted in: The week in WikiLeaks Press
Stratfor emails reveal discussions on the Greek economic crisis, US funding of Greece and the Cypriot secret service, and the tension between Cyprus and Turkey over natural gas production in the Mediterranean. Paraguay government responds to media reports on Stratfor emails detailing a dispute over the treatment of Brazilian soybean farmers in Paraguay. The emails show how Stratfor closely followed the plans of Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas, and expressed concern over indications that he promoted politically active groups.
Subject index
The Global Intelligence Files – International relations
Border tension over Brazilian farmers in Paraguay: Stratfor emails track a dispute between displaced Brazilian soybean farmers in Paraguay and Paraguayan peasants. The sources say that Brazil is actively defending the Brazilian farmers, despite being in Paraguayan territory, by strengthening its military forces at the border. Brazilian sources also said that the Paraguayan system for normalizing the status of Brazilians was not working.
Colombia used drug lord to force Venezuela to eject FARC: The 2009 capture of Venezuelan drug lord Walid Makled became a powerful negotiating tool. Whilst Venezuela and Columbia were engaged in heavy negotiation over the prisoners extradition, the US was willing to hand him over to Venezuela in exchange for information on Venezuelan banks and their connections to banks. In one email, “Makled is believed to have worked closely with senior members of the Venezuelan government, possibly including Chavez himself.” This was a cause of concern for Chavez. The US decision to hand Makled over to the Venezuelan government was noted to have a significant impact in changing Venezuelan politics. Another article on the same subject is reported at McClatchy : Stratfor emails say Chavez betrayed FARC to appease generals.
Polish, French, and Italian newspapers have reported on a rumor of Russia’s alleged involvement in the death of former Polish president Lech Kaczynski as well as 95 of Poland’s rank and file political and military officiaries. Their plane crashed during an attempted landing in foggy weather near Smolensk on April 10, 2010. According to a Stratfor email from April 2010 released by Wikileaks, Fred Burton, vice-director of counter intelligence, reported to Reva Bhalla, director of analysis, that their source ‘Comrade J,’ a former KGB agent, had speculated on a Russian intention to obstruct Kaczynski’s landing in order to delay him for a Katyn second world war memorial service on the same day. The articles debated whether this development may have come on the back of chilled relations between Russia and Poland due to divergent views on the Russio-Georgian war.
The assassination of Imad Mughniyeh – Back on the secret operations of the Mossad: In the public domain, Mossad operations are suspected, but rarely verified. Stratfor’s report reveals the inner workings on how Mossad works. An Israeli source describes the assassination that sparked a war killing 25 Palestinians including a 12 year old child as “a very elegant attack”. “Mossad works in modular teams. This op took a lot more than just 3 people, but you never have that many in country at the time of the attack. You have one person go in for surveillance, take them out, send in another person to acquire the explosives, take them out, a bomb maker sent in and out, etc,” the source stated.
Le Big Brother Américain surveille l’Afrique: Jeune Afrique sheds light on some of the most important releases concerning Africa among the Stratfor emails: arms trafficking in Tchad, the relations between the regions of Kinshasa and Katanga, the deployment of Angolan troops in Cabinda and the state of resources in Mali.
Brazil source spoke of Brazil-Argentina cooperation for producing military vehicles
Stratfor monitors other organizations
GIFiles: Stratfor predicted a cyber attack by Anonymous: Whilst proposing constructing an analysis on the group Anonymous, Stratfor anticipated the likelihood of being attacked by the group two months prior to the hack. Fred Burton stated, “Well, my concern would be then stealing our credit card data from customers somehow. If that happens, it would bury us. Not a lot of people look at our website in hits.”
Google Ideas director Jared Cohen described in emails as pushing for political activism: Email exchanges in 2011 show that Stratfor was monitoring Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas, for his links to the State Department and Egypt. The emails show concern over Cohen’s planned trip to Gaza, and question whether Google condoned his behavior. Cohen was apparently ordered not to go to Gaza, but proposed a trip to the UAE, Azerbaijan, and Turkey to “actively engage the Iranian community, which was similarly denied. The article notes that Google Ideas has been dubbed a “think/do-tank,” which has become involved in several politically active events and groups.
Middle East
Syria investigation into the assassination of Hezbollah’s Security Chief: Stratfor emails discuss in detail information on the Syrian investigation into the assassination of Imad Muhniyye, a senior Hizbullah leader. One of the sources with average credibility rating said that Syrian President Asad had replaced the chief investigator for the assassination with his less experienced cousin Makhluf and that Hizbullah had protested this rearrangement. Other sources said that Syria was being very cautious about releasing information on the assassination because Syrians had been involved and because Hizbullah blamed Israel, which had the potential for souring Syria-Israel relations.
Stratfor calls Egypt revolution a ‘palace coup’: One email says that “only 750,000 people — less than 1 percent of the population of densely populated Egypt — took to the streets,” and that instead military leaders were plotting to overthrow Mubarak months before protesters came to Tahrir Square.
NATO military intervention in Syria confirmed: An editorial from La Jornada points out that despite the public claim by Secretary General of NATO Anders Rasmussen that there are no plans for intervention in Syria, both leaked emails and cables from WikiLeaks’ GIFiles and Cablegate releases contain information about covert US and NATO interventions in past years to undermine the Syrian government.
Another article from the NYT Examiner notes that a US military contact in the Stratfor emails said air intervention in Syria would not happen unless there was “enough media attention on a massacre, like the Ghadafi move against Benghazi,” and that the move against Benghazi was a false claim made by rebels. The article draws a connection to a recent article in the New York Times on raising pressure for intervention in Syria on account of a massacre.
US Senator John McCain has recently pushed for intervention in Syria as well.
Turkey, Greece, Cyprus
Turks & Americans flew over the Aegean together: Ta Nea has independently confirmed that Turkish Airforce purchasing plans for US equipment described in Stratfor emails have materialised. Stratfor’s Turkish source reminisced about US/Turkish Aircraft operations over the Aegean Sea in 1974. Other emails discussed Israel anti-Iran military training accommodated in the Turkish Mountains and revealed US intelligence is used in anti-PKK airforce strikes in Northern Iraq. Turkish Navy deployment plans and training follow US templates since 1990 gaining expertise through joined operations with Nato/USA and Russia. Stratfor’s source suggests that if Turkey is to expand its [naval] control from the Bosporus and Dardaneles further into the Medditeranean, it will have to deal with Greece, Cyprus and become the superior [naval] power in the Black Sea.
“We gave Greece 90 billion dollars in 60 years”: Ta Nea summarises Stratfor reports of financial and structural development assistance to Greece from the US and EU since WWII. The reports mention Greece’s geopolitical importance as a country used by the West in preventing Russia from having access to the Medditeranean and limiting Soviet power in the Balkans, as well as its decline in importance after the end of the Cold War. It describes Stratfor speculation on what propped up Greece’s independence as a country both financially and politically since its inception and how such supports have now declined. Stratfor’s source suggests that IMF, ECB and European governments “buy time” but Greece will not be able to pay back its debts and Greek voters will not stand austerity for more than two years. Neither will accept the selling of national assets to foreigners.
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| Anti-IMF austerity protests in Greece, 1st May 2010 (Photo credit). |
“They were making Bankruptcy scenarios three months prior to the Memorandum”: Ta Nea brings to light Stratfor’s direct line of communication with Moody’s – a bond credit rating business – and its opinions on the Greek crisis, who owns the Greek debt, the chances of Bankruptcy, and the spiral of death caused by CDS’s. It also describes Stratfor’s own assessments: that the European Commission’s statements over Greek statistics was “a cheap way of bringing down the price of bonds and to exert pressure for reforms in Greece” and that Greece became the guinea pig for passing on a clear message to the unruly countries of the South. Finally it presents Stratfor’s assertion that IMF’s efforts would be counterproductive in lowering the cost of borrowing as long as the Greek economy keeps shrinking, and lending to Greece at below market interest rates would be the only helpful thing to do.
Turkey and the Cyprus EEA, Turks plan episode in plot No 12: Stratfor’s Turkish informers said that military confrontation is planned in South East Mediterranean when the Cypriot Republic commences natural gas production at plot 12, and the escalation of tension last September had also been planned. Stratfor speculates on the motivations of the Cypriot government in issuing the first licenses for the plot bordering Israel and its implications on Turkish/Israeli relations. The Gaza flotilla and its escort of Turkish naval military is discussed as well as Turkish efforts to undermined the Cypriot/Lebanese EEA agreement rectification. Finally, Stratfor speculates on the re-alignment of strategic alliances between the Turkey/Greece/Israel triangle, pointing out the Greece is Israel’s “perfect tool.” Stratfor’s sources indicate, “Turkey’s official policy is to wait until Greek Cyprus enters the production stage to take a decisive action. A military confrontation is unlikely until then.”
We had the Cyprus secret service in our payroll for years: Stratfor VP Fred Burton said that Cypriot Secret Service was in US’s payroll for years. Christofer Metsos’ arrest in Cyprus after an Interpol warrant was issued under spy charges by the US; his consequent escape and the fate of his much wanted computer that was left behind is further discussed, highlighting his US-perceived role as the money handler for the Russian spy network in the US. Stratfor reports that Mossad agents fled from Lebanon to Cyprus to avoid interception whilst the death of Thomas Muney in 2007 is linked to Iranian Secret Service.
Mossad kidnapped Bréguet outside Igoumenitsa: In 1995, Bruno Bréguet, who was a close associate of Carlos the Jackal, disappeared while on a ferry from Italy to Greece (Igoumenitsa). In emails leaked from Stratfor, an Israeli informant says that, while there are a number of theories about the disappearance, the most likely scenario is that Mossad was behind Bréguet’s abduction. Mossad then supposedly handed over Bréguet to the Americans, who then moved him to Hungary. According to the informant, Bréguet left Hungary with a new identity in 1997 and most likely moved to Cuba, where he may still be alive today.
The package will not solve the problem: Before it was known whether IMF would participate in the bailout of Greece, analysts speculated that US would not go along with it. George Friedman informed Stratfor staff, “When I asked Brady how he expects to get the the U.S. to go along with an IMF bailout, he shrugged and said they won’t, but that’s the only choice. Volcker is now doubtful the Euro can survive.”
Impact/Response
Paraguay government says Stratfor emails on Brazil are an exaggeration: Paraguayan official Lopez Perito said that the reports on possible Brazilian military intervention over Brazilian soybean farmers settled in Paraguay were not based on intelligence work. Instead, he said there were several false statements in the emails and that they were based on a tabloid from Brazil media.
PM files libel case against Taraf’s Altan over cancer report controversy: Following the release of a Stratfor email claiming that Turkey’s Prime Minister had terminal cancer, a conflict erupted between the latter and the editor in chief of the newspaper Taraf Daily. Prime Minister Erdogan is now suing the journalist for the harsh terms he used in a column.
Turkey’s Erdogan Dismisses WikiLeaks Cancer Report: In a Stratfor email, a lead surgeon on Erdogan’s operation informed Stratfor’s Turkish informant that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan he has colon cancer with two years to live. He dismissed the claims in a speech stating that “only god knows” how long he has to live.
CEO: Company is not ‘rogue organization’ critics portray: Stratfor’s CEO George Friedman made his first public speech since its security was compromised last year. Despite the content of the emails suggesting otherwise, Mr Friedman attempted to persuade his audience that Stratfor was wrongfully portrayed as “a rogue organization engaged in espionage.” He further justified his stance with, “In the end, I am not going to let others define who I am or what I speak about.” During the speech demonstrators were silenced by other members of the audience. He reinstated his claims that Stratfor was strictly a publishing company, but admitted, “It has gradually shed most of its corporate clients over the past several years because, Friedman said, being a publishing company gives Stratfor more freedom to study the issues relating to international politics.”
US State Department denies Stratfor email claim that Bin Laden’s body was flown to the US
Cablegate
Cables report US State Department lobbied the Vatican for its approval of GM crops and foods
Sri Lanka
Tiran Filmed “LTTE-Rajapaksa” Deal: According to a cable dated 14 June, 2007, recorded video evidence of a meeting between an LTTE intelligence officer and a prominent businessman were stolen.
Hard To Campaign For “Carnival Of Fools”: A Sri Lankan foreign minister, concerned about religious freedom and lack of a global political aptitude, said he considered the Sri Lankan government as a “Carnival of fools.”
Geneva Conspiracy : As You Sow So Shall You Reap: Sri Lankan government supporters protested against UN Human Rights Council’s draft resolution that barely addresses the allegations against Sri Lanka’s government. The president’s brother Basil Rajapaksa admitted in a 2009 cable, “I’m not saying we’re clean; we could not abide by international law – this would have gone on for centuries, an additional 60 years.”
Gota claims army has interal mechnism to punish soldiers for rape and murder: In a cable discussing reconciliation efforts with Tamils, Sri Lanka’s Defense secretary made no promises in appointing a new commission to address grievances of crimes soldiers had committed. He claimed that there was an internal mechanism in place. In the cable, he stated, ” contrary to widely held impressions, the army had investigated and prosecuted individual soldiers for individual crimes (presumably stealing, rape, murder, etc.) committed during the war.”
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This Week in the Press: 1 – 7 March, 2012
– 28 March, 2012Posted in: The week in WikiLeaks Press
The Global Intelligence Files, a database of emails released by WikiLeaks from the private intelligence firm Stratfor, have spawned analysis and critiques on the true nature of private intelligence firms, their view of intelligence as a marketable product, and who pays for such intelligence. During the week following the GIFiles release, hundreds of articles have been published citing Stratfor intelligence on international relations and conflicts. As mentioned extensively in the media and at the GIFiles press conference, much of this intelligence is often either already publicly known, inaccurate, or skewed due to lack of understanding of regional politics and catering to Stratfor clients. Given that Stratfor markets itself to policy makers and heads of state, the shortcomings of privatised intelligence gathering have been showcased for their public interest value.
Subject index
The Global Intelligence Files uncover the nature of intelligence markets
WikiLeaks’ impact is Stratfor’s bottom line: An article from WikiLeaks points to emails which unmask the true face of Stratfor as an opportunistic company worried about being crowded out of the intelligence market with the advent of troves of information from WikiLeaks.
Stratfor on WikiLeaks: In an analysis of the Stratfor emails discussing the pitfalls of broad intelligence sharing in hindsight of Wikileaks’ release, the focus is reflected back on not only the US government being ultimately the ones responsible for the leaks, but also raises the question of whether the act of leaking will induce transparency or more secrecy.
Stratfor and geopolitical instruments of our demise: An Al Jazeera opinion piece suggests that the “war on terror” has been run on a cost-plus basis (so that companies have incentives to increase costs) combined with a move towards greater privatization of governmental services, which has led to an increase in military incompetence, particularly in the case of intelligence procurement. In the case of Stratfor, employees were encouraged to concentrate on the quantity rather than the quality of information provided to their clients in order to turn a profit. More disturbingly, the privatization of intelligence procurement to companies like Stratfor enables governments (as well as private corporations such as Dow Chemical) “to monitor and even attack citizens” without getting “their hands dirty.”
Stratfor intel on foreign conflicts, events, and political figures
Middle East
Lebanon-based WikiLeaks partner Al Akhbar has published an article on secret co-operations between Saudi Arabia and the Mossad. An email thread dating back to May 2007 shows a source telling a Stratfor employee that “several enterprising Mossad officers, both past and present, are making a bundle selling the Saudis everything from security equipment, intelligence and consultation.” Stratfor Vice President Burton forwarded a short message to the analyst’s email list where he recounted HUMINT (human intelligence) on the alleged secret deal. The source claimed that Mossad offered covert assistance to the Saudis with “intelligence collection and advice on Iran.” In on one of those emails, Burton also seemed to be interested in making the Saudi intelligence services clients for Stratfor, saying, “I suggest we send Mike Parks to sign them up. $100,000 deal is nothing to these folks.”
US, UK, French Special Operations in Syria: A Special Operation Forces meeting in Syria described in a Stratfor email dismissed the possibility of air campaigns to overcome the Alawite minority in Syria, as Syrian air defense was considered robust. In another email from March 2011, the day before the NATO bombing of Libya, an analyst meets with US, UK and French air force colonels who describe the operation as a “dream op,” with easy targets and a flat coastline. It is noted that the day before the meeting took place was the date that the Security Council adopted resolution 1973. Apart from the French, oil was the main incentive behind the resolution. “BP post-oil spill is suffering in US, other options are to expand in Siberia (problems with Russia), Vietnam and … Libya. They see a Gaddafi ouster as the best way to meet their energy interests,” the analyst said.
The generals have lost the game: According to Stratfor emails, revelations at the operation sledgehammer trial gave the Turkish political party AKP more prominence whilst ignoring the military. “Erdogan used this reality to move Turkey back to the status of a normal state in which the military is subordinate to the government. The military can’t organize a coup and the consequences of a coup would devastate Turkey, and leave a majority of the population hostile,” George Friedman wrote in an email.
Saudi Arabia received assurances from the military that Mubarak would be protected: In a Stratfor email last year, the King of Saudi Arabia received assurances from Egypt’s military council that Mubarak would not be harmed. The king reportedly placed the junta “under intense pressure” in seeking support for the former Egyptian president by adding it as a prerequisite to the granting of financial aid.
Field Marshal ignores communications Tel Aviv embassy in crisis: Since criticism surfaced over the relationship between Cairo and Tel Aviv, the military council changed its policy on natural gas with Israel and refused to resume pumping. The withdrawal of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel was reportedly “for strategic reasons.”
US-led NATO troops operate inside Syria: An analyst who returned from a meeting at the Pentagon informed Stratfor on the latest US-led NATO troop activities in Syria. The aim of the operation was to overthrow the Syrian government. “They pretty quickly distanced themselves from that idea, saying that the idea ‘hypothetically’ is to commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, elicit collapse from within,” stated Reva Bhalla.
Egypt and the Arab Spring
Washington influence on Egypt’s water resources: According to an Egyptian diplomat, a Stratfor email reports that in order to stabilize Egypt, the security council suspended the Ethiopia main hydraulic dam on the Nile so as to align with US interests. Bayless Parsley explained, “The SCAF’s ultimate goal is maintaining stability so as to preserve the military regime that dates back to 1952, and it is adjusting its tactics in order to adjust to the new reality in Egypt and the wider region.”
The Arab Spring – Who was behind it: According to emails from Stratfor, a Google executive under the direction of the White House provided the trigger for the Arab Spring riots. In addition, another email cites a surgeon as saying that Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan has colon cancer and may only have two years left to live; the email speculates as to what the US would do without Erdogan, who has been the prime minister of Turkey since 2003, and also discusses the fact that Turkey together with US has been providing arms and training to Syrian rebels in order to assist the “emergence of a Sunni power” in Syria.
Military does not want to stay in power, but wants to control without judgment: The Egypt revolution was not based upon the people, but a carefully orchestrated operation derived from the Egyptian military as a means of “keeping up democratic appearances with the West now that the country is once against dependent upon the economic largess of outside powers,” according to Stratfor’s sources.
Tantawi refused asylum Gaddafi to Egypt … The tips of the leaders of Yemen and Bahrain: According to Stratfor correspondence, a general from the Libyan army arrived in Cairo to request asylum for Muammar Gaddafi. Strafor sources said the Egyptian Military Council refused to meet with him.
Brotherhood honestly believe in the intentions of military … And want a safe transition without provocation: Stratfor analysts were reportedly in touch with current and former members of the Muslim brotherhood. The Muslim brotherhood may have been considered as “the largest opposition in the country,” but since the Egypt revolution, the rise of liberalists and leftists makes the political landscape more complex in their view. Despite competing interests, the Muslim Brotherhood trusts the Supreme council in governing Egypt, but aspire to “seize the opportunity” to rise in political stance.
South Asia, Australia, China
WikiLeaks, Stratfor and Papua New Guinea’s Corrupt Politics: According to Stratfor’s source CN65 former Australian Senator Bill O’Chee, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill is corrupt and only interested in money. “Quite corrupt. I know him. … O’Neill is not any more pro-Western than anyone else up there. As long as he makes money for himself (he has significant business investments in mobile phones, among other things), he couldn’t really care less,” he informed Stratfor.
Malaysia’s racial divide deepening: According to emails leaked from Stratfor, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, in advance of the upcoming general elections, is trying to build support for his party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), by capitalizing on the racial divide in Malaysia between Malays and minority Chinese through “… drumming up resentment against the Chinese with the hopes of getting more Malays out to vote, and to vote pro-Malay”. However, alienating Chinese voters may actually weaken the current political coalition (in which the UMNO has a significant role), and thus create an opportunity for a rival party to gain power in the future.
9/11 An Excuse To Clamp Down On The Opposition: According to Stratfor email on Malaysia, the US – Malaysian military relationship was strategically aimed at undermining China’s power since the 1960s. This is said to become more open since 9/11. “The relationship was often conducted discretely to avoid Malaysian domestic hang-ups, but after 9/11 it became more open, and Mahathir used the war on terrorism as a pretext to crush Islamist-leaning political opponents,” Matt Gertken wrote.
Russia, Europe
Moscow holds tight control over Moldova: In a series of emails, the relationships between Moldova, Russia and Germany are described as deep political and economic ties. In an attempt to stabilize Moldova against percieved foes it was stated, “This would literally flip the government as the TDs would ally with the Commies, which would far outnumber the so-called pro-European coalition. Meaning, Russia would have a stable and pro-Russian government entrenched in Moldova, not a chaotic one.”
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| Russian soldiers withdrawing from Gori, Georgia, 18 August 2008. Photo by Bohan Shen. |
Did Israel Help Spark the Russia-Georgia War in 2008?: According to a 2009 Stratfor email, in exchange for codes on Iran’s Tor M1s, Israel gave the code on UAVs, which may have sparked the 5 day war between Russia and Georgia in 2008.
Stratfor analyst provides intel on gas negotiations in Eastern Europe:”There is a very, very small number of people who actually know what’s going on in the nat gas negotiations — Putin, Medvedev, head of Naftogaz, Miller of Gazprom, Yanukovich and maybe the FM,” Stratfor analyst Bhala Reva states. Reva also comments on the levels of mistrust between Russia, Ukraine, and other parts of Eastern Europe when it comes to gas negotiations and the level of corruption and control involved between the countries.
The IMF’s Fault for Balkan Wars: In an attachment titled “Europe Analytical Guidance,” tells Stratfor analysts to watch out for riots in the Balkans. The aftermath of the IMF austerity measures in Yugoslavia was highlighted as an example. Another was the strikes by the Albanian miners in Kosovo as a root cause of security concern. Journalists from the Balkan media were also revealed to work for Stratfor.
The N17 had a man in the U.S. Embassy: Stratfor emails bring to light interesting factors surrounding the first CIA officer to be murdered by a terrorist attack in 1975. According to Fred Burton the terrorist group N17 penetrated the Greek government and knew Welch to be a CIA agent, ” As I remember, many believed the government was infiltrated by 17 November members and as you are well aware, the Greeks kept a close eye on U.S. Diplomats.”
The coup and the source within the Armed Forces: A military coup was an idea brewing as a means to resolve Greeks financial crisis. “Therea**s a not very funny joke going around the financial markets at the moment, that the real solution to the Greek problem is a military coup,” Bayless Parsley stated on the Strafor email list. Subsequently, Stratfor was asked to assess the dangers of a military coup within the Greek government.
Americas
Gender again to stifle the truth and secure oil: Halliburton model: After a Stratfor analyst reports on her lunch with former Judge Sam Kent, who was found guilty on perjury and sexual misconduct, Mr Kent stated, “isn’t it strange that the Justice Department begins sniffing around for dirt to throw at me just weeks after I ruled a heavy case against Halliburton? Then a small set of affairs turn into an untrue situation and then spun up into an unprecedented case against a Federal Judge.” Comparisons are made to the case of the Wikileaks founder, along with the former director of the International Monetary Fund.
New reports detail discontent, fear in Venezuelan military: Emails leaked from Stratfor indicate that the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is worried that concerns about the state of his health has aggravated discontent and dissension among the Armed Forces. Rumors are spreading that several of his high-ranking officers may have asked Chávez to step down due to his illness, and some have “begun to seek contacts with the United States, including agents who work for Stratfor.”
China and Argentina are playing a dangerous game: According to emails leaked from Stratfor, attempts by the Argentinian government to reduce the amount of cheap goods dumped on the market by China through raising tarifs on Chinese imports is endangering its role as the main exporter of soybean oil to China. As Stratfor’s Director of Analysis Reva Bhalla commented, “China has alternatives for its imports of soybeans. I do not think that Argentina has many alternatives to Chinese exports.”
Stratfor sources
Australian ex-senator O’Chee named by WikiLeaks: Former Senator O’Chee was a source named ‘CN65′ in over 2000 Stratfor emails. In one email, Bill O’Chee informed Stratfor staff on the likely topics raised in Obama’s visit. Among defense issues for the 60th anniversary of the ANZUS he stated, “Cyber-warfare is bound to be part of their agreement. This would be the first time that cyber-security appears in a bilateral US defence treaty. I know that the Pentagon aims to discuss plans for bilateral offensive operations in the digital arena.”
Stratfor Connections to Big Media: Statfor’s profusion of secret global media ties (which it refers to as it’s ConFed Fuckhouse) has many concerned in journalistic circles. Many media organizations have not joined and some fear of “being seen as agents of foreign power” (South Africa’s Mail & Gaurdian, Line 208 of spreadsheet, notes section).
Stratfor “Source” James Casey Leaves FBI: James Casey, a senior headquarters FBI agent was evidently close to Stratfor chief Fred Burton. In one email he states, “I can just picture you and I strapping on a big ‘ol one and leading a Blackwater team into a dangerous motorcade! OK, so maybe the most dangerous thing we do is cut in line at Starbucks.” Surprisingly, hindsight of the leaked cables instead of the angry response other US security representatives voiced was FBI chiefs initial reaction. “the concept of widely sharing of information is not always a great idea” James Casey stated in another email.
Greek journalist source for Stratfor and the CIA: A source known as EL501 provided the company updates as the reshuffling of the Greek government was taking place. EL501 stated in one email, “Papandreou is in contact with other political leaders for some kind of broader consencus, maybe even some form of coalition government.” In a later email EL501 informed Stratfor staff, “Papandreou just declared a reshuffling of the government tomorrow -and a vote of confidence! He may get the vote of confidence-marginally -and will count that MPs that did not topple the government will not abstain from voting the new measure a few days later. Risky business and -this is what is important medium term- right now there is widespread doubt about the ability of any PASOK government to implement the measures.”
Impact and Reactions
Turkish prime minister sues editor-in-chief of Taraf: The Turkish prime minister filed a 30,000 Liras lawsuit against Taraf over comments sourced from the Stratfor emails on the article titled, “Alaturkalik”. The prime minister claims that it contains “very serious insults attacking Erodogan.”
Turkey’s Erdogan Dismisses WikiLeaks Cancer Report: In the face of emails from Stratfor claiming that he has only two years to live, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan gave a speech to his party in which he denied that he has terminal cancer, saying that the report from the Stratfor was “impudent.”
Cablegate and the Gitmo Files
Asbestos, long known for its carcinogenic properties, is being shipped to Vietnam by Canada, Russia and China where it is mainly used as a cheap roofing material, as shown by a WikiLeaks cable from early 2008. In 2005 alone, Vietnam received over 70,000 tons in material which can be considered callous given that the country is low on resources to put health and safety measures in place as well as being prone to natural disasters.
Recently Released Autopsy Reports Heighten Guantanamo “Suicides” Mystery: Details of the Gitmo autopsies released last year reveal a number of suspicious suicides. In WikiLeaks documents, Al Amri was noted prior to his death as participating in hunger strikes and being force fed despite this measure being noted as a harmful practice. His autopsy report revealed he was “found hanging by his neck in his cell with a ligature made of braided strips of bed sheet…similar fabric bound his hands loosely behind him.”
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This Week in the Press: 23-29 February, 2012
– 19 March, 2012Posted in: The week in WikiLeaks Press
Cables confirm genocide committed in Colombia by paramilitary groups. WikiLeaks begins the release of 5 million emails from intelligence company Stratfor. Among the emails are discussions on how Stratfor monitored PETA, Bhopal, and Yes Men activists for multinational corporations Coca Cola and Dow Chemical. Emails also reveal how Stratfor kept tabs on major political figures and events and some of their sources and connections around the world. In particular, Stratfor tracked WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange since the 2010 release of Collateral Murder.
Subject index
Cablegate
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| Colombian paramilitary soldiers. (source) |
In WikiLeaks cache, echo of warnings on Iran: Speculation on whether Israeli air strikes would begin in reaction to Iran’s nuclear enrichment program were well documented in diplomatic cables dating back as far as 2005.
Slaughter in Colombia: Speculation of a genocide involving 200,000 victims in Guatemala was confirmed in WikiLeaks cables to be 257,089 registered victims of the right ring paramilitaries supported by the Colombian military. Violence has been noted to have pushed certain indigenous groups towards extinction.
NATO-Russia Council (NRC) Meets After Georgian-Abkhasian War: Strained relations during a 2009 NRC session were caused by Deputy Secretary of Russia’s National Security Council Vladimir Nazarov after he portrayed NATO as a threat to Russian and international stability, and among other things, claimed that NATO “has armed a regime in Georgia ‘guilty of multiple acts of genocide,’” in a confidential cable.
Sri Lanka – President Rajapaksa influences censors broadcasting company: A 2007 cable reports that Sri Lanka President Rajapaksa managed to influence the Majaraja Broadcasting Company Owner to suppress sensitive topics such as coverage of press conferences critical of the government, human rights violations, and abductions.
Global Intelligence Files
On the 27th of February, WikiLeaks and over 25 media partners began publishing over 5 million emails dating from July 2004 to December 2011 from the US based “global intelligence” company, Stratfor. The Stratfor emails provide insight into some of the hidden practices private intelligence firms adopt with little or no accountability. Among the revelations are those Stratfor worked for, those whom were targeted and illegal methods that they used. Stratfor had 50,000 clients from either military or government services out of their 860,000 subscribers.
A press conference was held on the 28th of February to publicly introduce the leak. Among those who spoke were activists seeking redress over the Bhopal gas leak and whom were also subject to surveillance by Stratfor, with representatives of the media partners Al-Akhbar, L’Expresso and Público. On the morning before the press conference after the leak, Stratfor issued a statement deploring the theft of its emails and assuring its clients of continued commitment to publishing “industry-leading analysis of international affairs.” The company said that some of the emails could have been modified, and refused to confirm or deny any information within the emails.
Multinational companies pay to investigate activist movements
The Yes Men and Bhopal Activists
The GIFiles release includes a number of emails discussing Stratfor’s monitoring of The Yes Men for the Dow Chemical corporation. Most of these emails report public information available to anyone who was paying careful attention to the activists. On the other hand, the Yes Men report that the emails speculated about how the Bhopal issue could expand further to connect with similar activist campaigns such as the one against Chevron in Ecuador. At the press conference, Yes Man Mike Bonanno emphasized how ridiculous it was for Statfor to claim that it was a journalistic agency publishing leading analysis when in fact much of the “analysis” was simple monitoring of public information.
Other media have noted that some of the leaked emails also mention activist protests against the Dow-sponsored 2012 London Olympics:
It’s a pity that rather than accept its moral responsibility to compensate gas victims and clear its name, Dow prefers indirect ways – of which its sponsorship of the Olympics is a part – to shore up its public image.
Coca Cola asked Stratfor to investigate PETA
Stratfor emails contain a list of questions from Coca Cola regarding the potential for the animal activist group PETA to disrupt the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. PETA has led protests against Coca Cola for animal testing. Stratfor VP Fred Burton responded to the email thread saying that the FBI had an investigation on PETA and he would look into the issue further.
Stratfor intelligence on major political figures and events
Stratfor emails track Venezuelan President’s medical conditions: Numerous rumors have been circulating over Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ surgeries to remove cancerous tumors. Leaked Stratfor emails from December 2011 contain info from an “anti-Chavez” source who said that Cuban doctors predicted the president had two years to live, while Russian doctors said he had one.
Stratfor monitoring Rahul Gandhi: In an attachment from Stratfor emails titled, “MESA Analytical Guidance”, it was instructed that analysts were to “Watch Power politics in Congress party, especially as Rahul Gandhi(son of Sonia Gandhi) is being groomed for a top position.” The email further revealed the depth of tensions between India and China over its border in Arunachal Pradesh and that the Indian military was subject to surveillance by Stratfor.
Bildt wants Sweden to be ‘world power’: A source from the European parliment referred to as SW501 provided Stratfor employees a backround on the Swedish Foreign minister Carl Bildt. One of Carl Bildt’s aspirations was that “Sweden should become the world power.” It was revealed that he had a rocky relationship with the prime minister and was hostile towards Russia, calling Putin a “chetnik.” His frayed relationship with the French Prime Minister was seen as a strategy to “break the German-French stranglehold on the EU.”
WikiLeaks reveals speculations on Turkey in Stratfor emails: According to a Stratfor email involving Stratfor CEO George Friedman, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an planned to “burn bridges with Israel” to form closer ties with the Islamic world. Emre Dogu was noted by the Turkish media to have resigned three months prior to the leak and claimed his role was constrained to commerical lobbying.
WikiLeaks media partner Taraf also reported on Stratfor emails concerning the Mavi Marmara flotilla.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba plot to kill Modi: Stratfor knew before WikiLeaks: A plot to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba was known by the staff at Stratfor prior to WikiLeaks’ Cablegate release which brought it to the world’s attention.
US Department of Homeland Security kept tabs on Occupy Wall Street: A five-page document produced by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Infrastructure Protection in October of 2011 assesses the “threats” posed to critical infrastructure and the “potential for violence” from the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Friedman’s views on Greek PM: A Stratfor analyst predicts the diminishing role of George Papandreou as Prime Minister of Greece weeks before his resignation.
The 2008 US Elections: Stratfor emails allege that the voting process was corrupted by members of the Democrats. Subsequently, “the evening of the 2008 federal election, John McCain was urged by his aides to contest the results of the election by seeking a court injunction to prevent the voting results in both Ohio and Pennsylvania from being certified.” McCain did not contest the results, and the article claims that had he done so, there would have been no change in results except for more chaos.
Stratfor’s analyses of Guatemala: WikiLeaks media partner Plaza Publica reports that there are almost 30,000 e-mails between 2004 and 2011 in the GIFiles leak which mention Guatemala. One of the emails written by Jaime Rivera, head of the Latin American Foreign Trade Bank mentions former Guatemalan first lady Sandra Torres and other emails speculated whether Torres was cooperating with those involved with The Zetas. The email also included an analysis of the 14 May 2011 massacre of Guatemalan laborers by Mexico’s Los Zetas cartel.
The death of Osama Bin Laden: WikiLeaks media partner Al Arabiya reports that Osama Bin Laden’s body might have been transported to the Dover Air Force Base to be cremated. The Pentagon denied Osama Bin Laden burial claims within the Stratfor emails. Yet, the practice of cremating the dead from wars was already a practice embedded in United States history. As Jason Ditz from Antiwar.com points out, “It would add yet more intrigue to Dover Air Force Base, already under enormous scrutiny for its mishandling of corpses and disposal of remains at a Virginia landfill.” The plausibility is met with the logic in the email, as Fred Burton adds the logic in the scientific process of burying Osama, “His body is a crime scene and I don’t see the FBI nor DOJ letting that happen.”
Stratfor informants and members
Bulgarian Presidential Advisor was a Stratfor Informant: In a series of Stratfor emails, former presidential advisor Veni Markovski was an informant for Stratfor between 2008 and 2011. Veni Markovski’s first email was sent from a government address. Referred to by Stratfor as “Vinnie” and later EU105, Markovski met with Stratfor in Texas; the Americans didn’t trust “Vinnie,” however, because they suspected his links to organized crime.
Hamid Gul a complimentry member of Stratfor: The Stratfor emails reveal Hamid Gul, the former Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence chief was given a complimentary Stratfor membership.
The WikiLeaks GiFiles: Central Europe States Warn of ‘Russian Threat’: According to Stratfor sources, Central Europe sees Russia as a threat and hostile towards the unity between US and Russia. “Moreover, no one wants the US and Russia to be friendly. The US needs to quit with this reset nonsense and move forward with a firm military strategy in CE. The CEs want to move against Russia, but can’t do it alone.”
Stratfor’s contempt for US-New Zealand relations: According to New Zealand’s Sunday Star Times, Stratfor emails revealed contempt for New Zealand as Strategically unimportant. Stratfor analyst and US political pundit Peter Zeihan saw little use for Secretary of State Clinton’s visit to the country in 2010.
WikiLeaks partner Al Masry Al Youm reports on emails discussing 2010 through 2011 visits to CANVAS, a Serbian centre for nonviolent action and strategies, where strategies on finding opposition leaders in Venezuela and the ability to incite revolution were noted.
Another article points to an email containing an assesment of the future of Egypt after the Arab Spring.
Russia General Chaika’s reaction to leaked emails: BBC has reported on the reaction of prosecutor General Yuri Chaika after WikiLeaks released the stratfor emails revealing that Chaika gave information to the U.S private intelligence company Stratfor. A spokeswoman for the General has accused WikiLeaks of “destabilising” Russia’s political situation, stating that the publication was a “delirious rant” and an “act of provocation.” She said that an official of Mr Chaika’s stature could not have had any unsanctioned contacts with any foreign organizations since “he is being watched 24 hours a day”.
Stratfor connections to Israel
Israel is mentioned extensively throughout the Stratfor emails. In an email from November 2011, a source claimed that Israel was not responsible for the explosion at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps because “The Israelis already destroyed all the Iranian nuclear infrastructure on the ground weeks ago.” According to him it was a strategy from EU leaders to attract attention on Iran instead of the Euro crisis. An intelligence analyst from Stratfor dismissed the story as being absurd. The same email suggested if there were to be a war between Iran and Israel, then Iran, Saudi Arabia and Russia (Israel’s largest military partner) would benefit from the oil hike. According to the same source Israel would be planning a 48 hour attack on Iran that would put an end to the Tehran regime.
In January 2010 suggestions were made that assassinations allegedly done by the Mossad were actually carried out by contractors. This same conversation also reveals Haaretz journalist Yossi Melman was a Stratfor informant.
A Mexican source has tackled the close partnership between Israel and Russia: he explained Georgia had bought drones from Israel but had realised they had been “compromised by the Russians.” He thus explained that Israel had given the data link code for those drones in exchange of the codes for the Iranian drones Tor-M1s.
Stratfor tracked WikiLeaks since 2010
Among the 5 million Stratfor emails are 4,000 mentioning Wikileaks or its editor-in-chief Julian Assange. Stratfor vice president Fred Burton confirmed in the emails that the US government does indeed have a sealed indictment on Julian Assange. Sydney-based watch officer Chris Farnham gathered intel through close connections to the woman pressing charges against Assange, saying that Sweden’s case has “…absolutely nothing behind it other than prosecutors that are looking to make a name for themselves.”
In addition, the leaks have shown how “…a flimsy intelligence-gathering model can be the basis for generating significant revenue, as long as clients don’t suspect just how poor the information they are getting is.” Despite Stratfor being publically dismissive of Wikileaks, WikiLeaks partner Al Akhbar reports “immense work involved within the firm to comb over and save the cable documents released by WikiLeaks.” In fact, Statfor has paid close attention to WikiLeaks since at least 2010 when Collateral Murder and the Afghan War Diaries were leaked.
Privately, attacks against Assange were venomous: Burton describes Assange as a “terrorist” and “delusion nut” who “needs to be water-boarded” and made to “move from country to country” for the “next 25 years,” and Chris Farnham discusses “revoking Assange’s Australian citizenship and his desire to murder the WikiLeaks Editor in Chief.”
Shortly after the release, Australian senator Scott Ludlam gave a Senate speech on the US campaign to destroy WikiLeaks and discredit Assange, noting that the Stratfor leak contained information backing his claims.
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This Week in the Press: 16 – 22 February, 2012
– 6 March, 2012Posted in: The week in WikiLeaks Press
Canadian activist details evidence stacked against Canada’s illegal transfer of detainees in Afghanistan, whose ill treatment is documented in the Guantanamo files. Cables discuss Egypt’s plans to diversify its export market to military equipment that didn’t compete with foreign firms. US Ambassador to Philippines reacts to cables reporting his views on strict banking laws in the country. Switzerland has a history of complying with US demands for sanctions on Iran, despite reluctance.
Subject index
Torture, war, Guantanamo, human rights
Canada complicit in Afghan detainee torture: An in-depth article presents the evidence presented which point to Canada participating in illegal transfers of detainees in Afghanistan to entities known to torture. 120 documents were filed with the International Criminal Court by human rights activist John McNamer. WikiLeaks released documented accounts of torture, including the torture of children mentioned in the Guantanamo files, which showed that many of the detainees had no connection to militant activity.
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| The entrance gate to Camp Ashraf. (source) |
Iran exiles moved to ‘transit site’ in Iraq: Exiled Iranians move to a new location after living in camp Ashraf for decades. human rights groups’ concerns were later confirmed in a cable which said that a claim by one of the two “Ashraf residents found planning to depart were punished and threatened with death is corroborated by numerous former residents.”
WikiLeaks: Major General Chandrasiri Confided MOD instruction to US: A cable written in 2007 by the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka describes how the Sri Lankan government allowed paramilitary groups to operate in the country. In the cable, one government agent revealed that “…some military commanders in Jaffna, including Major General Chandrasiri, want to clamp down on paramilitaries but have orders from Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa to not interfere with the paramilitaries on the grounds that they are doing ‘work’ that the military cannot do because of international scrutiny.”
Collateral Murder: the second event
On 17 Feb 2012, Dylan Ratigan revisited the Apache gunship video released by WikiLeaks in April 2010 in a discussion with US Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer. Special attention is given to the second attack in the video, a hell-fire missiles attack on an apartment complex.
Industry competition: Thales, Arab International Optronics, and Boeing
Egypt’s Other Revolution – Modernizing the Military-Industrial Complex: With the Egyptian military producing manufactured household goods unattractive to the wider global market, military planners propose changing production lines to military equipment and weapons with a focus away from co-producing alongside foreign firms. With a vast array of defense firm contracts, the Department of Defense said this latter contract would “help Egypt to expand its defense industry.” In a WikiLeaks cable, Thales and Arab International Optronics planned to import 520 kits for the Russian designed SA-7, providing the company an opportunity to test out assembling systems.
Obama To Expand Ex-Im Financing For U.S. Firms: The Obama administration has announced its intentions to expand financing for US exports, including for Boeing aircraft, competitors with Canada’s Bombardiers which are being provided loan guarantees by the Canadian government. A 2009 cable shows that Obama disapproved of Canadian financing of Bombardier aircraft, and threatened to match financing of US Boeing aircraft.
US influence
Swiss come into US sights again over Iran: Although Switzerland is reluctant to impose economic sanctions on Iran, it is likely that it will do so since cables indicate that it has cooperated with US pressure to block third party transfers of good to Iran as well as compliance with UN Security Council sanctions.
Labor coup not part of ‘official’ talks: Cables reveal US involvement within the Australian Labor Party politics for over a year prior to the meeting that led to the leadership challenge between Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. Despite public statements maintaining the challenge began on the 23rd of June in 2010, Ms Gillard had been campaigning for leadership.
International Relations
Are Chinese Telecoms acting as the ears for the Sri Lankan government?: Consistent to the China’s Politburo hacking revelations in WikiLeaks cables, notable Chinese telecommunications companies seem not only to be seeking domination of target markets, but also acting as front companies to initiate widespread surveillance.
Sizing up China’s next leader no easy task, WikiLeaks cables show: With the appointment of China’s new leader, talks between US and China appear amicable, but diplomatic cables describe a critical view of his competence. In one cable, it was speculated that, “Xi Jinping was likely out of the running for a top-level job for the next 5-10 years.”
Le câble wikileaks sur les armes ayant transité en Afrique du Sud: A cable reports that the former president of Madagascar Marc Ravalomanana, in order to circumvent customs restrictions, used South Africa as a transit point for importing riot control gear from China.
Current Events
Congo suspends two airlines after crash: Augustin Katumba Mwanke, a top adviser to Congolese president Joseph Kabila and described in a cable as “the power behind the throne” in Congo, was killed in a plane crash in February.
Ambassador Thomas refrains from comment on cables reporting his predecessors describing Philippine bank secrecy laws among strictest in the world: (cable reference)
Politics
Zimbabwe: Gono wanted to form his own political party: Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Mugabe’s right-hand governor Gideon Gono told US ambassador James McGee he was planning on starting his own party since he perceived Mugabe as too “weak.” While McGee was “skeptical” he perceived this decision as a relevant indicator of the atmosphere within Zanu-PF.
Sen. Graham adapts to the times, confident of re-election: Described as “one of a kind,” Senator Graham was found in Wikileaks cables here and here to advise the Pakistani government against “appeasing radical Muslims and unbraiding Chinese currency manipulation.”
Three Catholic dissidents criticize Cuba, communism and the church: An article discusses three of Cuba’s outspoken Catholic dissidents who have spoken loudly against Cuba’s communist system, the Rev. Jose Conrado Rodriguez, Oswaldo Paya, and Alberto Valdes.
The Bahamas: Mitchell accused of corruption: In a diplomatic cable, the Foreign Affairs minister was found pressuring the consular to issue visas to ineligible applicants.
Angola:- Abel Chivukuvuku envisions himself as Angolas future president: (cable reference)
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This Week in the Press: 9 – 15 February 2012
– 2 March, 2012Posted in: The week in WikiLeaks Press
In this week’s edition of the week in WikiLeaks press, US State Department cables showed how South Africa allowed Madagascar’s president to circumvent customs by picking up anti-riot munitions in his personal airplane during the 2009 uprisings. Ten years on, Guantánamo Bay remains open, and open questions around detainee rights and futures remain. US State Department cables also illuminate US-funded NGOs in Egypt. Cables also expose the Philippines’ banking secrecy laws, among the strictest in the world.
Subject index
Guantánamo Files
Pentagon charges former U.S. resident in terror plot: After nine years of imprisonment, the Pentagon has announced charges against Guantanamo resident Majid Khan. The last known photos of Majid Khan shown in WikiLeaks’ Gitmo files show a marked difference to the clean shaved diploma holding graduate prior to his detainment. The charge sheet states that he conspired with confessed 9/11 attack planner Khalid Sheik Mohammed to blow up gasoline stations on US soil. Khan stated his innocence in a letter to the New York civil liberties firm, “I ask you to give me justice (…) in the name of what USA once stood for and in the name of what Thomas Jefferson fought for (…) allow me a chance to prove that I am innocent.”
Second decade behind bars, with no charge: Shaker Aamer, a current resident at Guantanamo is spending his second decade behind bars, despite being promised release five years ago. His lawyer Cori Crider believes the only reason he has not been released earlier is because he has been vocal about his imprisonment and may pose as an embarrassment for the US administration. WikiLeaks cables state that he is accused of being an accomplice to Osama Bin Laden and doing his work in Europe, but fail to accompany any supporting evidence.
Guantanamo Ten Years Later: “It’s a Disgrace,” Says Expert Andy Worthington: In an interview with Andy Worthington, an investigative journalist and Guantanamo expert, despite inconsistent evidence obtained against prisoners, “No living prisoner has been released from Guantanamo in the past year.” One of the most significant findings in the WikiLeaks files on Guantanamo, was the release of Mohammed Basadah whom was freed upon incriminating 123 other prisoners.
Impact
Veteran in Oscar-Nominated Short Documentary on ‘Collateral Murder’ Incident Receives Death Threats: Ethan McCord, a soldier who provided a first hand account on the collateral murder incident, recieved death threats against himself and his family. “I’m challenging their views, challenging the actions of people and what’s the first thing that’s going to happen? They’re going to get angry” Ethan stated. Ethan describes the enormous toll breaking the silence has had after the screening of the documentary nominated for an academy award.
Weapons and security
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| A man tries to run from gunfire from Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana’s offices in Antananarivo on February 7, 2009. (source) |
South Africa helped Madagascar’s president import riot control weapons before he was overthrown in 2009: In the days before Madagascar’s president Marc Ravalomanana resigned from office amid increasing political unrest in the country, US Ambassador R. Niels Marquardt wrote a cable to the State Department reporting on non-lethal weapons shipments arriving in the country. The Ambassador claimed that sources among airport police confirmed that riot control gear produced in China was being shipped into Madagascar via South Africa, and that shipments were picked up by the president’s personal airplane on at least two occasions, seemingly in order to circumvent customs. Following this revelation, South Africa’s opposition party, the Democratic Alliance has called on the National Conventional Arms Control Committee chairman Jeff Radebe to immediately authorize an investigation into the ad-hock weapons shipments, pointing out that “the riot control gear appears to have been exported to military or paramilitary forces just prior to the coup. There was a high probability that the riot control gear would be used for internal repression.”
China resource dig needs security: With plans to invest 300 million dollars on oil fields located in Afghanistan, concerns are now raised about security post withdrawal of the US military. China has had its economic eye on Afghanistan since 2001 and worked with US to maintain security over its economic prize. According to a WikiLeaks cable, “China has expressed interest in cooperating with the US for delivery of non-lethal aid to Afghanistan” since 2006.
Government of Sri Lanka authorized paramilitary operations
Cameroon
Replaying the Life Presidency Constitutional Coup: A US diplomatic cable describes the plenary session of the Cameroonian parliament on 10 April 2008, at which time the parliament voted in favor of the the life presidency constitutional amendment.
Cameroon Warns U.S. Gov’t Not to Interfere: Minister of External Relations Ayissi cautioned the US ambassador to Cameroon against public commentary disapproving Cameroon’s constitutional revision.
Debt Relief No Guarantee for Development: A year after the 2006 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative alleviating Cameroon from billions in debt, a US embassy cable assesses the country’s poor progress in taking advantage of the initiative to “reduce poverty and generate economic growth.”
Sarkozy expressed disapproval in a 2007 meeting with Cameroon President Biya
Egypt
US-Egyptian Relations in Crisis: Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Kamal Ganzouri said that US-funded NGOs, along with others are being investigated for violating Egyptian laws, including failure to register and illegally receiving foreign cash. A cable shows that the US paid USD 600 million to organizations and youth movements calling for democracy in Egypt and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) allocated USD 5.66 million in 2008 and US$75 million in 2009 for Egyptian programs aimed at spreading democracy and applying good governance through the funding of human rights organizations, NGOs and youth movements. However, according to another cable dated February 28, 2008, the Egyptian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Faiza Abouelnaga sent a letter to the US embassy asking USAID to stop financing organizations that had not been “properly registered as NGOs.” The US has warned Egypt of a disastrous rupture in ties if Egypt prosecuted US-funded NGO’s, and also threatened to cut USD 3.1 billion in military aid to Egypt.
More cables describe US plans for economic funding of Egypt NGOs: An April 2009 cable from US Secretary of State Clinton requests that the US ambassador to Egypt discuss key points regarding US economic funding of Egyptian NGOs. The cable notes that only NGOs approved by the Egyptian government will be able to receive funding. Another cable discusses the economic assistance program in depth, and its benefits for the US in the long term.
U.S. shouldn’t support Egypt’s democracy backers A WikiLeaks cable reveals Egypt’s push for democracy was coerced by the US administration strategically funding groups aligned with its agenda. Margret Scobey, the US ambassador to Egypt wrote, “The money should go to an outside, professional organization such as the National Endowment for Democracy, which has a long-term vision of promoting democracy and would not carry the same political baggage as using ESF (economic support funds)”.
US view on foreign affairs
WikiLeaks cables: Philippine bank secrecy laws under fire: Cables indicate that the US government has been critical for some time of Philippine laws that interfere with the investigation and prosecution of suspected corrupt government officials. One cable says, “Investigations are hindered by Philippine banking secrecy laws that limit access to certain crucial financial information, and by poor protection for would-be whistleblowers.” One cable told how the Philippine Foreign Currency Deposit Act had prevented the Landbank, a Filipino financial institution, from enforcing a freeze order on the dollar accounts of a former Armed Forces comptroller who had been charged with plunder and corruption. Another cable questioned whether local financial institutions were fully compliant with the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) of 2001. And another cable described how the Philippine Supreme Court had ruled that, except in cases of terrorism, kidnapping, and drug violations, an account holder had to be warned before an investigation could be made into their bank records. This, the cable claims, leaves an opportunity open for destruction of evidence.
A top Sri Lankan Major General is a US informer: Major General Prasad Saraterasinghe, directorate of the media in the army is revealed to be a US informant in a cable regarding Sri Lankan abductions. The military spokesman informed the US that five of the alleged abductions were political retribution against those considered disloyal to the Rajapaksa administration. It was alleged that the Government of Sri Lanka needed to demonstrate concrete examples of progress to appease the international community.
International Relations
Gazprom’s Empire at the End of the Earth: The Nadym Gas Pipeline Junction, located 1,500 miles northeast of Moscow in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug administrative region, is described cables as the most “critical facility in the world,” with a supply that is depleting with an eye on one final endeavor to keep Russia afloat.
Iran’s Influence in Uttar Pradesh, India: A cable detailing the extent of Iran’s influence on Uttar Pradesh during the heavy attacks in Gaza and Lebonon, was unearthed by the New York Times in the wake of explosions in New Delhi and Bangkok. Two prominent Muslims in Uttar Pradesh allege Iran was funding political rallies and propaganda in the state. “Muslim emotions were being fired-up by a steady stream of propaganda from the Urdu press,” Qari Mian Mazari, a leading Maulvi politician from the moderate Barelvi school stated.
Oil deals with Uganda: President Yoweri Museveni has previously had to defend himself publicly against allegations that he took bribe from oil deals after it surfaced from a statement an American ambassador made in WikiLeaks cables.
- British government supported making the Chagos Archipelago into a marine reserve so natives would never return
- 2009 cable suggested the Pope was shielded from dissenting views
- 2008: Ambassador Michael Ranneberger to Kenya told by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka that President Kibaki agreed to support him in the 2012 General Election
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5,000,000 Stratfor emails to be leaked – WikiLeaks press conference (with transcript)
– 28 February, 2012Posted in: Global Intelligence files, The week in WikiLeaks Press
[ 00h02m20 - Vaughn Smith] Good Afternoon. Welcome to todays Wikileaks press conference at Frontline Club. Its being livestreamed on ustream.tv/frontlineclub. This press conference is independent, but the Frontline Club is proud to host it and as the Frontline Club’s founder, I am personally very interested in it. As a journalist and ex-soldier, like many, I have become troubled by the rapid corporateization of war. It seems fundamental by both soldiers and spies should be directly employed by governments. The need to collectify defenses is of course the very origin of government. As war, intelligence, and its dark arts become commoditized; where is accountability for it to be held and how do the media fit into this? And is it vulnerable itself to being corrupted by it? Today you’re going to hear from the following people in this order: Jamal Ghosn, Yazan Al-Saadi (both from Al-Akhbar in Lebenon – and we are going to skype into them fairly shortly), Mike Bonanno of “The Yes Men”, Stefania Mauritzi from L’Expresso in Italy, Carlos Enrique Bayo from Publico in Spain – forgive any mis-pronounciations, my English (laughs) – um, but anyway, thank you for coming and I am now going to handover to Julian Assange.
[00h04m54s - Julian Assange] First of all, some thank-you’s. Thank you for the team who have organized this event here for today: Vaughn Smith and WikiLeaks Crew. A special thank you to our technical team who has done heroic work on this particular release, they are often unseen but really they are in some ways the most important people in this organization and of course, thank you to our sources without which all our endeavors are nothing.
[00h05m30s - Julian Assange] So today, WikiLeaks begins its release of 5,000 emails documenting the private lives and private lies of private spies. Over the last ten years, the private intelligence industry has boomed in United States and other countries and is now a real factor in world affairs. But with its growth, there has not been a commensurate growth in accountability mechanisms that should be investigating and controlling these organizations like the controls that are placed on – believe it or not, there are some – on government intelligence organizations and military intelligence organizations.
[00h06m30s - Julian Assange] This particular release concerns a US company, Stratfor, which describes itself as a global intelligence organization. Internally, it describes that its goal is to be number one intelligence organization in the world and to teach US intelligence agencies how to become like them. On the surface, Stratfor presents itself as something else. While it always started out as a private intelligence organization, it has erected a cover that it is simply a provider of intelligence publications. Yes – to government and to military organizations, but also to private organizations and even universities. But the global intelligence files reveal that its roots as a private intelligence organization are strong and are not being dispensed with in any manner whatsoever. In fact, when we look at the accounting data from this organization, we can see that historically, the majority of its income has come from its private clients. Who are those private clients?
[00h08m04s - Julian Assange] Well, yes, they include oil companies, the US air force, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Bank of America and so on. But they also include the US marines, which Stratfor states it is preparing the forecast for, the three year forecast, for its commander. It includes the Dow Chemical corporation and Stratfor spies or monitors, activists seeking redress over the Bhopal tragedy which killed thousands in India some twenty-five years ago. It includes other corporate clients in the United States for which, Stratfor spies on activist organizations. So, this information that I have told you just now came from our press release early this morning, but in this publishing endeavor where we have pulled together some 25 media organizations and more being announced in the coming days. Information is coming out all the time. In fact, at noon beginning this press conference, we released a new discovery made last night.
[00h09m38s - Julian Assange] Stratfor was hired by the Coca-Cola corporation to monitor and assess PETA activists in relation to the 2009 Vancouver Olympics. In particular, Stratfor’s Vice president of intelligence (the ex-Department of State diplomatic security service officer and agent) Fred Burton offered access to the FBI’s classified investigation on PETA operatives. The questions from Coke Cola were: What is the number of PETA supporters in Canada? How many of these are inclined towards activism? The links between Peta in Canada and Peta in US or elsewhere, PETA’s methodology for planning and executing activism and the risk of non-PETA hangers-on. The Yes Men and some Bhopal activists whom are here today were also monitored by Sratfor and they will tell you about those experiences.
[00h11m03s - Julian Assange] Stratfor has engaged in a number of actions and discussions in relation to WikiLeaks and to me personally. The detail of that will be coming out over the following days, but there are more than four thousand emails discussing WikiLeaks and our activities. The interconnection between Stratfor and the US government has made that a real issue. This is an organization that does not just collect information, collecting information through bribes, through insiders, it is also an organization that acts on that information to subvert particular groups including WikiLeaks. When we look at the “News of the World” scandal, we must see in relation to private intelligence organizations like Stratfor that this is ‘small cheese’.
[00h12m25s - Julian Assange] Stratfor set up an international payment laundering network going through the Bahamas (you can check email id1409763), through Switzerland, and through prepaid credit cards used to pay off its informers in different countries. Stratfor, according to its own internal documentation spent more than $100,000 a year on such intelligence acquisition related costs. Some sources are put on monthly retainers. “Geronimo,” an informant handled by the Vice President of intelligence Fred Burton, the former State Department agent, was paid $1,200 per month to be an informant for Stratfor. Another example: (and these are all released on the WikiLeaks website, more are being released as we speak) a $500 payment on the 15th of December 2011. The accounting number for Stratfor’s payment to informants is 52000, the description is, “cost of sales: intelligence.” That particular payoff was handled by Jen Richmond and the document ID is 1431520. Rather than steal the thunder of our other partners, I will now hand over to them. Is the connection to Lebanon ready?
[00h14m54s - Julian Assange] Lebanon, can you hear us?
[Jamal Ghosn] I hear you, yes.
[Julian Assange] Ok great, everyone else can hear you as well so..um..you are free to begin whenever you like.
[Jamal Ghosn] Um…
[Julian Assange] First, perhaps, we should introduce you.
[Jamal Ghosn] I will introduce myself if you want.
[Julian Assange] Go ahead
[00h15m20 - Jamal Ghosn] Ok, I am Jamal Ghosn from Al-Akhbar newspaper. Of course here at Al-Akhbar we are based in Beirut which is a city known to attract a lot of attention from intelligence agencies of all sorts. Just last summer, we had an incident with, I want to publicize this event, where the CIA was forced to shut down its Beirut operation because its agents were exposed and an event like this normally helps businesses like Stratfor to step in and fill the void, and thats only natural, the problem with that is a company like Stratfor is out there to make profits and the nature of business makes it cut corners at some point and we saw that where some of the emails we read where they actually used Google translate to read Al-Akhbar news articles and this is a guaranteed way for good intelligence to be lost in translation.
[00h16m33 - Jamal Ghosn] In any case, this type of exposure to this type of atmosphere and agents here and intelligence gathering professionals in Beirut, teaches you one thing basically. It is that it is not all that it is propped up to be. Its not the image portrayed in movies of secret agents. Most intelligence gatherers turned out to be a bit, how shall I put it, geeky. Its not that there is anything wrong with geeks of course. But, there’s really just some people who majored in Middle Eastern studies and ended up doing a semester abroad in Beirut or Damascus or Cairo, and ended up working for companies like Stratfor or for agencies like the CIA or others and they turned out to basically produce information thats a mixture of some good sources that they might get like Stratfor had with the source code being to NE1 or combined with a lot of Google translations which don’t amount to much. And again, I think I didn’t do justice to Geeks, after all some of them are on the other side. Some of the geeks at Anonymous for example. If this is who was behind the hacking incident at Stratfor.
[00h18m20 - Jamal Ghosn] They are a bunch of volunteers fighting for truth, transparency and free flow of information, while the Stratfor professionals get paid to be in the business of making secrets and keeping information a privilege for the few, instead of for everyone. And in this line of course Al-Akhbar stands clearly with the free flow of information and my understanding was always that this is where journalists should always be. Thank you.
[00h19m00s - Vaughn Smith] Thank you Jamal, I understand you have Yazan al-Saadi who might want to say something too? He’s on a different line. No you haven’t, we are going to call somebody else, thank you. While we wait for that, we might move on. We are going to move on to Mike Bonanno of “The Yes Men” who has also to my understanding got some of the Bhopal activists here as well.
[00h20m00s - Mike Bonanno] Right, when we heard that we were being monitored by an intelligence agency, it wasn’t that big of a surprise. One always suspects that the government might be listening to you, especially in the United States. We grew up in the Cold War. What one doesn’t expect is that it’s not the government listening to you. It’s a network of private unaccountable corporations and their only set of standards is their bottom line. And there’s incredible documents in the emails that we were looking at last night that reveal that they really do stop at nothing if it’s profitable.
[00h20m43s - Mike Bonanno] And one of the more entertaining documents is a glossary of intelligence terms and in that glossary of intelligence terms, many of the terms are followed by statements on by what might or might not be profitable. And they talk about basically cooking the books and proving information, making it sound better to clients, simply so that they can make money. So, we are not necessarily talking about good intelligence. We are talking about a lot of intelligence, because more intelligence means more money. That doesn’t mean that its smart.
[00h21m13s - Mike Bonanno] And among the things I consider not smart, are spying on victims of the Bhopal catastrophe. Dow Chemical of course is concerned. They’re concerned about their reputation, rightfully so. They caused the largest industrial accident in history and they didn’t clean up the mess in Bhopal. So now there are two generations of victims. The first generations of victims were the gas victims. The second generation of victims were victims of water contamination from the plant site that they abandoned with all the chemicals still in place.
[00h21m45s - Mike Bonanno] One of those victims is here today, Farah Edwards-Kahn is here, and there’s four activists from the international campaign for justice in Bhopal here today, thats why we there wasn’t room on the stage for them, but I’m going to cede my seat to one of them shortly. And Colin Toogood is also here from the Bhopal Medical Appeal. So he’s partially in charge of trying to get the victims aid money for their primary activity which is called the Sambhavna Trust. It is a hospital for the victims of the gas catastrophe. And Indra Sinha who also started the Bhopal Medical Appeal in the international campaign for justice in Bhopal. He’s book is a Booker-listed as a prize winning author of a book called, “Animals People,” which was about the Bhopal catastrophe.
[00h22m42s - Mike Bonanno] So in short, I think that The Yes Men…we were targeted because we had impersonated Dow Chemical in the past, in order to make a mockery of the way they hadn’t cleaned up the mess they made at Bhopal. And reading the intelligence, it’s kind of comic, sometimes they’re really looking into details. They did things like subscribe to our email list, they monitored where we were going to be. There’s a tremendous amount of information about things like, what speech we were giving at what college or what University. Theres no information as to whether there was somebody there to listen to it. But the point was to get Dow some data, so that Dow could decide how they wanted to monitor us. In terms of the Bhopal activists, I think there are some really interesting things about the way that they’re monitoring.
[00h23m41s - Mike Bonanno] Some of its comic again and since we make films that are made of comedy, these always sticks out for me. For example, they monitored in file 393642 (in case anybody wants to look this up – I don’t think you will, but..) they monitored somebody called the “UK activist, Ian Jarvis” – they were reading his blog – “UK activist Ian Jarvis posted a new item to his blog reporting on a stay at the Sambhavna clinic” (thats the health clinic I mentioned). “The post was solely about the workings of the clinic‘s environmentally friendly clothes washer.“ So this gives you a sense of the kind of detail that they were reporting to Dow. Even when they considered it not useful information, they still reported it.
[00h24m25s - Mike Bonanno] Now, on the other hand, stuff that was a little bit more useful gets more interesting. Rasha Dingra, who is an activist in Bhopal, emailed the ICJB – that’s the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal – distribution list with an item that has nothing to do with the Bhopal issue. She passed along a post from a left-wing US blog discussing a the US chamber of commerce letter to Cass Sunstein, the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, telling him to block the regulation of extremely dangerous chemicals in consumer plastics. I.e., phthalates and BPA. Dow is mentioned at the end of the post along with PNG as well as having contributed millions of dollars to the chamber’s war-chest in recent years.
[00h25m05s - Mike Bonanno] Now, the reason why I find this one interesting is that this points out what they are interested in. And this is the relationship between governments, between these corporations, and between regulatory agencies. They obviously want to have an effect. They want to allow things like phthalates to keep being distributed, unregulated and in the US. And so I think that there’s some revealing details.
[00h25m33s - Mike Bonanno] And as a final note, I just find it shocking that they would consider themselves to be a journalistic organization or that they would portray themselves that way. In Stratfor’s release this morning, to counter the WikiLeaks release, they end by saying “We want to assure everyone that Strafor is committed to recovering from a hack and rebuilding from a trust with the public and will continue to do what we do best; produce and publish industry leading analysis of international affairs.” And I ask Stratfor, when they are reading emails that we send to our mailing list: Is that really “publishing industry leading analysis of international affairs”? I don’t think so, I think it has nothing to do with that. And I think we’re frustrated, angry and we would like to see these intelligent agencies regulated. Can I introduce the Bhopal activists now or is that at the end?
[Julian Assange] Lets go through these now.
[Vaughn Smith] Next we are moving to Stefania Mauritzi.
[00h26m30s - Stefania Mauritzi] Yes. So, Good morning. My name is Stefania, I’m working for the Italian news magazine, “L’Expresso” and I want to give a picture about this material. So when I got access to this database, at the beginning I thought that it was rather dull, but when I started searching I realized that if you go deep in this database you can find very interesting information, like that which you can find in the secure list.
[00h27m13s - Stefania Mauritzi] The secure list is a list where there are most sensitive information – information that normally are not to be published. It’s not – You can read this information, this kind of insights, in the bulletin published by Stratfor. It is just internal information. Some of this email in the secure list, you can understand that Stratfor had access to material about the seize in the Osama Bin Laden safe house. You can understand that they have top secret level sources in the FBI, mentioning information, telling them information about Julian, about his case. You can realize that this people have information about drone attack five months before the actual attack on a terrorist.
[00h28m12s - Stefania Mauritzi] I want to – Some of the story are like a thriller like, for example, when they – There is an email in the secure list mentioning the case of a [reads from notes] “former federal judge Sam Kent”. Sam Kent, he’s the first federal judge found guilty of serious crime in the US. And this judge tell the story linking his story to the fact that he ruled a heavy case against Halliburton. This information is not for publication; it is in the secure list. And this list is indeed very sensitive. And this list make you realize that Stratfor is not only a media organization, like they’re trying to frame themselves. I mean, we don’t have clients. In this list, they put all their information for clients, all sensitive information for clients.
[00h29m10s - Stefania Mauritzi] We are a media organization, we have readers; we have not clients. We don’t gather information about monitoring movements, like Yes Men, like Movements.org – which is another organization monitored. We don’t have clients. We have just readers. Finally, I want to spend some words about this database, because when I got access to this database, in the beginning it was very difficult to manage five million documents. But finally, WikiLeaks was able to create a database which is wonderful. I mean, this is cutting-edge journalism and is stimulating for media organization to work on this cutting-edge journalism.
[00h30m00s - Vaughn Smith] We’re now going back to Lebanon. We’re going to put on – Here is Yazan Al-Saadi of, again of Al-Akhbar.
[Yazan Al-Saadi] Hi everyone. I hope you can hear me.
[Vaughn Smith] We hear you.
[00h30m19s - Yazan Al-Saadi] Excellent. My colleague in Lebanon pointed out a few things. I wanted to elaborate more on the general Middle East situation. And what we saw from our preliminary readings of the emails from WikiLeaks was an institution that completely seems disconnected from the realities, the political, social, and economic realities of the regions they covered. Now for us, specifically, we were looking at the Middle East, because we are a Middle Eastern newspaper.
[00h30m54s - Yazan Al-Saadi] And some of the examples that come to mind are – Well, there is an inherent racism within Stratfor: off-the-cuff remarks that seem to discount Arab statements for whatever reason. There was one example where they were discussing a Palestinian news editor for Ma’an News and he was considered a nut for implying that the only way to liberate Jerusalem was through a military honor. In comparison, when they were talking with an Israeli source, despite the Israeli source’s racism towards Arabs, his aggressive demeanor and all that, his information was considered valuable. And I think that example is symbolic of the way Stratfor values certain types of information that re-enforces the narrative and ideology that they portray and push forward.
[00h31m51s - Yazan Al-Saadi] Other examples – I think Jamal kind of pointed out: they lack Arabic speakers, they lack actual Arab experts. So, they over-rely on sources, specifically ME1. And their over-reliance, it becomes – It’s hilarious, because it’s very – it’s dependent. It’s a dependency kind of relationship where whatever ME1 says, goes. So, in one email there was a whole discussion about two generals in Syria, they are close to the Syrian regime. Now these two generals are Sunni. But ME1 told Stratfor that they were Alawites. And when one analyst pointed out that OSPAIs, which is Open Source Publicly Available Information, shows that these two individuals are Sunni, the handler for ME1 was quick to defend ME1 completely and believe his statements, no matter what. These are just a few examples.
[00h32m55s - Yazan Al-Saadi] Like, I do want to point out that there is so much information that WikiLeaks pulled out for all of us to see and we were only able to scratch the surface. And I definitely think the more you dig in, the more it comes out, the more information and shocking things come out that are very startling.
[00h33m15s - Yazan Al-Saadi] Other things to keep in mind in terms of what Stratfor is doing for the Middle East is their over-emphasis on jihadist militancy. Like, for example, in their creation of their Decade Report for 2005-2015: in terms of the Middle East, they quickly placed aside dissent towards repressive regimes and highlighted the conflict between the US and Al Qaeda as the key conflict, when – if anyone knows anything about the region in West Asia, North Africa – Al Qaeda is nothing. They don’t have as much support and they don’t have that much power and influence as a lot of organizations like Stratfor try to emphasize – for whatever reasons they do. And this leads to the other problem. When media agencies, mainly in the West, and intelligence agencies and government agencies rely on these institutions for information, it reinforces the problems that we have been seeing. Because they believe this flawed information, creating policy that is equally destructive, and it creates a cycle over and over again. So, yeah, like… This is what we’ve gathered so far, but I’m sure the more we dig in, the more exciting things are revealed. It’s an exciting time to be in journalism, that’s for sure. That’s for sure.
[00h34m40s - Vaughn Smith] Yazan, thank you very much. Can you stay on the line there, because I’m sure there will be some questions for you.
[Yazan Al-Saadi] No problem.
[Vaughn Smith] Yes, thank you. We’re now going to move Carlos Enrique Bayo of Publico in Spain.
[00h34m52s - Carlos Enrique Bayo] Hello, good morning. Well, really, it’s been exciting. I’m Carlos Enrique Bayo of Publico, Spain. It’s been exciting to work with this materials, because although it’s very difficult to dig in as he [points at screen to Yazan Al Sadi] has just said, we have been struck by the fact that most of the money that came into Stratfor was from public sources, because most of the customers are government offices, agencies, ministries, the military, etc. So, it’s public money what Stratfor receives for many subscriptions, for its services and analyses.
[00h35m39s - Carlos Enrique Bayo] Public money from many countries, and especially European nations, nations that funds and gives huge profits to a private company that acts as a shadow CIA and basically protects US and US companies’ interests around the word. Public money used for the benefit of American individuals using dirty tricks in espionage (and that is not journalism) used without the knowledge of the citizens, and. well, the taxpayers of these countries.
[00h36m13s - Carlos Enrique Bayo] Moreover, many of those institutional customers became in fact assets of Stratfor giving the companies’ analysts confidential, reserved, privileged information on the governments or agencies or institutions’ interests and activities. Their feedback to Statford’s analysts give them the insiders materials and information – later this same company uses and sells to other clients, as they call them. So our public institutions are not only financing the shadow CIA but also giving for free the very source of their wealth.
[00h37m01s - Carlos Enrique Bayo] Finally, the way they work. It’s very revealing that they are not a media company, they are not journalists. The field agents’ instructions given by the founder and owner of Stratfor, Mr. Friedman, stress that those spies have to use any means, including sexual relations to, as he says, “take control of the sources.” He means informants, of course, not sources. So the undercover agents are using psychological methods to take control of the people who are informants. It’s hardly a coincidence. I believe the only means the US has found to extradite Mr. Assange out of Britain is an accusation of improper sexual relations. And that kind of instructions, given by someone with close links to the American Secret Services must indeed be standard operation material for American spies all over the world – we guess.
[00h38m09s - Carlos Enrique Bayo] Well, our main story today – as we are a news media company in Spain – was about the fact that Stratfor senior analysts are surprised of the extreme hardline positions of former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar. One of the three knights of the war in Iraq with Blair and Bush. In matters of counterterrorism, they found him even more “hardcore” than the Israelis (which they thought very hardline of course). That’s shocking enough. As it came from an intelligence closely related with neocon ideologists – like Karl Rove, who is a very close friend to Friedman – that pushed forward the word “terror,” where they, well, we could document as journalists torture and renditions and many other violations of human rights in Guantanamo, Bagram Air Base, and many other places.
[00h39m22s - Carlos Enrique Bayo] So we have the knowledge that this is not a media company. This is an intelligence agency where the espionage has been privatized. It’s like another privatization of a public service. In this case a secret service which has been privatized for the benefit, for the enrichment of, to make wealth for individuals. That is not journalism and will never be. Thank you.
[00h40m03s - Vaughn Smith] Thank you Carlos. Now I think we’ll go to the Bhopal activists that you wanted to bring on.
[00h40m08s - Mike Bonanno] I do want to bring them on, I just want to mention one more thing [turns to Carlos Enrique Bayo]. You were talking about how they’re receiving, you know, money is coming in from the client and then they’re selling information onto other clients, but at the same time that wasn’t enough for them. There is documentation of them setting up their own – basically their own hedge fund – to trade on information that they were getting.
[00h40m30s - Mike Bonanno] [reading from notes] Among the millions of leaked emails are some that reveal dubious financial practices, including an apparent insider trading scheme with Goldman Sachs managing director Shea Morenz, who joined Stratfor’s board of directors and invested substantially more than 4 million dollars in a scheme called “StratCap”. And this is a quote: “‘What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor’s intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments,’ wrote Stratfor’s CEO George Friedman. StratCap was designed through a complex offshore share trade structure to appear legally independent.” But Friedman in these documents assures his top staff, “do not think of StratCap as an outside organization. It will be integral, it will be useful to you. We are already working on mock portfolios and trades.” This StratCap fund was to launch very soon, in 2012. And let me now introduce the Bhopal activists, Colin, Indra and Farah. *attempts to take off his clip-on microphone*
[00:41:36 - Vaughn Smith] No, I think what we will do is I will give them this microphone. Might be easier if that’s alright.
[00:41:37 - Mike Bonanno] That’s great.
[00:41:38 - Vaughn Smith] Who do you want to go first?
[00:41:40 - Mike Bonanno] Maybe start with Colin since he’s right there. Thanks.
[00:41:43 - Colin Toogood] Hi, my name is Colin Toogood and I’m -
[00:41:45 - Mike Bonanno] Can you stand, Colin?
[00:41:47 - Colin Toogood] Yeah. I represent the Bhopal Medical Appeal. Now, the first thing to point out, the interesting thing to point out is that the Bhopal Medical Appeal is a very, very small charity – very small UK charity – and we raise money for a medical appeal. So, in the first instance, that would really want to make you question why you have a company like this sniffing around us. Now, the answer, of course, is because we are still looking for some form of justice for the Bhopal disaster. In fact in our case, it’s not just a question of justice as an abstract notion, there are still people being poisoned out there. This is a genuine live medical issue. So, you know, the big question is, why are they sniffing around us? And the answer can only be that there is something to hide. But I also would question, as was raised earlier, the value and veracity of some of the so-called intelligence. We, the Bhopal Medical Appeal, work quite closely with the International Campaign for Justice which is arguably, they’re the sort of, if you like, the more hardcore activists and the ones you might more easily expect to being snooped around. But the intelligence we share is facts. It’s not just some, you know – It’s facts around the case, it’s things which can, you know – We’re extremely thorough with our research. It’s things that we can stand up and speak in a court of law. It’s not just a load of stuff, shadowy information about things that we might be doing. But to pick up on that, the funny thing about it is the quality of some of this stuff. One, the information is not great – I mean, they get people’s names wrong, for instance. But it’s also is what they do with the information. An example I’ll give you is something that we did in 2009 with the Yes Men. It was a stunt to produce a bottle of fake mineral water product called B’opal, spelled B’opal. And we decided that we would challenge the boss of Dow UK to drink some actual Bhopal, toxic Bhopal water in this fake bottle. Seemed like a great idea. And we worked on a kind of, pretty much an “Escape from Colditz” level of security up until the day we were going out to (unintelligible) to present this bottle. And when we got there, we found that they’d shut the entire organization for the day. Now one, that tells you, as we suspected anyway, that they were snooping around and that they knew what we were up to. But the second is, it makes you wonder how smart they are. I mean, is that really the right thing to do? And the answer to that is ‘no’, because of course the airwaves, you know, or the internet of course was just alive with this for days. I mean, there was 15, 20 pages of results on Google along the lines of ‘Activists shut Dow down for a day.’ So, just to conclude, as I say, it’s extremely, it’s depressing that something like this is sniffing around us. And I think that what we would ultimately ask is, what is the value in that and how much is it costing? Wouldn’t it be better PR to just go out and clean Bhopal up?
[00:45:05 - Vaughn Smith] Thank you very much. *approaches with microphone*
[00:45:08 - Mike Bonanno] Ah, it would be good for Farah speak or Indra.
[00:45:16 - Farah Edwards-Kahn] Hello, my name is Fara Edwards-Khan and I am from Bhopal and I was there when the accident happened in 1984. I was ten years old and I saw the horror that happened then and I see the horror that happens now and I am not surprised at what is happening. I know that Dow is dirty, because this is what they’ve done to the Children of Bhopal. They are a dirty company and they’ve messed up Bhopal. They’ve messed up our – Around the factory, they’ve made a huge and terrible mess which they don’t want to clean up. I am really angry with them and I’m really grateful to WikiLeaks that they have brought this out into the open. Now what, Dow? Now what?
[00:46:11 - Mike Bonanno] And this is Indra Sinha. Do you have something you want to add?
[00:46:14 - Indra Sinha] Hello, yea, my name is Indra. I’m -
[00:46:16 - Mike Bonanno] Could you stand, please?
[00:46:18 - Indra Sinha] Sorry. I’ve been involved with the Bhopalese since 1993 or 1994, helping to raise money along with Colin with the Bhopal Medical Appeal which run the clinics in Bhopal and also involved with the campaign and with my other hat on, as a writer, as a novelist, I wrote a book called Animal’s People which had some success which was based loosely on what had happened there. I was trying to tell the story like a kind of parable. What I’d like to say vis-à-vis Dow, Bhopal, and the media is this: Dow have long since realized that they can stay out of courts, because of their allies in government and their ability just to complicate and manipulate cases. So what should have been a legal battle about issues like inherited liability and responsibility for contamination have become a PR battle. And so they’re using the media to place soundbytes which are ultimately meaningless, but very few people question them, because there must be a level of understanding for them to be able to decypher them. That’s one thing. They’ve also used the media in a sort of fly-away really. They’ve once tried to portray us as terrorists. It was shortly after 9/11 and the New Jersey, “Ledger” or something – forgot the name of the thing – ran a story that said, “Bhopal’s terrorists stormed our plant.” Apparently, these Bhopal terrorists had taken the guards captive, had stormed into the plant making some demand, had asked for coffee and when the coffee was not to their liking, they’d shot someone and shouted in the middle that “the little things in life matter.” After this, they revealed that it was actually an exercise with the FBI and SWAT teams and what have you, but not before they’d actually made that smear. So, you know, again I think it helps to make the point what Julian’s done with WikiLeaks and these new revelations: that some of the world’s poorest people for nearly 30 years now have been fighting a battle – not just against a company, but against its allies in gove
rnment, allies in Goldman Sachs, all the sort of power and money elites literally on one side and these people with nothing on the other. So that’s where the media could take a deeper interest and look harder and we’re here to help with that. Thank you.
[00:49:14 - Vaughn Smith] Everybody you’ve heard is available for questions and so, who would like to ask some questions? Can we have a hand up first?
[49m30s - Reporter] I’m from (unintelligible) and you’ve said that they’re not only collecting information but also acting on information, subverting activists, can you give some examples?
[Julian Assange] We’ve looked most closely at the actions in relation to us, but those are embargoed for the next few days. I think the biggest story that is likely to come out of this will probably be in three to four days, in relation to WikiLeaks. Unfortunately I can’t give you an example now.
[50m05s - Jerome Taylor, The Independent] Can I ask either Julian or Kristinn or any of the panel members whether they have any concerns about how this information was got at, in that a lot of the previous publications that WikiLeaks has done have come from whistle-blowing, where it seems that this information was stolen as part of a hack attack. Do you have any qualms about how that information was obtained?
[Julian Assange] We are a source protection organization. As a source protection organization, and in fact simply as a media organization, as a matter of policy we do not discuss sourcing or speculate on sourcing. As some people may be aware, WikiLeaks in its sourcing methodology deliberately tries to not even know itself where its information comes from because ultimately that is the strongest protection for sources. We can see looking at this private intelligence agency Stratfor that it is, internally, worse than any journalist at protecting its informants in government agencies, it’s just hopeless. The idea that this organization could be teaching the US Marines or other intelligence agencies how to run agents or informants, under the circumstances, is absurd. In relation to legalities, speaking more generally, the sourcing and publishing of WikiLeaks is protected as it is for other media organizations in the United States under the 1st amendment, and there’s a long history of jurisprudence associated with that, and in other countries that have ratified Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
[Stefania Mauritzi] If you search in this database, you realize that Stratfor doesn’t protect sources. There are files full of names and contact details for their sources. We found an Italian Ambassador – we don’t know what kind of material or information he is providing to Stratfor – but he’s an Ambassador to an African country, a very sensitive country, but we don’t know what he’s doing or what he’s providing. But these sources are not protected, not encrypted, you can have full access to these generals, politicians, whoever. You can even read why they provide information. Who they hacked, there are even hackers, there is one very important hackers. They didn’t encrypt this information.
[53m30s - (Alexandra Ranteria??), (unintelligible) Radio from Colombia] Did you find any relevant information about the health of the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, or any relevant information about Latin American countries?
[Julian Assange] Not yet. Some was released last night, there’s a significant amount of other information. There is an example of one of Stratfor’s people speaking to an Israeli informant about information on the health of Hugo Chavez, and going into quite some detail about that, which we have released. Quite an interesting exchange, because people in Stratfor start out as intern-analysts, just reading news on the web, and they progress up to be more senior analysts, and then it appears that they’re sort of tapped on the shoulder to be taken into the darker intelligence collecting activity. For example, the CEO George Friedman on the 6th of December emailed a Stratfor analyst with information on Hugo Chavez obtained from an Israeli source, stating “if this is a source you suspect may have value, you have to take control of him; control means financial, sexual, or psychological control. This is difficult when you are known to be affiliated with an intelligence organization. The decision on the approach should not come from you but from your handler, this is because you’re too close to the source and your judgement is by definition impaired” and then saying “now you are ready to go to the next level.” Elsewhere in the glossary, they discuss how there are two organizations within Stratfor, and there’s some sort of internal recruiting process that occurs. In relation to Latin America more generally, there’s quite a lot of stuff, this is just something that we stumbled over.
[56m20s - Rory McKinnon, The Morning Star] WikiLeaks’ previous releases have been attacked by various countries on the grounds that it’s putting at risk national security. What do you think this latest release says about these countries’ attitudes to national security?
[Carlos Enrique Bayo] I do believe that national security is much more threatened if our diplomatics and militaries and secret agents rely on Stratfor. Because even Friedman recognizes that the problem with the sources of our analysts is that they have a very low qualification. That means that we don’t really evaluate with clarity the situation. That’s one of the sentences he uses to admit that the reformation is low quality. If our governments, our secret services, our diplomats, are using, relying on that information, that is really a threat to our national security.
[Julian Assange] Whenever this word “national security” is used, it should be immediately shot down. Are we talking about the security of the entire nation, all its people, or are we talking about a particular social, economic, and political sector of the economy? Because there is a tremendous confusion between these two and it is used time and time again to try and suggest that the security of all the people in the nation is the same as a particular sector of the economy—namely private intelligence agencies, organizations like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Stratfor, and their government equivalents—are in fact the security of the nation. That is simply false. In the previous material that WikiLeaks has released, despite all these hysterical outpourings attempting to deflect from the severe exposure of the killings of hundreds of thousands—literally hundreds of thousands—of people we have exposed the deaths of by the U.S. Military and other organizations, to instead talk about some speculative hypothetical risks that have proven over the last two years to be completely false. Completely, utterly false. And yet, that smear and that distraction was used all over the world, and is embedded in people’s heads. And it is your responsibility as journalists to not permit that to happen in future, and in fact to undo the willing participation in that sort of hysteria. That sort of neo-McCarthyist hysteria that occured over the last two years. But, as for this material, no we don’t ever see there to ever be any meaningful risks except for those organizations that have committed wrong-doing and need to be taken down.
[01h00m00s - Robert Börjesson, Expressen] Robert Börjesson, Expressen. This is a question to Mr. Assange. There is some information in this release regarding Sweden’s Foreign Secretary Carl Bildt. Do you have any more information about Mr. Bildt? And when will you released the alleged information that he was an informant for the U.S.A.
[Julian Assange] Well, you are from the Expressen newspaper which fabricated an entire story and made it a front-page, and four additional pages last week. And as a result, the Foreign Minister of Sweden has been on some defensive rampage against this organizaiton, completely absurd. Sweden, in relation to Carl Bildt, is acting like a political kindergartener. It is totally absurd. And, as a result, we simply do not answer questions to your organization. As you know, your organizaiton works hand-in-hand with the Moderate Party, it is owned by the Bonniers, come on!
[Peter Wilson, The Australian] Peter Wilson from The Australian newspaper. If I could ask Carlos, you said that… you pointed out that Stratfor will tell its agents to use all sources, including sex, to try to control sources. And you said it’s not a coincidence that Julian is being extradited to Sweden on sexual matters. What are you saying there? That Stratfor is behind those sexual allegations in Sweden?
[Carlos Enrique Bayo] No, no. I was referring to the standard procedures of the American secret services. I was referring to Stratfor as a company that has learned a lot on the systematic operations of the intelligence community of the United States. And so, I said it’s a coincidence, but very revealing, that in the instructions they give to their agents on the field, they insist—and the sentence is the same sentence he read—that they have to… if the source is valuable, or you want that this source or this target acts as you want, you have to take control of him or her, either economically, sexually, or psychologically. That’s a standard procedure then for secret services around… well, around the world maybe not, but the American services I’m sure they do this kind of covert operations. And so, if the American secret services are after Julian Assange it’s also a very revealing coincidence what happened in Sweden.
[01h03m00s - Kristinn Hrafnsson] If I may just say a few words about the culture of the Stratfor company. It would be very interesting for all of you to read the glossary of terms from the CEO of the company that we have already put on our website. It is a good reflection on what the company culture is, if you could say that, and because they maintain that they are a media outlet. It contains, for example, back to what you were saying, Carlos, how they treat their sources, or informants, as you rightly pointed out they are. For example, they think it’s a very useful thing to rattle them up. And here it is, the reference to the usefulness of finding material on the informants, photographs the informant’s wife would not want to see, and in the way they would get more information out of their sources/informations by using blatant blackmail. And they put in on paper by an internal memo by the CEO. And if that’s a standard practice by a media organization, we’re in trouble, I think. And I don’t think anybody would agree that that would be the way to treat the sources. But you should read through that, it’s a quick read, and it’s very interesting and a good reflection of how they really view themselves internally.
[Vaughan Smith] Kristinn, where is that available from?
[Kristinn Hrafnsson] It’s on the website, wikileaks.org.
[Julian Assange] It’s on the “How to Read It” section. So if you go to wikileaks.org/gifiles and you go to the sort-of “How to Interpret the Data” you’ll see “glossary” and there’s a link to that. It’s a PDF.
[Audience Member] Hello. This is a question for anyone in the panel that wants to answer it. Trying your best to put aside wishful thinking, is this a mortal blow for Stratfor? The Italian lady mentioned that they have been unable to protect their sources and that’s their first job as an intelligence agency. Can they recover from this?
[01h05m15s - Julian Assange] Well, they have um… It’s interesting to think about what the company perceives itself as doing. And it perceives itself in a very long letter sent in August or September 2011, to its staff by the CEO George Friedman as being an intelligence organization, growing to be an intelligence organization, and having a syndicated intelligence newsletter on the side. But, also, to be a hedge fund. And Stratfor got together with a then-director in 2009 of Goldman Sachs… (addressing Bonnano) What’s his name, do you remember?
[Mike Bonanno] Uh, yeah… Shea Morenz.
[Julian Assange] Shea Morenz, to take the secret intelligence that Stratfor was collecting—collecting in part by paying insiders—and use that to invest in a wide range of geo-political financial instruments, according to its own descriptions and currency and bonds. And that that is something that would be integral to the organization, that they were developing over two years, that we have published the corporate structures for them and they involve a complex off-shore arrangement extending even to South Africa. I mean, it is completely out of control. It is totally absurd that that sort-of situation could arise and there’s even some awareness about how close they’re running to all being arrested, where George Friedman, and you can see the quote in our press release and the full text is available, talks about how they are worried about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, presumibly in relation to bribing informants, and they had hired lawyers, in fact, because they were so worried about it, and that the CEO didn’t want to, quote, “be doing the perp-walk.” I mean, it’s extraordinary that that culture has flourished. I mean, it is like Enron that some very cowboy-like culture has developed within Stratfor. A sort of people playing James Bond in the most absurd manner in many cases; the most ineffective, hopeless manner. And also, they decide that they’re going to be some kind of James Bond villains by setting up their own captured investment fund at the same time that they’ll use all this intelligence from…. to pull in.
And if we look at their press release from this morning, we see that they are saying that they simply refuse to answer any questions about the material whatsoever. Now, is that a media organization or… Is that the response of a media organization? That they refuse to answer anything about their practice? Let’s look at News International. Now, News International has actually answered a lot of questions, perhaps relunctantly, but it has answered many. This organization is saying, ‘no, we don’t discuss that sort of information.’ And an intelligence agency would say, ‘we refuse to confirm or deny.’ And they say they refuse to confirm or deny, because that is their culture. They are a private intelligence organization. But, if we look at Fred’s Rule #2, the vice president of intelligence, this guy Fred Burton, who has been gunning for us. He comes from the State Department, works for Stratfor. Fred’s Rule #2: “Admit nothing, deny everything, and make counter-accusations.” What did you see in the press release today? That email is 2539287, released today.
[01h10m00s - Audience Member] Is that in the press release?
[Julian Assange] That one is not in the press release, we found that this morning. Thought it might be handy for this event.
[Mike Bonanno] I’d like to just add one more thing to that answer, and that… It’s regardless of whether Stratfor is done after this, regardless of whether they have to fold as a company. What should be targeted, and what I hope the journalists will be looking into more, is the revolving door between these businesses and government. What the end that should be seen, or foreseen by this, hopefully, is that relationship, the problems that we have with privatizing the intelligence industry, which has resulted in this unintelligent result.
[Stefania Maurizi] And also links with intelligence, for example, we want to ask what kind of information these ambassadors, these journalists, these secret service agents are providing Stratfor. For which client? We don’t know. Maybe they provide basic, open-source information. Maybe… we don’t know, basically.
[Julian Assange] Well, there’s a question, who’s next? Stratfor, in this internal cowboy-culture, this hopeless sort-of informant protecting arrangements and their payment laundering system through The Bahamas, has now been exposed. But there are others that are lower-profile that, in fact, financially larger in size, like Kroll group. So, what’s happening there? I presume the same basic methods are done under the surface, but perhaps with a little bit more care, so they haven’t been exposed. But we shouldn’t stop at Stratfor. These sorts of organizations, because of their secrecy, corruption flourishes within them, but the other thing, and in fact it’s the one thing that has really saved the world, is that incompetence also flourishes in the dark. So we can see that this sort of opportunistic incompetence within Stratfor, from email number 1061018, which we released today at midday: Random Business Idea – Network Security: “I was reading a solid Forbes article on Assange and it said that a large number of deep pocket corporations were looking into leak-focused network security after these WikiLeaks episodes. I was wondering if it is possible for us to get some of that “leak-focused” gravy train. This is an obvious fear sale, so that’s a good thing. And we have something to offer that IT security companies don’t, mainly our focus on counter-intelligence and surveillance that Fred and Stick..” this Fred is Fred Burton, diplomatic security service guy, “know better than anyone on the planet. We did a lot of good work with all the personal/executive security analysis…” dadadadada, “In fact, I’m not so sure that leaking is an IT problem that requires and IT solution.” Completely incompetent, opportunistic, and that is the culture within this organization. The problem is: it’s also a very influential organization. It’s intelligence newsletter alone has some two-hundred and um… over two-hundred thousand subscribers in very influential positions.
[01h13m47s - Stephania Maurizi] Yes, three-hundred thousand.
[Julian Assange] Three-hundred thousand. Malcolm Turnbull, for instance, just off the top of my head, who’s the Deputy Leader of the Australian Opposition, and previously Leader of the Australian Opposition, was a subscribed. So these people are being influenced in their activities, and they’re also—some of them—are also giving back, and when they give back it doesn’t just go off to… So, when someone in the State Department gives Fred Burton information about WikiLeaks… Well, it doesn’t necessarily just stay within Stratfor or go to other parts of the American Government… No, as we’ve seen in these other cases, it goes to the private clients of Stratfor, private corporations like Coca-Cola and Dow Chemical and Lockheed Martin.
[Liam Vaughan, Bloomberg] Liam Vaughan from Bloomberg. Can you speak a bit more about the connection with Goldman Sachs and… I’m just trying to understand, is the suggestion this guy was a managing director and then got involved with Stratfor, or is there a potential connection between Goldman Sachs, as a bank and as a company, and Stratfor?
[01h15m00s - Julian Assange] So… (addressing Maurizi) Have you looked into this? (addressing audience) I think I am the only person who’s looked into this. So, this guy is a Texas-originated Goldman Sachs director and he was director in 2009, we don’t know if he was a director in 2010, and in 2011 he joined Stratfor’s board. He, according to an email sent by the Stratfor CEO to employees, he invested 2 million U.S. dollars into Stratfor itself.
[Mike Bonnano] More than 4 million…
[Julian Assange] And substantially more than 2 million dollars into StratCap, the strategic investment captive firm operating within the Stratfor offices on intelligence collected by Stratfor. The degree of involvement by Goldman Sachs, the corporation, we don’t know. We do know that this one director of Goldman Sachs, while he was at Goldman Sachs, was involved in this. And, in fact, the CEO of Stratfor says that it was the Goldman Sachs’ director’s idea to take Stratfor intelligence and make a captive strategic investment fund to invest in these geo-political instruments.
[Unknown Audience Member] Do you have any indication of who would have been privy to that information? (inaudible question)
[Julian Assange] There is a lot of email about it, discussing it, prospective shareholding structures, share pyramids, and layouts of this. We have already released some of those, but will be releasing others as time goes by. An interesting connection, by the way, Thomson Reuters is a Stratfor “confederation” partner. Nearly all the other partners are small things in the ‘Stans, or Radio B92 in Serbia.. they’re all organizations which have a very pro-U.S. agenda. Thomson Reuters is very interesting because it is vastly larger than the others, it is a U.K. based firm, and it is meant to be independent. Perhaps it is worth looking what happened when Thomson merged with Reuters. Because Thomson provides, is an information provider, to clients. It is not a news organization, per se. Reuters was a news organization. And when these two things came together, perhaps something else happened.
When we released the ‘Collateral Murder’ video the editor-in-chief of Reuters… As you may remember that video exposed the murder of two… the killing of two Reuters journalists—the murder of one—by U.S. forces in Iraq. The editor of Reuters did not make a statement demanding for an investigation into what had happened to the deaths of his journalists. And this was a cause of considerable upset within Reuters. The immediately former head of Reuters said, ‘What is going on here? Why hasn’t the editor come out to demand investigation into the slaying of Reuters journalists?’ Is this a Thomson effect? So… that’s a question. Has Reuters been contaminated by its merger with Thomson in the same way that Stratfor is contaminated… it seems that Stratfor was contaminated from birth, because there was no merger. But are other media organizations getting into this sort of business of doing intelligence work for private clients on the side, and then news work here? And not keeping these things air-gapped from each other, but rather swapping data.
[01h19m16s Stephania Maurizi] Yes, and there are many, many journalists among sources. But there are also some journalists who are having just journalistic approach. So some are normal relationship, others are sources. Many, many, many journalists in their list of the sources. Probably there are a dozen list of sources, not encrypted at all. With names, surnames, contact details, whatever. I am wondering… how is it possible that an intelligence company doesn’t protect, doesn’t encrypt this information.
[Carlos Enrique Bayo] Moreover, they even show the Visa cards’ numbers and passwords in their mails—that’s something that not an intelligence company, not even a boot-seller, would do.
[Vaughan Smith] More questions?
[Audience Member] Mr. Assange, you said a lot of the income of Stratfor comes from the public purse. Do you have any idea of the figures involved with the money flows from the American governments, perhaps other governments?
[Julian Assange] We have some ideas. So there are various financial reports that we’re working on. Just last night we discovered a series of about thirty… of the high invoices, about thirty of them. So, top one’s five-hundred thousand for some oil companies, U.S. Air Force, major U.S. corporations and so on. So we will get those figures out, they are there. It is just a matter of coming through to find the client list. At the moment we have invoices for the major clients, but looking at that, just those invoices, a substantial amount of money comes from government organizations, and also a substantial amount from oil companies.
[Audience Member] Would you say the majority of that money is from governments?
[Julian Assange] I couldn’t say at this stage. But it is substantial.
[01h21m36s - Carlos Enrique Bayo] We have verified that (unintelligible: “the real cash cows are”?) inside the Ministries of Defense or Foreign Affairs who subscribe. And sometimes we found invoices for different people in the same organization, public I mean, government, ministry, that don’t know each other and don’t know the other one is a subscriber. And so they are paying several times the same subscription because they believe they are getting such private, secret, reserved information, that they don’t tell other people in their same institution.
[Julian Assange] Stratfor has three… when looking at this data, one must be careful not to confuse what is going on. So Stratfor has the three principle types of incomes or people who pay it. So, those are private clients that it does tasked work for, so for example Coca-Cola trying to find out about PETA: we want you to find out this, this, and this, and this. It also has private meetings to give private briefings that are not tasked. So: we want you to tell us what you know about a particular situation, but we’re not tasking you to go out and collect additional information. And then there’s the sort-of intelligence newsletter that it runs, that anyone can subscribe to. That there’s sort-of corporate subscriptions and corporate packages and so-on.
[Vaughan Smith] Questions? Well, in the absence of questions I think we’ll conclude matters. Hopefully the panelists will be available for interviews if you make individual arrangements with them.
[Panelists] Thank you.
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This Week in the Press: 2 – 8 February, 2012
– 25 February, 2012Posted in: The week in WikiLeaks Press
Cables reveal US disapproval of Bulgarian arms deals. A book analyzing cables from Turkey instigates a large media reaction over several cables revealing a police investigation into the Ergenekon group. Maldives President resigns after reputation tarnished by cables on the Copenhagen climate accord. Former Liberian President on trial for crimes against humanity is denied use of cables as record for his defense.
Subject index
International Relations
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| A Bulgarian Air Force AS532 Cougar. source |
Cables reveal details behind arms deals in Bulgaria: A December 2006 cable from Sofia reports on a meeting between US officials and Nikolai Gigov at his arms trading company Delta Group. Gigov told the US that he had recently accepted part of a large order from the Egyptian Ministry of Defense and “emphasized the sense of urgency that he perceived from the Egyptian side.” The cable reports that the US suspected Gigov of trying to gain favor with the US by passing along this information, and that the officials had no way of verifying his claims. Another cable from January 2005 shows the US’ alarm when Bulgaria Defense Minister Svinarov signed a 400 million USD deal for 18 Cougar and Panther helicopters from EADS – the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company. The cable complains that the US ambassador had already expressed concerns over the lack of transparency throughout the bidding process, and suggests talking points for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld during his next meeting with Svinarov. The cable includes a letter sent by ambassador Pardew before the bid was settled, which threatens, “A major procurement handled in such a rushed manner inevitably leads to questions about the legitimacy of the process and damages Bulgaria’s reputation in the American business community.” Bulgaria still has not paid for most of the 12 helicopters they have received out of the initial 18.
Boko Haram extremism deemed a threat in Cameroon: Nigeria has closed its border with Cameroon, which has had a devastating effect on the economy. Cables have shown that President Biya was concerned about Islamic extremism spreading to Cameroon from Nigeria.
Canada Prime Minister visits disgraced Chinese hardliner Bo XiLai: Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s 7 February 2012 visit to China included a meeting with Former Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, who was demoted over international outcry against of his persecution of Falun Gong. 2007 cables say that Premier Wen had argued that Bo’s “significant negative international exposure” made him a poor candidate for promotion. The Epoch Times cites David Matas, who is a lawyer in a suit against Bo in Canada, as saying that Harper’s meeting with Bo at this time is meant to help recover Bo’s disgraced reputation.
Cameroon Post Line reports on WikiLeaks cables from Cameroon discussing the government lack of planning for HIV/AIDS patients, a 2009 cable from Ambassador Janet Garvey details Cameroon’s political and economic decline, and ambassador meetings with Cameroon officials on plans for economic growth.
- A 2008 cable describes neglect and suffering in Cameroon’s North West region and cites leading opposition leader Ni John Fru Ndi as being skeptical about the country’s ability to overcome ethnic conflict.
- Another cable from Cameroon reports that the government spends no resources on the diaspora and confirms a brain-drain as professionals leave the country for better job opportunities.
- A 2007 cable from Cameroon reveals US attempts to convince President Biya not to change the term limits of his tenure in the constitution. Ultimately, the steps taken by the US were not enough, as Biya has remained President for the past three decades.
Corruption
Further Las Vegas Sands Corp corrupt business practices?: Sheldon Adelson, a hotel and casino businessman who recently donated at least 11 million USD to the Newt Gingrich presidential campaign, was mentioned in a September 2009 cable in relation to his business practices in Macau. Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp is under federal investigation in the US for potentially violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The cable shows that Adelson had lobbied Chinese officials in Beijing on issues including “foreign labor visas, gaming oversight and regulation, infrastructure development, and perceived interference in personnel management decisions affecting Macau resident workers.” The cable also mentions a proposed “Adelson Center for U.S.-China Enterprise,” which would have been financed with 100 million USD.
Turkey – Police investigation into Ergenekon group presented in detail to US embassy: A recently published Turkish book analyzing WikiLeaks cables included a 2008 cable on an investigation into the Ergenekon group, which Turkish police said were linked to a number of attacks and an alleged coup attempt. The Turkish police made an extensive presentation on Ergenekon to US embassy officials and “appeared strikingly confident that they have compiled the necessary proof for a successful prosecution” of the group. The cable reported that police emphasized how Ergenekon was anti-American, perhaps in an attempt to win favor with the US government. A number of articles in the Turkish media have focused on a cache of information that Turkish Police found, including classified documents with “proposed methods of psychological warfare against the EU and the Turkish Government,” evidence of the Turkish CHP party leader Baykal being bribed, and photos and documents related to sexual activities of former Chief of General Staff Büyükanit’s daughter. Baykal has denied the accusations of corruption.
2009 cable describes corruption charges of both Chilean presidential candidates Pinera and Frei
Human Rights
Sri Lanka wanted US help for improving human rights in 2006: An October 2006 cable describes a meeting between a US ambassador and Sri Lankan Presidential Adviser Basil Rajapaksa, also brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The ambassador urged for peace talks between the Sri Lanka government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as well as improving Sri Lanka’s “human rights capability.” While Basil admitted that the Sri Lankan Air Force had bombed several LTTE targets since September and said the Ministry of Defense wished to purchase US Bushmaster cannons, he also claimed that President Rajapaksa “genuinely seeks…to improve Sri Lanka’s human rights capability by lending experts, assisting with inquiries, and building up the indigenous Human Rights Commission (HRC).”
Morocco King Mohammed promises to improve conditions for military veterans: The Moroccan King recently chaired a cabinet meeting in which a draft law was adopted to cover legal, material, and social rights of soldiers following protests. A 2008 cable had described the Moroccan military as corrupt with inefficient bureaucracy.
Impact
The president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, who had come into disrepute after a WikiLeaks cable implied that part of his adamant warnings about climate change were motivated by a USD 50 million deal for his country at the Copenhagen summit, resigned in the course of this week.
Charles Taylor defense lawyer request for use of two US diplomatic cables denied: Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, continues to await the outcome of his trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague. Taylor is accused of war crimes from his involvement in the Sierra Leone Civil War, and his lawyer Courtenay Griffiths had requested that two US diplomatic cables be included in the defense. The request was denied by the judges.
Obama returns major donations tied to fugitive: US President Obama has refunded over 200,000 USD in election campaign donations given by the family of Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, known as Pepe, who jumped bail in the US in 1994. Cardona has been in the casino trade in Mexico, and WikiLeaks cables say he was suspected of illegally funneling five million USD to 2006 Mexican political campaigns.
On a tour of talks through Canada, Kim Ives – editor of Haïti Liberté – spoke about the slow pace of reconstruction and political turmoil in Haïti as part of a ‘WikiHaïti’ series. WikiLeaks Press has covered the extensive reporting of Cablegate Haiti in previous weeks.
Buyukanit
