
Wikileaks publishes 500k new Stratfor emails - dmix
https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?rl
======
kid0m4n
Oh, this is so classy:
[https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=8402](https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=8402)

Quote:

Oh, they have enough weapons. Now the serious game begins as Reva pointed out.
The investigation of the attack is not interesting. I suspect the findings
have already been reached before the first investigator got to work. Now the
question is how India responds. God willing, the Indian response will make us
a lot of money.

This after the devastating terrorist attack in Mumbai which killed 164 people:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Mumbai_attacks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Mumbai_attacks)

~~~
iamshs
Holy damn. Here is one interview of her (Reva Bhalla):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc1gJOPCipY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc1gJOPCipY)
And at the end she is linking the attack to Al Qaeda. I think this is why they
are giving her kudos, for planting the seed. This is nefarious on so many
levels. This means India directly comes under pressure to respond back to
Pakistan, and then respond to allegations that Al Qaeda is expanding in India.
It is ironic that it was one of the CIA double agent, with links to terrorist
organization LeT, who conducted recce of the sites before attacks:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Headley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Headley)

India was under so much pressure to go to war at that time. Experts were
gunning for surgical strikes. Imagine the pressure on bureaucrats, especially
when both countries have nuclear arsenal.

Why does education/intelligence/morality not cull the inner devil of some?

~~~
jeswin
It could also have meant that investigators have already decided who did this.
IIRC, hours after the attacks we were already suggesting Pakistan. In the end
it turned out to be close, but jumping into conclusions would not help our
credibility.

Reva Bhalla's interview is too insignificant to directly affect our decision
to respond. She was speculating, but everyone (including the government!) was
speculating too and they were all pretty much saying the same thing. Which is,
"someone in Pakistan".

I haven't seen anything seriously damaging yet from the India files. People
aren't always very mild in emails, and some of them were just jokes. Some
jokes were crude, but we all make such jokes.

~~~
iamshs
They did not know who did it immediately, except knowing of Pakistan's
involvement. Remember, ISI chief was being flown to India immediately on eve
of attacks and Pak PM allowed it, only to be cancelled at last minute? [1]
Nobody was speculating Al Qaeda links, it was being said either JeM, Deccan
Mujahideen or LeT. Her speculation is significant because she is associated
with security agency, is on CNN and will be listened to by in American Policy
corridors.

You haven't seen damaging because they are aggregator, and put in their
analysis on the news. Yeah crude jokes like selling weapons over the misery of
others. "We" do not make these kind of jokes, and even if we do, they should
be deplored. Sorry, I am not in sync with you over this.

[1] - [http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/nov/29mumterror-isi-chief-
vi...](http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/nov/29mumterror-isi-chief-visit-to-
india-cancelled.htm)

------
joshfraser
It's a weird feeling reading other people's email. I'm sad to see Wikileaks
didn't at least do a quick regex pass to remove the credit cards (yup, found
some) and the personal love notes. I'm generally a supporter of Wikileaks, but
mass dumps like this aren't responsible and only give more ammunition to their
detractors.

~~~
brymaster
These "people" are looking to profit from misery
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6742844](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6742844)).

Wikileaks is attempting to provide transparency in a world where that doesn't
much exist so boo-fucking-hoo if somebody's Mastercard gets leaked in the
process.

Mass dumps aren't adding any more "ammunition" for their detractors than some
sort of filtered dump would. Detractors don't need much of a reason to dislike
what Wikileaks is doing beyond the fact that they've been exposed.

~~~
dandelany
You know who else profits from misery? Doctors, and funeral home owners.
Pretty much anyone in the media. I certainly hope my doctor isn't making
terrible jokes about how much money he's going to make from my disease, but
even if he was, it wouldn't be illegal nor would I find it a justifiable
reason to leak his personal information (let alone his clients' information!).

You also assume everyone is already split into either the pro-Wikileaks camp
or their detractors. As someone who has mixed feelings about Wikileaks, this
definitely affected my view of them negatively. (Full disclosure - my card was
among those leaked. But even if it hadn't been, if I had just been someone who
knew about Stratfor rather than a subscriber, this would have put Wikileaks in
a bad light for me).

~~~
legutierr
I might suggest that doctors and funeral home owners profit by _alleviating_
the misery of others.

~~~
dopamean
Also, it would be different if we did a dump of all the emails from
oncologists at the Moffitt Center and found out they were putting doctors on
the news to say smoking is good for your health and then highfiving each other
via email after.

~~~
refurb
You would be actually shocked how driven by money many oncologists are. Back
when I used to consult, I had an oncologist tell me, with no hesitation, that
he prefers to prescribe the drugs that give him the best profit margin, even
if that means it's not the best choice for the patient.

I'm pretty sure if you checked his email you'd find some pretty shocking stuff
as well.

~~~
mousefad
In which case, publishing them would be a public good - doctors who put profit
over positive outcomes for their patients should be named and shamed and
patients would be better off knowing to avoid them.

This is in fact a solid argument for why transparency of this kind is a Good
Thing.

------
r00fus
Is it more, or do these leaks paint StratFor as something along the lines of a
"conflict investment firm" on the lines of Richard Morgan's Market Forces [1]?

Jacket cover description excerpt: "A coup in Cambodia. Guns to Guatemala. For
the men and women of Shorn Associates, opportunity is calling. In the
superheated global village of the near future, big money is made by finding
the right little war and supporting one side against the other–in exchange for
a share of the spoils."

[1]
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40450.Market_Forces](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40450.Market_Forces)

~~~
freshhawk
While that book has it's pacing flaws I really enjoyed it. When he calls up
"Langley Contracting" for "five extreme prejudice deletions" and is asked
"Please indicate level of precision required from the following five options:
surgical, accurate, scattershot, blanket, atrocity" I decided it was a winner.
Morgan's site has a great quote that the movie option for this book was never
exercised because “no-one’s going to want to play an action hero this morally
compromised”.

I guess if StratFor is acquired by an investment bank you would basically have
a Shorn Associates type firm.

~~~
r00fus
It's a pity that his most popular book (Altered Carbon) hasn't been made into
a movie. Now that one's a clear winner (sex, drugs, lots of bullets).

------
joshfraser
[https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?relid=402#searchresult](https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?relid=402#searchresult)

Subject: Re: GOOGLE & Iran __internal use only - pls do not forward __

GOOGLE is getting WH and State Dept. support & air cover. In reality, they are
doing things the CIA cannot do. But, I agree with you. He's going to get
himself kidnapped or killed. Might be the best thing to happen to expose
GOOGLE's covert role in foaming up-risings, to be blunt. The US Govt can then
disavow knowledge and GOOGLE is left holding the shit bag.

~~~
Amadou
That email thread has been public for quite a long time now and the subject of
some conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, the rest of that email chain fizzles
out, suggesting that it was just an opinionated off-the-cuff remark, not the
result of any serious analysis. Maybe there is more in today's drop, but as of
yesterday there wasn't anything particularly damning regarding that google
employee.

------
redwood
Surprised no one has pointed this out. The headlines for "statfor" today
aren't this dump, but rather: [http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/jeremy-hammond-
anonymous-strat...](http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/jeremy-hammond-anonymous-
stratfor-hacker-10-years/story?id=20904069)

I imagine the two events are connected

------
ThomPete
An absolute gem

"... 2010-12-03 11:54:04 FW: Manning & Wiki Founder Arrest/Prosecution?
scott.stewart@stratfor.com gfriedman@stratfor.com

Holy crap, we're passing Fred's rantings to confederation partners?

From: Emre Dogru [mailto:emre.dogru@stratfor.com] Sent: Friday, December 03,
2010 3:37 AM To: burton Cc: Confederation Subject: Fwd: Manning & Wiki Founder
Arrest/Prosecution?

Hey Fred, one of our confed partners (Sabah daily) would like to use this
information without any attribution. But he just wonders if your source used
"fry" in the sense that Manning should be executed by electrocution, or does
it mean something else in intel business lingo?..."

[https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=410181](https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=410181)

------
sp332
"RELEASE: over 500k new Stratfor files. Total now released over 5.5M.
[http://wikileaks.org/gifiles](http://wikileaks.org/gifiles) #freehammond" \-
@wikileaks
[https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/401466014111506432](https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/401466014111506432)

------
elwell
whaaa?
[https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=10828](https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=10828)

~~~
dopamean
Jesus christ that looks terrible.

~~~
ryanwhitney
Horrible, but this has been online for awhile.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyar-
Way5RE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyar-Way5RE)

~~~
InclinedPlane
I'm going to say that the video is almost certainly not real and is in fact a
training video.

~~~
damirkotoric
A training video? Showing them how to behave like barbaric cunts?

~~~
InclinedPlane
Do you have any context for the video whatsoever?

No?

OK, then maybe don't jump to conclusions. One possibility is that it's a
training video for a "watch this then report what happened" sort of thing,
which are very common and may not even be affiliated with an actual police
department.

Consider the presence of a camera crew (the filmer is way too close to an
armed officer to be a bystander). Also notice how there is no blood and no
physicality related to a body being hit by bullets.

For all we know this could be a training video to help cops avoid this sort of
thing. What sort of twisted world do you live in where you would imagine that
any police department in America could explicitly set out to train its police
to cold-bloodedly murder people?

Everything related to this video screams of it not depicting an actual event.

Edit: videos of the police committing murder or negligent homicide do exist
but there is generally far more context with those videos and they are tied to
well known cases.

Edit2: I've watched the video a few more times now and I've noticed some
important details which aren't very obvious due to the low resolution of the
video. First, the civilian has another gun which he retrieves from behind his
back, you can see it in his hands in the last few frames of the film. Second,
the "police" are not in uniform nor do they have any police insignia present
yet they are wearing bulletproof vests. If they were plain clothes cops they
would not have their vests on above their clothes. If they were police on duty
they would have badges, insignia, etc.

My guess is that this is a training video or video of training, maybe for
police, possibly for private security.

------
jshq111
Wiki leaks is embarrassing itself. Stratfor is a silly bunch of blowhards who
repackage the Economist for gullible subscribers who think these jokers are
some secret intelligence agents.

~~~
pnathan
Actually, Stratfor tends to have a unique perspective on the news. I've been
signed up for their free email thread for a while, and while I've never been
blown away, they do have a better-than-most longform approach to news. It
definitely beats CNN.

~~~
jshq111
I've had the "privilege" of getting access to the paid product via work some
years ago. I found that they did accurately predict 100 of the next 2 crises
(ie if you say every day disaster is imminent some days really bad things
randomly occur). But beyond the quality of their content, Stratfor intimates
they have some proprietary pipeline to govt classified intelligence when they
have no more access than any other person with Google and a subscription to
the NY times. Wikileaks embarasses itself and does Stratfor a great service by
perpetrating the marketing hoax that Stratfor is anything but a bunch of guys
in Texas rehashing public news sources for gullible corporate consumers.

------
icpmacdo
Would it be a crime if I were to read one of the emails?

~~~
dmix
It may be a crime to _link_ directly to a zip file containing the data in an
IRC chat, as we saw with Barrett Brown [1].

That made me reconsider even posting this Wikileaks page to HN (yay chilling
effect). But I'm not aware of any criminal law preventing you from reading
published content on Wikileaks or submitting a link to them on a social media
site.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrett_Brown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrett_Brown)

~~~
socillion
That zip file contained 5,000 stolen credit card numbers, along with CVVs and
ID info.

~~~
dmix
Correct, he copied and pasted a link (posted by someone else) to a zip file
from one chat room to another chat room, that contained 5000 cc's.

And is now facing "12 federal charges relating to identity theft and fraud"
for doing so.

------
jypepin
I click through the Canadian ones, I'm confused on how much those emails are
racists, homophobic, raw and violent...

[https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?relid=707#searchresult](https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?relid=707#searchresult)

------
robomartin
Question for game theorists: Is here a realistic scenario under which the
entire world could disarm and shift from coming up with better ways to kill
people to more constructive pursuits.

Please don't say "A visit from Vulcans"

~~~
njharman
> realistic scenario

No. Because humans don't follow game theory. Killing people hasn't come about
because of rational application of theories. It comes about from evolution.
We, as a race, are aggressive, territorial, greedy, exploiters because that
has been, recently, a winning strategy vs the other organisms and environment
on this planet. Unfortunately, for us, evolution doesn't care about long term.
It's fine with us being wiped out and taking 98.1% of the rest with us. It can
always start over with next up and comer organism.

Theory, rationalism, good intentions, nothing is going to override millions of
years of genetically programmed behavior.

~~~
vdaniuk
Transhumanism will override all the genetically programmed behaviour :)

------
LispShmisp
Are files available via torrent/web somewhere? I'd appreciate if someone has a
link to share.

------
deskglass
It sounds like they need to improve their billing service.

------
lettergram
" Call me if you want me to get on IM. I'm running around the house and
putting things away but would be happy to come back to my computer and chat w/
you. Smoochies Hunny. I love you! XOXOXOXOXO Amy"

Seems a bit too personal to me

~~~
dmix
Yeah Amy should know better than to email that to his work email address.

------
athst
I wish they published the raw data for this - it would be a lot easier to do
analysis and visualization on it.

------
realrocker
They are talking about the 26/11/2008 Mumbai, India attack and how its going
to make them a lot of money. Horrid!
[https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=8496](https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=8496)

------
asdashopping
[https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=363678](https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=363678)

Nice.

~~~
arvinjoar
I was shocked to read through those comments, they didn't seem very
professional, and that such blatant racism could go unchecked in such a large
and powerful organization as Stratfor seeemed very odd. Anyway, turns out
those comments were just pasted from vnnforum, and were not written by
Stratfor employees. Now, I don't know why they saw any value in that thread at
all, just seems like a bunch of nazis trashing McDonalds, but at least
Stratfor didn't write that garbage themselves.

------
BrandonMarc
I'm a supporter of the _idea_ of WikiLeaks, if not all of their decisions ...
now here's what bugs me: why is it rare (or never) that we see mass dumps of
Russian, Chinese, or Pakistani intelligence information? What, there's no
corruption, profiteering, or otherwise bad vibes over there? The US has a
monopoly on all that? Why does it always have to hurt US intelligence
activities (yes: some deserve to be hurt, but just blanket dumping also puts
the country at risk).

~~~
woah
Are you serious?
[http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Category:China](http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Category:China)

~~~
BrandonMarc
Open mouth, insert foot I suppose. Though this leads me to a second question,
equally interesting ... why haven't I heard of this? Aside from the obvious
(I've never looked directly for it), there are two aspects at play - my own
filtering, and the editorial decisions of the news organizations.

For the former, I aim for diversity, but it's hard to know you're getting the
"full story" as well as what's a "credible source" when all you have is what's
already available to you.

For the latter, none of us is immune to this influence, unless we operate our
own news / fact-finding outlet, and then our internal biases still provide an
umwelt [0] that's hard to escape.

\----------------------------------------

[0] [http://xkcd.com/1037/](http://xkcd.com/1037/)

------
NN88
Why the hell don't they just dump everything?

they're politicizing the very leaking they're doing.

------
mariuolo
Are you actually going to read 500k emails?

Especially when most of them look like water cooler chitchat.

------
supergirl
404 on all those links. am i doing it wrong?

~~~
VladRussian2
or may be Great Firewall does it right :) Btw, can NSA splitters function as
such as well? Or [selectively] replace real traffic with artificially
generated one? (I mean pure splitter wouldn't, yet why it would be just a pure
splitter? why limit themselves to read-only capabilities only? May sound like
a new tin foil hat frontier for some ... yet i think we do need one at least
as a guide post into the future as the reality has already moved well past the
previous one)

~~~
schoen
[http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/11/this-is-how-the-
interne...](http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/11/this-is-how-the-internet-
backbone-has-been-turned-into-a-weapon/)

Apparently there are malicious servers that do active attacks against Internet
users (with forged injected traffic). I've seen no indication that the servers
that carry out these attacks are directly related to the splitters.

------
groupthinker
This submission is off-topic (not "Hacker News") and should be deleted.

