The Global Intelligence Files (Stratfor)

The Global Intelligence Files are internal emails of Strategic Forecasting Inc. (Stratfor), an Austin, Texas-based company that published geopolitical analysis and provided confidential intelligence services to corporate and government clients. I began publishing them on 27 February 2012, describing a cache of more than five million emails dating from July 2004 to late December 2011. The emails were released gradually, starting with a small initial batch.

I said the emails showed how Stratfor cultivated paid sources, including government employees and journalists, and monitored activists on behalf of corporate clients — including campaigners for victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, on behalf of Dow Chemical. We also said that more than 4,000 emails mentioned WikiLeaks or me.

Some contemporary reporting was more cautious than our presentation: The Guardian noted that the alleged tracking of the activist group the Yes Men on behalf of Dow appeared to amount to little more than email monitoring.

Unlike most of our earlier publications, the material came from a computer intrusion rather than a whistleblower. Members of 'AntiSec', an offshoot of Anonymous, hacked Stratfor's systems in December 2011, and an Anonymous-linked Twitter account appeared to confirm it was the source when our release began (The Guardian). Jeremy Hammond of Chicago pleaded guilty in May 2013 to conspiracy to commit computer hacking, and on 15 November 2013 was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to 10 years in prison for the Stratfor hack and other intrusions (FBI; US Attorney, SDNY). Hammond told The Guardian he had been led to the Stratfor target by 'Sabu' (Hector Xavier Monsegur), who was by then an FBI informant.

Stratfor condemned the publication as an illegal breach of privacy, said the emails came from the attack on its systems and declined to validate them, stating that 'some of the emails may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies; some may be authentic' (The Guardian). I said we worked with more than 25 media organisations, which were given access to a searchable database.