Following this week’s publication by Wikileaks of millions of internal emails from the private geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor (which models itself as a private-sector CIA), Juan Cole summarizes the early top 5 revelations, while DemocracyNow! reports on what it all means, including how the firm uses spies (“[Y]ou have to take control of him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control…”) and the agency’s concern with growing resistance to corporate power more generally.

Strategic Forecasting Inc. is an American for-profit intelligence agency that collects, analyzes, and exploits clandestine geopolitical information. Subscribers include corporations, states, and individuals, who normally pay large sums for regional and “customizable” intelligence. 

I first subscribed to the Stratfor newsletter a couple of years ago while reading this 2009 book by the founder, George Friedman. In contrast to the book, which was only semi-interesting and mostly speculative, I’ve found some of their free newsletter analyses—coming from a sharp right-wing perspective on the world—helpful in terms of the seemingly accurate, underreported information they provide on certain regional conflicts. Since the embarrassing hacking into their system by Anonymous, the private spy agency has been temporarily offering all of its analyses free-of-charge.