02/27/12

Permalink WikiLeaks begins disclosing intelligence firm's e-mails

The website WikiLeaks has begun releasing what it says are 5 million e-mails from the private intelligence company Stratfor, starting with a company "glossary" that features unflattering descriptions of U.S. government agencies. - In a statement released early Monday in Europe (Sunday evening ET), the website promises a raft of juicy disclosures about Stratfor, a Texas-based firm that promotes itself to corporate and government clients as a source of intelligence on international affairs. The company has been targeted by hackers who have released private data about subscribers in recent months, prompting the company to offer its clients a year of paid identity-protection coverage. There was no immediate comment on the disclosures from Stratfor, and the authenticity of the documents could not be independently confirmed Sunday night.

Wikileaks: The Global Intelligence Files - LONDON—Today, Monday 27 February, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The emails date from between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods, for example :

"[Y]ou have to take control of him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control... This is intended to start our conversation on your next phase" – CEO George Friedman to Stratfor analyst Reva Bhalla on 6 December 2011, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on the medical condition of the President of Venezuala, Hugo Chavez.

The material contains privileged information about the US government’s attacks against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and Stratfor’s own attempts to subvert WikiLeaks. There are more than 4,000 emails mentioning WikiLeaks or Julian Assange. The emails also expose the revolving door that operates in private intelligence companies in the United States. Government and diplomatic sources from around the world give Stratfor advance knowledge of global politics and events in exchange for money. The Global Intelligence Files exposes how Stratfor has recruited a global network of informants who are paid via Swiss banks accounts and pre-paid credit cards. Stratfor has a mix of covert and overt informants, which includes government employees, embassy staff and journalists around the world.

BusinessInsider: That 'Extraordinary' Wikileaks Dump: A Big Pile Of Emails From STRATFOR


Permalink Putin puts words of caution against strike on Iran

Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has expressed concern over the growing threat of a military strike on Iran, saying such an attack will have catastrophic repercussions. - “Russia is alarmed by the growing threat of a military strike” against Iran, Putin wrote in article in the daily Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper on Monday. “If this happens, the consequences will be truly catastrophic, their real scope impossible to imagine,” he added. “We propose to recognize Iran’s right to develop a civilian nuclear program, including the right to enrich uranium” in exchange for placing the country’s nuclear activities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Russian premier further said. Putin added that in this case, all unilateral and international sanctions imposed against Iran need to be lifted.

PressTV: Britain prepares for military strike against Iran
Google/AP: Putin warns West over Syria, Iran


Permalink U.S. opening up airspace to use of drones

After more than 40 years of development and extensive use by the military, the United States has set the date when the nation’s airspace will be open for drones. Should you be scared? - Short answer: No, but like any new technology, unmanned aerial vehicles have their dark side. Legislation passed by Congress last week gives the Federal Aviation Administration until Sept. 30, 2015, to open the nation’s skies to drones. The first step comes in 90 days when police, firefighters and other civilian first-response agencies can start flying UAVs weighing no more than 4.4 pounds, provided they meet still-to-be-determined requirements, such as having an operator on the ground within line-of-sight of the drone and flying it at least 400 feet above ground. Currently, UAVs can only fly in restricted airspace zones controlled by the U.S. military.


Permalink NATO airstrike kills four Afghan civilians

A US-led NATO airstrike carried out by French troops has claimed the lives of four Afghan civilians, including children.

The airstrike targeted Kapisa’s Tagab district, leaving another four people injured. The attack comes less than two weeks after another US-led strike killed eight Afghan civilians in the same province. The victims were reportedly bombed twice while herding sheep in the snow.

Afghans have been holding almost six consecutive days of rallies against US-led forces in Afghanistan and the recent desecration of the holy Quran by US troops.

On February 4, the United Nations announced that last year was the deadliest year on record for Afghan civilians. The number of deaths marked a rise of eight percent from the previous year, and was roughly double the number from 2007. Thousands of civilians, including women and children, have been killed as a result of the war. The US-led invasion of Afghanistan took place in 2001. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan, despite the presence of thousands of US-led troops there.


Permalink BP Oil Spill Trial Postponed To Allow Settlement Talks

A trial to determine how much BP owes for the worst oil spill ever in the U.S. was adjourned by one week to allow more settlement talks between the oil company and plaintiffs’ lawyers. - The civil trial in New Orleans was originally scheduled for Monday, but BP and the group of attorneys known as the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC) announced in a joint statement late on Sunday the trial will be delayed “to allow BP and the PSC more time to continue settlement discussions and attempt to reach an agreement.” British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010, and sank two days later after burning for 36 hours in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. The blast claimed the lives of 11 people. An oil spill ensued, damaging Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.


Permalink Jewish zealots attempting to take over the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque, two of Islam's holiest sites

It appears that a growing band of Israeli messianic settlers have banded together to orchestrate a crisis on the Temple Mount. Their ultimate goal seems to be taking Jewish control over the sacred ground, including two of the holiest sites in Islam, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. - For many years, there have been radical settler groups preparing for such a day. Ateret Cohanim maintains a yeshiva which is training priests to resume the Temple rituals including animal sacrifice. Dov Hikind’s wife earns $150,000 a year as its U.S. fundraiser. They’re also breeding cattle in the hopes of find that miraculous red heifer which would serve as a sign that God is ready to resume Jewish rites on this sacred ground. The settlers know that for Jews to rebuild the Temple would mean a holy war in the Holy Land that would likely dwarf the Crusades for passion and bloodletting. For these Jews, such an eventuality would bring the days of the coming of the Messiah closer, thus making the human suffering not just acceptable, but even desirable.


Permalink Australian prime minister defeats challenge from Kevin Rudd

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard defeated Kevin Rudd, her predecessor and former foreign minister, in a Labor Party leadership ballot held earlier today. Gillard was backed by 71 of her parliamentary colleagues, against 31 who voted for Rudd. Far from overcoming the crisis wracking the government, the leadership ballot has resolved none of the key policy issues underlying the vitriolic infighting within the Labor Party. Gillard declared that “we will move forward as a united team.” No one in her party, however, or in the political and media establishment as a whole, believes that the bitter divisions opened up by the rancorous public debate over the Labor leadership—unprecedented in post-war Australian politics—will be patched up.

Peter Symonds: Australian government torn apart by US-China tensions - The underlying causes of the conflict are not to be found, primarily, in the sphere of domestic politics. Both Rudd and Gillard are committed to the austerity agenda demanded by finance capital and are pitching themselves to big business as the best instrument for implementing the required assault on the working class. Rather, the fracturing of the Labor Party is bound up with powerful geo-political rivalries centred on the Obama administration’s growing confrontation with China. The Australian ruling class has been swept into this maelstrom, confronted point blank with the longstanding dilemma posed by its heavy economic dependence on China, on the one hand, and its geo-strategic reliance on its military alliance with the United States, on the other.


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