Stratfor: executive boasted of 'trusted former CIA cronies'
A senior executive with the private intelligence firm Stratfor boasted to colleagues about his "trusted former CIA cronies" and promised to "see what I can uncover" about a classified FBI investigation, according to emails released by the WikiLeaks. - Fred Burton, vice president of intelligence at the Texas firm, also informed members of staff that he had a copy of the confidential indictment on Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. The second batch of five million internal Stratfor emails obtained by the Anonymous computer hacking group revealed that the company has high level sources within the United States and other governments, runs a network of paid informants that includes embassy staff and journalists and planned a hedge fund, Stratcap, based on its secret intelligence. It operates something of an employment revolving door with branches of the Washington establishment. Mr Burton was previously deputy chief of the counter-terrorism division in the state department's diplomatic security service. The emails indicated that the company pays for information. One email released by WikiLeaks described a £4,000-a-month payment made to a Middle Eastern source, and another carried bits of gossip dropped by a retired spy. Derided as a "shadow CIA" by Mr Assange, one email from chief executive George Friedman also suggested it used methods redolent of spy agencies.
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