"Stratfor provides global awareness and guidance to individuals, governments and businesses around the world. We use a unique, intel-based approach to analyze world affairs."However, in 2012 it attracted unwanted attention when Wikileaks began to publish a huge quantity of Stratfor data. This initiative was described by Wikileaks as follows:
"On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date 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 Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods."A point worth making here is that as Stratfor is in the business of providing intelligence, the reliability and accuracy of its information is of paramount importance, particularly given the nature of its clients.
On 13th February 2013, Wikileaks published an email from Stratfor Tactical Analyst, Matt Mernagh. This covered the smuggling of cannabis. It broadly explained how cannabis was smuggled around the world.
One of the sections within the email covered the use of baggage agents, and made several important references to Schapelle Corby, stating directly that she was the unwitting mule of a large operation, and that she "didn't even know the marijuana was in her bag".
The extract is provided below.
The full article can be viewed on the following Wikileaks web page:
http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=2649214
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