"WikiLeaks release more than five million Stratfor company emails"

Wikileaks has published The Global Intelligence Files on its website. Picture: courtesy of Wikileaks

"WikiLeaks release more than five million Stratfor company emails"

Emails said to reveal the inner workings of Stratfor

WikiLeaks said to reveal "web of informers and pay-offs"

Info about the US government’s attacks on Assange

WIKILEAKS has published more than five million confidential emails from US-based intelligence firm Stratfor, which was apparently obtained by hackers.

Dubbed “The Global Intelligence Files”, the information dates from between July 2004 and December 2011 and is said to reveal Stratfor's "web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods”.

Stratfor describes itself as a subscription-based provider of geopolitical analysis with an intelligence-based approach to gathering information.

WikiLeaks said the company provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency.

The emails are said to “reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations”, claimed a WikiLeaks press release.

“The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods."

The release claims Stratfor CEO George Friedman told company analyst Reva Bhalla how to coax an Israeli intelligence informant into providing information on the medical condition of the President of Venezuala, Hugo Chavez.

“(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," Mr Friedman is alleged to have said.

The files also contain information about the US government’s attacks against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

Last December, Stratfor’s servers were hacked by individuals claiming to be linked to the Anonymous cyber-activist group.

Credit card details of more than 30,000 subscribers to Stratfor publications were posted on the internet, including those of former US secretary of state Kissinger and vice president Dan Quayle.

An FBI investigation is already under way into the hack last December.