Stratfor and Sri Lanka: An initial study of ‘The Global Intelligence Files’

Stratfor and Sri Lanka: An initial study of ‘The Global Intelligence Files’

17 Feb, 2013

Groundviews and Wikileaks

Groundviews has in the past published two key article based on content obtained through Wikileaks. Wikileaks on Sri Lanka: A breakdown and implications was the first article on the unprecedented release of US diplomatic cables, and published just hours after the tranche was made available on the now well known, and much attacked website. Groundviews was told some time ago that the US Embassy in Colombo used this article as a key resource in going through the tranche of material on Wikileaks as it pertained to Sri Lanka. From draft to official text: Wikileaks reveals the US response to the end of war in Sri Lanka was a more specific piece, that looked at the drafting process of official statements in general by the US Government and in particular, a statement by the US State Department dealing with one of the most important events on Sri Lanka in 2009. This article was tweeted by the official Wikileaks account, and the resulting traffic spike temporarily crashed the site.

The tweet that triggered this article
Two days ago, Wikileaks published the following,

While the emphasis was on Latin America, Groundviews was keen to discover what information there was on Sri Lanka using the new search interface.

Background to The Global Intelligence Files
Almost exactly one year ago, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files. The Files contain,

“…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.”

In a response to the unprecedented leak of emails never intended for free access and scrutiny in the public domain, Stratfor founder George Friedman flagged an important distinction between ‘subscriber’ and ‘client’, noting that the media reportage over the corporate entities mentioned in the leaked emails had often conflated both. A fair point, but unsurprisingly, Friedman did not go on to mention who Stratfor’s clients were.

Wikileaks is more than just a web based host for this explosive tranche of emails. As the Guardiannotes, one of the leaked emails contained,

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