+ NOTE: This post was tweeted out by Wikileaks
on August 3, 2012 +
+ It was also picked up by Andrew Sullivan +
Read part 2: Bad news for Mitt Romney: "Romney has been disastrous", "Romney thinks he can win. Mormon, no way" - PLUS: More GOP inside info and brutal remarks about Michelle Bachmann and again, about Sarah Palin: "Can carry the white trash and redneck vote"
Read part 3: Cenk Uygur from "The Young Turks" reports about publication of Stratfor-emails by "Politicalgates" - More bombshell revelations from the Stratfor-pile: Rick Perry told Stratfor-Vice President Fred Burton that he "feels that Mitt Romney cannot get elected" - PLUS "Much of the US media resigned from investigative journalism", according to Stratfor-analyst
By Patrick
on August 3, 2012 +
+ It was also picked up by Andrew Sullivan +
Read part 2: Bad news for Mitt Romney: "Romney has been disastrous", "Romney thinks he can win. Mormon, no way" - PLUS: More GOP inside info and brutal remarks about Michelle Bachmann and again, about Sarah Palin: "Can carry the white trash and redneck vote"
Read part 3: Cenk Uygur from "The Young Turks" reports about publication of Stratfor-emails by "Politicalgates" - More bombshell revelations from the Stratfor-pile: Rick Perry told Stratfor-Vice President Fred Burton that he "feels that Mitt Romney cannot get elected" - PLUS "Much of the US media resigned from investigative journalism", according to Stratfor-analyst
By Patrick
The life of a political blogger can be full of surprises. One such surprise happened yesterday. I found an email in my inbox - the sender: Wikileaks.
I guess some people like us over there. Because the email said the following:
You have been confidentially invited to join the WikiLeaks investigative group for the Global Intelligence Files (the GI 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. Less than one percent of them have so far been made public. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large organisations, including the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. Being part of this international team will put you in the privileged position of being able to search the emails using the sophisticated WikiLeaks search engine which will enable you to research and publish articles and papers using this data.
As you can see from recent articles, such as this one in Russian Reporter there is still a lot to find in the data:
http://rusrep.ru/article/wikileaksneweng
We have created a unique invitation system that allows selected journalists, University Professors and employees of human rights organisations to join this project. The system allows the selected invitees, such as yourself, to agree to our Terms and Conditions and gain immediate access to the files for research and publishing purposes, and to invite others worthy of inclusion.
To join this project go to the following URL: (...)
Screenshot (click on all screenshots in this post to enlarge):
When I went to the designated website, I saw the following:
GIFiles Signup Instructions
Becoming a WikiLeaks Partner for the Global Intelligence Files
You have been invited to enter a secret world.
By joining the global WikiLeaks partnership on the Global Intelligence Files (the GI Files) – you will have access to 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 organisations, including the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. Being part of this international team will allow you to search the emails using the sophisticated search engine designed by WikiLeaks to enable you to research and publish articles and papers using this data.
The purpose of this system is to maximise global impact of the GI Files by restricting supply to those who are most likely to research and publish on them.
We are allowing journalists, academics and human rights organisations to search and publish the GI Files. To enter into this partnership you will need to be given a unique code by one of our existing partners. Users who demonstrate research and publishing ability will be considered as partners for new WikiLeaks publications.
Once you have this code please follow the instructions below to enter the partnership and gain access to the GI Files. These instructions are designed to be idiot-proof. They explain every step of this process, but don’t be scared - for most people this will be quick. (...)
Screenshot:
Note: You can find the current "official" releases of the Stratford-Emails here.
The sophisticated login procedures went smoothly, and the surprised blogger Patrick now has access to millions of Stratfor emails.
Some information about Stratfor - from Wikipedia:
Strategic Forecasting, Inc., more commonly known as Stratfor, is a global intelligence company founded in 1996 in Austin, Texas by George Friedman who is the founder, chief intelligence officer, and CEO of the company.
Stratfor has published a daily intelligence briefing since its inception in 1996. Its rise to prominence occurred with the release of its Kosovo Crisis Center during the 1999 NATO airstrikes over Kosovo, which led to publicity in Time magazine, Texas Monthly, and other publications. Before the end of 1999, however, Stratfor had introduced a subscription service through which it offered the majority of its analyses. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Stratfor made its "breaking news" paragraphs, as well as some notable analyses predicting likely actions to be taken by al-Qaeda and the Bush administration, available freely to the public.
Stratfor has some products available to the public including private briefings, corporate memberships, a publishing business that includes written and multimedia analysis and an iPhone application.
Stratfor has been cited by media such as CNN, Bloomberg, the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and the BBC as an authority on strategic and tactical intelligence issues. Barron's once referred to it as "The Shadow CIA".
You can find Stratfor's own website here.
+++
It is apparent the political opinions are very divided within the company - there are Democrats as well as Republicans who openly speak their mind in the internal emails.
But there is another aspect:
The Stratfor emails provide an absolutely unique insight into the real political thoughts of Americans as well as employees from abroad (or born abroad) - frank, uncensored, straightforward, sometimes hilarious, sometimes very embarrassing.
Speaking of embarrassing: I guess you know for what term I searched straight away. "Palin." I just had to. What I found, surprised me.
I expected that I would read some real inside info about Sarah Palin. But there was nothing of that sort. The people at Stratfor really had no clue about Palin's background, her scandals etc. They did not know more than other Americans who followed the news.
But then came the surprise: The Stratfor people did not hold back about Sarah Palin. What the American mainstream media sometimes had difficulty to express, due to legions of fanatical fans who defended Sarah and due to the desire to be "balanced", many Stratfor employees said openly, already in 2008: This woman is an idiot, and you simply cannot vote for her, as she is not fit to be the US President.
Even crude jokes were not off the table...
So, the content of the emails is newsworthy - but I do not think that the people who wrote the emails should be named. It does not seem relevant to me which particular employees wrote the emails. Therefore I decided to publish some of the emails, but I blacked out the names of the authors and recipients.
What follows is my "first batch" - in no particular order, mostly dealing with Sarah Palin.
Let the emails speak for themselves (click on screenshots to enlarge).
One employee "alleges" that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, but another Stratfor employee has a surprising response:
"I drove thru an area today in America that sure looked like Kenya."
Discussing Fox News host Bill O'Reilly:
"Have you not seen his sexual harassment suit? The man is a love god!"
"Ha ha! You guys have to stop smoking that stuff and get better stuff. When
you see him without his makeup it's scary - no suit would help - not even
a sexual harrassment suit!!!"
Some Stratfor people faced a pretty difficult choice in the 2008 election:
"I think that both parties pretty much suck. I'm still deciding whom to vote for in November."
Stratfor employees sharing their strangest dreams - was Sarah Palin included? You betcha!
"So I had this dream last night and most of you were in it. We were all
working like normal when the door opened and Sarah Palin walked in
being escorted by xxx. (sidenote: I really hate her in real life).
She walked around the office and there was a lot of chatter on why she
was here. Then she asked to speak privately with me. We went into
xxx office to talk. All of you were motioning to me to see what
the hell was going on.
Once behind closed doors, Sarah told me that she had enough blackmail
on me working for the Russians that I had to do what she said. She
then told me that a very public scandal was about to erupt surrounding
her. What she needed as a diversion for the media. So she told me that
I was going to marry her son, because the media loves a good wedding.
I hated this idea – bc why would I want to be in her family?—and said
I didn’t care if she publicized me being a double agent. She then
offered me $100,000…… that I took."
"Insights" into the McCain camp, from a source - well, not really breathtaking, the insights, but then a Stratfor manager gives a reply which no movie script would dare to invent:
"oh man, if this is all riding on Palin not looking completely retarded
tonight, that is a huge risk"
Sarah Palin, I really want to see you face when you read this!
The Stratfor people realized on September 2, 2008 that Sarah Palin only got a passport the year before, and this exchange contains a wonderful comparison between Sarah Palin and George W. Bush - a comparison which sadly the Fox News audience will never hear about:
"i like how 'experience' can be so completely subjective depending on who
we're talking about.
Fox news will claim that Palin is a governor. Governors make more
decisions than a senator. Therefore, of course Palin is more experienced
than Obama.
But has everyone forgotten who has been leading our country for the past 8
years? A Yes, Bush was a governor. Bush was also riding on his family
name, knew absolutely nothing and was one of the worst presidents we've
ever had. So what experience would you say Bush had to qualify him to be
president?
Obama can at least speak with confidence on the issues put before him. He
of course doesn't have the background that McCain has. But I get the
impression that he can understand what's happening, actually cares to know
what's happening around the world and has the potential to make good
decisions. You don't believe that, and that's fine."
Another exchange to the same topic contains my favourite quote so far from the Stratfor emails. Again, a sentence which is impossible to invent:
"So if McCain croaks, president hockey mom will buy Russia a capri sun
and everyhing will be okay?"
"PRESIDENT HOCKEY MOM!" That really made my day.
The Sarah Palin VP debate drinking game - an American favourite, I guess:
Sarah Palin gets punked bad - and one employee does not hold back:
"This is what scares the shit out of me with her being VP. xxx will loves
this. I cried laughing. This was also on the news today. Basically two
Canadian radio DJs called Sarah Palin pretending to be Nicolas Sarkozy and
made up a bunch of ridiculous crap. She talked with him for almost a FULL
7 minutes totally believing it to be him. Watch the full video and you'll
thank me later"
Americans, if you want to hear some frank words about your country from a foreign (born?) Stratfor analyst, you don't need to look any further (again from the series "What the Fox News Audience will never hear about"). Also, some ramblings about Wikileaks and Julian Assange (there are lots of email exchanges about Julian Assange in the Stratfor emails, by the way).
"Yes, America does horrible shit. You don't need Afghanistan and Iraq to
prove that. Why not throw the mass murder of probably 1-2 million
Vietnamese during the carpet bombing of North Vietnam? Or how about the 3k
or so people killed in my own country of birth, Serbia. Yes, it was just a
few thousand... but were they innocent? Many were.
So I don't have to be lectured on the hypocrisy of America. I concede that
point right away. My phrase using the word "values" was loaded and I
apologize. Certainly did not want to sound like Palin. But the point still
stands. Assange is alive, he will continue to be alive and America won't
kill him. There is nothing James can say that changes that fact.
A few general points. Saying that Russians or Chinese are not hypocrites
is easy for someone practicing/studying? corporate law in NEW YORK to say.
Ask the Estonians or South Koreans on that one, I am sure the answer would
be somewhat slightly different. So America deserves to be attacked by the
WikiLeaks because it is more of a hypocrite than China and/or Russia? I
think that may be the most sweeping argument I've heard in a while...
I actually am immensely in favor of WikiLeaks because of the value they
have to potentially unearth enormous corporate evil. EVIL. That is
wonderful. That is why I think there is distension within WikiLeaks. Note
that Assange's collaborator quit because he thought that Assange is a
giant douchebag who wants fame. The said collaborator wanted to
concentrate more on corporate leaks and stay away from "megaleaks" that
bring publicity but are questionable in terms of social justice.
Speaking of social justice, here is something that xxx should consider.
xxx writes:
When you combine the hypocrisy in America's external affairs with the
fact that its: economic system is so broken that around a quarter of its
working age population is un/under employed;
political system is crippled by a major party which is fighting a long
twilight struggle with reality and whose entire milieu is to funnel
taxpayer funds to the rich; judicial system is so broken that its highest
Court is now nothing more
than a party line vote, you reach a point where it becomes very important
for a harsh light to
be shone on the Janus-faced nature of America.
What follows is Kathleen's favourite sentence from the Stratfor emails:
"My wife thinks Sarah has gotten a boob job."
No scriptwriter would EVER get away with that - again! The Stratfor emails surely prove that reality is much stranger and fascinating than fiction.
Another classic sentence - it's just too good:
"she's the manchurian candidate."
Well, Sarah, are you? ;-)
Again, some very, very frank words about America. Grab your coke and brace yourself, Americans! ;-)
The reaction to the news that nearly 60 percent of Americans would never support a Republican presidential bid by Sarah Palin or Donald Trump:
"phew...
maybe your countrymen aren't as retarded as I thought
ohhh
snap!"
Sorry. There might be more below where this came from. Grab another coke please, and hold on to it tightly.
OK, here it comes, the most embarrassing email. Some people at Strafor find the Palin-retarded-vagina joke hilarious. I could not see any "protest" as well. Political correctness just died a very cruel death.
One person thinks that there could still be hope for Sarah Palin - if the McCain people would let her roam wild:
Well, Americans, some frank words again, and another extremely fascinating email exchange.
Sarah Palin said she is not seeking the 2012 Republican nomination
for president, according to a statement read on the Mark Levin radio
program.
"Why does a person who casually declined to finish her term as a
governor even need to say she's not running for president?"
"because she could still win.
W Bush won. Twice."
"And don't get me wrong, bush sure is an embarrassment. But this is the
kind of insanity that i think goes beyond even the idiocy of the american
electorate."
OMG.
That really speaks for itself.
So, what have we left for today. The following quote also speaks for itself:
"I just want this to be over.
I could be supportive of a president mccain, but not a president palin. I
just disagree too strongly with her fundamental beliefs. Obama might
end up being another carter (or kennedy, or just plain incompetent). But
mccain could end up being another bush.
Either way, the beltway and basic geopolitical realities will sweep them both away in its characteristic torrent. We shall see."
So we had the Sarah Palin drinking game, the crudest joke ever, a Sarah Palin dream, what is still missing?
Of course: The "Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator"
It's fun for the whole family!
So we learned quite a lot today. Sarah Palin was already recognizable as a moron in 2008, the intelligence of the American electorate is in doubt, and dirty, politically incorrect jokes are always cheered on. And George W. Bush was an idiot as well.
Thank God the somebody hacked the Stratfor emails, we might have never heard about these shocking facts. But please do not tell Bill O'Reilly that he is a "love God", he might take this the wrong way.
Dear readers, I hope that you realize that you are reading this before anyone else in America, here at Politicalgates.
Good night, and good luck!
+++
UPDATE:
As the previous examples indicate, the Stratfor-emails provide in many cases not rare "inside info", but some fascinating, "unfiltered" commentary on current affairs. As Barack Obama's birthday is approaching fast, we have a little gift for the President already today, so to speak: A Stratfor-Analyst explaining in March 2010, on the height of the "Tea Party" madness, why Barack Obama might not be a one-term-President. Again, some very interested, authentic, unfiltered thoughts.
The analyst wrote:
Here are my thoughts on this, and I'm putting this on analyst list because
it has to do with Obama's political bandwidth.
A lot of people are assuming that Obama is done in the midterm and that he
will eventually be a one term President. I think three things are
beginning to coalesce that make this far from a foregone conclusion:
1. Health care reform passed.
xxx is not the only person who is glad it passed so that we don't have
to listen to it anymore. The fact that a bunch of Republican states are
contesting it is just going to drag it out longer and piss independents
more. Plus, can you see the adds that Rahm Emmanuel is going to put out on
this topic? I can already see an African American woman with sickle cell
disease, a Mexican American man with diabetes and a blond, blue-eyed
Iraq-Afghanistan war veteran with 13 kids and multiple purple hearts who
has brain tumor all saying in the add, "Why are Republicans trying to kick
me off of healthcare? Give it a chance... give me a chance" Not only will
those campaigns mobilize the minority vote again, they will get the
conservative independents to despise Republican efforts to kill health
reform. Republicans made a big mistake by letting this thing pass. Now
they are making a huge mistake by opposing it in court. It's perfect
fodder for attack adds. Not to mention that the guys doing it are a bunch
of loaded white guys. Game set and match Axelrod and Emmanuel.
2. Brown won Mass way too early
Classic problem of alerting your opposition to their weakness too early
(like what is going on in the UK right now). This will only lead the
Democrats to pull some shameless adds that I am referring to above. They
will be shameless.
3. Tea Baggers will screw it up
In the midterm elections nobody in their right mind who has anything smart
or decent to do votes in primaries. This is certain to put a bunch of tea
bagger sympathetic Republican candidates for Congress and Senate because
only the extremists will care enough to go and vote in primaries. The
problem is that come November Tea Party is going to be seen as extremist.
This is why all this "violence" (I put it in quotes because it is a
joke... a brick through a window is not political violence) is so damaging
to the entire Republican partyt. Americans abhor political violence.
Remember that Howard Dean lost the chance to be a Presidential candidate
because he raised his voice. Come November, you'll have a bunch of Teabag
sympathetic Republican candidates running for Congress who will have been
elected by Tea Party activists in primaries. By November, the mainstream
media (which has already started obsessing with supposed "political
violence") will have made the Tea Party guys look like the Red Brigades.
This will mean a lot less wins than Republicans than expected.
Not that this makes Obama safe in 2012, but it certainly makes him less of
a "certain one term President".
One more thing. America loves "winners". You can be a porn-star banging
golfer, gambling basketball player who gets his father killed because of
debts or a rapist boxer who eats human ears. Bottom line is that if you
can deliver wins, people will be fascinated by you and give you respect.
This is why it was so central to the Republicans to defeat Obama on
healthcare, not because of its contents but because of its symbolic
meaning.
Particularly revealing:
"This is why it was so central to the Republicans to defeat Obama on
healthcare, not because of its contents but because of its symbolic
meaning."
Exactly! It's all a game, and the American citizens are the pawns in this game. This is the truth that the MSM won't tell their audience.
Screenshot:
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