WikiLeaks to release five million emails stolen from Stratfor
WikiLeaks is making public email stolen from Stratfor, a global security analysis company based in Texas. Hackers broke into Stratfor data systems in December and stole employee emails.
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People linked to Anonymous took credit for the data theft. "Congrats on the amazing partnership between #Anonymous and #WikiLeaks to make all 5 million mails public," AnonSec Tweeted. AnonSec is one of several Twitter accounts used to promote and organize activities associated with Anonymous.
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It was not immediately clear what impact the release of the emails might have on Stratfor, its employees, clients and information sources.
Previous releases from WikiLeaks, such as secret video battle footage and thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in 2010 have angered the U.S. government. WikiLeaks' disclosures also have raised questions about the safety of confidential sources quoted in previously secret documents.
WikiLeaks said it was working with two dozen media organizations worldwide that have access to a database of the Stratfor emails. These include the U.S. newspaper publisher McClatchy Co..
"We have begun reviewing the emails and will publish as warranted," McClatchy's Washington bureau chief, James Asher, told Reuters.
WikiLeaks said its other media partners include L'Espresso and La Repubblica newspapers in Italy, the NDR/ARD state broadcaster in Germany and Russia Reporter.
The group gave a sneak preview of the emails to The Yes Men, an activist group that targets what it views as corporate greed.
The Stratfor emails discuss an elaborate hoax the group staged to criticize Dow Chemical Co's handling of the Bhopal chemical disaster in India, according to Andy Bichlbaum, one of The Yes Men.
"What is significant is the picture it helps to paint of the way corporations operate," Bichlbaum told Reuters. "They operate with complete disregard for rule of law and human decency."
After Stratfor's computers were hacked at least twice last December, the credit card details of more than 30,000 subscribers to Stratfor publications were posted on the Internet, including those of former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former U.S. vice president Dan Quayle.
The FBI began investigating the matter in December.
Australian-born Assange, 40, is currently under house arrest in Britain and fighting extradition to Sweden for questioning over alleged sex crimes.
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