WikiLeaks has done it again. They have released the first of 5
million emails from Stratfor or Strategic Forecasting, a corporate intelligence
company. Back in December 2011, Anonymous hackers announced that they had
gathered more than 200 gigabytes of data from Stratfor's poorly secured
database. Thus far, in typical Wikileaks fashion, only 214 emails have
been released, among them, this gem between Reva Bhalla and George
Friedman.
Here
is the Linkedin profile of Reva Bhalla (as an aside, I do find it interesting that a "spy" would post their resume on Linkedin):
George
Friedman just happens to be the founder, Chief Intelligence Officer and CEO of
Stratfor.
Back
to the email exchange between Ms. Bhalla and her boss. The thread starts with Ms. Bhalla updating
"watchofficer" and George Friedman on the state of Hugo Chavez's
health and power struggles in Venezuela. As a source, she uses a "well-connected
VZ source working with Israel" and states that he has a "B"
reliability but that:
"...I've
gotten better at reading him over the years to tell when he’s feeding me shit
and when he’s giving useful info – his info on the VZ regime has checked out,
but i tend to be more skeptical on iran-related info.”
She goes on to outline the state of
Chavez's health (his long-term prognosis is not good), who will replace him
(Finance Minister Nicolas Maduro) and that China, Russia, Iran and Cuba are
propping up his regime. She writes the following about the post-Chavez
military (spelling errors are hers):
"guess
who has been most cooperative with us lately? The military elite.
These guys have been living the good life. They love women…lots of women. THey love booze.
They love bora bora. They
are easy to bribe. They don’t care
about chavez, they care about maintaining their current lifestyles.”
Ms.
Bhalla feels that Chavez will invest a lot of time and money in the militia to
protect his regime as a measure that will cause the military elite to hesitate
before acting against him or his hand-picked successor.
She
closes with:
"these
were the main points. will update with more..little fuzzy from wine right now.”
Her
boss, George Friedman, responds with the following:
“The
problem with analyst sources is they are unqualified. This means that we don’t have clarity on their sources and
therefore can’t evaluate accuracy.
This could be valuable humint or pure rumint.
One
of the reasons I want you to execute missions is to learn how to evaluate sources. This is a very difficult art but one
that you must learn.
The
gut is to be trusted only after its well trained."
Yes
Grasshopper, you must learn from the Master Spy!
Ms.
Bhalla responded, defensively stating that:
"Yes,
I have much to learn and I may be just an analyst, but i'm not 100% incapable
of evaluating a source i've known for a while. I've listened to waht you've
told me about reading a source (the Turk with the twitch). I figured out
what this source's twitch is in reading his eyes."
Other
than being a bad speller, Ms. Bhalla is convinced that she is fully capable of
evaluating the value of an informant's information, contrary to what her boss
may think.
Mr.
Friedman responds with the following:
"If
this is a source you suspect may have value, you have to take control od (sic)
him. Control means financial,
sexual or psychological control to the point where he would reveal his sourcing
and be tasked.” (my bold)
It is interesting to see that a private intelligence company
that provides data and analysis to large, multinational corporations and
government agencies is not above using "financial, sexual or psychological
control" to pressure a "source". To say that this
oversteps the bounds of decency would be an understatement. It will be interesting to see what other techniques Stratfor uses to glean intelligence from its network of informants. I also found it interesting to note that
most of the highly confidential email thread was communicated over the RIM
network. Apparently, its security can be trusted!
In the coming days, it will be interesting to see what else
is revealed about Stratfor’s modus operandi in the shady world of intelligence
gathering.
Posts
This is big news. It essentially turns fictitious spy novels into novel non-fictitious. It would be good for the public to realize how real this non fiction really, really is real.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what psychological control entails. It may liken to domestic abuse tactics. The sexual control part may be a combination of seduction and rape perhaps.
ReplyDeleteWhat do others think?
Do you really think that what you are reading here doesn't happen within the walls of Washington every single day? Do you think the military elite of Venezuela- interested only in maintaining their lifestyle- are any different from the stooges in Congress today?
ReplyDeleteIf you want to obtain governmnet intel, you have to play their games.
Ms. Bhalla is welcome to sexually control me.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting to read, but the methods of control are old news.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 1:49
ReplyDeleteGood one.
I've been a member, on and off, of Stratfor for many years. This interaction between Friedman and Bhalla does not surprise me. All you have to do is watch some Stratfor videos to get a sense of George's big ego. But then, many entrepreneurs have big egos. Just something Bhalla, and the rest of the gang, has to deal with.
ReplyDeleteBTW, you may want to take a look at a picture of Bhalla in profile before getting to excited. She is a great analyst, but has definitely has a prominent proboscis.
Junkie: Just found your blog. Good stuff. Gonna add it to my RSS feeds.
What is 'the Turk with a twitch?'
ReplyDelete