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WikiLeaks' Stratfor Dump Is Paranoid, Dangerous

Julian Assange doesn't seem to get private intelligence, Dan Murphy argues

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 27, 2012 1:15 PM CST

(Newser) – If Julian Assange thinks the Stratfor documents he released today are WikiLeaks' next blockbuster, he's dead wrong, writes Dan Murphy of the Christian Science Monitor. WikiLeaks' statement—which hints darkly at the private intelligence firm's corporate clients, "web of informers," "pay-off structure," and "psychological methods"—is "like one long toot on a dog-whistle for the paranoid," writes Murphy, who was once a so-called "informer" for one of the dozens of similar private intelligence companies out there.

"Stratfor is on the mild end of the scary shadow CIA/stodgy think-tank spectrum," Murphy assures us. He has read many of their reports, and while their conclusions are sometimes dubious, he's never seen anything "nefarious or dangerous." Besides, for a supposed anti-secrecy group like WikiLeaks, "there's something more than a little ironic about targeting a group that works on … revealing secrets. And from where I sit, it's not much of a stretch from targeting a group like Stratfor to going after newspapers."

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is picture through a camera viewfinder as he speaks at a press conference in central London on February 27, 2012. (Getty Images/AFP)

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The media refers to us as a think tank. The Russian media calls us part of the CIA. Arab countries say we are Israelis. It’s wild. The only things we haven’t been called is a hardware store or Druids. - Victoria Allen, Stratfor employee

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WikiLeaks' Stratfor Dump Is Paranoid, Dangerous

Julian Assange doesn't seem to get private intelligence, Dan Murphy argues

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