Stuart Hughes · @stuartdhughes
27th Feb 2012 from Twitlonger
BREAKING: I've just filed this copy for @bbcnews on the publication of the #gifiles by #wikileaks ....
The whistleblowing website, Wikileaks, has just begun publishing a new tranche of confidential documents.
Wikileaks has obtained more than five million emails from the private intelligence analysis company Stratfor, which is based in Austin, Texas.
Stratfor’s clients include Fortune 500 companies and international government agencies.
Stratfor’s computers were hacked last December. Members of the loose-knit hacker group Anonymous claimed responsibility.
The emails obtained by Wikileaks date from between July 2004 and late December 2011.
Wikileaks claims that “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 Defense Intelligence Agency.”
Wikileaks claims that “the emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods.”
WikiLeaks says it has teamed up with more 25 media organisations and activist groups to sift through the emails. It says the documents will be released gradually over the coming weeks.
The Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, is fighting extradition from the UK to Sweden over sexual assault allegations, which he denies.
The Swedish authorities are seeking to put Mr Assange on trial on accusations of raping one woman and "sexually molesting and coercing" another in Stockholm in August 2010.
Wikileaks is holding a press conference at 1200GMT on Monday at the Frontline Club in Paddington, when it will comment further on the latest disclosures.