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[Wikileaks] The GI-Files: Now with a 2nd CIA and ~$125b in laundering a year
zerg rush
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Wikileaks
Remember when Wikileaks leaked the Afganistan war logs, then the Iraq war logs, then the diplomatic cables? This all built up and helped catalyze the Arab Spring, forcing the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen from power; civil uprisings in Bahrain and Syria; and major protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman.
Well Wikileaks is back in action again and going after the banks. They call this release the GI-Files.
So far, we've learned that there's a private corporation employed as an unaccountable CIA, who call themselves Stratfor. Nominally an Austin Texas think tank, they have an unrivaled collection of informants, money laundering, blackmail, bribes, and ex-intel personnel. It's kind of like UK phone hacking, except it dwarfs it in scope and instead of selling the data for news they sell to the US Government and powerful multi-national corporations. This company is the kind of Intelligence Operation other nations wish they had.
There's also the allegation that Wachovia alone laundered ~125b a year for Mexican drug cartels. This is something that they were previously nailed on. Previous estimates were that Wachovia embezzled around $40b a year for $378.4b; that's about 1/3rd Mexico's GDP. To date, Wachovia is now immune to prosecution and only ended up paying a paltry 160m. If Wikileaks is correct, then they scope of the smuggling is even larger than believed.
Keep in mind, they're just getting started. Today is the first day of leaks and there are tons more to come. The most anticipated leaks are those that were allegedly destroyed: The US No-Fly list, and the Bank of America Documentation. We'll just have to wait to find out if those were truly wiped or not. Regardless, it's great fodder for discourse and debate.
Remember when Wikileaks leaked the Afganistan war logs, then the Iraq war logs, then the diplomatic cables? This all built up and helped catalyze the Arab Spring, forcing the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen from power; civil uprisings in Bahrain and Syria; and major protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman.
Well Wikileaks is back in action again and going after the banks. They call this release the GI-Files.
So far, we've learned that there's a private corporation employed as an unaccountable CIA, who call themselves Stratfor. Nominally an Austin Texas think tank, they have an unrivaled collection of informants, money laundering, blackmail, bribes, and ex-intel personnel. It's kind of like UK phone hacking, except it dwarfs it in scope and instead of selling the data for news they sell to the US Government and powerful multi-national corporations. This company is the kind of Intelligence Operation other nations wish they had.
There's also the allegation that Wachovia alone laundered ~125b a year for Mexican drug cartels. This is something that they were previously nailed on. Previous estimates were that Wachovia embezzled around $40b a year for $378.4b; that's about 1/3rd Mexico's GDP. To date, Wachovia is now immune to prosecution and only ended up paying a paltry 160m. If Wikileaks is correct, then they scope of the smuggling is even larger than believed.
Keep in mind, they're just getting started. Today is the first day of leaks and there are tons more to come. The most anticipated leaks are those that were allegedly destroyed: The US No-Fly list, and the Bank of America Documentation. We'll just have to wait to find out if those were truly wiped or not. Regardless, it's great fodder for discourse and debate.
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http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-01-14/news/30096479_1_leila-ben-ali-trabelsis-tunisia-s-president-s
The Arab Spring started with the Tunisian revolution, and spread from there. Tunisia aside from having high unemployment and food prices was horribly corrupt. Everyone knew they were corrupt, but the Wikileaks cables were a massive, steaming pile of irrefutable proof. After Tunisia, the arab spring spread to other locales (which also had their steaming piles of proof), and the rest is history.
Clearly Wikileaks didn't 'cause' the arab spring, but it very much helped it along. The political landscape would have been vastly different if not for them.
Edit: I see you mention the war leaks specifically. Basically, it showed that America was losing and it knew it was losing the entire time. We were just staying in the war to save face, which doesn't work when other people know that you're lying (which wikileaks leaked). The Tunisian president was a strong US supporter. A lot of the arab spring nation's leaders were supporting the US war on terror against the wishes of their people.
Stratfor is also spooks for spooks. Dudes who work with intelligence agencies are a major subscriber base. I'd bet there are a lot of meetings today in D.C. about this.
You call them out on the world stage apparently.
Either that or die mysteriously of radon poisoning. Either or. (Edit: This is a joke. I don't have any knowledge of what, if any, assassinations they've committed.)
Editx2: I feel dirty having to put in that edit. There shouldn't be a plausible chance that they would actually do that shit.
I mean holy goddamn.
They're basically an intelligence clearinghouse. Like Jane's Information Group and The Council on Foreign Relations, they exist to sell their expertise in publications to a general audience and private reports to large organizations. This leak is a little like the Komen controversy, in that a publicly quiet, noncontroversial organization has been outed as a hotbed of wingnuts.
Without Assange or Wikileaks we'd have far less accountability in the U.S. government. Obama hasn't done that well on having a transparent government, after all. Someone needs to do this since the government won't clean up its trash.
Ex-spies in the public service can fuck off if they're exploiting their skills to be mercenaries for the highest bidder. They're no better than Blackwater.
Accountability is overrated, I hear you there. :bz
That shit should be extremely illegal.
That drug trafficking funding thing... that... that really upsets me. Not like, sad. Like that is some infuriating and insulting shit.
The diplomatic cables things was also stupid and did more harm than good.
I'm not saying Wikileaks hasn't done some good, but they really need to get on the ball about what will actually help the world and not just "fuck it, throw all the information out here ever haha!"
There are limits on that. Trust goes both ways. When its revealed a government has committed criminal activities the only thing a government can do to earn that trust back is to investigate the culprits and punish them to the full extent of the law. Ignoring said parties activities or punishing them lightly doesn't stop shit. Nor is that trust worthy anything.
They cut their ties with their governments to be mercenaries. While it's a shame they may have reprisals, my sympathy for them is very little. Being a spy is dangerous, they made their own beds by making themselves targets to people who actually want them to pay for their amoral deeds. At least this way they'll get punished. It's not like the authorities have been doing a good job shutting them down.
Oh wow, I just assumed you were doing a Poe's Law parody. But no you actually believe that it's a bad thing for people to reveal the truth about vast lies and conspiracies, and then to pervert the rule of law to frame or torture people who are against the establishment.
I, uh... that's a worldview I fundamentally cannot understand. I guess Woodward and Bernstein are traitors too, or something?
I'd argue that we have a fundamental duty to second guess decisions made by our government and that information is critical in formulating worthwhile and accurate opinions of governmental action and policy. "Private covert operative" is a nice way of saying, "Mercenary" or "Industrial Spy".
Accountability is a part of being a leader. Declaring "national security" and sweeping everything under the rug is just a reprehensible way to show that you learned from Nixon's errors.
Uh, they were releasing it as a trickle of information while redacting all the stuff. They had the whole thing online in encrypted format, so if they were assassinated or jailed the work could be done without them. The 'fuck it' part came when The Guardian then Der Freitag released the encryption keys (or ways to get the encryption keys) and then anyone anywhere could look at the unredacted version. As in, all the evil governments that wanted to disappear people could easily look at the unredacted version, but the informants who didn't know about cryptography couldn't.
So the 'fuck it' was more like a 'oh shit evil guys have it anyways because someone fucked up might as well release'.
We were never expected to or intended to trust them blindly.
Edit: I was slightly mistaken, but
I'm really interested to see what comes out of these new leaks. Here's hoping that they get more attention. Hm, is there a site anywhere that chronicles the effect and/or results of past cable releases?
More or less topical, from the Yes Men:
Jesus Christ.
Imagine if shit got real? They'd lose their minds.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
Considering how frequently I've been disappointed with the quality of their finished product, I think we're both justified in assuming that they weren't working with originally-sourced material.
edit: A quote from the WaPo article:
As opposed to the impression of a "second CIA" posited earlier, this better represents the self-important amateur hour, Spy Who Came In From Recess attitude that I ordinarily associate with anything I've ever read from their journal.
I'm a huge fan of independent investigation that's beholden only to the public, but in the real world, people in power will never institute oversight of their activities. The wikileaks model is pretty much the only option available, as inelegant as it is.
As for internal affairs, as has been mentioned already it doesn't exist. I'll take wikileaks over no oversight every time because it's patently obviously that my elected officials cannot be trusted to follow the law, or even the best interests of the nation as a whole, when left to do anything they please in total secrecy.
They redacted it originally IIRC. It was a third party that let specific details be revealed.
Secrecy on that level should only be used very carefully. Not for every corrupt asshole in the government or private sector, especially when crimes are being committed.
Wikileaks is there for when governments fail to be accountable or corporate entities who do shit like this who are even worse. It's organized crime on a different level. Had Wikileaks done this to a mafia or street gang would you be so quick to defend them?
Unfortunately we don't have that right now. The U.S. government has no such entity for spies or ex-spies that I'm aware of. Or at least it's basically rendered weak or useless from the Dubya administration. Not that such an entity couldn't always be improved. This type of shit the government can't afford to relax on. The U.S. military's a joke about these things as the last few years proved.
Until the day when America has it up and running competently Wikileaks will have fill in the gaps. Someone has to do it.