The STRATFOR E-Mails Are Indeed Interesting

Once again, the Anonymous folks have done the world a favor by highlighting the intelligence community opinions that actually run the world. Via FDL, here's one:

- "Where are the moderates in the Muslim world?" That was the theme of the conversation on source's end. If you listen to this person, you come away with the notion that the Israelis seem extremely unnerved about the future of the region, with the primary focus being on the Iranian threat. (Again, this is not groundbreaking insight.)

- Source openly said that none of this shit would be happening right now had Obama not abandoned Mubarak like he did. When I later criticized Bush for shattering the balance of power in the PG, source shot back, "Well what about Obama?" I said that Obama had maintained the same FP as Bush, a claim with which the source agreed. And yet the source loves Bush's policies and hates Obama's. Israelis are not a fan of Barack.

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Interesting press conference. Highlights:

Julian Assange from 4:53 to 14.30.

Yassan al-Assadi discusses the generally poor quality of private intelligence, witnessed by bias and racism in the American understanding of the Middle East: 30:00 - 34:48.

The use of private intelligence to make money - the STRADCAP hedge fund: 40:00 - 41:30.

'National Security', neo-McCarthyite hysteria, and the problem of low-quality intelligence: 56:20 - 60:00.

Julian Assange's kind-of rant: 1:05:00 - 1:10:40.