Julian Assange: 'Stratfor Are Hopeless James Bonds'

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has attacked the Stratfor intelligence firm, following the announcement of the release of more than five million emails from their servers.

Talking at a press conference at the Frontline Club in London, Assange warned:"We will release emails of private lives of private's lies of private spies."

The whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks started publishing more than five million emails hacked by Anonymous collective from the servers of Stratfor.

WikiLeaks said it released 194 emails in partnership with 25 media organisations around the world, including Rolling Stone, Italian weekly l'Espresso, The Hindu and Russia Reporter.

The emails, published by WikiLeaks under the name of the Global Intelligence Files, date from July 2004 to late December 2011.

Assange commented also on the Stratfor's attempt to set up an investment fund with a Goldman Sachs director, using insider trading information.

In 2009, the then managing director of the investment bank, Shea Morenz, planned to utilise the intelligence from the insider network "to start up a captive strategic investment fund".

"What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor's intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments, particularly government bonds, currencies and the like," reads an email by Stratfor's CEO George Friedman.

Assange said the hedge fund is "completely out of control and totally absurd".

"Stratfor are people playing James Bond in a mostly ineffective, hopeless manner," he said. The 41-year-old talked about a "cowboy culture" that allowed Stratfor to boom in the US, without any government's control.

Stefania Maurizi, of the Italian weekly l'Espresso claimed that Strafor "has information on events before they happen". In reading these emails, you see that these organisation have information about drone attacks five months before they happened," she said.

• The WikiLeaks GiFiles: Stratfor Says Attack on Iran a Euro Crisis Diversion
• The WikiLeaks GiFiles: Stratfor Predicts Huge Oil Profits from Attack on Iran
• The WikiLeaks GiFiles: Stratfor Monitored Bhopal Activists 'Yes Men'
• The WikiLeaks GiFiles: Stratfor Plotted with Goldman Sachs to Set Up Investment Fund
• The WikiLeaks GiFiles: Israeli Commandos Have Destroyed Iran Nuclear Facilities, says Strafor
• Anonymous Releases Wikileaks Press Conference Video