“STRATFORS failed to predict they would be hacked, with the subsequent loss of member email and charge card info. Big scandal back then (a couple of years ago?).”
Must’ve been over 5 years ago now. I was one of the emails that was hacked at STRATFOR. how do I know? Well, it was my Blackberry email address that was hacked, and shortly afterwards, I received a couple emails from the hacking group Anonymous wanting me to go through the information they stole. I told them to GFY, and then ‘they’ retaliated by ruining that email address of mine. Anonymous lost ALL respect I may have had for them at that point, though it was very little.
I have found STRATFOR’s forecasts to be correct far more often than wrong. Think of it this way, a private enterprise made up of people previously employed by the government, to do what they had been doing without the governmental bureaucracy.
Unfortunately, I think what started out as an excellent business model and intelligence gathering/analyzing organization has fallen prey to the Uniparty and their interests. Now, much of what they release goes through the Uniparty filters in order to reveal that which helps the Uniparty agenda and keep private that which does not.