Stratfor

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Strategic Forecasting Inc.

Type	Private
Founded	1996
Headquarters	Austin, Texas, USA
Key people	George Friedman (founder, chairman and Chief Intelligence Officer)
Industry	intelligence
Products	geopolitical intelligence newsletter, custom intelligence
Employees	70 (2004)
Website	http://www.stratfor.com/

Strategic Forecasting, Inc., more commonly known as Stratfor, is a private intelligence agency founded in 1996 in Austin, Texas. Barron's once referred to it as "The Shadow CIA".^[1]

1 Clients
2 Briefings
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Clients

Stratfor's client list is confidential, but the company's publicity list includes "Fortune 500 companies and major government agencies". On a previous version of Stratfor's home page the company identified government agencies as among its customers – the Central Intelligence Agency was one example given.^[2]

Currently Stratfor's products are oriented around individual subscriptions, of which the "Premium" product is the most comprehensive in content offered. Other packages, such as "Global Vantage", are tailored to appeal to commercial or governmental customers. They feature regional and customizable intelligence whereby users are able to partake in monthly teleconferences with Stratfor's founder, Dr. George Friedman, and have the option of e-mailing Stratfor's analysts with a "guaranteed response within 24 hours Monday - Friday".^[3] Some of Stratfor's work remains available free to the public.^[4]

[edit] Briefings

Stratfor has published a daily intelligence briefing since the late 1990s. Its rise to prominence occurred during the 1999 NATO air-strikes over Kosovo issue while Stratfor's services were still free to the public. Before the end of 1999, however, Stratfor had introduced a subscription service through which it offered the majority of its analyses. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Stratfor made its "breaking news" paragraphs, as well as some notable analyses predicting likely actions to be taken by al-Qaeda and the Bush administration available freely to the public. Interestingly, according to contemporary Stratfor analyses shortly after the events of September 11, Stratfor believed that it was highly likely al Qaeda had planned subsequent attacks on targets inside the continental United States (although it was emphasized that it was highly unlikely that any would approach the complexity of those seen on September 11).^{[citation needed]}