Stratfor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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]

George Friedman is the founder, chief intelligence officer, and CEO of the company.

Fred Burton is Stratfor's Vice President for Counterterrorism and Corporate Security.

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 international government agencies.^[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 its inception in 1996. Its rise to prominence occurred with the release of its Kosovo Crisis Center during the 1999 NATO air-strikes over Kosovo, which led to publicity in Time Magazine, Texas Monthly, and other major publications. 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]}