Stratfor

Jeremy Hammond, one of the five hackers arrested two days ago in the crackdown on key members of LulzSec and Anonymous, is no stranger to the law and has been described by his mother as "genius with no brain".

Court documents released earlier this week show that the 27-year-old Chicago native was arrested several times over the past few years for hacking activities, protests, mob action and other charges. The picture that emerges of Hammond is of an individual committed to a variety of activist causes with little concern about their potential consequences.

Did the FBI know in advance of the Stratfor hack, but let it happen in order to gather evidence?

Soon after the news broke yesterday (March 6) about the arrest and cooperation of turncoat Anonymous and Lulzsec hacker Hector Xavier Monsegur, known online as "Sabu," the Justice Department released chatroom transcripts that imply the FBI knew in advance of the devastating attack in December upon the Austin, Texas geopolitical analysis firm Strategic Forecasting, Inc.

Allow me to state the obvious: Sometimes a so-called “leaked email” is just a bunch of words someone posted on the Internet.

Update: It's a hoax.

It appears that Stratfor CEO, George Friedman has tendered (or intends to tender) his resignation effective immediately citing the release of 5 million internal Statfor emails by Wikileaks'. From Pastebin (courtesy of @AnonymousIRC):