By TCN News,
New Delhi: Dow Chemical was paying an intelligence firm Startfor to spy on the Yes Men group and Bhopal gas disaster activists. The WikiLeaks is going to publish today over five million e-mails addressed from Stratfor to Dow and Union Carbide public relations directors.
In a statement issued by the prank activists The Yes Man, the group allege that the emails “reveal everything from sinister spy tactics to an insider trading scheme with Goldman Sachs (see below), also include several discussions of the Yes Men and Bhopal activists.”
Bhopal activists seek redress for the 1984 Dow Chemical/Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal that led to thousands of deaths, injuries in more than half a million people, and lasting environmental damage.
“Many of the Bhopal-related emails, addressed from Stratfor to Dow and Union Carbide public relations directors, reveal concern that, in the lead-up to the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, the Bhopal issue might be expanded into an effective systemic critique of corporate rule, and speculate at length about why this hasn’t yet happened—providing a fascinating window onto what at least some corporate types fear most from activists,” says the website.
“[Bhopal activists] have made a slight nod toward expanded activity, but never followed through on it—the idea of ‘other Bhopals’ that were the fault of Dow or others,” mused Joseph de Feo, who is listed in one online source as a “Briefer” for Stratfor,” quotes the site.
“Maybe the Yes Men were the pinnacle. They made an argument in their way on their terms—that this is a corporate problem and a part of the a [sic] larger whole,” wrote Kathleen Morson, Stratfor’s Director of Policy Analysis,” it adds.
The Yes Men and representatives from the Bhopal Medical Appeal will join Julian Assange of Wikileaks at a press conference at noon today Feb. 27, at the Frontline Club in London.