A lot of people (on /., especially) seem to think Stratfor, being involved with "intelligence" is some sort of private-sector CIA/NSA, an intel version of Black

A lot of people (on /., especially) seem to think Stratfor, being involved with "intelligence" is some sort of private-sector CIA/NSA, an intel version of Blackwater. While Blackwater was apparently one of the Stratfor customers in the released files, another organization that came up was Doctors Without Borders. I assume they would be customers because they often work in conflict zones and unstable regions. Another customer was affiliated with Apple. I suppose it'd be useful to keep tabs on things like the political situation in Thailand, where some suppliers might be located. If some major upheaval were possible, they'd want some warning, so they could start finding possible alternate suppliers. While Stratfor's site is down, you might get an idea of what that sort of organization does by looking at the Jane's website, or the Economist Intelligence Unit's site.