Wikileaks and Nicaragua

You probably know that Wikileaks acquired a huge volume of files from Stratfor, a US government contractor. What's new is a new, fancy search capability available at search.wikileaks.org.

The data covers 2004 through 2011. I decided to search for Nicaragua and see if I could find anything interesting. I have two general conclusions so far:

1. A lot of the intelligence that the US government is paying for is, well, not very intelligent. For example, I quickly found an email about the (then) upcoming election in Nicaragua that used a Tico Times article as a source. While I have always had little respect for the quality of material in Tico Times, the idea that the US State Department and/or the CIA is paying a subcontractor to read it is pretty sad.
2. Some if what I read (in particular, something related to corrupt military in Guatemala selling grenades to the Zetas which showed up in one of the Nicaragua emails) sounded like the type of thing that should not be in the hands of a subcontractor.

If you want a sample, try this one. Here is how it starts.

Economic growth and cronyism give Ortega upper hand in Nicaragua elections (ticotimes.net Current-Edition Top-Story Economic-growth-and-cronyism-give-Ortega-upper-hand-in-Nicaragua-elections_Friday October-28-2011)

Posted: Friday, October 28, 2011 - By Larry Luxner

Election Preview: Despite allegations of corruption and strong-armed tactics, President Daniel Ortega is expected to easily win re-election on Nov. 6.

As part of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's "Solidarity Campaign," poor families receive land titles during an Oct. 3 ceremony in Managua. Ortega handed out 5,000 land titles through the program, which began in August. Courtesy of Elmer Martinez, AFP

WASHINGTON - Nicaraguans will go to the polls Nov. 6 to elect a president, but there's no mystery concerning the outcome. Daniel Ortega, the aging revolutionary who led his leftist comrades to a military victory in 1979 and has been a key figure in this Central American nation ever since, will in all likelihood trounce his two adversaries - despite past allegations of voter manipulation and outright fraud by Ortega's ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).

In case you are interested, I did search for NicaLiving. I guess Stratfor doesn't like us -- or maybe they saw us as competition. :-)

In any case, the search seems to be pretty fast with lots of options. Clearly there is a lot more out there on lots of countries besides Nicaragua.