By René Biberstein
Attention spies of the world! The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, has a technology to put itself well ahead of Israel's Mossad, Canada's CSIS, Russia's SVR and Britain's M16. It's not a pen-mounted laser, a new hidden camera, explosives in a toothpaste tube &emdash;or anything else à la James Bond. In fact the new addition puts the CIA ahead of just about all other world government sites &emdash;at least in terms of youth-friendliness.
That's right. The CIA's website, often hacked and previously containing little information, is now valiently trying to change the image of the agency. The result is a much larger, and hilarious, look at one of the world's most secret organisations. Looking through the webpage, I get the eerie feeling that Barney or Big Bird may be on the CIA's consulting board. There's something for everyone at www.odci.gov/cia/ciakids, with portions aimed at children as young as six, according to the page text. Patronizing youth seems to be the name of the game. Youngsters can play paper doll-like games of dressing up spies in a variety of unusual disguises. And for those precocious teenagers, there's a description of the many functions of the agency, its branches and members.
Visitors are "guided" through the site by the CIA's friendly bomb-sniffing dogs, and a by a pair of smiling agents. The agency's history is explained, from its founding in the Cold War-crazed late 1940's until the present day. In addition, each step of the "Intelligence Cycle" (the gathering of information) is explained in careful detail. Step two, "Collection," states the difference between overt and covert sources. "We set out to collect the raw information that we need to do the job. We collect the information from many sources: newspapers, magazines and foreign radio or TV broadcasts, which are overt or 'open.' But some sources are 'covert'&emdash;that is, other peoples' secrets. We persuade these people to tell us their secrets."
A cynic might think that the CIA is just attempting to use a cover up for its history of novel "persuasion" tactics. A cynic might look at this website as a thinly-veiled piece of recruitment propaganda, especially seeing that the CIA invites interested students in the Arlington, Virginia area to take part in a co-op programme. I tend to look at the site as the ironic and self-mocking work of a comic genius.
Rather than making a serious attempt to deny the reality of the "cloak-and-dagger" stereotype, the CIA seems to like encouraging the romanticism of the spy. Agents are said to be people who love international travel, enjoy communicating with others and are willing to give up all personal identification and recognition. Men In Black, anyone?
The CIA also takes a straightforward look at its reputation for being a Big Brother, on the wrong side of the X-Files. "The other way we collect information is with electronics and satellite photography (taking pictures from space)," notes the site. And with satellites able to snap a picture of objects down to the size of a grapefruit, civil libertarians will be pleased as punch.
I don't mean to completely ridicule the Central Intelligence Agency's attempts to become more youth-friendly. Especially in lieu of drastic cuts to intelligence services in the post-Cold War era, the CIA's very existence may depend on the amount of public support it can garner. And certainly, I do feel that a greater amount of public access and understanding to government agencies is needed in a democracy. However, the changes to the CIA's website seem to be wrongly motivated (if entertaining). Generally, I don't feel "persuaded" to trust them.
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