Binoy Kampmark
For those with a sense of humour, consulting alleged facts compiled by an agency specialising in subterfuge, subversion, deception and plain mendacity must surely have been a delightful exercise. That delightful exercise would seem to have concluded earlier this month with an announcement by the US Central Intelligence Agency that it would no longer be publishing its World Factbook. Presumably the publication did not fall within what Director John Ratcliffe sees as a core mission of the agency.
The World Factbook was initially published in classified form in 1962 as “The National Basic Intelligence Factbook” intended for officials in the military and government. In 1971, an unclassified version was released, with a print version made available to the public in 1975. In 1981, it was renamed “The World Factbook” and became a web publication in 1997. “The World Factbook,” the announcement mentions, “served the Intelligence Community and the general public as a longstanding, one-stop basic reference about countries and communities around the globe.” That any reference about countries should be strapped to a one-stop point of reference compiled by an intelligence agency already bedevils the learning exercise with precarious shallowness. But scribblers, hacks and travellers often like the curated shortcut.
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