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2026-02-05 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Oh no! CIA ends publication of popular World Factbook reference tool

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Posted by trailing wife 2026-02-05 2026-02-05 04:10|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [1805 views ] Top

1 Standard spiteful government tactics: when cuts come, cut the useful parts instead of the fat and say, 'this is your fault!'

Posted by Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435 2026-02-05 05:32|| 2026-02-05 05:32|| Front Page Top

2 ^ Is it part of the CIAs' core mission to provide your bots with unclassified info that could be found elsewhere with a little effort and digging? No.

Posted by Frank G 2026-02-05 05:35|| 2026-02-05 05:35|| Front Page Top

3 ^The most useful thing they did.

Posted by Grom the Affective 2026-02-05 06:08|| 2026-02-05 06:08|| Front Page Top

4 Early AI took some adjustment. I've lived without my Encyclopedia Britannica annual update volume for 55 years now and am doing fine, or so I think.

Posted by Besoeker 2026-02-05 06:26|| 2026-02-05 06:26|| Front Page Top

5 Besoeker, I'm sorry what I said about the baby butchers. You were right and I was wrong. They chopped up babies and ate them. Ref: Epstein file EFTA00147661

Posted by Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435 2026-02-05 06:35|| 2026-02-05 06:35|| Front Page Top

6 No apologies necessary. I salute your contributions and participation.

Posted by Besoeker 2026-02-05 06:50|| 2026-02-05 06:50|| Front Page Top

7 Actually this is truly stupid. The costs can't have been high, but the PR value was stellar.

Posted by European Conservative 2026-02-05 07:12|| 2026-02-05 07:12|| Front Page Top

8 It was very useful early on, but now with the internet and especially data mining tools that are free, it is kind of redundant. Yeah it is a nice PR thing, but not really worth the cost anymore IMHO.

Posted by DarthVader 2026-02-05 08:32|| 2026-02-05 08:32|| Front Page Top

9 Kind of like those jacket protectors for phone books. Had a number for each of the pizza delivery places, time and temp, movie theater showing times, and the roller rink number and hours. Probably a couple of bondsmen for those who were aware of such things.

Posted by swksvolFF 2026-02-05 10:03|| 2026-02-05 10:03|| Front Page Top

10 Cost savings?
Or they no longer know the state of the world.

Posted by Skidmark 2026-02-05 11:30|| 2026-02-05 11:30|| Front Page Top

11 I thought the core mission of the CIA was to provide useful intelligence. If the Factbook is not useful intelligence, what is it? I'd rather have them busy with that than plotting coups.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2026-02-05 12:58|| 2026-02-05 12:58|| Front Page Top

12 I always assumed it was a filtered version of what they produced for internal consumption. If you are a capable intelligence agency, you need a vast, self-generated, baseline document with an encyclopedic range of information about everywhere that you can trust as accurate and comprehensive. Once you have that, filtering out the Factbook seems just a way to generate public interest worldwide, and garner the occasional correction/contact from someone who might be worth further contact!.

Posted by NoMoreBS 2026-02-05 16:05|| 2026-02-05 16:05|| Front Page Top

13 ^ Exactly

Posted by Frank G 2026-02-05 19:59|| 2026-02-05 19:59|| Front Page Top

21:59 Woodrow
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18:35 DarthVader
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