The CIA Created a Fake STAR WARS Fan Site As Cover for a Spy Network in the 2000s

The Nerdist article reports on an allegation, detailed in Byron Tau's new book "Means of Control," that the CIA created and operated a fake Star Wars fan website in the early 2010s.

This website, complete with a discussion forum, was designed to look like a harmless Star Wars role-playing fan community. However, its real purpose was to serve as a covert communication channel for CIA operatives to exchange hidden, encrypted messages with their informants, particularly in sensitive locations like Iran and China.

Informants would post seemingly innocuous messages on the forum, which actually contained the secret communications. The choice of a Star Wars theme was intended to make the site appear inconspicuous and blend in online, avoiding suspicion. The article notes this was part of a broader CIA strategy at the time, which also involved using other types of fake websites (news, health, weather) for similar covert communication purposes.

Visit https://nerdist.com/article/cia-created-fake-star-wars-fan-site-for-spy-network/ to read or listen to the article.

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