= Backlinks
Announcements and updates by self:
* 2023-06-10: initial announcements
* https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/1667532991315230720[]. Follow up when more domains were found: https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/1717445686214504830
* https://www.reddit.com/r/OSINT/comments/146185r/i_found_16_new_cia_covert_communication_websites/[]. Marked as SPAM 5 by mods days later. After reaching 92 votes, a very positive reply for that niche sub, and being obviously on topic. Weird. Anyways, did its job and likely kicked off hackernews.
* https://www.facebook.com/cirosantilli/posts/pfbid04KvRbEXghJakcD4AQz4379L5oVjPZ6vrBF1Eak3p81VnqRSXuXdvvYonCWPhGfQXl
* 2023-10-26 https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/1717445686214504830[]: announcement by self after finding 75 more sites
* Shared by others soo after:
* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36279375#36280220[] (212 points). Shame that this was published when we only had about 20 websites. As of writing we had 240. Might have been a greater hit then.
\Image[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cirosantilli/media/master/CIA_websites_hacker_news.png]
{height=600}
{source=https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36279375}
* https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/14705gp/cia_2010_covert_communication_websites/ failed attempt with bad link unfortunately
* 2024-01-15: https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/1747742453778559165[] <Oleg Shakirov's findings>
* 2024-01-23: https://mastodon.social/@cirosantilli/111807480628392615[] <ipinf.ru> gives 4 hits and 4 new suspects, announced at:
* 2024-09 <Aratu Week 2024 Talk by Ciro Santilli>
* 2025-03-13: 44 new domains found: <Updates/44 new CIA websites>{full}
* 2025-04-14: <cqcounter> screenshots used to confirm many new hits: <Updates/60 new CIA website screenshots discovered on CQ Counter>{full}
* 2025-05-23: <Updates/Backing up CIA website archives for research and posterity>{full}
Pings by self:
* 2025-03-13:
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1900278353065894324 pings https://x.com/JackRhysider Jack Rhysider, host of the Darkent Diaries podcast
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1900828210578727276 pings https://x.com/JennaMC_Laugh Jenna McLaughlin and https://x.com/zachsdorfman Zach Dorfman, authors of the 2018 Yahoo articles
* 2025-03-31 going to find random interested people on Twitter:
* https://x.com/search?q=%22iraniangoals.com%22&src=typed_query&f=live
* https://x.com/EkaterinaJanss1/status/1777087949634490722K
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1906695580778106946
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1906695965114806686
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1906696248326861114
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1906697155642802590
* https://x.com/search?q=%22iraniangoalkicks.com%22&src=typed_query&f=live
* https://x.com/BrendanNoFraser/status/1588552409910894592
* https://x.com/search?q=%22reuters.com%2Finvestigates%2Fspecial-report%2Fusa-spies-iran%22&src=typed_query&f=live
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1906728507389902945
* https://x.com/covert_intel/status/1665349958545858562
* https://x.com/felixsschulz/status/1663909137737023488
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1906730076080660877
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1906731097779536203
* 2025-05-05:
* https://inteltoday.org/2021/07/31/us-national-whistleblower-day-july-30-2021-i-john-reidy-declare-cia-debacle-in-iran-china/#comment-46375 pings the author Dr. Ludwig De Braeckeleer. Besides his interest in intelligence, the dude actually also won a <Breakthrough Prize> in Physics, holy fuck it's mind boggling.
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1919391488422662245 pings https://x.com/marisaataylor Marisa Taylor, author of the 2014, McClathy DC article
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1919859345593880812 and https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1919846838850499002 pings https://x.com/billmarczak Bill Marczak and https://x.com/thezedwards Zach Edwards, technical analysts for the <Reuters article>
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1919860643408007644 pings https://x.com/joel_schectman Joel Schectman and https://x.com/bozorgmehr Bozorgmehr Sharafedin authors of the <Reuters article>
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1919870831758365113 pings https://x.com/zachsdorfman Zach Dorfman (protected account) author of the Foreign Policy article
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1920073080363241727 pings https://x.com/markmazzettinyt Mark Mazzetti, https://x.com/nytmike Michael S. Schmidt and https://x.com/mattapuzzo Matt Apuzzo authors of the 2017 New York Times article. Could not find a Twitter for the fourth author Adam Goldman.
* https://x.com/PeteWilliamsNBC Pete Williams author of the 2018 NCB News artricle: he's retired and not active on Twitter, not going to bother pinging
Reactions by others:
* 2023-06-19: https://www.reddit.com/r/numberstations/comments/14dexiu/after_numbers_stations_vanished/ (30 points) off topic on that sub, but thankfully was not deleted, interesting sub topic
* 2023-10-26: <Google Analytics> backlink from https://lms.fh-wedel.de/[] path unknown. Some shitty German university: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fachhochschule_Wedel_University_of_Applied_Sciences LMS stands for <Learning management system>, apparently a <Moodle> instance. Maybe they have some <Open educational resources>, but all in <German (language)> so pointless
* Second wave:
* 2023-12-01: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38492304[] (65 points). Second submission but pointing to <OurBigBook.com> rather than cirosantilli.com: https://ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/cia-2010-covert-communication-websites We take those. Reached only 65 points as of January 2024.
* 2023-12-02: https://buttondown.email/grugq/archive/december-2-2023/[]. "grugq" is the handle of a zero day dealer whose received some scrutiny in 2012 after a Forbes protile was written about him: https://archive.ph/7mUG5[]. He comments:
> I don’t think anyone anticipated that databases leaked by hackers would enable OSINT researchers to conduct counterintelligence investigations that rival the state security services.
presumably referring to <DNS Census 2013>.
* 2024-01-12: https://twitter.com/jeremy_wokka/status/1745657801584656564 (40k followers, mid of thread)
* 2025-04-02: https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia/comments/1kd7rzo/comment/mqoocu7/?context=3 user Gilda1234_ mentions this project in a comment to "Between 2010 and 2012, China identified and killed at least 30 CIA informants in the country" by idlikebab
* 2025-05-26 https://www.404media.co/the-cia-secretly-ran-a-star-wars-fan-site/ "The CIA Secretly Ran a Star Wars Fan Site" by Joseph Cox from 404 media, an upstart publication covering edgy digital subjects. This was likely a result of Ciro publicly pinging https://x.com/zachsdorfman Zach Edwards, one of the analysts for the <Reuters article>, at https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1919846838850499002[], as he is cited in the article as having done a technical review. This had a massive knowdown effect and several other media picked the story up. Ciro announcing it at:
* https://mastodon.social/@cirosantilli/114574860090803126
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1927024876214214950
* https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7332792600229273601/
* https://www.facebook.com/cirosantilli/posts/pfbid02yBdfRnor6hAf5P9XN2ijAeqCBG9VLcxA7byAXWzVkaeMBFbTppb28tniRcstxoqjl
Forum threads spawned from it:
* Reddit
* https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/1kvtzwm/the_cia_secretly_ran_a_star_wars_fan_site/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/1kvu5g8/the_cia_secretly_ran_a_star_wars_fan_site/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1kvvx48/the_cia_secretly_ran_a_star_wars_fan_site_the/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/realtech/comments/1kvwigb/the_cia_secretly_ran_a_star_wars_fan_site_the/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1kw991t/the_cia_secretly_ran_a_star_wars_fan_site/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/LowStakesConspiracies/comments/1kwbf2y/the_cia_run_a_star_wars_fansite/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/andor/comments/1kw587c/very_andor_the_cia_secretly_ran_a_star_wars_fan/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/BrasildoB/comments/1kw6qah/um_brasileiro_acaba_de_publicar_detalhes_sobre_os/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/mexico/comments/1kwhuqg/la_incre%C3%ADble_web_de_star_wars_que_us%C3%B3_la_cia_para/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/1kwoch5/the_cia_ran_a_star_wars_fan_site_to_secretly/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/starwarscanon/comments/1kwoxoq/til_the_cia_secretly_ran_a_star_wars_fan_site/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueAnon/comments/1kwhxmj/cia_ran_star_wars_fan_site/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/Intelligence/comments/1kwybso/cia_uses_star_wars_website_to_communicate_with/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsCirclejerk/comments/1kwzeto/in_my_mind_all_last_jedi_haters_are_feds/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/1kw5x9n/the_cia_really_gets_creative_sometimes/
* Decent tweets:
* https://x.com/CultureCrave/status/1927119278047727908 600k followers
* https://x.com/val_reloaded/status/1927349417306161165 Argentinian Twitcher 400k followers
* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44098274 failed unfortunately
* https://knockout.chat/thread/72492/1
* YouTube
* \Video[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrF2zhqUYrY]
{title=The Cia Runs A Star Wars Fanpage by PeepIsAwesome}
{description=
180k subs. This one focuses on talking about the games and uses this article as the mainreference. He makes that nice note that the game Star Wars Battlefront II reached all time highs in the days following the CIA releasej
* https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/battlefront-2s-huge-steam-resurgence-isnt-a-mystery-when-you-realize-its-just-really-good/
The articles apparenty coincided with the reelase of Star Wars Battlefront III alpha to lukewarm reception.
}
* \Video[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZsQbSfPeI]
{title=Star Wars Fan Sites Are Run by THE FEDS?! by Clownfish TV}
{description=600k subs. Video didn't take off however. The channel seems to be semi dead. But it is cool to see an American with YouTube-worth eloquence going over it.}
* \Video[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpoyJHcMNok]
{title=CIA Used Star Wars Fan Sites to SECRETLY Communicate with SPIES by Tyrone Magnus}
{description=He's basically reading the techspot article: https://www.techspot.com/news/108062-cia-used-star-wars-fan-site-secretly-communicate.html[].}
Other media that picked it up:
* "mainstream":
* https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14752155/CIA-fake-websites-Star-Wars-communicate-spies.html Also announcing that:
* https://mastodon.social/@cirosantilli/114580297330915997
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1927373757829583344
* https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cirosantilli_the-cia-secretly-ran-a-star-wars-fan-site-activity-7333140418504646656-eRzq/
* https://www.facebook.com/cirosantilli/posts/pfbid026kssQcXm7TwAHDJ4BQ73RKFCmJRLJsT1dfRpEmZ5GZdmsp8DukaqrbefFuGDqNZvl
* https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/cia-uses-star-wars-website-1174874
* https://www.france24.com/fr/%C3%A9co-tech/20250528-star-wars-bourse-ou-football-les-etranges-sites-pour-les-informateurs-de-la-cia (French)
* https://francais.rt.com/international/121266-espionnage-cia-utilisait-sites-fans-star-wars-pour-communiquer-secretement-avec-ses-agents-etrangers RT in French, God
* https://www.derstandard.at/consent/tcf/story/3000000271640/die-cia-hat-heimlich-eine-star-wars-fanseite-betrieben Der Standard (Austria)
* "non-mainstream":
* https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/the-cia-secretly-used-a-star-wars-fan-site-to-talk-to-spies-report-3199318/ and https://x.com/Dexerto/status/1927000891963363406 large-ish publication
* https://www.thegamer.com/star-wars-fan-website-cia-usa-government-spies-controlled/
* https://www.techspot.com/news/108062-cia-used-star-wars-fan-site-secretly-communicate.html This was one of the biggest hits on <Google Analytics> actually.
* https://gigazine.net/news/20250527-starwars-fan-sites-made-by-cia/ Japanese
* Wired:
* https://es.wired.com/articulos/un-sitio-para-fans-de-star-wars-era-en-realidad-una-plataforma-de-espionaje-de-la-cia Spanish
* https://www.wired.it/article/cia-finto-sito-star-wars-spie-estere/ Italian
* https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-cia-operated-a-network-of-gaming-sites-and-even-a-star-wars-fanpage-that-were-part-of-one-of-its-worst-ever-intelligence-catastrophes/
Starting on that same day someone made starwarsweb.net redirect to cia.gov at 2025-05-26T13:28:02Z: https://www.whois.com/whois/starwarsweb.net
Notable reactions to the websites themselves:
* 2022-09-29 https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/xrgua4/the_cia_used_a_message_board_on_a_fake_soccer/ "The CIA used a message board on a fake soccer website called "Iraniangoals.com" to communicate with Iranian spies, dozens of whom were arrested after the website was discovered." by user Carlos-Dangerzone
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