This section contains some of the most interesting and a few representative screenshots of the websites found.
We intentionally omit the screenshots already reported by the Reuters article.
Figure 1.
2010 Wayback Machine archive of starwarsweb.net
.
The Star Wars one. Clearly branded websites like this are rare, which makes finding them all the much more fun. The Reuters article had two of them (Carson and rastadirect.net), so these were probably manually selected from the full hit dataset, and did not serve specifically as entry points. Most of the websites are quite boring and forgetful as you'd expect.
The subtitle "Beyond The Unknown" may be a reference to the Unknown Regions, an unexplored area of the galaxy in the Star Wars fictional universe.
Figure 2.
Stock photo of a Jedi boy from Getty Images used on starwarsweb.net
. Source.
Marked as Uploaded 10 October, 2008.
The photo can still be licensed today as of 2025: www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/little-jedi-royalty-free-image/172984439. We found it by searching for "jedi boy" on gettyimages.co.uk. The photo is credited to a madisonwi, presumably an alias based on the location Madison, Wisconsin. Here's a random website about adoption that uses it: www.adoptionadvocates.net/star-wars-adoption-language/ and where it can be seen without the watermarks.
It later ocurred to Ciro Santilli that perhaps Reuters chose not to showcase this website because it features the photograph of a minor. But Ciro is sure that that minor is now a handsome young man in his 20's and would find the entire story very amusing if he ever finds out about it!
The images of the droids can be seen e.g. at: www.amazon.co.uk/04-Kampf-Droiden-Superheftig-Jedi/dp/B004TINSW6, a promotional material for a 2008 The Clone Wars television series audio CD and available as transparent PNGs without background in several sources. The Yoda art also seems to come from that show: rpggamer.org/page.php?page=4229.
One can almost picture the contractor who made that site seeing his children watching that show or playing the video game one evening, when a lightbulb popped over their head: tomorrow I'm going to have some fun at work.
In retrospect however, this website was likely a bad idea, since the massive pop culture appeal of Star Wars meant that when The CIA Secretly Ran a Star Wars Fan Site by Joseph Cox was published in 2025 the combination of "CIA" and "Star Wars" on a single sentence produced an irresistible clickbait that amplified knowledge of the fiasco to general public in a way that poor Johnny Carson and Bob Marley could never do. That's why you just can't have fun while working for the secret services anymore.
Figure 3.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of alljohnny.com
. Source. Although alljohnny.com is one of the original Reuters examples, we are highlighting this screenshot here because the Reuters provided screenshot is from the extremely early 2004 version of the site, and it is interesting to see how this unique example was later updated in this 2011 version, the only known such case so far. The lack of OPSEC awareness is mind blowing, them reusing a domain like that after so many years in a completely new threat environment and possibly for a new asset.
Figure 4.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of webofcheer.com scrolled to show Johnny Carson
. Source. This website is a fansite for various comedians. It is the second known reference to Johnny Carson after alljohnny.com, which was one of the original screenshots given in the Reuters article. There must have been some massive Johnny Carson fan among the CIA contractors a that time!
Figure 5.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of iranfootballsource.com
.
The third Iranian football on top of the two other published by Reuters: iraniangoalkicks.com and iraniangoals.com! Admittedly, this one is the most generic and less well designed one. But still. They pushed the theme too far!
The goalkeeper can be seen at: www.pixtastock.com/illustration/7323632.
Figure 6.
2010 Wayback Machine archive of dedrickonline.com
.
The German one.
The CIA has had a few Germany espionage scandals in the 2010s:
Figure 7.
2010 Wayback Machine archive of lesummumdelafinance.com
.
A French one. Because it mentions VTT (Mountain Biking in French), it must focus France.
The arrow graph is very popular can be seen at: www.financialexpress.com/money/top-4-global-market-risks-for-2024-that-may-impact-your-finances-3346284/ and many other sites. Source unknown.
Figure 8.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of attivitaestremi.com
. An Italian one about extreme sports.
Figure 10.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of economicnewsbuzz.com
. The Korean one. Love the kawaii style!
Figure 11.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of snapnewsfront.net
.
The Japanese one.
Figure 12.
2010 Wayback Machine archive of philippinenewsonline.net
. The Philippine one one.
Figure 13.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of feedsdemexicoyelmundo.com
. The Mexican one.
Figure 14.
2012 Wayback Machine archive of easytraveleurope.com
.
Figure 15.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of tee-shot.net
. One of the many golf-themed sites. Golf appears to be quite popular over in Langley. It's exactly what you'd expect for a mid-level spook to do in their free time!
Figure 16.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of nouvellesetdesrapports.com
.
Figure 17.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of pangawana.com
.
Figure 18.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of recuerdosdeviajeonline.com
.
Figure 19.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of theworld-news.net
.
Figure 20.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of kessingerssportsnews.com
.
Figure 21.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of negativeaperture.com
.
Secret service Updated 2025-07-26
A memorable quote from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy:
Haydon [the Soviet mole] also took it for granted that secret services were the only real measure of a nation's political health, the only real expression of its subconscious.
I've had a bit more fun with SPARQL and Wikidata.
This one was way harder than my previous fun with "find the oldest people who won a given prize" (Nobel Prize/Oscar) mastodon.social/@cirosantilli/112689376315990248 because unlike those prizes where all the decisions are centralized, countries are much more complicated beasts, with changing currencies and international recognition.
This was a good experience to see a few ways in which Wikidata is inconsistent, with the same concept being expressed in multiple different ways, e.g. "end time" property of the current vs the superior "end time" qualifier.
Particularly bad is the notion of a "deprecated rank", that should really not exist.
This is exactly the type of semi interactive data munching that I like to do, a bit in the same vein as CIA 2010 covert communication websites and Cool data embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain.
As you might imagine, the secret services use exactly this type of knowledge modelling to do their dirty business, e.g. Gaffer by the GCHQ.
If only I weren't such a rebel, I'd be a perfect fit for the intelligence agencies.
This is the best monstrosity I had the patience to come up with:
SELECT
  ?currency
  (GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT ?currencyIsoCode; SEPARATOR=", ") AS ?currencyIsoCodes)
  ?currencyLabel
  (GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT ?countryLabel; SEPARATOR=", ") AS ?countries)
WHERE {
  ?country wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q6256. # is country
  ?country p:P38 ?countryHasCurrency.
  ?countryHasCurrency ps:P38 ?currency.
  ?countryHasCurrency wikibase:rank ?countryHasCurrencyRank.
  OPTIONAL {
    ?currency p:P498 ?currencyHasIsoCode.
    ?currencyHasIsoCode ps:P498 ?currencyIsoCode.
  }
  FILTER NOT EXISTS {?country wdt:P576 ?countryAbolished}
  FILTER NOT EXISTS {?currency wdt:P576 ?currencyAbolished}
  FILTER NOT EXISTS {?currency wdt:P582 ?currencyEndTime}
  FILTER NOT EXISTS {?countryHasCurrency pq:P582 ?countryHasCurrencyEndtime}
  FILTER (?countryHasCurrencyRank != wikibase:DeprecatedRank)
  FILTER (!bound(?currencyHasIsoCode) || ?currencyHasIsoCode != wikibase:DeprecatedRank)
  # TODO makes query take timeout? Why? Needed to exclude PLZ.
  FILTER NOT EXISTS {?currencyHasIsoCode pq:P582 ?currencyHasIsoCodeEndtime}
  SERVICE wikibase:label {
    bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "[AUTO_LANGUAGE],en".
    ?currency rdfs:label ?currencyLabel .
    ?country rdfs:label ?countryLabel .
  }
}
GROUP BY ?currency ?currencyLabel
ORDER BY ?currencyIsoCodes ?currencyLabel
It got quite close to the ISO 4217 list.
I was drawn into this waste of time after I noticed that someone had managed to create the Wikipedia of PsiQuantum which I had tried earlier but got deleted: mastodon.social/@cirosantilli/113488891292906243, and then I made the mistake of having a look at the Wikidata page of PsiQuantum.
Figure 1.
500,000 Transnistrian ruble banknote 1997 series
. This is one of the most widely used currencies which does not have an ISO 4217 code.
Another highlight was 1913 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Alfred Werner who born either in Mulhouse in Alsace, France, or in "Yo no sé qué me pasó" ("I don't know what happened to me" in Spanish), a 1986 song by Mexican singer Juan Gabriel.