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PC Gamer

Rich Stanton

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

A child poses with a toy lightsabre.

Head to the URL starwarsweb.net and you may be somewhat surprised to find yourself on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) homepage. But check it out on the Wayback Machine in December 2010, which is when it first appeared, and you'll find what looks to be a fairly standard Star Wars fanpage.

There's a kid with a lightsaber at the top, the tagline "beyond the unknown" as well as "May the Force be with you", links to various other Star Wars resources, and for some reason Master Yoda is recommending Star Wars Battlefront 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, Lego Star Wars 2, and Star Wars the Clone Wars: Republic Heroes. "Like these games, you will" runs the text alongside.

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