Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Intelligence agency websites

Just for the hell of it, compare the websites for the Central Intelligence Agency, the British Secret Intelligence Service, and the French Directorate of External Security. Notice that they all have diagonal corners all over the place; what's up with that? Also, the differences in general appearance - the abundance or scarcity of graphics, for example - of each website suggests to me something about the nature of each of the services. Note the top graphic of each page; the British are so smug with their big building at Vauxhall Cross; the CIA has shadows cast on the famous seal - a pretense of a secret organization that also, by the way, continually promotes a massive, high profile (the CIA's old office building has a gift shop for God's sake); and the French with two transparent eyes staring at you, and virtually nothing behind them.