AP: “CIA Ends Publication of Its Popular World Factbook Reference Tool”

From the Associated Press:

Close the cover on the CIA World Factbook: The spy agency announced Wednesday that after more than 60 years, it is shuttering the popular reference manual.

The announcement posted to the CIA’s website offered no reason for the decision to end the Factbook, but it follows a vow from Director John Ratcliffe to end programs that don’t advance the agency’s core missions.

First launched in 1962 as a printed, classified reference manual for intelligence officers, the Factbook offered a detailed, by-the-numbers picture of foreign nations, their economies, militaries, resources and societies.

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At the same time, all previous versions were also removed. If you click on a link that previously worked, you will now land on the farewell page. However, the old pages are still accessible via the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive can still be accessed.

The Factbook went online in 1994, making the data collection significantly older than Wikipedia, than Google, and than most of the internet offerings still accessible today – including heise online.

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Direct to CIA World Factbook Archive (via The Wayback Machine)

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