They Aren't The Crown Jewels

From Steve Aftergood:

“A review of the Pakistani media during October 2010 indicates that there is less talk of imminent political change.”  That is the rather pedestrian conclusion of a brief report (pdf) that was prepared last November by “Open Source Works,” a previously unknown initiative of the CIA Directorate of Intelligence.

I like that "rather pedestrian" line. It's always fun to catch up with people about six months to a year after they go to work in the national-security apparatus. Some enter with visions of new worlds of secret information suddenly exposed to them, like the briefcase opening in Pulp Fiction. More often than not, it's an endless stream of banality, reported in minute, picayune detail, telling you what you already knew from a halfway attentive scan of your RSS feed.