They are a great example of an organization hiring the best and brightest, only to be dimmed by org and political structures.

This is not a recent thing. I believe they blew up a Russian refinery with a sweet exploit in he 80s. But other than that, I’m not sure why anyone would see them other than a bumbling comedy of politics.

To be fair, that is also a reason why they would have a motive to spread misinformation about what they believe motivates leakers, since information about their beliefs on that matter give target nations clues to both actual vulnerabilities and CIAs likely means of attempting to exploit them.

Joking aside. I think the difference lies in how easily an adversary can refute the information. You can just call up a library or an embassy to verify most claims in the world factbook. How would you get access to a wide selection of leakers?

also, just because an adversary is denying information does not mean that they themselves are being truthful.

After throwing out the all but three of the original 100 people saying one of the other 9 were the best skin cream.