"In 2021 the CIA refreshed its design. The site is now sternly minimalist and monochrome. Initially, Design Internet scoffed. Journalist Max Pearl said the new logo was basically a poster for MUTEK. The LA Times called the new look ‘black site aesthetics’. But then everyone got over the weirdness that’s always felt when an organization like this dips its toe in branding for the first time and admitted it was a huge improvement.

"Predictably, commentators focused on the visuals and nobody really noticed the tone. Which is a shame. Because the tone is sharp. Firing up the homepage now:

"‘We are the Nation’s first line of defense’. Bold, confident, serious. Like the people in the photographs all over the site, it has a kind of thousand-yard-stare coldness to it.

"But it’s the sub-line I really like: ‘We accomplish what others cannot accomplish and go where others cannot go’. 

"That repetition. The way the second half of the sentence mirrors the first. It gives it the cadence of high oratory. And that ‘cannot’ is perfect. Copywriting orthodoxy these days is ‘use contractions like ‘we’re’ and ‘can’t’, they’ll make your copy sound friendlier’. But the CIA aren’t – oops, are not – here to be friendly. It’s ‘we are’ and ‘cannot’ all the way. In a home page that’s carrying no less than three portentous statements – ‘we are the Nation’s first line of defense’; ‘carry out the work of a Nation’ and ‘FIND YOUR CALLING’ – it’s that ‘cannot’ that really makes it a tone.

"Shall we check out the ‘About Us’ page? Of course. Stand by...". - Nick Parker