Dammit, the Boys in Langley Have Been Editing the FBI Page Again

America's spies get their own private Wikipedia:

Intelligence officials say the format is perfect for sharing information between agencies, a centrepiece of the reform legislation that established Negroponte's office as national intelligence director after the September 11 attacks.

They also said it could lead to more accurate intelligence reports because the system allows a wider range of officials to scrutinise material and keeps a complete, permanent record of individual contributions including dissenting points of view.

That might help avoid errors of the kind that led to the widely criticised 2002 national intelligence estimate that said Saddam Hussein possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

Intelligence officials are so enthusiastic about Intellipedia that they plan to provide access to Britain, Canada and Australia.

Even China could be granted access to help produce an unclassified intelligence estimate on the worldwide threat posed by infectious diseases.