The CIA used a Star Wars fan site to talk to spies

Imagine browsing a vintage Star Wars fanl forum, only to discover it might have been run by an actual CIA agent. 

Back in the mid-2000s, StarWarsWeb.net was nothing more than a simple fan page filled with Yoda memes, LEGO sets, and Xbox game links. But some fans are now convinced that the fansite was much more than meets the eye. They believe it was a covert tool built by the CIA for messaging agents worldwide. 

Brazilian security Ciro Santilli, whose detailed findings were first reported by 404 Media, spearheaded this “truth is stranger than fiction” theory. 

On the surface, StarWarsWeb.net was every bit a typical early-2010s fandom hub. The homepage featured lines like, “Like these games you will,” alongside cartoon graphics of Yoda, advertising Battlefront II, The Force Unleashed II, and Clone Wars: Republic Heroes. 

As you can see in the Tweet below, there were even links to LEGO merchandise with taglines like “So you Wanna be a Jedi?” On the surface, all of the posts on the site seem like nothing more than the musings of dedicated early-aughts Star Wars fans.

Beneath this very normal façade, Santilli discovered what he believes is a hidden mechanism. Embedded within the site’s search bar was a covert login prompt; enter the right password, and the page turned from fan page to spy comms channel. 

Santilli purported that StarWarsWeb.net was just one domain in a sprawling network of CIA spy sites. He identified dozens of hobbyist-looking portals—comedy, sports, music—disguised to reach audiences in Europe, Brazil, and the Middle East 

According to Cybernews, these sites often had sequential IP addresses, making them easy to trace once one was unearthed.

Security expert Zach Edwards has been quoted as saying, “We’re now about 15 years past when these websites were being actively used, yet new information continues to drip out year after year.”

“The simplest way to put it,” he continued, “[is] yes, the CIA absolutely had a Star Wars fan website with a secretly embedded communication system - and while I can’t account for everything included in the research from Ciro, his findings seem very sound.”

These covert channels were initially exposed after Iranian authorities uncovered a similar network in 2011 and 2012. A Yahoo News investigation revealed there was a fatal toll in this situation – over two dozen CIA assets were silenced, either captured or killed, after the exposure.

A follow-up Reuters piece in 2022 confirmed, “Far from being customized, high-end spycraft, Iraniangoals.com was one of hundreds of websites mass-produced by the CIA to give to its sources, the independent analysts concluded. These rudimentary sites were devoted to topics such as beauty, fitness, and entertainment, among them a Star Wars fan page and another for the late American talk show host Johnny Carson.”

Two former CIA officials told Reuters that each fake website front was assigned to a single spy to limit the potential exposure of the entire network in case any single agent was captured.

The agency eventually shut down these covert websites, but not before loss of life occured.

Santilli traced StarWarsWeb.net through archived snapshots via the Wayback Machine, DNS tools, and IP history. His original report also details how the URL redirects to the CIA’s official website, which he took as proof the site was subverted – this still happens today (I checked!)

Using scrambling meta files, Tor bots, and forensic DNS analysis, Santilli uncovered hundreds of companion domains tied to the operation. Other sites included stub-game communities and Brazilian music portals, all built on leaky infrastructure that intelligence watchdogs flagged early on.

This spy story exploded across fandom channels. 404 Media’s Joseph Cox initially wrote, “This site looks like an ordinary Star Wars fan site from around 2010 … But StarWarsWeb.net was actually a tool built by the Central Intelligence Agency…”

Cybernews added, “A cartoon Yoda, Lego ads, and Xbox game links were just a surface… Behind them, the CIA was secretly communicating with spies around the world.” 

Even mainstream media like GameSpot noted, “The CIA once ran a Star Wars fan site as part of a global intelligence effort.” 

This whole story sits squarely at the intersection of pop culture and cloak-and-dagger, exactly the kind of surreal crossover fans eat up.

What began as a fan site with Yoda memes and LEGO ads ended as a chilling reminder: not everything on the internet is what it appears to be. While StarWarsWeb.net looked harmless, it played a role in a deadly espionage operation. This whole story sits squarely at the intersection of pop culture and cloak-and-dagger, exactly the kind of surreal crossover fans eat up.

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