Nigeria, Feb. 16 -- For those with a sense of humour, consulting alleged facts compiled by an agency specialising in subterfuge, subversion, deception and plain mendacity must surely have been a delightful exercise. That delightful exercise would seem to have concluded earlier this month with an announcement by the US Central Intelligence Agency that it would no longer be publishing its World Factbook. Presumably the publication did not fall within what Director John Ratcliffe sees as a core mission of the agency.

The World Factbook was initially published in classified form in 1962 as "The National Basic Intelligence Factbook"intended for officials in the military and government. In 1971, an unclassified version was released, with a pr...