| “
|
 |
The most celebrated inscription at the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, used to be the biblical phrase chiseled into marble
in the main lobby: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free." But in recent years, another text has been the subject
of intense scrutiny inside the Company and out: 865 characters of seeming gibberish, punched out of half-inch-thick copper in a courtyard.
It's part of a sculpture called Kryptos, created by DC artist James Sanborn. He got the commission in 1988, when the CIA was constructing a new building behind its original headquarters.
The agency wanted an outdoor installation for the area between the two
buildings, so a solicitation went out for a piece of public art that
the general public would never see. Sanborn named his proposal after
the Greek word for hidden. The work is a meditation on the nature of secrecy and the elusiveness of truth, its message written entirely in code.
Almost 20 years after its dedication, the text has yet to be fully deciphered.
|
” |
