The Spooks' Secret Sculpture Garden

Secrecy at CIA headquarters extends all the way to the courtyard. Kryptos, a granite-and-copper sculpture by Washington artist Jim Sanborn, was quietly installed last November near a new building on the agency's grounds. Taxpayers financed the $250,000 work, but that does not guarantee public access. Sanborn's sculpture features a 2,000-character encoded message that is believed to have been penned by a well-known writer whose name has not been disclosed. Besides the artist and the author, only CIA director William Webster knows what the top-secret phrase says, according to an agency spokesman. The CIA does not allow the general public to visit...