In his column, Mr. Byron made reference to Tony Ryals, who, he wrote, “has been bombarding the S.E.C. and Internet message boards for years with claims that he has uncovered a submerged world of In-Q-Tel-linked fraud stretching for Kuala Lumpur to the Middle East.”

According to Mr. Byron, Mr. Ryals’ complaints earlier this month were picked up by a “left-leaning Web site” that “reported that S.E.C. investigators think the C.I.A.-backed venture fund has been steering money into penny stock ‘pump and dump’ firms in Israel, Dubai and Malaysia.”

The firm’s linkages “are bewildering in their complexity” and “typically impossible to follow,” Mr. Byron wrote, “but conspiracy buffs find them irresistible.” As does, apparently, at least one newspaper columnist.

Mr. Byron’s declaration that In-Q-Tel “continues to funnel agency money into penny stock and micro-cap companies in Wall Street’s murkiest back alleys” is also countered in The Red Herring. “In-Q-Tel does not invest in public companies,” Mr. Tighe said. Further, it has “no involvement in any of those countries mentioned” by Mr. Ryals.

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