It's far too wild, bizarre and creative to be from an intelligence agency. I've followed it off and on for a few years and there's just no way that any pentagon boardroom dweller could have thought up half of this shit.
Also, whoever qanon is, they don't understand cryptography and were unable to figure out PGP, based on some old posts on 8chan before that site went down. I assume it's just the work of some masterful troll
You may be correct, but you also have to remember that a HUGE amount of the US's intelligence has been outsourced and contracted. Maybe that has pulled back some since Snowden (I have no idea), but there are still hundreds of thousands of contractors working on behalf of US military, intelligence, etc.
Also, whoever qanon is, they don't understand cryptography and were unable to figure out PGP, based on some old posts on 8chan before that site went down. I assume it's just the work of some masterful troll