Does anybody really think the CIA has any problem with fund transfers? Don't you think they already have plenty of methods of doing that and that it's extremely unlikely that Bitcoin (with all due respect) has come up with something novel that surprises them and gives them some new capability that they simply don't have already? Sounds farfetched to me.
They're experts at moving money around, no doubt. And the only thing they can't easily do is duplicate the robustness of p2p networks. It seems highly likely to me that they need failsafe backups just like the rest of the world - something that always works if the internet is still switched on. See Tor for a good example of that strategy.
My thinking is that the June invite is the opening act of their dance to get engaged with the people of this project in order to ultimately "persuade" them to provide some "backdoor" method of weakening the system so that it becomes ineffective as a defense against government. Surely they have the source code and the ability to understand this 100% on their own. Why even talk to Bitcoin people?
I'd guess that many people in the organization completely and thoroughly understand bitcoin better than the majority of people that actually use it. But they're a big bureaucracy with a bunch of different departments and conflicting internal goals, just like any major branch of the government. If the guys in the analysis department want the guys that make decisions to take notice, they do it like any other office worker does it - however they can. And in this case they bought a bit of time from a guy to make a presentation.
Here's a bargaining chip...
"If you want the power to find _real_ criminals who are using Bitcoin, then show us the _guarantee_ that merely _political_ crime such as tax evasion is exempt from any action by government."
I fail to see how this would work. What guarantee can the US gov't give that they couldn't immediately revoke as soon as it's convenient for them?