not to endorse being deceptive...but, i suggest pretending you're a journalist...pick a name out of the new york times or a magazine and let them know you're doing fact checking for your article on ______.
it could take six months or more for certain articles to finally be published, so if they ask when, throw them a date.
and fact checkers often call to read back their quotes nearer to press time, it would be fun to slightly misquote them and have them reiterate everything they said.
also, that brings up ways to question them w/o seeming like it's from you....their guard will be up b/c you're 'the media', but they might give more time and thought to what they say.....and you can ask for other 'high ranking officials' in teh organization to give quotes on the topic.
that idea might be lame, or might work out well, who knows...but it could be interesting.
in the end, you might actually have an article to sell to a paper or magazine. :)
thanks for posting your conversation here.