Mystery Solved: FBI Closed New Mexico Observatory to Investigate Child Porn (washingtonpost.com) 107
"The mysterious 11-day closure of a New Mexico solar observatory stemmed from an FBI investigation of a janitor suspected of using the facility's wireless internet service to send and receive child pornography, federal court documents showed..."
An anonymous reader quotes the Washington Post: In July, FBI agents investigating child sexual exploitation traced the location of several IP addresses linked to child pornography activity to the observatory, according to a 39-page search warrant application. During an interview with federal authorities on Aug. 21, the facility's chief observer said he had found, on a number of occasions, the same laptop hidden and running in various seldom-used offices around the observatory. He described the contents of the laptop as "not good," according to court documents. A federal agent immediately went to the observatory, located deep within Lincoln National Forest, and took the laptop into evidence...
Aside from continuing to "feverishly" search the facility, the documents state that the janitor said, "it was only a matter of time before the facility 'got hit,'" and that he "believed there was a serial killer in the area, and that he was fearful that the killer might enter the facility and execute someone." In response to the janitor's behavior, the management of the observatory, without input from the FBI, shut it down and evacuated its personnel. The facility's cleaning contract with the janitor's parents was also terminated.
The warrant application specified that the janitor "has a key to the building and unlimited access to the building, and is familiar with which offices are used only a handful of times a year."
It also says that the janitor was the only person in the facility at the time of the alleged downloads.
An anonymous reader quotes the Washington Post: In July, FBI agents investigating child sexual exploitation traced the location of several IP addresses linked to child pornography activity to the observatory, according to a 39-page search warrant application. During an interview with federal authorities on Aug. 21, the facility's chief observer said he had found, on a number of occasions, the same laptop hidden and running in various seldom-used offices around the observatory. He described the contents of the laptop as "not good," according to court documents. A federal agent immediately went to the observatory, located deep within Lincoln National Forest, and took the laptop into evidence...
Aside from continuing to "feverishly" search the facility, the documents state that the janitor said, "it was only a matter of time before the facility 'got hit,'" and that he "believed there was a serial killer in the area, and that he was fearful that the killer might enter the facility and execute someone." In response to the janitor's behavior, the management of the observatory, without input from the FBI, shut it down and evacuated its personnel. The facility's cleaning contract with the janitor's parents was also terminated.
The warrant application specified that the janitor "has a key to the building and unlimited access to the building, and is familiar with which offices are used only a handful of times a year."
It also says that the janitor was the only person in the facility at the time of the alleged downloads.
Re: Download child porn at work (Score:2)
It is the summary, the janitor's response does not correspond to the allegations.
Right. And the Black Hawk military helicopter? (Score:5, Interesting)
Is it very common to dispatch a military helicopter circling the area when FBI are looking at a computer inside?
It's like usual, make accusations involving child porn and nobody dares say anything, ask any questions.
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Locally it seems SWAT teams are deployed for shoplifters these days, it not surprising the gov't deployed all their toys for a crazy diddling janitor mumbling it was only a matter of time before the facility 'got hit' ... at a federal facility.
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Locally it seems SWAT teams are deployed for shoplifters these days, it not surprising the gov't deployed all their toys for a crazy diddling janitor mumbling it was only a matter of time before the facility 'got hit' ... at a federal facility.
Let me guess, only for black suspects?
Not swat anymore... just normal patrol. Those idiots.
Possibilities (Score:5, Interesting)
It could very well be the whole thing is just over the kiddie porn. People do mind-bogglingly dumb things all the time. But the response does seem a bit overblown.
Possibilities:
1. The FBI was investigating something that ended up being a big nothing, and they need a story to cover an embarrassing over-response
2. The FBI is investigating something national-security related (spies/moles/etc...) and need a cover story
More?
Re: (Score:2)
I think the bigger part of it is the janitor making threats, though the helicopter is still a bit of a stretch.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
3. The FBI on-site are overfunded. It's nearly October. They needed something to justify the blackhawk budget or lose their birds.
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Whoever came up with this "use it or lose it" shit is responsible for the national debt, inflation, military spending, the militarization of the police, ridiculous government budgets, and so many other things anyone who supports or invokes it should be impaled on high wooden stakes.
Re: (Score:2)
They wanted to make it look like spy vs spy shite to hide the real investigation, of course they failed because it done so obviously and simply fessed up. They of course were hunting tech geeks and nerds and not some janitor, hence the show.
I would still bet dimes to dollars, regardless of their current press yarns, they left a bunch of investigatory devices behind. I would consider any gear at that site to be tainted and not to be trusted. Fortunately computers are cheap so bring your own, and do not ever
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I still have the original documentation for the original Nova and Supernova.
ooohhh...
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Child Porn seems to be their go to now. They busted someone recently and they said initially it was CP. The guy lost his job. It was really over stealing government documents. As far as I know they never did press charges.
Re:Right. And the Black Hawk military helicopter? (Score:4, Interesting)
Is it very common to dispatch a military helicopter circling the area when FBI are looking at a computer inside?
Not to mention, were they expecting to find CP lurking in the communications equipment on the roof? Because by some accounts they spent a lot of time up there.
Re: Right. And the Black Hawk military helicopter? (Score:1)
Even the Sheriff, who appeared to be quite miffed at feds running things on his turf while keeping him in the dark, told the media that his deputies spotting Black Hawk military-style helicopters in the area is "not uncommon".
Re: Right. And the Black Hawk military helicopter? (Score:1)
Re:Right. And the Black Hawk military helicopter? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why? If they were searching for and found child porn, why hasn't the man responsible been charged?
Re:Right. And the Black Hawk military helicopter? (Score:5, Informative)
Why? If they were searching for and found child porn, why hasn't the man responsible been charged?
Couple of things come to mind, but only because I've heard and seen similar cases. When children are being actively abused, they'll delay charging the person so that either the person/people/group doesn't get tipped off. The fucked up thing on this is they will kill the kid(s) and attempt to flee. The absolute worst thing that you can see out of this is it isn't just "a kid" or "kids" in a local area, but a wide-network of this spanning multiple countries, provinces, states, and so on.
Give you an example, a couple of years back ~350 people were arrested all on the same day for child porn. The person who got caught initially wasn't charged. The were groups as large of 40 people(men and women) abusing children, trafficking children, engaging in child prostitution and other absolute degeneracy. ~400 children were rescued from those 350 people, that was just the bust in Canada. That led to another 200 in the US, 80 in the UK, 150 in Thailand...
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Why is their basic instinct to lie first? Why does the truth always have to come out from whistle blowers?
Illegal Wood (Score:2)
Well, to be fair, the Federal Government has always had a tendency to be overly militarized in their duties of law enforcement. Don't forget, during the Obama Administration the FBI launched a full SWAT team raid on Gibson Guitars searching for illegal wood. They had imported wood from an endangered species of tree that had been legally harvested from a tree farm in Madagascar, but the letter of the law says you can't use that wood. Even though the law the EPA used for their justification for that raid r
Re: Right. And the Black Hawk military helicopter? (Score:3)
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Also possible the copter was outfitted with surveillance electronics. Considering the remote location of the observatory I wouldn't be surprised if their data connection is via microwave relay rather than cable.
The copter was probably a mobile signal interception platform.
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But...but... thinkofthechildren!
Fake story (Score:1, Interesting)
Shit, weâ(TM)ve got an alien threat recorded on our disks and backups! How can we get rid of them, prevent the public from seeing them, and keep them from poking further? We need a cover story that people will feel really awkward about. I know!
Re: Child porn can get so messy... (Score:1, Interesting)
So your saying, in that case, the FBI was not involved and no black hawk helicopters were seen?
What they're not saying ... (Score:5, Funny)
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From Mexico?
C'mon, you're better than that... (Score:2)
They Were Vulcan Children.
Won't anyone think of the Vulcan Children?
That was just Too easy, lol.
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These aliens, I tell ya, they're bringing crime, they're rapists. This is why, folks, this is why now more than ever, we need a Space Force. Isn't that fun to say? Space Force.
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Just build a wall and have them pay for it.
American Way (Score:1)
The only thing Americans freak out about more than aliens... a 17 yr 349 day old white girl with her clothes off
WTF? It's an observatory! (Score:2)
Ok, not so funny... but it is a building made to observe things far away.
Did the intern aim the telescope into an open window?
That was a huge reported police reaction for some kiddie pictures; BTW, some adults have gotten into trouble for innocent nude pictures of their children. It's bad enough that people actually 2nd guess taking what used to be cliche baby photos.
It's more likely they think the found a child porno server. It's probably an insecure server that stockpiled millions of photos and the staf
Just odd (Score:3)
If the solar observatory were to have observed aliens, it would have been by tracking something passing in front of the Sun and then altering course under power. The aliens obviously would know where the semi intelligent life is in the solar system and would probably be able to jump to the other side of the Sun if they wish to hide. There are other solar observatories in the US and across the globe but were they all in use at the time that something may have been observed? But at the very least SOHO at the Sun Earth L1 point would have observed something.
There were reports that other facilities were shut down, but I believe that has been debunked. As much as I want this to be aliens or FAIRY GOD PARENTS!!!, I think it's most likely that it was just an extreme overreaction by the Feds.
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The observatory closure seemed to happen only a few days after France disclosed a Russian satellite was possibly eavesdropping on a French military communications satellite.
That story makes no sense. Of course Russia spies other countries' communications, as does France, US, UK, Chine, and many others. But why would they need to get close to the satellite to do that? I doubt France beams unencrypted sensitive military data to its satellite. That would be an invitation to be spied upon.
Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind (Score:2)
Didn't you watch Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind?
This is the same thing, only the cover story was a big bad Gas leak...
is anyone seeing strange images inside your head that is compelling you to go somewhere?
Title Misleading (Score:1)
The CP allegation is way to convenient and is something would be easily contrived to quiet any public concern.
The hysteria over CP (most of which is self made teen porn, btw) has reached the point where shutting down buildings as a precaution seems reasonable.
FBI Close The Solar Observatory I Mexico also (Score:1)
https://www.iflscience.com/space/sunspot-solar-observatory-new-mexico-reeopened-heres-why-closed/
Pathetic (Score:2)
Like always: The butler^h^h^h^h^h janitor did it.
1. Almost every janitor has a key.
2. Almost everybody else too, it's a fucking observatory! People come and go 24/7.
3. Computers are perfectly capable of downloading stuff even when nobody's on site.
4. It's completely overkill and overreach to close down a professional site just because somebody might have downloaded some nekkid pictures.
5. "the facility's chief observer said he had found, on a number of occasions, the same laptop "
On a number of occasions? H
too much power (Score:1)
While CP is disgusting, the ability for a govt LEA to stop scientific research for some moral high ground is absolutely disgusting. People wonder why the citizens of the US are starting to lack faith in their govt...
Called it, mostly. (Score:2)
https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
This stuff never results in anything deep or crazy going on.
SEX CRIME (Score:2)
It's got to be a cliche by now.
Re: (Score:2)
This was supposed to be in the Cody Wilson [slashdot.org] story.
Though there are strange similarities.
Great Cover Story (Score:2)
Or not, as it is barely believable.
Its more like the solar observatory has uncovered the same situation as in the Nick Cage movie, "Knowing" and is in the process of suppressing the knowledge from the general public for as long as possible. This sort of knowledge would just result in mass hysteria, civil breakdown, and billions of deaths much quicker than they will occur naturally. Just let things unfold until its obvious, and by then it will be so late into the inevitable that it won't matter about the
Well, right there in TFA... (Score:2)
"In response to the janitor's behavior, the management of the observatory, without input from the FBI, shut it down and evacuated its personnel."
"Janitor's behavior" constituting babbling about "a serial killer" in the neighborhood. Given what they already suspected of him, that may be an overabundance of paranoia. On the other hand, if the janitor had shot up the observatory, there'd have been Hell to pay for not taking his babbling seriously. (Kiddie porn vs. mass shooter ... hard to say which one dest
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