Admitted: FBI ran child porn operation

Wednesday, June 12, 2013 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: FBI, child porn, sting operations

(NaturalNews) In order to catch the sinner, is it okay to commit the sin? The FBI certainly thinks so, even if the sin is child pornography.

According to the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the nation's top law enforcement office decided to take over a child pornography service in late 2012 then continue to operate it for several weeks thereafter in a bid to catch subscribers to the service.

From the paper:

Following a lengthy investigation, Nebraska-based agents raided the large child pornography service in November hoping to catch users who shared thousands of images showing children being raped, displayed and abused.

According to the report, the bureau operated the subscription service for two weeks in a bid to catch and identify more than 5,000 site users, according to a court statement from a Seattle FBI agent. Court records indicate further that "the site continued to distribute child pornography online while under FBI control; the Seattle-based special agent, a specialist in online crimes against children, detailed the investigation earlier this month in a statement to the court," the paper reported.

In what could possibly be the understatement of the year, the paper further reported: "The investigation appears to mark a departure for the Bureau and other federal law enforcement agencies aiming to root out child porn purveyors."

You think?

Becoming child pornographers to catch child pornographers

In the past, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies made child pornography cases through tips, undercover operations with agents and officers posing as customers or through reviews of materials seized as part of a search of child porn clearinghouses, like one raided in Nebraska recently.

"While investigators are known to have posed as child porn dealers - a 2011 effort involved targeted emails to suspected pedophiles - it is not apparent that the FBI previously dealt child porn as part of a sting," said the Post-Intelligencer.

That would be like female FBI agents actually becoming hookers to catch "Johns," or actually robbing banks to catch bank robbers.

Naturally, the FBI didn't want to talk about the investigation or why agents in charge of the investigation would make the insane decision to continue operating a website featuring child pornography for any reason, regardless of the motivation.

What makes this even more disturbing is that, according to court records, the FBI wasn't even able to trace the site's customers (think ATF's botched "Fast and Furious" operation).

"This remains an ongoing investigation, and local court rules and Department of Justice policy prohibit me from providing more information at this time," Sandy Breault, spokeswoman for the FBI Omaha Division, told the PI. "As in any given matter, if charges are filed, they will eventually become a matter of public record."

According to the paper, the site - called "Website A" in court filings - the child porn service was listed as an online bulletin board. It's primary business was the advertising and sharing of child pornographic images.

Some 'law enforcement techniques' are just over the top

Per the paper:

Agents in the Omaha area seized "Website A" on Nov. 16 and continued to operate it until Dec. 2, monitoring messages from users of the website, the Seattle special agent told the court. The site was shut down Dec. 2.

At the time the service was shuttered it had more than 5,600 users and 24,000 posts, nearly all of which related to child pornography. At least 10,000 photos of children being posed nude, raped or otherwise abused were broadcast through the site.

Some of the user chats were every bit as disturbing as they were disgusting. Perverts went online to talk about subjects like, "How to lure a child into my car," "Meeting other pedos (pedophiles) in real life," and this horrific message threat: "Do kids LIKE anal sex?"

No question the users of this site - and others like it - are sick animals that need to be removed from civil society. But operating child porn to catch child pornographers, and to be unsuccessful at that, is way over the top.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.breitbart.com

http://www.sfgate.com

http://www.nydailynews.com