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Affidavit: FBI Engaged In Criminally Operating 23 Child Porn Sites So They Could Arrest Those Using Them

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In a follow-up to the report I wrote on the FBI’s engaging in operating a child porn site out of North Carolina, which was termed Operation Pacifier, an affidavit was filed at the end of October that the FBI ran 23 different Tor-hidden child porn sites in order to “catch,” or the better word would be “entrap,” those who wished to view or share child pornography.

According to the affidavit:

In the normal course of the operation of a web site, a user sends “request data” to the web site in order to access that site. While Websites 1-23 operate at a government facility, such request data associated with a user’s actions on Websites 1-23 will be collected. That data collection is not a function of the NIT. Such request data can be paired with data collected by the NIT, however, in order to attempt to identify a particular user and to determine that particular user’s actions on Websites 1-23.

ARSTechnica added:

“That paragraph alone doesn’t quite say the FBI is operating them,” Fred Jennings, a cybercrime lawyer, told Ars. “But definitely no other way to read that than websites 1-23 were hosted at a government facility, with the FBI’s knowledge and to the FBI’s informational benefit. It’s clever phrasing on their part.”

Security researcher Sarah Jamie Lewis told Ars that “it’s a pretty reasonable assumption” that at one point the FBI was running roughly half of the known child porn sites hosted on Tor-hidden servers. Lewis runs OnionScan, an ongoing bot-driven analysis of the Tor-hidden darknet. Her research began in April 2016, and it shows that as of August 2016, there were 29 unique child porn related sites on Tor-hidden servers.

“Doing the math, it’s not zero sites, it’s probably not all the sites, but we know that they’re getting authorization for some of them,” she said. “I think it’s a reasonable assumption—I don’t think the FBI would be doing their job if they weren’t.”

“Of the more than 100 Playpen-related child pornography cases that have been prosecuted, federal judges in IowaMassachusetts, and Oklahoma have ruled that such a search violated current laws of federal procedure and was in fact so egregious that the evidence collected as a result should be tossed,” the ARSTechnica report continued. “Other judges have rebuked prosecutors for unlawful searches, but they have not gone so far as to suppress evidence.”

“”I would refer you to public documents on the Playpen investigation, in which we seized and operated a darkweb child pornography site for a period of less than two weeks,” FBI spokesman Christopher Allen e-mailed ARSTechnica in response to asking whether or not the FBI was running half of the child porn sits on the Tor-hidden web and if it was still true today. “That was an extraordinary investigation, and to my knowledge may be the only time that has occurred. So to suggest this is a common thing is patently not true.”

So, he would neither confirm nor deny, which means they are more than likely continuing to engage in the very crimes they are charging others with.

Defense attorneys of some of those charged in the FBI child porn stings and some legal scholars suggest the FBI committed more serious crimes than those they’ve arrested — distributing pornography, compared with viewing or receiving it.

The truth is that they are committing these crimes. How did the FBI obtain the child porn they are distributing? We already know that in the central government, thousands of Pentagon employees have been caught looking at porn and never been dealt with properly, not to mention a DHS official who was busted on Craiglist in a child porn sting.

Jacob Sullum points out, “Each time the FBI “distributed” an image, it committed a federal crime that is punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum sentence of 20 years. So did the person who “received” the image, which in the Internet context is the same as looking at it. If such actions merit criminal punishment because they are inherently harmful, there is no logical reason why the agents who ran The Playpen should escape the penalties they want to impose on the people who visited the site.”

This kind of unlawful activity reminds me of the illegal actions of the unconstitutional ATF when they knowingly engaged in weapons trafficking to Mexican drug cartels under Operation Fast and Furious.

This is the same FBI who knew Hillary Clinton broke the law, but would not prosecute her. This is the same agency whose agents declared they were in revolt against James Comey over his lack of recommending that Clinton be prosecuted.

Is anyone really surprised at this? No? Then why are there no criminal indictments against every judge, agent and official who knew about this operation and endorsed it?


Tim Brown

Tim Brown is a Christian and lover of liberty, a husband to his "more precious than rubies" wife, father of 10 "mighty arrows" and jack of all trades. He lives in the US-Occupied State of South Carolina, is the Editor at SonsOfLibertyMedia.com, GunsInTheNews.com and TheWashingtonStandard.com. and SettingBrushfires.com; and also broadcasts on The Sons of Liberty radio weekdays at 6am EST and Saturdays at 8am EST. Follow Tim on Twitter. Also check him out on Gab, Minds, and USALife.
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