Much as I feel child porn is evil, this seems like entrapment to me!!! On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 9:41 AM, Travis <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > > > > > > > http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/01/21/fbi-ran-website-sharing-thousands-child-porn-images/79108346/ > FBI ran website sharing thousands of child porn images > > WASHINGTON — For nearly two weeks last year, the FBI operated what it > described as one of the Internet’s largest child pornography websites, > allowing users to download thousands of illicit images and videos from a > government site in the Washington suburbs. > > The operation — whose details remain largely secret — was at least the > third time in recent years that FBI agents took control of a child > pornography site but left it online in an attempt to catch users who > officials said would otherwise remain hidden behind an encrypted and > anonymous computer network. In each case, the FBI infected the sites with > software that punctured that security, allowing agents to identify hundreds > of users. > > The Justice Department acknowledged in court filings that the FBI operated > the site, known as Playpen, from Feb. 20 to March 4, 2015. At the time, the > site had more than 215,000 registered users and included links to more than > 23,000 sexually explicit images and videos of children, including more than > 9,000 files that users could download directly from the FBI. Some of the > images described in court filings involved children barely old enough for > kindergarten. > > That approach is a significant departure from the government’s past > tactics for battling online child porn, in which agents were instructed > that they should not allow images of children being sexually assaulted to > become public. The Justice Department has said that children depicted in > such images are harmed each time they are viewed, and once those images > leave the government’s control, agents have no way to prevent them from > being copied and re-copied to other parts of the internet. > > Officials acknowledged those risks, but said they had no other way to > identify the people accessing the sites. > > “We had a window of opportunity to get into one of the darkest places on > Earth, and not a lot of other options except to not do it,” said Ron Hosko, > a former senior FBI official who was involved in planning one of the > agency’s first efforts to take over a child porn site. “There was no other > way we could identify as many players.” > > [image: Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal] > > *Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative > Division. (Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)* > > Lawyers for child pornography victims expressed surprise that the FBI > would agree to such tactics – in part because agents had rejected them in > the past – but nonetheless said they approved. “These are places where > people know exactly what they’re getting when they arrive,” said James > Marsh, who represents some of the children depicted in some of the most > widely-circulated images. “It’s not like they’re blasting it out to the > world.” > > The FBI hacks have drawn repeated – though so far unsuccessful – legal > challenges, largely centered on the search warrants agents obtained before > agents cracked the computer network. > > But they have also prompted a backlash of a different kind. In a court > filing, a lawyer for one of the men arrested after the FBI sting charged > that “what the government did in this case is comparable to flooding a > neighborhood with heroin in the hope of snatching an assortment of > low-level drug users.” The defense lawyer, Colin Fieman, asked a federal > judge to throw out child pornography charges against his client, former > middle school teacher Jay Michaud. A federal judge is scheduled to hear > arguments on that request Friday. > > Federal agents first noticed Playpen not long after it went online in > August, 2014. The site was buried in what is often called the “dark web,” a > part of the internet that is accessible to the public only through Tor, > network software that bounces users’ internet traffic from one computer to > another to make it largely untraceable. > > By March of last year, the FBI said, Playpen had grown to become “the > largest remaining known child pornography hidden service in the world,” the > Justice Department said in a court filing. FBI agents tracked the site to > computer servers in North Carolina, and in February seized the site and > quietly moved it to its own facility in Newington, Va. > > The FBI kept Playpen online for 13 days. During that time, federal > prosecutors told defense lawyers that the site included more than 23,000 > sexually explicit images and videos of children. Some of those could be > downloaded directly from the government’s computers; others were available > through links to other hard-to-find locations on the web, Fieman said. > > One section of the site was labeled “toddlers,” according to court > records. And prosecutors said that some of the images users accessed during > the time Playpen was under the government’s control included “prepubescent > female” having sexual intercourse with adults. > > Fieman said more than 100,000 Playpen registered users visited the site > while it was under the FBI’s control. The Justice Department said in court > filings that agents had found “true” computer addresses for more than 1,300 > of them, and has told defense lawyers that 137 have been charged with a > crime, though it has so far declined to publicly identify those cases. > > Law enforcement has long complained that online services like Tor create a > type of safe haven for criminals because they hide the unique network > addresses from which people connect to sites on the internet. Officials > said the only way for the government to crack that network was to take over > the site and infect it with malware that would trick users’ web browsers > into revealing their real internet addresses, which agents could then trace > back to the people who were using them. > > “The government always considers seizing an illegal child pornography site > and removing it from existence immediately and permanently,” Justice > Department spokesman Peter Carr said. “While doing so would end the > trafficking of child pornography taking place on that one website, it would > do nothing to prevent those same users from disseminating child pornography > through other means.” > > Still, he said, “The decision whether to simply shut down a website or to > allow it to continue operating for a brief period for a law enforcement > purpose is a difficult one.” > > Justice officials said they were unable to discuss details of the > investigation because much of it remains under seal, at their request. > > The Justice Department said in court filings that agents did not post any > child pornography to the site themselves. But it did not dispute that the > agents allowed images that were already on the site to remain there, and > that it did not block the site’s users from uploading new ones while it was > under the government’s control. And the FBI has not said it had any ability > to prevent users from circulating the material they downloaded onto other > sites. > > “At some point, the government investigation becomes indistinguishable > from the crime, and we should ask whether that’s OK,” said Elizabeth Joh, a > University of California Davis law professor who has studied undercover > investigations. “What’s crazy about it is who’s making the cost/benefit > analysis on this? Who decides that this is the best method of identifying > these people?” > > The FBI was first known to have operated a child porn site in 2012, when > agents seized control of three sites from their operator in Nebraska. FBI > Special Agent Jeff Tarpinian testified that the government “relocated two > servers to an FBI facility here in Omaha and we continued to let those > child pornography run – websites operate for a short period of time." > > [image: Court documents reveal FBI operation in Virginia.] > > *Court documents reveal FBI operation in Virginia. (Photo: Brad Heath/USA > TODAY)* > > That case led to federal child pornography charges against at least 25 > people. But in an illustration of how difficult the cases can be, at least > nine of the people charged in those cases are still identified in court > records only as “John Doe,” suggesting the FBI has so far been unable to > link specific people to the network addresses it logged. > > The next year, the FBI took control of a dark web site known as Freedom > Hosting. The man prosecutors have accused of operating that site, Eric > Marques, is due to be extradited to the United States; the charges against > him remain sealed. The FBI revealed its role in an Irish court hearing > <http://www.wired.com/2013/09/freedom-hosting-fbi/> covered by local > media. > > In each case, the FBI injected the site with malware to crack Tor’s > anonymity. > > Those hacks, developed with the help of outside contractors, were a > technical milestone. When the FBI first realized it could break through > Tor, Hosko said the agency gathered counterterrorism investigators and > intelligence agencies to see if any of them had a more pressing need for > the software. “It was this, exponentially,” Hosko said. > > > __._,_.___ > ------------------------------ > Posted by: "Beowulf" <[email protected]> > ------------------------------ > > > Visit Your Group > <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmdmt0NzBiBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0NTM1OTAwODk-> > > > [image: Yahoo! 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