[9/8/16] The FBI became one of the nation’s largest distributors of child pornography last year during an investigation that critics are comparing to Operation Fast and Furious.
The Seattle Times is alleging that the FBI, for two weeks, operated a confiscated server that allowed the distribution of 48,000 images, 200 videos and 13,000 links to child porn – with as many as 100,000 people logging on during the time in question, between Feb. 20 and March 4.
The controversy began when the FBI arrested the operator of “The Playpen” bulletin board – which was accessible only through the Tor browser – and then kept the website and server operational for about another two weeks, Seattle Times staff reporter Mike Carter wrote. Agents moved the site’s server from North Carolina to an FBI warehouse in Virginia. Defense attorneys in the case even say the FBI improved the website, boosting its visits from 11,000 a week to 50,000 a week.
“Defense attorneys and some legal scholars suggest the FBI committed more serious crimes than those they’ve arrested — distributing pornography, compared with viewing or receiving it,” Carter wrote.
Carter added that the operation – dubbed “Operation Pacifier” – “flies in the face of the Justice Department’s pronouncement that a child is re-victimized every time a pornographic photo is viewed or distributed.”
The FBI declined to talk to The Seattle Times but has defended its actions in court.
“The United States, the FBI, did not create this website,” said Assistant US Attorney Keith Becker during a January hearing. “It was created by its users, and administrators, and existed and substantially distributed child pornography long before the government took it over in an effort to actually identity its criminal users…CONTINUE READING