Slashdot Mirror


Mystery Solved: FBI Closed New Mexico Observatory to Investigate Child Porn (washingtonpost.com)

"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.

1 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. The janitor is not a pedophile... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    He was an ephebophile. He did not have a sexual attraction to children. Everything about this article is wrong. Also, a study in which convicted child molesters were asked to state how they perceived themselves, none of them, even the ones that raped members of the same sex, said that they were homosexual or bisexual. They claimed to all be heterosexual. This means that homosexuals do not rape children or have consensual sex with children. Organizations like NAMBLA were created by anti-homosexual groups to muddy the waters and confuse people. Adults only have sex with members of the same sex for the feeling of power that it gives them, not because they are sexually attracted to members of the same sex in a homosexual way. Besides, we all know that homosexuals don't actually exist. This is a lie perpetuated by enemies of the Roman Catholic Church. Anyone who says otherwise is a heretic, and they deserve to be exposed as the liars that they are. There are no homosexuals. Only heterosexuals that have been possessed by Satan.