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. Full Article

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I have 5 bucks that some of these FBI agents are viewing these images of naked kids.

You can bet these same images are now being shared all over the world.
A lot of people will never read the media article, help them out by posting it everywhere.

Our government is EVIL!

Haha, that’s hilarious and predictable. If only the public knew how far any government pursuing such efforts is willing to go. Basically during some operations the self proclaimed good guy actually does worse than the bad guy.

Owning and distributing child pornography is illegal. Is law enforcement allowed to commit felonies to make arrests? Or is it that they are immune from prosecution because they were serving a legitimate law enforcement purpose?

They were creating crime. not fighting crime.

Janice, would like to chime in on this. Many lives have been affected by this action. Children and adults. I can understand setting up drug stings. No one is harmed in that kind of operation. But by the government’s own definition, they have clearly broken it. How can my possession of 20 images compare to the government viewing posting of thousands. Who harmed the victims of this crime more. I at least take responsibility for my actions.They hide behind their warped explanation of ” attempting to stop the illegal activity of people actually posting”. I wonder how many of these agents felt as guilty viewing these images as the rest of us do. These stinks of an out of control government that thinks whatever it does is justified. Our taxes paid for this action, too! Our government should now be denied entry into all the countries that they have now betrayed.

I’m confused about the “re-harm” notion. Let’s assume there are some pics of me (from way far back in time) as a baby, nude on a bearskin rug. If someone is looking at those photos and getting his (or her) jollies: 1. I dont know it and, frankly, don’t care, and; 2. if I’m not even aware of it, is it harmimg me? Seriously, I think our “justice” system has gone bats-in-the-bellfree crazy.

What if someone gets his/her thrills looking at Donatello’s statue of “David”? Shall we go back nearly 600 years to the statue’s creation to try to find and compensate the model?

I think you might find that some in law enforcement are selling this stuff, as many a revenuer did to confiscated booze during prohibition. Greed is a more powerful, if not the most powerful, criminal motivator than sex.