
New Mexico observatory closure stemmed from FBI child porn probe - moonka
https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL2N1W51VK
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danielvf
"In August, they began speaking to the chief observer at Sunspot, who said he
found a laptop running in several empty offices over the last few months.

He told the feds what he found on the desktop was "not good," and that it
appeared to be child porn.

The search warrant states the feds then monitored all the IP addresses and
found the exact time child porn was being sent out.

It matched only one employee: a janitor.

Once that janitor realized his computer was no longer there, the director says
he "feverishly started looking through the facility," started making comments
about "lax security at the facility," said it was "only a matter of time
before the facility got hit, and he "believed there was a serial killer in the
area" and that killer might enter the facility and execute someone.

The director says that's when he became concerned for his personal safety, and
along with the agencies that operate the facility decided to evaluate it and
shut it down. "

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gammateam
"but the whole facility? .... for 11 days?"

\- future Congressional House Budget Committee hearing

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King-Aaron
Maybe they were under the impression that he could have left an explosive
device in or around the facility - going by the above comments - and closing
the facility for that time was required until they were 100% sure that no
device existed?

One explanation I suppose.

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seibelj
I’m sure this is what it is. But... if it actually _was_ aliens, this will
certainly make people totally dismissive!

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stjohnswarts
Definitely aliens, this is a cover up

~~~
yellowapple
Maybe the janitor was the alien?

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vondur
Weren't people reporting that they were seeing BlackHawk helicopters around
the installation. Seems awfully overkill for a child porn probe.

~~~
reaperducer
_Weren 't people reporting that they were seeing BlackHawk helicopters around
the installation._

A lot of military aircraft were relocated around the country because of the
hurricane.

Plus, the average person couldn’t tell a Blackhawk helicopter from a Blackhawk
hockey player.

~~~
DoreenMichele
You are exaggerating, but, yeah, most civilians don't know the difference
between a Bradley fighting vehicle and a tank.

When I was a kid, my cousin and I would lay in the grass in the front yard and
watch the house across the street and basically spin the slightest shadow or
bit of wind or what not into some tall tale for entertainment, being very
serious and like we were actually onto some X Files style mystery and had the
detective skills of Sherlock Holmes.

~~~
psergeant
> yeah, most civilians don't know the difference between a Bradley fighting
> vehicle and a tank

Most ancient Jews couldn’t have told you the difference between whales and
fish, either. Some distinctions just don’t matter most of the time:

[http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/21/the-categories-were-
mad...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/21/the-categories-were-made-for-man-
not-man-for-the-categories/)

~~~
DoreenMichele
That's true. And irrelevant. The point is that we have statements that may not
be reliable.

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mtgx
Okay, but what's the _real_ reason?

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furgooswft13
Aliens downloading child porn.

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int_19h
Maybe it was aliens _uploading_ child porn. To frame people who were trying to
expose them. ~

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cannonedhamster
That's strangely pedestrian, though if you didn't know who was the suspect, I
suppose closing down the entire place is the best course of action to prevent
tampering.

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danielvf
Anyone have a link to the unsealed documents?

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stjohnswarts
Alex Jones is on it!

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bcheung
And here I was thinking it was aliens.

