DailyTech - NASA Workers Indicted For Child Porn On Government Computers

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Blog: Science NASA Workers Indicted For Child Porn On Government Computers
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - October 8, 2007 4:07 PM

31 comment(s) - last by Pythias.. on Oct 18 at 11:02 AM

Two former NASA employees busted for having child porn on government computers

Two former NASA employees were recently indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of possession child pornography on government computers. The number of images and how long they were on the computers was not disclosed.

The indictments were filed last month after NASA's Office of the Inspector General completed an investigation that involved both parties actions on the government computers.

Mark Charles Zelinsky, 56, and Christopher Burt Wiltsee, 56, also transported the images in interstate and foreign commerce, which makes the allegations a federal offense. According to the indictment against g, a former employee of the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., was busted in June 2005. Also an employee at NASA Ames, Zelinsky was caught in August 2005. NASA Ames officials also did not disclose how long they served at NASA Ames and what job positions they served.

If convicted, Zelinsky and Wiltsee both face up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 of fines. Both men will also have to register as sexual offenders if found guilty.

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Not here I say

By SandmanWN on 10/8/2007 5:11:38 PM , Rating: 5

What happened to the scientific news about nasa? New technologies, new discoveries, new vehicles, and how it relates to tech and the future of our industry?

This really doesn't belong here. Didn't know DT was becoming a generic news site. We are here to read articles about the tech industry, not porn in nasa. Let the news organizations deal with the baby momma drama. Don't follow the path of THG.

RE: Not here I say

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 10/8/2007 5:15:11 PM , Rating: 2

Point well taken. Today, at least this morning, has been a little light on stuff.

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RE: Not here I say

By TomZ on 10/8/2007 5:37:07 PM , Rating: 2

Also, why would this be considered a blog post, and not a normal news post?

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RE: Not here I say

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 10/8/2007 5:48:51 PM , Rating: 2

It was a blog post, but I didn't like the way it came out so i had it "newsified." Then I didn't like the reaction it was getting so i moved it back to a blog.

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RE: Not here I say

By Misty Dingos on 10/8/2007 6:50:20 PM , Rating: 2

Hate to say this but. This is news. If we go peek up the skirts of HP when they are spying on each other. A story that has nothing to do with that companies products. But it was covered.

How many stories on illegal downloads? While tech related it is not strictly speaking tech news, it is more legal news than anything else.

Drunk astronauts, crazy astronauts, paying customers in space all news.

Nutty dictators from third world hell holes get some tech space because they claim tech godhood.

So when NASA finds out that there IT is so poorly run that personnel can have child porn on their PCs well that is news too.

I got a solution too. Take them and tie them down under the Shuttle for the next take off.

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RE: Not here I say

By Richardito on 10/11/2007 2:50:19 PM , Rating: 2

Hey, if they are strapped under the Shuttle they can actually repair any tile damage right away! That is a very good idea...

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Scientific effort

By Kyanzes on 10/9/2007 6:03:11 AM , Rating: 5

They've misinterpreted their mission to discover young black holes.

RE: Scientific effort

By piroroadkill on 10/9/2007 6:30:47 AM , Rating: 2

Hahaha

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RE: Scientific effort

By marvdmartian on 10/9/2007 9:56:44 AM , Rating: 2

Man, talk about going where no man has gone before!! :(

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RE: Scientific effort

By Suomynona on 10/10/2007 8:47:04 AM , Rating: 2

Maybe they'd be better off studying white dwarfs?

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A story

By Schadenfroh on 10/9/2007 10:05:20 AM , Rating: 1

Reminds me of a story that my uncle told me. He is an engineer down at a NASA research center. One of his friends in I.T. told this story.... He received complaints from a user who stated that his system was running slow. They found 50gb+ of stolen music, movies, pornography, etc. on the guys hard drive when they examined it. How he was able to get away with using that much bandwidth, I do not know, unless he brought some from home or just accumulated it over a long period of time.

Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By tflutejr on 10/8/07, Rating: -1

RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By TomZ on 10/8/2007 9:11:44 PM , Rating: 3

F*** you, we will never "get over" child porn, a**hole. Children are innocent victims whose lives are ruined by f***ing perverts who, like you, think it is somehow acceptable. I hope there is a special place in h*ll for people who victimize innocent children.

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By novacthall on 10/8/2007 10:55:05 PM , Rating: 2

I'm finding it hard to fault you for your response. His post left me simply speechless.

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By Ringold on 10/8/2007 11:51:42 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
I hope there is a special place

This works; The 7th Circle of Hell

quote:
Inner ring: The violent against God (blasphemers), the violent against nature (sodomites), and the violent against art (usurers), all reside in a desert of flaming sand with fiery flakes raining from the sky. The blasphemers lie on the sand, the usurers sit, and the sodomites wander about in groups.

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By tflutejr on 10/9/2007 5:00:58 AM , Rating: 3

You and most everyone else who replied to my post missed the message entirely. This is the exact witch hunt I was talking about. See the reply about burning in hell... You don't know the level of child porn that was on their computers or if they even knew it was there. They very easily could have been framed by a jilted lover at the office or someone jealous of their position with some pictures of nude underage boys someone found on the internet and placed on their computers. This stuff is everywhere on the net! The reasons someone could have done this to them are endless.

I didn't say child porn was ok at all! I said that there is no way to stop it and that the way it is handled today legally and socially is the equivalent of a witch hunt. We all know how guilty the Salem witches were. Tsk tsk on you all. We need a new way to handle this and many other social ills of our society. The current system isn't working if you haven't noticed. Throwing someone in jail for 10 years and then banning them from society for life with a sex predator tag doesn't solve or even help much to reduce this problem.

I'm not a crank either. I believe in what I say and don't live behind an anonymous curtain like most on the internet. I wear the negative rating by my name like a badge. I don't back down even when the going gets tough because I'm right!

Toby Flute Jr.
(806)322-0020

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By TomZ on 10/9/2007 8:09:51 AM , Rating: 2

You're full of sh*t, sorry. Your post attempts to make light of child porn, which is something I will personally never take "lightly." And I totally disagree that children are not harmed by child porn - the harm is direct and indirect. Children are not your sexual toys.

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By Spivonious on 10/9/07, Rating: 0

RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By TomZ on 10/9/2007 8:44:55 AM , Rating: 2

No, I did that myself.

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By NullSubroutine on 10/9/2007 1:05:18 PM , Rating: 2

I believe you missed the entire point he was making. Soon as child porn is mentioned the presumption of innocence disappears.

There have been cases where a man and a woman get arrested, hauled off to jail and were charged with trafficing child pornography. They were ruined because of these charges and the truth of it was the husband and wife took their family photos in to get developed, the developer saw some pictures and alerted the authorities. The couple took pictures of the (I think 2 daughters and 1 son) in the bathtub playing together. There were no lewd or mischievousness about the photos, just parents taking pictures of their kids.

The point the fellow was making that when such things like child porn, sexual predators, or sex offenders is thrown around it evokes an emotional response and for most people shuts off the rational part of their brain.

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By novacthall on 10/9/2007 9:00:35 AM , Rating: 2

We agree on this point: the way sexual misdemeanors in this country (and I'm assuming you're in the US, like me) is handled is inadequate at best and positively devastating at worst. That you can be labeled a sex offender for life at age 17 for consensual sexual acts with another teen at or around your age is tragic, and more often than not harms more than it helps. In this case, though, where men in their 50s are ogling child pornography? That's another thing entirely. You may have more faith in humanity than I do, but in my experience no one ever "just looks". The behavior is generally indicative of a greater underlying behavioral dysfunction.

I disagree with you on your two main arguments, though. One, that child pornography is a victimless crime if you're only looking at it (and presumably more, let's not kid ourselves); and two, that there's nothing we can do about it, so we might as well be okay with the whole thing and just get on with our lives.

To your first point, pictures don't just pop into existence. A child had to be photographed in a situation that would be considered "pornographic". You need not look far for the victim. Under no situation is the imaging of a child in a compromising, demeaning, or otherwise offending position a justifiable activity. To then disseminate that photograph to a broad audience approaches a realm of twisted I simply fail to comprehend. If you'd care to explain it to me, I'm listening.

To your second point, I disagree whole-heartedly. I will never just accept something that's a clear detriment to societal health and personal sanity. In a free society, it's our responsibility to make sure this kind of filth doesn't become commonplace or acceptable.

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By XToneX on 10/9/2007 10:13:08 AM , Rating: 3

I don't think we should just "get over" child porn but I do see your point about getting framed. I've seen posts previously on various message boards on people who have been charged with child pornography but really have no idea what is going on, because they don't use their computer for anything other than email and some web browsing. I wouldn't doubt that 50% of the people charged with this are in fact framed. I can't see how anyone can contribute to child pornography without feeling like scum. So, don't take my post the wrong way, I'm just saying I think a lot of people who are charged with it are in fact, Framed. Let's face it, in today's world, it's not hard to make files appear and disappear on another person's system. All it takes is the ability to create or move files to another person's system without them knowing, and then giving an anonymous "tip" to the people in blue to put someone behind bars.

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By TomZ on 10/9/2007 10:27:26 AM , Rating: 2

I would think that law enforcement would realize this possibility, and that they would have to prove that the person was actually responsible for placing the files there, viewing the files, or sending out the files. I'm not a lawyer though, so I can't say for sure.

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By NullSubroutine on 10/9/2007 1:10:54 PM , Rating: 2

I work with officers and deputies all day, and I would have to say that they are not interested in investigating alternate 'theories' how something got there.

The collect evidence, make an arrest, and turn it over to the District Attorney. With the exception of detectives that who would do more investigation, interviews, etc. In either case they typically see themselves as just a cog in the wheel and it is not their job to find out if people are innocent, but to simply find out who is probably guilty; after that its up to the lawyers to fight it out.

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By TomZ on 10/9/2007 3:47:02 PM , Rating: 2

I can certainly understand that, but I am still assuming that the DA and/or the courts/jury are looking at more than just the presence of files on an employee's HDD to determine innocence or guilt.

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RE: Who Cares? Child Porn is Everywhere!!!

By Christopher1 on 10/11/2007 1:24:44 AM , Rating: 1

Wrong. Not one child's life has been 'ruined' by a pedosexual. What has ruined their lives? The reaction of society to someone having sex with the child, where they are told that they are 'damaged' and therefore they start acting like it.

Personally, I was 'sexually abused' when I was young and loved it! In fact, I don't even call it 'sexual abuse' that I was in, I call it what it is: consensual sex.

It is time to realize that NO children are victimized by being sexually touched by adults or anyone else, they are victimed by the police and others who brainwash them into thinking they were 'harmed' and then they have problems later in life when they realize "HOLY FUCK! This is a load of BULLCRAP! -PATOING-" and something breaks in their head, creating their mental illness or the police use such high pressure tactics that it happens during the 'interview'.
Most children who have TRULY had horrifying sexual experiences in their lives simply forget about them, their mind just wipes them away and gives them amnesia about it, and I am speaking from experience there. I was raped 4 times in my life (forced into sex) at various ages from 4-12, and I cannot remember ANY of them in all honesty. I remember waking up from one and having bloody hands from beating the gang of boys that were trying to rape me to a pulp at 12.... but I don't remember ANYTHING of the 'rape' itself.... if it even happened which.... I'm not sure it even did!

Now, pedosexuals and others who actually cause PHYSICAL pain to children in order to get sexual gratification from that pain.... yeah, they have a problem with them, but they really need mental treatment and for their sexuality to be made LEGAL and then we won't have those people anymore or even fewer than we do now, which is less than a handful in the grand scheme of things and most of those are NOT pedosexuals, because they would take advantage of a GROWN WOMAN if they had an opportunity, like my mother's father, who did that many times!

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