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American Morning
Cracking Down on Network of Online Child Pornography
Aired March 21, 2002 - 07:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Cracking down on the network of online child pornography, operation Candyman has netted some 90 people, including members of law enforcement, teachers and the clergy. This morning, the FBI sweep continues and more arrests are expected by the end of the week.
As CNN's Jonathan Aiken tells us now, it was an Internet connection that helped government cybersleuths break the case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Operation Candyman came about because one FBI agent played a hunch and found a chat room visited by as many 7,000 people who shared an interest in child pornography.
BOB DUGUIM, FBI SPECIAL AGENT, HOUSTON FIELD OFFICE: He became a subscriber to this e-group and in that way was kept in the loop on all the e-mail messages and images that were sent back and forth amongst the members.
AIKEN: It's not like infiltrating mob families or drug raids, where the trust of the bad guys is grudgingly earned. Once online introductions were made, Candyman members were eager to welcome virtual strangers with little concern.
DUGUIM: And when one goes into a chat room and there is an exchange of information, it's very graphic and it very quickly becomes very graphic.
AIKEN: In many cases, conversations escalated into bartering, subscribers offering to swap pictures or videos. That's when a prurient interest becomes a crime, because possession of child pornography is against the law.
Some of those caught up in the resulting dragnet felt blindsided.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) child pornography?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not guilty.
AIKEN: One of the Roman Catholic priests caught in the roundup was at the time an associate pastor of a parish in Baltimore. The diocese says he is in a treatment facility. Federal officials say chat rooms like Candyman do not exist in a vacuum.
VAUGHN DUNNIGAN, ASST. U.S. ATTORNEY: One reason people produce child pornography is because they enjoy molesting children, but another reason they product it is because there is a market for it.
AIKEN: And it's a global market steeped in high tech.
(On camera): U.S. Customs officials estimate there are 100,000 child porn sites, many of them based overseas, and the U.S. Wednesday joined 10 other nations in a sting operation against one online group that swapped child porn on DVDs.
Jonathan Aiken for CNN, Washington.
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