Closure of National Solar Observatory explained

And it isn’t what anyone thought in previous speculations, which included aliens, strange celestial objects, NASA’s recent launch of a solar probe, or a mercury spill from the “float bearing” of the main telescope. No, it’s far worse than any of those things.

From KTSM-TV in El Paso:

By Aaron Bracamontes

A federal search warrant reveals that Sunspot Solar Observatory was shut down as FBI agents conducted computer forensic searches for child pornography.

The source of child pornography was traced to an IP address used at the observatory and a source within the building observed a computer with “not good” images on it, the warrant states.

An investigation by the FBI revealed that a janitor is the main suspect in the search, however he has not been charged with a crime even though his name is on the warrant.

The warrant states the suspect would use the observatory Wifi and a personal laptop to download the child pornography.

A limited number of people have access to the observatory from dusk until dawn, which helped narrow their search.

The observatory in the mountains of southern New Mexico had been closed since Sept. 6 because of an undisclosed security concern, but reopened on Monday.

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Earthling2
September 20, 2018 9:41 am

My theory is that the solar observatory now has incontrovertible truth that the Sun is actually responsible for Climate Change and Global Warming, but this will upset the status quo so much that the entire CAGW movement will be thrown into disarray immediately, endangering the world as we know it. So the FBI has cooked up this excuse under the direction of Mueller et al, so as not to hurt the fortunes of the democrats and the marxists. And the academics and media rent seekers. Ha!

Greg
September 20, 2018 9:50 am

OT , ice extent min. 19/20 Sept 2018

Robert W Turner
Reply to  Greg
September 20, 2018 10:38 am

And while we’re off topic on this slow day, check out what the equatorial trade winds have been up to this week.

comment image

John Tillman
Reply to  Greg
September 20, 2018 11:03 am

Greg,

Probably.

If so, then 2018 will just pip out 2008 for sixth highest of the past 12 years. There have been three low years, 2007, 2012 and 2016, and three high years, 2009, 2013 and 2014, with six in the middle, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2018.

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/

In order from highest to lowest: 2009, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2010, 2018, 2008, 2015, 2011, 2016, 2007 and 2012. The three low years all suffered August cyclones, two in 2016. Arctic sea ice summer minimum extent has stopped falling. Its trend has been flat since 2007 and rising since the record low year of 2012. Which is what one would expect, given a trough to trough cycle of around 60 years.

Conveniently for alarmists, the dedicated satellite record began in 1979, near the Arctic sea ice high for the century. By contrast, Antarctic sea ice grew from 1979 to 2014, making it improbably that CO2 had anything to do with Arctic decline. OTOH, the PDO flipped to its warm mode in 1977.

Greg
September 20, 2018 9:52 am

Apparently the persion in question has not been arrested . Curious.

simple-touriste
September 20, 2018 10:40 am

What about the LV mass killing?

Robert of Ottawa
Reply to  simple-touriste
September 20, 2018 2:43 pm

You mean the lone gunman. What’s up? Don’t you believe the FBI 🙂 a totally incredible organization?

simple-touriste
Reply to  Robert of Ottawa
September 20, 2018 8:26 pm

I totally get that he killed that many people because of his teeth problem.

Travelling with a computer without a hard disk probably has the same explanation.

What I don’t get, is how that’s connected to his brother’s pedo problem. Or maybe it isn’t.

BillP
September 20, 2018 10:51 am

They say “The source of child pornography” then they say “to download the child pornography.”

If he was downloading he was not a source; do they mean upload?

whiten
Reply to  BillP
September 20, 2018 11:34 am

Upload…. interesting…

cheers

John Endicott
Reply to  BillP
September 21, 2018 9:50 am

if he was torrenting it, he could be both downloading and uploading at the same time.

Ivor Ward
September 20, 2018 10:58 am

The cover story needs a cover story.

knr
September 20, 2018 11:20 am

Often sub-contracted to the sub-contractor poorly paid and treated like dirt, one set of people can be found in the most secure of facilities with access to all areas .
The cleaners , everyone needs to go to the toilet and everyone has bins , FBI, CIA MI6 the lot
and these people push around trolleys full of cleaning stuff , bags etc and are there when no one else is there and who even knows what their cleaner looks like ?
it is perfect cover .

September 20, 2018 11:22 am

Wow, the FBI response to catch a janitor downloading porn might have been just a little over-the-top don’t you think?

u.k.(us)
Reply to  Mike Smith
September 20, 2018 11:49 am

What might be the appropriate response ??
Just dig a hole in the desert ?

Steven Fraser
Reply to  Mike Smith
September 20, 2018 11:59 am

I thought the Blackhawk added a nice touch.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Mike Smith
September 20, 2018 6:28 pm

Downloading porn, and downloading child porn would certainly provoke different responses.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
September 21, 2018 4:14 am

well when military chaps got busted it provoked cover up response.
and they have their own choppers etc and like to use them for any reason they can
but they didnt
and I doubt your congresscritters would be pure n angelic either, theres always chatter
but they never get busted do they?
this got used as a publically accepted easy fob off.
everyone hates kidd*e p*rn and p*do so its a winner winner chicken dinner!

u.k.(us)
Reply to  ozspeaksup
September 21, 2018 8:11 am

They come down really hard on child porn, might even bring one of their black helicopters.
It ain’t nuthin compared to the treatment they’ll get in prison.

September 20, 2018 11:52 am

Couple of decades one of engineers did something (we never found what) which was highly embarrassing for him and for the company. His employment contact was terminated when apparently security on way out found in his bag a roll or two of company’s luxurious toilet paper used in the tower block housing the management offices. Everyone knew it was a cover-up story for something far more serious.

Mike-SYR
September 20, 2018 12:00 pm

I say BS to the pron story. This has the earmarks of something more nefarious. Just like the Columbia Gas explosions in the northeast – no one is talking about it. I believe Columbia Gas was hacked.

Peta of Newark
September 20, 2018 12:13 pm

paranoia, obsessive-compulsive behaviour and political correctness gone mad

and where was the IT manager/network control?
Letting that sort of shizzle *in* is little different from letting all your secrets *out* – internet pron being just a slight variation on the age-old Honey-Trap
……Look look lookee here, click here to see a raunchy vid of Hillary removing her raincoat and, before you know, everyone in your contacts list has an email peddling fake Viagra

Back with “paranoia” and correctness – did we see the report of Mr Trump visiting Florence’s devastation and admiring a lovely ‘thing of substance’ and unknown provenance that Florence had dumped, perfectly intact, in someone’s back-yard (after she’d trashed their house, hence the POTUS’ visit)
A very lovely yacht in fact.

Old Trumpo apparently commented:
“At least you got a nice new boat out of the deal”

And NOBODY can work out whether he was joking or not.
Nobody ‘gets it’ anymore.

Understand now why your wife, after enduring endless ‘headaches’ & superglued knickers, uses a lawyer to trash you – THEN goes off to put an ad in the Lonely Hearts asking for someone with a GSOH?

There is the thing propelling Global Warming, plastic, ozone, saturated fat, carbonoxide, acid this that & the other etc etc etc etc

paranoia

Dale S
September 20, 2018 12:40 pm

“A limited number of people have access to the observatory from dusk until dawn, which helped narrow their search.”

This surprises me. I would’ve thought an observatory would be most useful from dusk until dawn, and you’d have janitorial work done during daylight when only one star (Sol) is visible. Anyone know why an observatory would be busier in daylight?

Tom Halla
Reply to  Dale S
September 20, 2018 12:48 pm

It’s the SOLAR observatory!

Dale S
Reply to  Tom Halla
September 20, 2018 12:52 pm

Yeah, I noticed the word solar just after I published. Doh!

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Dale S
September 20, 2018 3:26 pm

Don’t you hate when that happens! 🙂

EternalOptimist
September 20, 2018 1:41 pm

*Trigger Warning*
I don’t want to alarrum you (because my name is not Greg)

but think of all the CO2 this story and investigation has generated

Robert of Ottawa
September 20, 2018 2:38 pm

Good grief. And here I thought it was a hunt for an escaped Denialist running around naked, hair on fire yelling “It’s the Sun stupid”.

u.k.(us)
Reply to  Robert of Ottawa
September 20, 2018 3:01 pm

I get that all the time.

September 20, 2018 4:30 pm

Now we see that the aliens came for our porn? Whoa.

Rich Davis
September 20, 2018 5:01 pm

ShanghaiDan
September 20, 2018 5:09 pm

Has anyone heard where Pachauri has been for the last several weeks? Just sayin’…

TeaPartyGeezer
September 20, 2018 6:02 pm

This story makes no sense.

They shut down the observatory for almost 2 weeks, utilized a Blackhawk helicopter, a swat team, and invoked a security threat … in order to find a janitor with child porn on his laptop????

That’s ABSURD.

I’m not saying aliens or anything like that. Just saying there’s something wrong with this story and, if it’s true, then there’s something wrong with our over-sized government and law enforcement agencies.

Patrick MJD
September 20, 2018 6:16 pm

The cleaner/janitor who dunnit?

LOL When I worked for a large, well known computer company in the 80’s, it was often said that if we workers wanted to know what “Management” were planning we’d just ask the janitor.

Caligula Jones
Reply to  Patrick MJD
September 21, 2018 6:18 am

Good goddess, I thought I was the only person still alive who has that album!

Caligula Jones
Reply to  Caligula Jones
September 21, 2018 6:20 am

Sorry, this comment is for:

Brian September 21, 2018 at 4:38 am
The Billy Thorpe explanation: Children of the Sun

My comment here is: yes, janitors, and the mail room. Seriously, they go to every floor, every day. They KNOW.

u.k.(us)
September 20, 2018 6:20 pm

They (the FBI) aren’t playing around here.

Krudd Gillard of the Commondebt of Australia
September 20, 2018 8:10 pm

CIA training exercise gone wrong. Janitor was being prepared to infiltrate the White House.

September 20, 2018 8:15 pm

Would the FBI shut down the Pentagon if they detected such activity there? I think America’s enemies have just been been offered a much more effective hacking target than the electoral system.

simple-touriste
Reply to  otropogo
September 21, 2018 1:41 pm

Too complicated. Just accuse random top military persons of ignoring random sex abuses 15 years ago or groping 35 years ago.

Brian
September 21, 2018 4:38 am

The Billy Thorpe explanation: Children of the Sun

Lee Osburn
September 21, 2018 6:49 am

What about the computer that had the IP address. Was it a server? Maybe it was being used to hold some porn email. Maybe 3000 of them..

Michael 2
September 21, 2018 9:48 am

I hear a dog not barking.