Web-porn scandal rocks White House
West Wingers downloaded gay, bestial,
teen sex videos, jamming firewall system
By Paul Sperry
� 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON -- A consultant hired last year to beef
up security for the White House's computer network
found massive pornographic video files passing through
the system's Internet firewall, WorldNetDaily has
learned.
Some of the downloaded files were traced back to West
Wing officials as recently as the beginning of last year,
during the height of the impeachment crisis, say sources
who were involved in replacing the firewall system as part
of Y2K security upgrades.
The real-time video files -- which came from hard-core
porn sites featuring homosexual, farm-animal and teen
sex acts -- were so large in byte volume that they
accounted for most of the traffic coming into the firewall,
sources told WorldNetDaily.
All Internet links and e-mail must first pass through the
firewall before coming into the local area network for the
Executive Office of the President and on to individual
network users. The firewall system is designed to screen
Internet traffic for messages containing network-crippling
viruses.
A Y2K computer consultant in early 1999 discovered
the unusually large volume of porn-site traffic coming into
the White House while reviewing the firewall logs.
A White House computer specialist recalled the reaction
of one of the contractors at the time.
"He started to laugh and said, 'It looks like the majority
of traffic going through the firewall is pornography,'" said
the White House employee, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity.
Both President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore have
denounced cyber-porn and have pushed so-called
"E-chips" to block the Internet's "purveyors of
pornography," as Gore called them last year.
White House cyber-security experts have asked
WorldNetDaily to withhold the name of the Y2K
contractor that upgraded the firewall system, arguing that
disclosing the information would tip off hackers to the
security software the White House is using and make it
easier for them to breach the network. WorldNetDaily
agreed to reveal only that the company is based in
California.
The firewall logs show the uniform resource locator, or
URL (basically the Web zip code), of the porn sites from
which the videos (MOVs) and still-graphics (JPEGs and
GIFs) were downloaded.
"There were things that said 'teen,'" the White House
computer expert said. "There was gay and bestiality stuff
too."
Bestiality? "Donkeys, goats, dogs," explained the source,
who later accessed some of the raunchier sites. "It's
embarrassing."
Upon the discovery of the heavy XXX-rated traffic,
White House security specialists undertook a "forensics"
effort to ID the White House network users who were
downloading -- and watching -- the videos on
government computers and time.
Investigators, including White House Security Officer
Charles Easley, looked at a number of variables to
separate the habitual from the accidental Web-porn
surfers. They scanned firewall logs over several weeks so
they could see the repeat offenders. They also zeroed in
on the large-byte files.
What they found was shocking.
"There were some significant names. I can say, yes, West
Wing," said one White House source familiar with the
investigation. "There were women too."
Many of the offenders also officed out of the Old
Executive Office Building, including presidential
personnel, sources say. One was in national security.
One of the worst offenders, however, was a senior White
House computer-systems manager, who was
reprimanded but allowed to stay in the White House after
being treated for an "addiction" to porn. Sources say the
porn abuser is so sensitive to the possibility of public
exposure that he would likely take his own life if his name
were disclosed here.
Security experts weren't just worried about the
bandwidth-eating Web videos slowing down the White
House computer network for legitimate business, or
bringing a "Trojan horse" virus into the system. They also
feared they could open up White House officials to
blackmail from outsiders looking to access the network.
"It's a potential security risk," said one White House
insider. "A hacker could call up an official and say, 'I
have evidence you've been downloading kiddy porn.
Give me your network passcode, or else.'"
The Internet-linked network is unclassified (although
another, classified network exists in the White House),
but most everything on it is still sensitive.
At any given time it may contain secret agendas for
high-level meetings over trade and other policies, for
example, or advance data from unpublished economic
reports. Such information is potentially valuable to
anyone from foreign diplomats looking for geopolitical
leverage to stock traders looking for an edge.
By February 1999, after the California contractor had
replaced the old firewall and alerted officials to the
cyber-porn problem, White House computer specialists
set up filters to block employee access to the porn sites.
Officials could have installed filters on the old Internet
firewall, but never did -- except in the case of one site, an
X-rated spoof of the official White House site. (Last
year, a New Jersey man who says he accidentally logged
onto the unofficial White House site in a public library,
was escorted off by police and banned from the library.)
According to White House insiders, White House
guidelines for proper computer use by employees
prohibit using them for profit, but do not specifically
restrict using them to access Internet pornography.
Last year an Internet porn policy was submitted to White
House lawyers, but was not instated as part of any global
policy, sources say.
In 1997, Clinton and Gore announced a "strategy for a
family friendly Internet" which included proposing the
distribution of "E-chip" technology for filtering
cyber-porn.
"We all know and we've heard the horror stories about
the inappropriate material for children that can be found
on the Internet," Clinton said during the July 16, 1997,
press conference.
The event's press release said: "The president
emphasized that government (has) an important role to
play in achieving the goal of a family friendly Internet."
"The President made clear that the administration remains
committed to the vigorous enforcement of federal
prohibitions against the transmission of child pornography
and obscenity over the Internet," the release added, "and
the use of the Internet by pedophiles to entice children to
engage in sexual activity."
Last year, Gore encouraged parents to "restrict their
children's e-mail contact to keep the potential predators
at bay -- purveyors of pornography."
He said they must be protected from "red light districts in
cyberspace."
The White House has resisted requests from Congress, a
federal court and other investigators to turn over Internet
firewall logs -- which are stored on emergency back-up
tapes -- in response to subpoenas for missing e-mail sent
to West Wing officials over the Internet. Incoming e-mail
also travels through the firewall.
White House lawyers have argued that the logs don't
include the contents of the e-mail, just the "to" and
"from," and therefore would not be helpful to
investigators. Besides, they claim, only the past several
months worth of firewall logs are stored on back-up
tapes; previous tapes of logs are recycled.
Besides incoming e-mails, the tapes of the 1998 and
1999 firewall logs also recorded the massive volume of
porn traffic going into the White House network over that
period, sources say.
Paul Sperry is Washington bureau chief for
WorldNetDaily.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
=================================================================
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
