Fergus Cassidy

Operation Amethyst

LAST Monday was a nightmare of a day. If the lack of communications facilities in the Roy Keane saga revealed an inability to grasp that technology can bring better and clearer understanding, the results of Operation Amethyst revealed the dangers and fear that increasingly surrounds that same technology.

Operation Amethyst was the culmination of months of work by the Garda (police) Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Unit. Over 100 homes and some businesses were raided in a dawn swoop by the police.

The origins of Operation Amethyst lie in the United States. It began when the US Postal Service discovered that a couple, Thomas and Janice Reedy, had set up a Texas-based company called Landslide Productions and were selling paedophile pornography via a web site on the internet.

Federal search warrants executed on the Reedy's business and home on 8 September 1999, ended their activities. In April 2000, an 89-count federal indictment was returned against the Reedys and Landslide Productions. The Reedys and Landslide Productions were convicted as charged in a federal trial on 1 December 2000.

On 6 August 2001, Thomas Reedy was given several life sentences in prison, and Janice Reedy was sentenced to fourteen years.

Once discovered the FBI then began monitoring of the site and last August Operation Avalanche ended in 144 searches in 37 states with 100 arrests. According to the US Department of Justice, Operation Avalanche dismantled the largest known commercial child pornography enterprise ever uncovered in US history.

Names and details of any Irish-based subscribers to Landslide Productions were then passed on to Europol and the police in Ireland and led directly to last Monday's raids.

What was unusual about the raids in the US was how easy it was to track down those who were members or subscribers of Landslide. Previously, paedophile pornography 'traders' operated in an extremely clandestine manner. From the limited information available on these groups, it is known that the Wonderland Club was the biggest.

To become a member of the club, interested parties were expected to be what was called 'big traders' and were asked to submit at least 10,000 indecent images of children after receiving an invite from an existing member. The group used sophisticated encryption to hide its activities, and was able to tap into the computer skills offered by several of its members. When the group was smashed by police, nearly a million child porn images as well as around 1,800 videos were seized.

Any charges that result from last Monday's raids in Ireland, will more than likely hinge on establishing a link between a suspect and his/her credit card details, which has up to now been impossible. Those who traffic in child pornography would not normally volunteer their credit card details for obvious reasons.

Response to revelations
Operation Amethyst was able to take place because of the existence of a list of people who had used their credit cards to subscribe to sites selling images of child pornography. The nature, so far, of the internet has meant that it is not possible to monitor who is accessing what material and from what computer.

Unlike the telephone system, which can be very easily tapped because any call between two people is on a closed circuit, the internet is an open system and has no centralised connection facility. Also, the sheer volume of traffic on the net and the easy availability of encryption software means that random monitoring is the technological equivalent of the needle and the haystack.

But that doesn't mean that nothing should or can be done to track down those guilty of such child abuse. But there is a need for caution. Last Monday's raids were the result of unique circumstances where gardai had very specific personal information on suspects particularly credit card details.

If the raid plays a part in rooting out those who are willing to pay for child pornography, it can only be applauded. Not least for those children who may now hopefully be traced and offered help to overcome such horrific abuse. But it doesn't mean that the problem is going to go away any time soon.

Trading in child pornography or engaging in child abuse was happening long before computers and the net appeared and, it could be argued, was even more insidious due to the social position of those who either engaged in or turned a blind eye to the abuse.

Technology by itself does not determine human behaviour and it therefore cannot regulate or control it. What it can do is bring behaviour out into the open or bury it even deeper. The reality that last Monday's raids may bring out knowledge of certain behaviour on such a widespread scale throughout Ireland, has to be shocking.

Charges arising and subsequent court cases are bound to bring understandable reactions of antipathy towards computers and the so-called information age. But it has to be noted that these reactions were not forthcoming prior to the internet. There were no calls to ban post office box numbers or ban obscure classified advertising. No calls to monitor anyone buying photographic darkroom equipment.

The internet is currently experiencing its greatest challenge since it was born. The threat that the medium poses to existing media business models, particularly the entertainment industry, is beginning to exert enormous pressure on the groups and organisations at the heart of the net's architecture and structure.

The entertainment wing of big business are committed to restructuring the net on more traditional lines. They see a threat to their profits and they naturally respond to that threat.

If successful, the net may be able to offer the kind of security that comes with current broadcast media. A centrally controlled content management system which can guarantee that behaviour such as engaging in child pornography will not be allowed under any circumstances. Where a handful will decide the viewing menu and choice will be available only within that menu.

That direction would bring an end to the unique one-to-one/many communications vehicle of connected computers that the net has become. It might provide a safe viewing environment, but it would be the safety of the past within a clear and defined hierarchy of social control.

From what is now known, the past was very far from safe.

UPDATE 26 JANUARY 2003: As some of the cases have started to reach the courts, I have written here on the dangers of demonisation by the media.

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LINKS

Irish government hotline
Site with facility to report instances of child pornography found on the net. www.hotline.ie

For information on reporting material which seems to originate on US servers contact www.iab.ie

Advice on protecting children
WiredPatrol is the largest online safety, education and help group in the world. They offer help for online victims of cybercrime and harassment; assist law enforcement worldwide on preventing and investigating cybercrimes and provide information on all aspects of online safety, privacy and security. www.wiredpatrol.org