Friday, September 21, 2018

Richard Hoagland: An unpopular opinion

FORMER MUSEUM CURATOR SHOOTS SELF IN FOOT

       Clyde Lewis runs a five-days-a-week radio show called Ground Zero. "A powerful voice in parapolitical and paranormal news and commentary," he says about himself. Today his topic was the once-mysterious 11-day closure of the Sunspot Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak in New Mexico. One of his guests was the former museum curator Richard Hoagland, who is also a former radio host of sorts (his weekend-only after-midnight show is now on BlogTalkRadio.)

        The observatory shutdown, which was the subject of delirious speculation by the usual paranormal suspects, turned out to be connected with an FBI investigation of an (as yet unnamed) janitor on the site. In an affidavit, an FBI agent wrote that she was looking at the "activities of an individual who was utilizing the wireless internet service of the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, to download and distribute child pornography." The raid was apparently heavy-handed, involving dozens of agents and a Black Hawk helicopter. The janitor has not yet been arrested or charged with an offence, but cell phones, laptops, an iPad, a hard drive and several thumb drives have been removed from his home.

        On the Ground Zero show today, Hoagland expressed doubt that we are being told the true story. He still thinks alien intelligences could be involved. This is what was said, verbatim:
RCH: "Human nature is human nature. Porn exists because people want it. There's a market and a customer. Is it illegal? See, it's illegal to send it because then you have to put children in the position of—you know, all that. But exchanging images from websites, downloading on your computer, is that illegal?
CL: "There's an issue...I guess you'd say, [?] of exchanging. The problem I have with this is that..."
RCH: "It didn't say he exchanged, it says he was just downloading. It's like freedom of the press. You look at stuff."
CL: "Right."
RCH: "First Amendment!"
CL: "Right."
::::
RCH: "Why make a federal case of it? Why would you make a federal case when the FBI is not investigating Kavanaugh... and this whole, you know,.. meshugga thing in Washington... Why would you dispatch a team of FBI agents and a Black Hawk to land in the most remote observatory in the United States, to look for a janitor who's looking at PORN????"
        Hoagland's opinion that child pornography is protected by the First Amendment is not likely to endear him to his intended audience. Neither is it correct.  Possession, manufacturing, distribution, or "access with intent to view" of pornography portraying minors are all federal crimes. The answer to Hoagland's question "why make a federal case of it?" is that the crime is assumed to cross State lines.  People are already tweeting very negatively, and I don't think we've heard the last of this.


source: NPR

20 comments:

GravitySucks said...

Thanks expat. I am disgusted with Hoagland over these comments. Normally his agenda is harmless. In this case it is unprofessional, and bordering on demented. He and Clyde Lewis both should apologize to the listeners.

expat said...

I fully agree. Thanks for the comment.

THE Orbs Whiperer said...

Hoagland got a bit far afield in his over reaching attempt to support his argument, but now here we are debating Free Speech, instead of excessive law enforcement measures, but he does ask a reasonable question about why the Feds would go to such unreasonable lengths as to deploy a Blackhawk war bird, when they failed to do that to apprehend pervs at Comet Pizza.

Trekker said...

Hoagland aside, what do you make of the 'heavy-handedness' of the operation? Scores of agents and a Black Hawk helicopter, yet no arrest? I've no reason to disbelieve the FBI agent's account, but I'm sure you can see how the apparent overkill is fuelling the conspiracy theories.

expat said...

« what do you make of the 'heavy-handedness' of the operation? Scores of agents and a Black Hawk helicopter, »

I think some FBI honcho decided they needed to get there lickety-split, to forestall destruction of evidence. This was the way to achieve that. RCH was right about one thing—it's a very remote site. Rental cars from ABQ were not fast enough.

Chris Lopes said...

Heavy handed is the way most law enforcement agencies in the US handle things these days. Here in CO, the sheriff's office will call out SWAT to deal with people with one too many pot plants in their backyard. In this case, the janitor may have been part of a larger ring, and possession may be the first of many charges.

As to Hoagland, yeah he has stepped into it. His failure to understand that the downloading of such material encourages the production of it seems astonishing. Perhaps as others have suggested, he was too caught up on the moment to realize where he was going. However it happened, it has to be causing some difficulty with his fans, both of them.

MarsRevealer said...

LOL.... It seems odd How Hoagland seemed to be defending Child Porn as if he was also somehow possibly doing that himself, trying to make it sound OK if you just download it? LOL.

Makes me wonder, as well as his affiliation with Sir Arthur Clarke, who was alleged to have PLAY TIME with little boys. makes me wonder then why or how THEY were so called FRIENDS.

Is Hoagland's middle name beginning with 'C', stand for CHESTER??? lol.. IT'S ALL FUCKED UP I SAY!

i AM USING HIS WORDS SPOKEN WITH CLYDE ON THE MARTIAN REVELATION SHOW TONIGHT!

www.thefacesofmars.com

THE Orbs Whiperer said...

An unknown issue is said to have occurred last Saturday, preventing the rover from beaming information back to Earth.

The rover team has turned off all of Curiosity's science instruments while engineers investigate the glitch.

“Odd seeing how the timing seems to match up with the FBI shut down of the solar observatory,”

dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/731500/NASA-Mars-Curiosity-Rover-blackout-mystery-glitch-conspiracy-frenzy-video

THE Orbs Whiperer said...

Another interesting, glossed over fact, is how during the evacuation, some monkeys found the time to climb the antennaes. What was so important that they had to fool around up there before they left?

You know, in this context, the whole kiddy porn aspect reeks of bullshit censorship. It's as if they intend to say, 'Oh, we can't show you the data because it's child pornography, and to share it would be a crime.'

A buddy of mine's dad, got busted for kiddy porn. The subject was a 17 year old Russian woman, in Russia, where the age of consent is 16. Here in Havvai'i, the age of consent is 14. If only the kids were that stupid.

purpleivan said...

An unknown issue is said to have occurred last Saturday, preventing the rover from beaming information back to Earth.

The rover team has turned off all of Curiosity's science instruments while engineers investigate the glitch.

“Odd seeing how the timing seems to match up with the FBI shut down of the solar observatory,”


So just one of the huge number of probes, satellites, telescopes etc. operated by the scientific community goes down at around the same time as this raid, and it's "odd".

I think the word you're looking for is "coincidence".

The conspiracy part of the Daily Star story comes from HoaxTeam 10, so what else would you expect other than obvious drivel.

Two Percent said...

DUH... DUH... DUH...

We have a fine bone china mug in our house, that makes a sound very like that when tapped. It has a very fine, small crack in the rim. It took me quite a while to find it, it's so slight. But it's enough to stop it from ringing as fine china normally does when tapped. I've kept it for that reason - the flaw is almost undetectable to the naked eye.

Same goes for this FBI Bust Story. No excusing RCH's blunder into quicksand, but that would be why the FBI (or whoever) chose such a dangerous alibi. Hard to challenge without quickly looking highly suspect yourself.

Anyway, the story is about as plausible as the allegation that Stephen Paddock got rich gambling in Las Vegas.

Sure, they may have been ultra-heavy-handed in the bust, but the guy hasn't even been detained. Suspect. Even if they couldn't make the porn stick, surely, agitated (as you would be, even if 'only' being framed like that) means almost the same as Dangerous, so enough reason to detain for the safety of the observatory staff.

Then, there's the length of time. So, the SWAT Team was staking out the observatory for ALL of that time? And the Blackhawk was buzzing around that tower like an angry beetle around a light at night, the whole time. The fuel bill must have been HUMUNGOUS!

Nah, obviously not. In and out in a flash, like a skilled Special Ops Team. So, what's the feeble reason for keeping the observatory closed over that whole period?

Oh, the toilets weren't cleaned... But then, if he'd been so busy with his porn distribution, how clean would they have been normally?

Yes, Orbs, I agree. It reeks of Batshit.

BTW, antennae is the plural of antenna! Or, I guess, antennas.

Like the FBI, ya can't have ya cake and eat it too!

I like the White Sands story better meself.

expat said...

« Then, there's the length of time. So, the SWAT Team was staking out the observatory for ALL of that time? And the Blackhawk was buzzing around that tower like an angry beetle around a light at night, the whole time. »

Computer forensics takes a long, long time. Longer and longer as the data storage in yer average puter keeps risng through the terabytes. Believe me, I know, I've done some. It's not so bad if the computer owner is co-operative but if not, it's a pain in the ass.

In my imagination the whirlybird was parked while all that was going on.

Two Percent said...

expat said:

"Computer forensics takes a long, long time. Longer and longer as the data storage in yer average puter keeps risng through the terabytes.

I couldn't agree more. That's why they removed a lengthy list of computer and memory devices for analysis. Including 89 Compact Flash Cards, I think I read.

That's the whole point.

The analysis takes so, so, soooo long, you have to take the stuff away to analayse it.

Unfortunately, the same kind of data analysis would be required if you suspect the observatory was being used for espionage. However, in that case, it could be expected that the data to be analysed was, by that stage, entirely historical. It would all have been transmitted (in some manner) far off-site. The spy(-ies) would not be leaving it lying about the place on memory cards.

So, the data analysis would have been done preceding the bust. They would have detected that "leakage" was occurring, but a bust was needed to stop the leak.

And the reason the site was under lockdown for so long was likely because it was necessary to physically analyse every detail of the various networks to identify exactly which devices were located where and connected to what. This all takes time too, and cannot so easily be done off-site, without probably destroying what you are looking for.

Chances are, a cable that was supposed to go from A to B actually took a detour through Z on its way.

I think this is a much more plausible explanation than janitor child porn.

Two Percent said...

Here's another 2c worth:

The Janitor story is a cover for the Special Agent who was planted at the observatory to try to catch the spy. However, the undercover mission failed (didn't detect / catch her), so the bust had to happen, using the heavy-handed blanket approach.

The Special Agent was 'obviously' the Janitor, using Child Porn Trafficking as his/her risque cover. Hence, no need to detain...

Even more likely, two agencies who don't tell each other what secret ops they are doing, clashed at the observatory.

Already under surveillance by the Military arm, the FBI detected kiddie porn traffic and barged in on something much bigger.

I'd call THAT shooting yourself in the Foot!!! That'd be the Military.

THE Orbs Whiperer said...

The White Sands speculation might seem the most plausible, but possibly just another red herring. The coinciding, Curiosity Rover, blackout might have to do with the antennass' that did the climbing, and the ones on the Martians' heads.

purpleivan said...

That's the thing about things coinciding, they tend to be coincidence.

Communication with Curiosity is via the Deep Space Network (Goldstone, Madrid and Canbarra) so what would the Solar Sunspot Observatory have to do with it?

expat said...

Stupid comment from Theadora disallowed

Alec Schmart said...

The simplest explanation is that whatever was happening at Sunspot, was relevant to whatever data was being relayed by the rover. The observatory might have been evacuated to limit exposure of classified information from researchers and staff.

Anonymous said...

At the risk of offending, what comment from Theadora is not, at its root, stupid?

expat said...

Good point. This one was about "The Martians".