The New York Times, September 16, 1995, pp. 1, 8.


Computer Stings Gain Favor As Arrests for Smut Increase

The F.B.I. has plans for its own web to fight computer crimes.

By Stephen Labaton


Washington, Sept. 15 -- As arrests continued in a high-tech drive
against the peddling of child pornography on the nation's largest
computer network, the Federal authorities said today that they
expected to apply the same surveillance techniques to fight many other
computer-related crimes, from consumer and securities fraud to money
laundering.

Going under cover and posing as individuals in search of child
pornography, agents this week arrested more than a dozen customers of
America Online, including the operator of a child-care center in a
Chicago suburb. According to court papers, the suspect had used a
computer to send images of nude preteenage girls, some of them in
sexual situations with adult men.

Federal officials said that as millions more people each year began
using computers for mundane activities like trading stocks, paying
bills and shopping, there would inevitably be more computer-related
crimes. One way of combating these crimes, they said, will be for
Federal agents to go undercover and appear as prey for unwitting
criminals.

"From our standpoint, this investigation embodies a vision of the type
of investigatory activity we may be drawn to in the future," said
Timothy McNally, the special agent in charge of the Baltimore office
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who supervised the latest
phase of the child pornography case. He said that while the
traditional form of surveillance included activities like waiting in
cars and watching suspects for hours, "the playing field has now
changed" and now requires agents to become more proficient in using
computers to thwart crimes.

But some civil liberties experts expressed alarm at the latest
surveillance technique, saying it would have a chilling effect on what
is now a freewheeling medium.

"You won't know when you're on line whether you are talking to an
investment broker or you're talking to an undercover agent," said Marc
Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a
research organization that studies privacy issues and
technology. "This breeds distrust."

In the pornography investigation, named Operation Innocent Images,
Federal agents played a variety of different roles to find out who was
trafficking in lewd images of children.  In some cases, the agents
posed as children and waited to be propositioned by adults. In others,
the undercover agents sought images of children having sex. After
receiving such images, the agents then obtained court permission to
monitor the sender's electronic mail.

Federal officials disclosed today that one computer user who was
arrested, Craig Zucker, 32, of Gurnee, Ill., a northern suburb of
Chicago, was the operator of a childcare center.

Mr. Zucker, who operated the center with his wife, Roxanne, was
arrested this morning and arraigned in Federal District Court in
Chicago on charges of interstate transmission of child pornography by
computer.

An affidavit filed by the F.B.I. said that Mr. Zucker used his
computer to send more than 100 digitized photographs to an informer
for the bureau from April 27, 1994, to June 2, 1994. The F.B.I. said
many of the images depicted "unclothed preteen females," some of them
in sexual situations with adult males.

Mr. Zucker was released on a personal recognizance bond and ordered
not to be in his home during the hours of operation of the daycare
center. He is to be monitored with an electronic tracking device.

Joan Safford, Deputy United States Attorney in Chicago, said there was
no evidence that children in the day-care center were used in the
pornography.

The nationwide investigation has also resulted in arrests in New York,
New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, Texas and Virginia. Federal officials
said there would be more arrests over the next few months.

The authorities began their investigation in 1991 and accelerated it
in 1993 after the abduction of a 10-yearold, George Stanley Burdynski,
from his neighborhood in Brentwood, Md., a suburb of Washington. He
has not been found.

Law-enforcement officials said that during that investigation, the
Federal and state authorities focused on two suspects believed to have
exploited juveniles in the Northeast. They uncovered evidence that
adults and minors were regularly using computers, linked through
America Online and similar services, to transmit sexually explict
images of juveniles. In addition, adults were using the service to
seek out minors for sexual encounters.

At about the same time, F.B.I. officials who used America Online as a
hobby also noticed conversations involving sex with minors on the
network's "chat rooms," which are designated places for customers of
the service to meet and hold electronic discussions. Moreover, some
customers had complained to the company, based in the Washington
suburb of Vienna, Va., when they received images of child pornography
by way of E-mail.

After a preliminary review of some of the material moving through
America Online's network, agents from the Baltimore office of the
F.B.I. proposed the undercover operation.

The undercover operation, like others involving F.B.I.  agents, was
ultimately approved by a Washington panel of bureau officials
including Justice Department lawyers, that reviews such operations for
their fairness and legality.

At its height, the investigation run from the Baltimore office of the
F.B.I. relied on 18 agents, including several specialists in computer
technology. It also spun off satellite investigations run by other
offices. In recent weeks, more than 125 homes and offices have been
searched as a result of the investigation.

Court papers filed around the nation in recent days have begun to
provide a picture of how the investigation progressed to the point
where the raids were conducted in 57 of the nation's 94 Federal
districts.

In one case, Wylie G. Borum 2d, a special agent of the F.B.I., signed
on to America Online just before midnight one day in March using the
name "Mikey1L." He put out a request on the giant network for images
of children engaged in sex acts.

Two hours later, eight images began arriving through Mikey1L's E-mail
from a user. When the computer files opened, they showed graphic
depictions of naked boys. In some, the boys were having oral sex.

Court papers made public today identified the sender as Eric Zemke,
31, of Chicago, who was a subscriber to the network. No one answered
the telephone at Mr. Zemke's home today.

In another case, officials said, a 32-year old patent lawyer from
Arlington, Va., who went on America Online by the name "Sylli Boy,"
arranged to meet at a mall in Bethesda, Md., with what he thought was
a 14-year-old girl whose computer name was "One4fun4u."

But when the lawyer, identified as James F. Childress, walked into the
mall, he was arrested by Federal agents. In court papers,
Mr. Childress's lawyer said his client had done nothing improper.

Law-enforcement officials said that the conversations between the
agents and other America Online customers had provided the basis to
obtain court orders that would permit the agents to open the
customers' E-mail. Thousands of E-mail correspondences were ultimately
opened.

Federal officials said that during the investigation, they were
mindful of the privacy interests of those that they monitored and that
they ignored other private communications, including transmissions of
adult pornography.

Echoing the views of other civil liberties experts, Mr.  Rotenberg of
the Electronic Privacy Information Center said that it would be months
before it became clear whether the investigation was successful, or
whether some of the defendants had been entrapped or had their privacy
rights invaded.

But officials in Washington said the investigation could have a
considerable effect in drawing new resources to monitoring crimes on
computers.