Child Porn Investigation Caused Solar Observatory Closure - Court Docs

The FBI was investigating child pornography when it closed down the Sunspot Solar Observatory in New Mexico on September 6, Reuters reports, citing court documents. As the FBI remained tight-lipped about the situation, the incident caused many on social media to form conspiracy theories to explain the mystery behind the closure.

Reuters reports that a 39-page application for a search warrant finally solved the mystery, quelling the numerous conspiracy theories that have popped up on social media.

According to local news station KRQE, federal agents found child porn linked to an IP address at the Sunspot observatory in July. In August, they spoke to the chief observer at the facility, who said he found a laptop running in empty offices over the past months. He told the FBI that what he found on the computer was "not good" and that it looked like child pornography.

The times that the child porn was being sent out and received by the facility matched only one employee, a janitor who was hired about a year ago. After the janitor noticed his computer was missing he apparently became erratic. The director of the observatory said that he "feverishly started looking through the facility," and said that it was "only a matter of time before the facility got hit."

The janitor apparently conveyed that he "believed there was a serial killer in the area" who may enter the observatory and execute someone, according to the director.

Even local authorities were left grasping for straws during the roughly 10-day closure. "I think it's chicken sh*t the way the FBI handled it. I have a responsibility to protect my citizens," said the local sheriff, Otero County Sheriff Benny House, after it was announced that the observatory would be reopened on September 16. The post office on the compound and people living nearby who were also evacuated in early September were also allowed to return.

The Sheriff had been fighting for details since the beginning. His team was asked to help by the FBI but he gave up when they wouldn't give him any details as he had not perceived any threats himself. "There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers, but nobody would tell us anything,” he said at the time.

A private security company was also called in to do patrols in the area, but was also left out in the dark about the nature of the FBI investigation. The FBI repeatedly refused to answer questions from local authorities or reporters.

Speculation about the case grew so intense that the observatory felt the need to put the conspiracies to rest, saying "it definitely wasn't aliens."

https://sputniknews.com/us/201809201068183070-Child-Porn-Observatory-Closure/

Eight NATO Air Forces to Fly to Ukraine for Massive Drill

Soldiers from eight foreign militaries, including the US, will converge on Ukraine next month for the country’s largest aviation exercise yet.

Starokostiantyniv Air Base, about 150 miles southwest of the capital of Kiev, will play host to some 950 personnel from the United States, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom as they engage in the Clear Sky multinational exercise, Stars and Stripes reported Wednesday.

The Clear Sky exercises will train soldiers in air sovereignty, air interdiction, air-to-ground integration, air mobility operations, aeromedical evaluation, cyberdefense and personnel recovery, Stars and Stripes reported.

The announcement comes on the heels of the Ukrainian government announcing it would open a new military base on the Sea of Azov, a shallow body of water straddled by Russia's Rostov, Krasnodar and Crimea regions, but most of the north coast of which belongs to Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, told the media Tuesday that "wherever" gaps in the Ukrainian military's capabilities exist, the US is "prepared to sit down and talk with Ukraine about what their needs are. They can buy things through our foreign military sales," Sputnik reported.

Ukraine isn't a NATO member but has expressed interest in joining the alliance, which has slowly pushed eastward in the decades since the end of socialism in Eastern Europe. Ukraine's interest has grown in NATO since 2014, when a right-wing, pro-Western government was brought to power after pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych walked away from a trade proposal with the European Union in favor of a Russian alternative agreement.

Late last month, US National Security Adviser John Bolton, returning from a trip to Kiev, told Reuters that Ukraine had made progress in its efforts to join NATO, but it still had work to do.

Bolton told reporters that it was dangerous not to resolve the Ukraine crisis, referring to the Crimean Republic's 2014 vote to join Russia and the continued independence of cities in the Donets Basin.

https://sputniknews.com/military/201809201068183728-Eight-NATO-Air-Forces-Ukraine-Drill/