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I was just e-mailed a link to a recent conversation between Nathan and writer/performer Susie Bright posted on 10zenmonkeys.com. Again she rails at laws that pretty much don’t let anyone even look at child pornography but the FBI. She tells Bright: “We all know Gonzales is in big shit right now because of a bunch of things including illegal use of the Patriot Act and the firing of all of these attorneys. So he’s trying to divert attention by saying, ‘Well, I’m not so concerned about all that because I’m still following my agenda, which is to attack this terrible problem of child pornography on the internet.’ And when the DOJ puts this stuff out, nobody makes a peep. Because this country, this culture, is so ready to believe anything that the government says about child pornography. And that’s why you need people outside of the government to be able to look around on the internet. No one has any idea what’s really on the internet except maybe -you know, the FBI. Although I’m not sure what they know either. But they’re very quick to make claims. And that’s dangerous!”
Just as I was settling in to the Bright interview, computer bells rang and I discovered a new e-mail from Nathan herself. She was sending out a link to this story from the Washington Post, which reports prosecutors in Pennsylvania complaining that the defendant in a child pornograpy case was spending way too much time reviewing, as part of the discovery process, the 11,000 videos that were being used as evidence against him. “He appeared to be enjoying himself immensely,” an FBI agent testified, during a hearing at which the prosecution asked the judge to limit discovery. FBI agents had been standing outside the door as the defendant and his lawyer went over the evidence, and they had their own TV monitor so they could watch the videos as the defendant did.
