'I guess this means we've won the war on terror,' one agent says
- Barton Gellman, Washington Post
Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Washington -- The FBI is joining the Bush administration's War on
Porn. And it's looking for a few good agents.

Last month, the bureau's Washington Field Office began recruiting for
a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a memo
from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the
initiative as "one of the top priorities" of Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales and, by extension, of "the Director," Robert Mueller.

The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted
support staff to gather evidence against "manufacturers and purveyors"
of pornography -- not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that
depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults.

"I guess this means we've won the war on terror," said one exasperated
FBI agent, speaking on condition of anonymity because poking fun at
headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. "We must not need
any more resources for espionage."

Among friends and trusted colleagues, an experienced national security
analyst said, "it's a running joke for us."

A few of the printable samples:

"Things I Don't Want On My Resume, Volume Four."

"I already gave at home."

"Honestly, most of the guys would have to recuse themselves."

Federal obscenity prosecutions, which have been out of style since
Attorney General Edwin Meese in the Reagan administration made
pornography a signature issue in the 1980s, do "encounter many legal
issues, including First Amendment claims," the FBI headquarters memo
noted.

Applicants for the porn squad should therefore have a stomach for the
kind of material that tends to be most offensive to local juries.
Community standards -- along with a prurient purpose and absence of
artistic merit -- define criminal obscenity under current Supreme
Court doctrine.

"Based on a review of past successful cases," the memo said, the best
odds of conviction come with pornography that "includes bestiality,
urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior."
No word on the universe of other kinks that helps make porn a
multibillion-dollar industry.

Popular acceptance of hard-core pornography has come a long way, with
some of its stars becoming mainstream celebrities and their products
-- once confined to seedy shops and theaters -- being "purveyed" by
upscale hotels and most home cable and satellite television systems.
Explicit sexual entertainment is a profit center for companies,
including General Motors Corp. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (the
two major owners of DirecTV), Time Warner Inc. and the Sheraton,
Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt hotel chains.

But Gonzales endorses the rationale of predecessor Meese: that adult
pornography is a threat to families and children. Christian
conservatives, long skeptical of Gonzales, greeted the pornography
initiative with what the Family Research Council called "a growing
sense of confidence in our new attorney general."

Congress began funding the obscenity initiative in fiscal 2005 and
specified that the FBI must devote 10 agents to adult pornography. The
bureau decided to create a dedicated squad only in the Washington
Field Office. "All other field offices may investigate obscenity cases
pursuant to this initiative if resources are available," the directive
from headquarters said. "Field offices should not, however, divert
resources from higher priority matters, such as public corruption."

Public corruption, officially, is fourth on the FBI's priority list,
after protecting the United States from terrorist attacks, foreign
espionage and cyber-based attacks. Just below those priorities are
civil rights, organized crime, white-collar crime and "significant
violent crime." The guidance from headquarters does not mention where
pornography fits in.