U.S. attorney general determined to fight obscenity

MIAMI — U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told The Miami Herald that law enforcement must learn to out-smart criminals bent on using the Internet to perpetrate crime — including obscenity. After the announcement that the FBI had begun forming an anti-obscenity squad to crack down on illegal porn operations, the media reported negative feedback from a few agents. Gonzales countered the rhetoric by explaining the reasoning behind FBI involvement and referring to a long history of Congress pushing for prosecution of obscenity cases. “They’ve made the decision that dollars should be spent to fight obscenity,” he said. “When they appropriate money in order for the department to fight crime, we have an obligation to do that. And that’s what we’re doing here.

After promising to be more aggressive against pornographers, the Bush administration has pursued more than 40 federal cases against pornographers. This compares to less than a dozen cases pursued during the eight years of the Clinton administration.