FBI Workers Accused of Spying on Teenage Girls in Dressing Room

Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet at 12:44 PM on April 21, 2009.

In news that gives new meaning to the term "government spying," here’s a story that pretty much speaks for itself:
"Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a West Virginia mall."

The FBI employees have been charged with conspiracy and committing criminal invasion of privacy. They were working in an FBI satellite control room at the mall when they positioned a camera on temporary changing rooms and zoomed in for at least 90 minutes on girls dressing for the Cinderella Project fashion show, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said Monday.

...

The workers were described in a complaint as "police officers," but prosecutors did not say whether the men were agents or describe what kind of work they did.

Cinderella Project organizer Cynthia Woodyard was outraged:

I can't even begin to put words around what I consider an unspeakable act, the misuse of surveillance by a branch of our government in a place we felt so secure," she said. "Never in a million years would we have thought something like this would happen. We're in shock."

No word on why, exactly, this mall has a FBI satellite control room.
For more, go here.
(H/T to Joshua Frank)

Tagged as: fbi, surveillance, cindarella project, cynthia woodyard

Liliana Segura is a staff writer and editor of AlterNet's Rights and Liberties and War on Iraq Special Coverage.