Pentagon lagged on pursuing porn cases - Senator calls it risk to US security

The Pentagon's investigation of defense and intelligence employees who downloaded child pornography is being criticized in Congress after the Department of Defense acknowledged that its investigators failed to check thoroughly whether its employees were on a list of suspected porn viewers. In 2006, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which conducts Internet pornography investigations, produced a list of 5,200 Pentagon employees suspected of viewing child pornography and asked the Pentagon to review it. But the Pentagon checked only about two-thirds of the names, unearthing roughly 300 defense and intelligence employees who allegedly had viewed child pornography on their work or home computers. [...]

Downloading child pornography is a federal crime, punishable by prison sentences of five to 20 years. But members of Congress and other officials say it raises additional concerns when such materials are accessed by employees with high-level security classifications, because it leaves them vulnerable to blackmail.

source: Article 'Pentagon lagged on pursuing porn cases - Senator calls it risk to US security' by Bryan Bender; www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2011/01/05/pentagon_lagged_on_pursuing_porn_cases/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Top+political+stories; The Boston Globe; 5 January 2011