You would think this story would get more attention than what it is currently getting.
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.
The defense investigators failed to check an additional 1,700 names on the list, defense officials have revealed in correspondence with Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa.
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.
This is getting scant coverage…. why? 5,200 people at the Pentagon suspected of viewing child pornography and they don’t follow through with everybody on this list when they investigated?
Doesn’t this make your blood boil? Do we not care that there may be people still on Uncle Sam’s payroll – in the Pentagon who participate in this criminal act… and worse yet do it on the taxpayer dime. Worse still who knows what security clearance they have and what kind of a national security risk they pose.
I criticized Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) earlier, but I’ll give him kudos for trying to raise the alarm here. He was on CNN with Anderson Cooper, you can watch below:
Then there is the issue of why it is that many federal employees are engaged in this type of behavior. By the way, I’m not blaming the Obama administration for the initial problem – it started under the Bush administration. I’m just curious why they are being so lax on investigating this. The Pentagon promises a full investigation, but actions speak louder than words.