The Pentagon is facing criticism after admitting that it failed to thoroughly investigate allegations that employees were viewing child pornography.
"These cases were not considered a priority by the Defense Department in the first place, and they should have been,'' Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told The Boston Globe this week.
In 2006, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency came up with a list of more than 5,000 Pentagon employees suspected of viewing child pornography. The Pentagon was asked to review the list, but only checked about two-thirds of the names.
Pentagon investigators came up with about 300 defense and intelligence employees who had allegedly looked at explicit images of children on their work or home computers.
The investigators left 1,700 names on the list unchecked, defense officials have told Grassley.
Downloading child pornography is a federal crime, punishable by prison sentences as long as 20 years. Lawmakers have also raised concerns that it would leave employees at national security agencies vulnerable to blackmail.
"We want a change in behavior in the Defense Department where things of this criminal nature are a top priority, even more than government employees at other agencies, because of the national security connections,'' Grassley said.
Read more at The Boston Globe.
Report: Pentagon Didn't Fully Investigate Child Porn Allegations
Jan 5, 2011 – 1:57 PM
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