Pentagon Workers Tied To Child Porn

finalcutmonstar tips a Boston Globe report on details released today of Operation Flicker (PDF), an investigation of subscribers to child porn websites, which seems to have implicated a number of government employees in sensitive positions. Quoting: "Federal investigators have identified several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances who allegedly purchased and downloaded child pornography, including an undisclosed number who used their government computers to obtain the illegal material, according to investigative reports. The investigations have included employees of the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — which deal with some of the most sensitive work in intelligence and defense — among other organizations within the Defense Department. The number of offenders is a small percentage of the thousands of people working for sensitive Pentagon-related agencies. But the fact that offenders include people with access to government secrets puts national security agencies 'at risk of blackmail, bribery, and threats, especially since these individuals typically have access to military installations,' according to one report by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service from late 2009."

Comments

Wow

[Renraku]

Wait, you mean people with high security clearances that work for the government can also be disgusting perverts??

Quick, we need to revise the process to make it to where only god fearing Christians that have sex for procreation only can get government clearances!

Re:Wow

[TheMeuge]

They were just thinking of the children. Isn't that what you want your government officials to do?

Re:Wow

[chill]

Go pro and enter the priesthood?

How they did it

[russotto]

NSA just copied the child porn whenever anyone sent it over the net. The NRO took the pictures themselves, as the original pornographers were setting up the shots. And DARPA set up a contest in which they got teams from the best universities in the country to compete to make child porn meeting their criteria.

Re:How they did it

[Kjella]

And DARPA set up a contest in which they got teams from the best universities in the country to compete to make child porn meeting their criteria.

Ah, the lesser known XXX-prize.

Re:No Story here

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's an elaborate sting gone wrong. You've got someone in the pentagon doing cyber black ops and tracking down people who buy this stuff to take care of the problem in an "extra-legal way." It was just that Operation Flicker stumbled upon this black project and caught people who are already working a sting. It's the beat cop busting the undercover narc agent.

Re:No Story here

[Garridan]

Did you rtfa? The government loves child porn!

Will somone please...

[VortexCortex]

...think of the children!

Wait, not like that you sick bastards!

Now it all makes sense

[Hognoxious]

Finally, the real explanation of why they're so antsy about getting hacked by Gary McKinnon.

Re:Is it endemic to a certain type of person?

[IndustrialComplex]

IT are the police in a corporation, respect them. The fat security guards checking badges are a joke, the people that protect the place from hacking, espionage and legal liability are the boys in the server room.

Not a hint of arrogance there. Why, that fat security guard should bow down and kiss your feet every time you walk into the door.