Pentagon Workers Accused of Downloading Child Porn

Several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances have allegedly been caught buying or downloading child pornography. Federal investigators identified alleged perverts everywhere from the NSA to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and some of them even used their work computers to download the material, the Boston Globe reports. Some cases have already been prosecuted, but others were dropped or have languished unresolved for years, according to newly disclosed documents.

Many of the accused were grabbed during the Operation Flicker child porn sweep in 2006. That initiative nabbed 5,000 offenders around the country, but until now the fact that at least 30 of them were referred to the Defense Department has been kept quiet. One accused contractor with top-secret NSA clearance fled the country and is currently believed to be hiding in Libya. (More child sexual abuse material stories.)