Several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors have been accused of -- and in some cases were convicted of -- purchasing and downloading child pornography on government computers, the Department of Defense's inspector general's office disclosed in documents released Friday. 

The investigation that led prosecutors to these government workers was actually part of a larger Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency sting called Operation Flicker, aimed at identifying individuals who paid money over the Internet to access child pornography overseas, according to the inspector general's office.

That sweep collected information on more than 5,000 people in 60 undercover stings involving 18 child porn websites. Among those were several dozen who worked for Pentagon intelligence services.

Offenders include people with highly sensitive security clearances who have the potential to blackmail the government using closely held military and intelligence secrets, according to the documents released. Some of the people involved have such high-level clearance, identifying characteristics about them were blacked out in the report.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/23/investigators-report-shows-thousands-defense-employees-picked-child-porn-sting/