A prominent Australian military adviser accused of uploading child pornography to a social media website remains locked up in a US jail because a judge has deemed him a flight risk.
Dr Adam Cobb, 45, had a distinguished career working in high-ranking, highly sensitive positions in Australia and the US, including with Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove in East Timor and the US Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida.
It was Cobb's intellect and the "trusted position" he held in his latest posting as a research professor and director at the esteemed, 130-year-old US Naval War College in Rhode Island that worked against his bail application.
Cobb was also described in court as intelligent and a sophisticated traveller with the ability and means to flee.
"Defendant lacks family ties or other ties to the community to offset risk of flight," judge Patricia Sullivan told Cobb at his Friday bail hearing in the US District Court in Rhode Island.
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"While he has employment in Rhode Island, defendant works in a trusted position for the US government so that the charge could motivate him to flee from his job and fail to appear for the charge."
Cobb was taken into custody on Friday on a US federal warrant for receipt and distribution of child pornography.
He allegedly uploaded images of child pornography involving girls to the social networking site, Tumblr.
If convicted he faces 20 years' jail in the US.
"He has been placed in an absent-without-leave status and as such he will not be getting paid for the days of his absence," commander Kelly Brannon, Naval War College public affairs officer, told AAP.
According to his biography on the Naval War College website, Cobb worked on the 1999-2000 East Timor crisis with Major General Cosgrove, who at the time was commander of the international peacekeeping mission.
Cobb was also a principal strategist at US Special Operations Command and associate professor of strategy for the US Air Force's Air War College.
In Australia he was special-director, strategic policy with RAAF; senior defence adviser for the Australian parliament; an Australian parliamentary fellow; and research fellow at Australian National University's strategic and defence studies centre.
