Who takes Responsibility for this?
 

Unbelievable:

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - A shopkeeper outside the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Afghanistan was selling computer memory drives Wednesday containing seemingly sensitive military data stolen from inside the base - including the Social Security numbers of four American generals.

This shopkeeper was apparently not the only merchant in local bazaars trying to get some cash in exchange for hardware and software containing such files.

The surfacing of the stolen computer devices has sparked an urgent American military probe for the source of the embarrassing security breach, which has led to disks with the personal letters and biographies of soldiers and lists of troops who completed nuclear, chemical and biological warfare training going on sale for $20 to $50.

Five military investigators, surrounded by heavily armed plainclothes U.S. soldiers, searched many of the two dozen rundown shops outside the sprawling base.

Asked if any discs had been found, one soldier, who declined to give his name, said: "We are looking. That's all I can say."

The shopkeeper, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears he may be arrested, said he was not interested in the data stored on the memory sticks and was selling them for the value of the hardware.

"They were all stolen from offices inside the base by the Afghans working there," he said. "I get them all the time."

About 2,000 Afghans are employed as cleaners, office staff and laborers at the Bagram base. Though they are searched coming in and out of the base, the flash drives are the size of a finger and can easily be concealed on a body.

The shopkeeper showed an Associated Press reporter a bag of about 15 and allowed them to be reviewed on a laptop computer. Only four contained data. The rest did not work or were blank.

News of the breach was first reported by the Los Angeles Times on Monday. The paper said its reporter saw files containing classified military assessments of enemy targets, names of corrupt Afghan officials and descriptions of American defenses.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Mike Cody said the military "has ordered an investigation into allegations that sensitive military items are being sold in local bazaars.

"Coalition officials regularly survey bazaars across Afghanistan for the presence of contraband materials, but thus far have not uncovered sensitive or classified items," he said.

U.S. commander Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry has ordered a review of policies and procedures relating to the accountability of computer hardware and software, Cody said.

The shops around Bagram sprung up when U.S. forces took over the base in 2001 after ousting the Taliban for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

They sell a range of military equipment, much of which has been stolen from the base, according to several shopkeepers - all of whom declined to give their names for fear of repercussions.

One shopkeeper wanted $20 for a used U.S. soldier's uniform and said he could get more.

Other items apparently were stolen from a duty-free store on the base, including range-finding binoculars and handheld global positioning systems - items that could be useful to Taliban rebels, who have stepped up their insurgency in the past year.

The computer files seen by the AP ranged from the very personal, such as a soldier's letter to the wife of a dead comrade, to confidential personnel information.

Social Security numbers were listed next to the names of hundreds of soldiers, including Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, who left Afghanistan in February after serving for a year as the coalition's operational commander.

One document listed the names of 20 members of a platoon who had undergone "the required Nuclear Biological Chemical (NBC) training and chamber exercise." It did not elaborate.

Another listed the names of 16 soldiers and the types of weapons they had been trained on.

There were biographies of six soldiers, including a sergeant who had served in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Two of the drives contained several photographs, one showing a group of about 40 soldiers posing at a base, while others had troops inside a helicopter.

A 502-page manual on how to operate a CH-47 Chinook chopper, a mainstay of the 18,000 U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan, was also there, including photos and diagrams.

Many of the other goods on sale in the stores still had stickers indicating the price at the military store. The Afghan shops were selling them for about 25 percent less.

In one store, two Afghans with long flowing black beards were haggling over the price of compasses.

Nearby, two young boys were trying to sell cartons of fresh yogurt. One, who gave his name as Nazar, said a friend had stolen them from the military mess hall.

Capitalism and the Free Market:confused:

Yet another misrepresentation from the ridiculously liberal media. In an effort to avoid having to report on all the good we're doing in the region, they continue to find (and even fabricate) new negative stories to focus on.

Before making a comment, I would have to validate the story. Sounds more like a Enquirer story. The US Army has a little more common sense than to leave sensitive information on memory sticks for the cleaning people to pick up. There may be some facts to this but its my opinion that its exaggerated.

This doesn't seem like a liberal/conservative issue to me.

Oh if only that were true. They are a massive bureaucracy that is rigidly hierarchical. Nobody is assigned the job of making sure that cleaning people don't steal memory sticks. If there isn't a soldier counting memory sticks, they will walk off.

The military is capable of any and all blunders, great and small. The wonder is not that it happens but that it doesn't happen more often.

B

It shouldn't be, but that damned whacko left-leaning press is finding anything negative to report that they can - just so they don't have to report on our astoundingly positive progress.

It's Bush's fault that the memory sticks, undoubtedly made under contract by Kellogg, Brown & Root in a no-bid emergency deal, were not treated with the proper respect due an independent chip in an Islamic country.

Bush lied when the chips were down and babies died. Not unborn babies because it's okay if they die. I mean big fat, healthy babies. Not Christians either as it's okay if Christians die. It's innocent Pashtun Muslim Men who really like to protect their women from the lascivious eyes of infidels by blue-bagging the *****es in stump-ignorance, that's who died because of Bush.

Hope this clears-up the political ramifications.

B

Originally posted by Botnst:
It does not. Please try again.

Oh heck, I was following your lead to it's obvious conclusion.

It's all dubyuh's fault if we just look closely enough, I just know it. My faith shall set me free!

B

Big f'ing deal. Petty theft in a country that prides itself on a petty theft driven black market economy?

Uh-oh, I just caught a newsflash on cnn: TOP GENERAL'S CELLPHONE STOLEN FROM RENTAL CAR IN AFGHANISTAN AND TAX PAYERS MAY BE ON THE HOOK FOR UNAUTHORIZED L.D. CALLS TO MEXICO:rolleyes:

Its all Cheneys fault I suppose....Dick made Slick willy chase after the fat lady.

I'm sure Monica would appreciate your kind words, as it's not likely she's often referred to as a lady. Still, chasing such a creature is surely better (though maybe not to her) than being shot in the face by Dick.

And I forgot--this is one of the most believable things ever posted on this board.

Ever live near a military base? My dad busted a guy one time who worked for him at a military base and owned a restaraunt on the side and had placed 10 TVs the govt. owned in said restaraunt.

Well she was young enough at that time to be duped by a smooth talking preditor....but I don't know the woman enough to lay the blame on her alone.

But there is a huge difference between an accidental spray of birdshot and being intentionally stalked by a preditor who preys on the gulibility of youth.