U.S. scours Afghan markets for stolen computer drives with military data

Published Thursday, April 13, 2006

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 disks 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."