Stolen military data for sale in Afghanistan

Just outside the main gate of the huge U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, shopkeepers at a bazaar peddle a range of goods, including computer drives with sensitive — even secret information — stolen from the base.

This week, an NBC News producer, using a hidden camera, visited the bazaar and bought a half dozen of the memory drives the size of a thumb known as flash drives. On them, NBC News found highly sensitive military information, some which NBC will not reveal.

“This isn't just a loss of sensitive information,” says Lt. Col. Rick Francona (ret.), an NBC News military analyst. “This is putting U.S. troops at risk. This is a violation of operational security.”

Some of the data would be valuable to the enemy, including:
Names and personal information for dozens of DOD interrogators;
Documents on an “interrogation support cell” and interrogation methods;
IDs and photos of U.S. troops.

With information like this, “You could cripple our U.S. intelligence collection capability in Afghanistan,” says Francona.

It must be real light duty working reconnaissance for the Taliban - all you've got to do is go shop at that bazaar once in awhile.

tags: military  afghanistan  security