Stolen computer drives reappear in market

4-27-2006

By Paul Watson
Los Angeles Times

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — Just days after U.S. troops were ordered to plug a security breach at their base here, the black-market trade in computer memory drives containing military documents was thriving again this week.

Documents on flash drives for sale at a bazaar across from the American military base over the weekend contained U.S. officers' names and cellphone numbers and instructions on using pain to control prisoners who put up resistance. A study guide on one of the drives describes tactics for interrogating and controlling detainees by pinching or striking nerve and pressure points on their face, neck, arms and legs.

Traders at the bazaar near Bagram's main gate were openly displaying pilfered U.S. military memory drives in their shops Monday, two weeks after the Los Angeles Times reported on the black market in computer equipment. Some of the drives contained secret American military documents.

U.S. soldiers spent thousands of dollars later that week buying scores of flash-memory drives from the bazaar. The soldiers walked through the black market with a box of money, purchasing all the computer equipment they could find.

For several days afterward, no memory drives were available.

But an 18-year-old Afghan man who works on the base said that by Friday, memory drives were again being smuggled off the base.

Several shopkeepers have said in recent days that they are eager for the military to return to the market so they can sell their new stock for premium prices.

Some of the memory drives for sale earlier this month listed the names, addresses and photographs of Afghan spies providing information to U.S. Special Forces. Others that were also marked "Secret" included American military officials' view that the Taliban and its allies were using bases in Pakistan to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

One had maps dated Dec. 1, 2001, the day after U.S. and Afghan militia forces began their offensive at Tora Bora, that described possible escape routes of Osama bin Laden. The routes in the maps start not at Tora Bora, where many had thought bin Laden was at the time, but in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

Some of the drives contained sensitive documents that had been deleted but could be retrieved with software available on the Internet.

Files on some of the drives for sale at the bazaar Sunday had been deleted, too. It was not known if any of those drives contained classified information.

Lt. Mike Cody, a spokesman for the U.S. military here, did not respond Monday to a request for comment on the renewed sales of flash drives. At the Pentagon, Air Force Lt. Col. Todd Vician said Monday that U.S. forces in Afghanistan were continuing to investigate the theft of the equipment and how to prevent further security breaches at Bagram.

On April 13, the Army launched a criminal investigation, and Lt.-Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, overall commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, ordered a review of policies and procedures concerning the way computer hardware and software are accounted for.

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company