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Various stolen tech can be found in Afghan bazaars located close to the U.S. base

Afghan cleaners, garbage collectors and other workers are able to walk off a U.S. military base carrying sensitive information about military operations, which later end up on sale at Afghan bazaars.  Deployment rosters with service member Social Security numbers, assessment of enemy targets, names of corrupt Afghan officials and base defenses are examples of some of the information that is being sold several hundred yards away from the base.  Along with the sensitive information stored on USB flash memory drives, the workers are also able to steal knives, watches, packets of Viagra and refrigerators.  The Los Angeles Times reports: 

Workers are supposed to be frisked as they leave the base, but they have various ways of deceiving guards, such as hiding computer drives behind photo IDs that they wear in holders around their necks, shop owners said. Others claim that U.S. soldiers illegally sell military property and help move it off the base, saying they need the money to pay bills back home.

Some claim that U.S. soldiers are allegedly selling stolen goods so that they have money to pay bills back in the United States.

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Afghans strike back
By phatboye on 4/11/2006 2:13:10 PM , Rating: 1
With all the crap that the us does for these people this is how they pay us back? By stealing our stuff and seeling them illegally? I say that the us should just nuke them all and let the U.N. sort out the bodies.




RE: Afghans strike back
By DigitalFreak on 4/11/2006 2:49:29 PM , Rating: 2
Yep.


RE: Afghans strike back
By jkostans on 4/11/06, Rating: -1
RE: Afghans strike back
By bob661 on 4/11/2006 3:47:14 PM , Rating: 2
Yep.


RE: Afghans strike back
By Xenoterranos on 4/11/2006 7:15:34 PM , Rating: 2
"baaaahhh"...I mean..."Yup".


RE: Afghans strike back
By SEOTAIJI on 4/11/2006 8:40:20 PM , Rating: 2
sodesune


RE: Afghans strike back
By msva124 on 4/11/2006 3:16:26 PM , Rating: 2
While we're doing that, we might as well just gather anyone at or below your iq level into a field and nuke it.


RE: Afghans strike back
By dilz on 4/11/2006 3:24:24 PM , Rating: 2
Now there's a step in the right direction! Let's destroy all the floppy drives while we're at it as well.


RE: Afghans strike back
By mindless1 on 4/12/2006 11:26:07 PM , Rating: 2
Nooooo!

If you kill the stupid people, who will do the menial labor? There's kids putting themselves through college, but that's just not a large enough pool to fill all those jobs.


RE: Afghans strike back
By oTAL on 4/14/2006 2:41:27 PM , Rating: 2
I don't think that would be too much work....


RE: Afghans strike back
By smitty3268 on 4/11/2006 3:56:01 PM , Rating: 3
People like you make me ashamed to be an American. Don't you see that you're acting exactly like Saddam Hussein would? What makes you any better than him?

Maybe this was just a joke I'm taking a little too seriously, but I've heard this type of opinion quite a bit the last few years.


RE: Afghans strike back
By mindless1 on 4/12/2006 11:29:15 PM , Rating: 2
It's called "I don't have to think because I don't have to take responsibility or suffer repercussions for my lame-ass ideas on the internet".

What makes you think some Americans AREN'T worse than Saddam? Even the most vile leaders like Hitler had at least SOMETHING postive about them. You don't get to be leader by just killing everyone in opposition unless you happen to have a Star Wars Satellite Laser to do it all, as one man can only hold two guns at a time.


RE: Afghans strike back
By mindless1 on 4/12/2006 11:30:10 PM , Rating: 2
Note that I am not a Nazi, Hitler should've just been shot early on, IMO.


RE: Afghans strike back
By frostedambassador on 4/11/2006 4:56:02 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah, I know! The US gives these soldier people so much money to violate the sovereignty of other nations, and then as a response they go sell our stuff that contains secret information that is liable to get themselves killed! I don't think nuking our own citizens would be a good move, but we should at least pull these international criminals home and remove the international criminals who put them there from our government.


soldiers motivation/iq
By Nae on 4/12/2006 6:55:59 AM , Rating: 1
Everybody knows the US have an idiot bush and stupid/unmotivated soldiers so nothing amazes me anymore about them




RE: soldiers motivation/iq
By PunkSlappa on 4/12/2006 8:25:57 AM , Rating: 2
Bush has a masters degree from a prestigious ivy league university... DO you? Most US soldiers have to have a high school diploma or GED - do you? I doubt it you stinky troll. But you are motivated... motivated to be a dork.


RE: soldiers motivation/iq
By sblomb on 4/12/2006 8:13:46 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Bush has a masters degree from a prestigious ivy league university... DO you? Most US soldiers have to have a high school diploma or GED - do you?


The Bush family donated a few million dollars to this same Ivy League University, and they practically OWN the place. That's why "little Bush", or "Dubya" as he was known while he was there, did not have to do much besides being a jock... sometimes having or not a degree doesn't qualify one person as better or worse than another.

Check your facts first before lashing out at someone else.


RE: soldiers motivation/iq
By mindless1 on 4/12/2006 11:34:15 PM , Rating: 2
Surely you don't think all those with Masters from Ivy League schools are smart? Look around sometime, money and friends will get you anywhere.

Now don't even get me started about how dumb someone could be and still get a high school diploma.

Learn this- education has no real relation to intelligence. What one does AFTER their formal education, not their job title but what they actually DO given that opportunity, is the real measure of a person.


RE: soldiers motivation/iq
By DestruyaUR on 4/13/2006 7:12:40 AM , Rating: 2
Not to mention the Ivy League schools have to keep up appearances, so it's widely known/suspected that people are passed through with C's as to not leave a dark mark on the school's failure rate.

...so if someone says they got out of Yale with a "C" average, that's essentially the same as saying, "I flunked out, but I got a diploma."


RE: soldiers motivation/iq
By Yokal on 4/13/2006 11:19:51 AM , Rating: 2
Right.... you people sound like michael moore clones. You clowns ( clones? ) are the same goobs that praise bill clinton for his super 8 years in office. wow - he accomplished soooo much! No scandals either! Well just several un-explained deaths, un-explained financial transactions and over-explained sex scandals... But he was educated at a REAL school right?


Hehe, too funny
By shaw on 4/11/2006 2:24:58 PM , Rating: 5
They was really after the packets of Viagra. Now the Afghans have Weapons of Mass Erection.




RE: Hehe, too funny
By codeThug on 4/12/2006 2:16:55 AM , Rating: 2
I'll bet the sheep aren't too happy about that...


VERY SAD FOR AN ELITE ARMY PERSONNEL
By Najeeb on 4/11/2006 2:17:57 PM , Rating: 2
Hearing this that US army personnel are selling hard drive etc in Afghanistan to pay bills back at home is very sad. Since this is the top notch army if they behave like this then y they pin point others.




RE: VERY SAD FOR AN ELITE ARMY PERSONNEL
By Mclendo06 on 4/11/2006 2:49:33 PM , Rating: 2
I put this in a post below about the story in general, but it addresses this post directly so I'll stick it in here as a reply -

Soldiers selling computer hardware to make extra money seems unlikely seeing as how the price they would fetch in Afghanistan would be practically nil as I doubt that a lot of Afghans have PCs. If there is anyone from Afghanistan on the forums, please set me straight. It would make more sense that an Afgnhan trying to explain to a western journalist how he came by a collection of USB flash drives from a US military base might make up a story that places blame on US soldiers instead of implicating him for stealing said flash drives. That scenario seems to fit a lot better than soldiers risking their military careers (not to metion all the other nasties associated with being court marshalled) for at most a few dollars.


By glennpratt on 4/11/2006 4:25:12 PM , Rating: 2
"Others claim that U.S. soldiers illegally sell military property and help move it off the base, saying they need the money to pay bills back home."

Agreed, who are these 'others'. Knowing several people in the military I can tell that the last thing they'd wan't to steal is military PC stuff. A lot of people bring there own laptops, disc collections, Xbox's, etc. I don't think they'd be selling crap at an Afghan bazar. Seriously, how much do you think they'd get for it?


not impossible
By ColossusX on 4/11/2006 3:05:18 PM , Rating: 2
Its not impossible for US troops to be selling stuff on the black market. It happens all the time, the smaller the item, the easier....people lose flash drives all the time. Having been in the Army, I knew alot of people who would like to make a quick buck or two selling something like flashdrives....hell, I knew a guy who sold all his gear to a Army/Navy Surplus store so that he could get an Xbox (this was a few years ago). Issued helmets, vests, load bearing equipment all show up on secondary markets, sold by the very troops that were issued the gear.

Its disturbing that such information has leaked out, but should the information have even been on flash drives to begin with? Very unsecure. Why would the information have to leave the computers that they were on? It would be much more secure to transfer the information on a secured network, than carry it around on a flash drive....




RE: not impossible
By The Boston Dangler on 4/11/2006 6:52:01 PM , Rating: 2
don't forget truck batteries.


RE: not impossible
By Pandamonium on 4/11/2006 7:56:37 PM , Rating: 2
This is an outrage. I can't believe someone would sell government property (much less intelligence) to further one's finances. Maybe we should just cut a substantial portion of our military budget. We could cease to pay a standing army that is ostensibly unsatisfied with current levels of compensation, and stop policing the damn world as we please. I'd rather have a small army of volunteers than a large army of self-interested mercenaries.

I'm more of a libertarian though, so that's probably a bit too extreme. But we can all dream, can't we?


So?
By kextyn on 4/11/2006 4:25:10 PM , Rating: 2
Correct me if I'm wrong but the most sensitive information they SHOULD be getting would be FOUO, unclassified information. Last time I checked USB drives were not allowed on classified computers. Hell even NATO doesn't allow them and they are not as strict about that stuff as the US military.

But since people are lazy and stupid a lot of sensitive information in emails and such will probably end up on these drives at the market. Bad OPSEC, but I doubt it gets much more serious then that.




RE: So?
By ColossusX on 4/11/2006 4:37:29 PM , Rating: 2
I guess the main concern is for Identity Theft of deployed soldiers....it would be hard for them to notice unusual account activity and difficult for them to get it straightened out...but still, this info should not have been on the drives in the first place...as you say, poor OPSEC. Hell, where my father in law works, those computers arent even connected to the public net. He works for Naval Intel, they have 1 machine with outside access, but not connected to the other machines in his unit. The rest connect through the military net...he cant take in USB keys, CD/DVDs etc...cant even bring a briefcase to and from work with him...everything he works on stays in the building. He cant even tell me which building he works in, lol


RE: So?
By Wwhat on 4/11/2006 4:56:14 PM , Rating: 2
He's probably not working for the army at all but having other wives out of state, happens all the time, hehe


Misleading Headline
By Mclendo06 on 4/11/2006 2:41:27 PM , Rating: 2
If you read the LA Times article closely, you will see that there is no mention of hard drives, only flash drives. Please correct. In any case, this is disturbing. The military should at least be using some sort of encryption on classified files. As far as soldiers selling the hardware, that seems unlikely seeing as how the price they would fetch in Afghanistan would be practically nil as I doubt that a lot of Afghans have PCs. If there is anyone from Afghanistan on the forums, please set me straight. It would make more sense that an Afgnhan trying to explain to a western journalist how he came by a collection of USB flash drives from a US military base might produce a story that places blame on US soldiers instead of implicating him for stealing said flash drives.




Moderated
By shadowzz on 4/11/06, Rating: -1
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 4/11/2006 2:43:41 PM , Rating: 2
Sorry about that.


RE: Misleading Headline
By Wwhat on 4/11/2006 4:59:26 PM , Rating: 2
I t would make even more sense that none of this is true and the papers are just making up crap as they have done before and will do again.
That LA times guy prably bought some flashdrives in the US and payed the guy extra to give him an afghan story to go with it.


Yeah right....
By breethon on 4/11/2006 2:19:45 PM , Rating: 2
Sneaking out with a refrigerator? I would like to see that. What do they do hide it under their shirt? Come on!




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