Stolen military data for sale in Afghanistan

From personal to confidential
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.

Biographies, pictures, diagrams
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.

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