As we continue to threaten Iran, here is the latest news from Afghanistan and it is not good!
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) – 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
So, I guess the American forces in Afghanistan did not remember their Operational Security (OPSEC) training after all! This reflects poor training and lack of focus on getting things right the first time.
More below the fold
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.”
All he can say?? How can we even think about possible attacks against Iran when we can not even control the information and equipment we have in Afghanistan?
Afghan Shops Searched for Stolen Files
This article reflects the continuing lack of security and problems that U.S. military brings upon themselves because of their “rush” to the next objective! Here is more information that should concern the U.S. military:
One shopkeeper wanted $20 for a used U.S. soldier’s uniform and said he could get more.
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.
This just continues to reveal the way things are going in the “war” and if we even think we can meet our objections, something has to change, now! But, until the BushCo leadership changes, I fear this will continue to be the rule, not the exception!