U.S. military is buying back stolen devices

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — American investigators carrying a "box full" of cash have paid thousands of dollars to buy back stolen computer drives — many of which contain sensitive military data, shopkeepers outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan said Friday.

But dozens are still on sale, including memory sticks with information varying from U.S. troop résumés to photographs of Air Force One during President Bush's visit last month.

The surfacing of the stolen computer devices has sparked an investigation of how security could have been breached at the heavily guarded Bagram base, which coordinates the fight against Taliban and al-Qaida militants and includes one of the military's main detention facilities for suspected terrorists.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Mike Cody said he could not comment because an investigation was ongoing.

Shopkeepers showed about 40 of the drives on a laptop computer Friday. Most were blank or did not work, but three contained data.

One shopkeeper, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retribution, said soldiers went around the market outside the base Thursday carrying "a box full of afghanis [the Afghan currency], buying all they could find."

He said he sold about 50 for $2,000, roughly $40 each. A day earlier, he was selling them for about half that price.

"They said they wanted them all and price wasn't important," the shopkeeper said.

The troops hadn't returned to the market by Friday afternoon though dozens of the flash drives were available. Another shopkeeper, who also requested anonymity, said the troops promised to return.

Included on some memory drives this week were the Social Security numbers of hundreds of soldiers, including four generals, and lists of troops who completed nuclear-, chemical- and biological-warfare training.

The Los Angeles Times also reported that some drives had classified military secrets, including maps, charts and intelligence reports that appeared to detail how Taliban and al-Qaida leaders have been using southwestern Pakistan as a planning and training base for attacks in Afghanistan.

The documents, which seemed to be based on conversations with Afghan informants and official briefings, outlined how the U.S. military came to focus its search for militants on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border, according to the newspaper.

The newspaper also said the drives appeared to contain the identities of Afghan sources spying for U.S. Special Forces that operate out of Bagram.

The shopkeepers have said they were not interested in the data and were selling the drives for the value of the hardware.

They say the drives were stolen by some of the 2,000 Afghans employed as cleaners, office staff and laborers at Bagram. Though workers are searched coming in and out of the base, the flash drives are the size of a finger and can easily be concealed.

The memory sticks seen Friday included several performance reviews of troops, which included their Social Security numbers. One review reprimanded a soldier for misplacing his weapon.

U.S. commander Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry has ordered a review of policies and procedures relating to the accountability of computer hardware and software at Bagram, outside which hundreds of shops have sprung since the Americans took it over in 2001 after ousting the Taliban for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.