US Military Buys Back Stolen Flash Drives from Afghan Shopkeepers

Unc Sam should of bought the encrypted model...

Maps, charts, and intelligence reports on computer drives smuggled out of a US base and sold at a local bazaar describe how Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders have been using southwestern Pakistan as a key planning and training base for attacks in Afghanistan.

The documents, marked ''secret," appear to be raw intelligence reports based on conversations with Afghan informants, and official briefings given to high-level US military officers. Together, they outline how the US military came to focus its search for members of Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups on the border region with Pakistan and Pakistani territory.

American investigators have paid thousands of dollars to buy back the stolen drives, according to shopkeepers outside the major military base here, but many were still on sale yesterday.

Included on some drives were the Social Security numbers of hundreds of US soldiers, including four generals, and lists of troops who completed nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare training, the Associated Press reported.