12 April - U.S. Military Looks Into Data Sales in Afghanistan.

... The U.S. military said Tuesday that it was looking into reports that computer drives containing military data, some marked "secret," were available for as little as $20 in a bazaar outside its biggest base, and soldiers were visible making rounds there. But once they passed, at least two shopkeepers still offered memory drives for sale.

They were from military intelligence," said the one with the hidden shelf as he pulled out the plastic bag containing four drives. "They won't be able to do anything," he added, with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Nearby, another fence displayed two memory drives that he said an Afghan worker on the base delivered to him after a shift change Tuesday morning. He invited a shopper to return today, when he expected four more drives to arrive...

One shop owner said he "washed" the drives, meaning that he erased the contents, in case U.S. soldiers came looking.

But deleted files were readily retrievable using German software downloaded from the Internet.

The drive contained dozens of personal photographs and two cockpit videos of air attacks by a U.S. helicopter and a C-130 Specter gunship. One scene shows night-vision images of people being fired upon. The helicopter footage was broadcast by television news outlets, and the gunship footage was available on the Internet...