US Gear Ending up in Pakistan Markets

[unhappycamper]

US Gear Ending up in Pakistan Markets
February 13, 2009
GlobalPost.com|by Shahan Mufti

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Throughout the ages, this ancient Silk Road town near the border of Afghanistan has been the place where the black market thrives and the military spoils of empires are hawked openly.

Here in the storefronts you can still buy antique field rifles left over from the British presence of the 19th century and find uniforms and revolvers from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Now the shops in this industrial rim of Peshawar are filling with military equipment and computers looted from the most recent empire to bog down in this hostile and impenetrable terrain: the United States of America.

In the age of computerized high-tech warfare, it is not just American hardware available on the black market. Now there is also vital technology and information up for grabs and -- as military officials here and in the U.S. fear -- leaking into the wrong hands in this region where the Taliban and elements of Al Qaeda have a known presence.

I was recently able to purchase a U.S. military laptop for $650 from a small kiosk, which is known as the "Sitara Market," on the western edge of the sprawling open-air markets on the edge of Peshawar.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/us-gear-ending-up-in-pakistan-markets.html