Military ineptitude - at it's best!

[yasmina27]

U.S. Military Secrets for Sale at Afghan Bazaar
By Paul Watson, Times Staff Writer
April 10, 2006


BAGRAM, Afghanistan — No more than 200 yards from the main gate of the sprawling U.S. base here, stolen computer drives containing classified military assessments of enemy targets, names of corrupt Afghan officials and descriptions of American defenses are on sale in the local bazaar.

Shop owners at the bazaar say Afghan cleaners, garbage collectors and other workers from the base arrive each day offering purloined goods, including knives, watches, refrigerators, packets of Viagra and flash memory drives taken from military laptops. The drives, smaller than a pack of chewing gum, are sold as used equipment.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-disks10apr10,0,7789909.story?coll=la-home-headlines

If I were a military person or family of one, I would be big-time pissed (as opposed to only seriously pissed)!

[ColdWarVet]

1. While certainly a breech of security....

I would hardly call it military ineptitude. Someon's head should definately roll, but painting with such a wide brush is unfair to the rest.

[yasmina27]

4. I disagree

Such an egregious error in disposal of incredibly important information is symptomatic of the entire system. Broad strokes of judgement are often painted about many groups in our society - teachers, doctors, etc. While perhaps unfair to many, the stain applies to all. What about recruiters? Surely not all are lying b@#$tards, but the image of them as such are imprinted on our brains - and my father was one many years ago.

[ColdWarVet]

5. Point taken.

But it is still painting with a broad brush.

In my time, I personally was responsible for the destruction of classified documents, key lists, code books, etc. The procedures for their proper destruction are there. If the individual responsible shirks his duty, that's on him, and or me as the case may be.

Secure items are generally held to the responsible party, and him alone. 5 people cannot be expected to each have a piece of the pie; in the same vein as a secret is no longer a secret as soon as you tell someone.

In 3 years in such a position, I had 1 item, signed to another soldier, be lost (and subsequently recovered). He was reprimanded and punished, I was not, rightfully so. Personal responsibility does occur in the military, and in this case someone screwed up, plain and simple. Nail his ass to the wall, and drive on.

[yasmina27]

6. Thank you!

It's heartening to know that there ARE proper procedures and people like you who know them and follow them, and thank you for your service.

I realize that in this world of vastly differing abilities and personalities, there are bound to be screw-ups in every field. No profession is immune from it. It's just incredibly frustrating when those screw-ups endanger the lives of the men and women out there defending us. Did you read in the article how one reporter was able to find out all kinds of personal info about one soldier, including her home address and license plate #'s of her Jeep Liberty and her Harley Davidson? They found info on 700 soldiers including their SSN's.

I just hope they're trying to rectify the security lapses. As I know with all media reports, you only hear part of the story. And I hope that they are finding the person(s) responsible for these breaches and are punishing them appropriately.

[mom cat]

2. Great security system they got going there! No wonder we are losing.

[Sparkman]

3. Brutality breeds contempt and righteousness motivated opposition....

It's not even unusual to see hatred, theft and violence directed towards all things associated with the U.S. military, or the U.S. government, in Iraq, Afgahnistan, Iran. The peace was doomed from the time of the first cluster bombs killing thousands of innocent Iraqi and Afgan civilians.
Gun boat diplomacy, U.S. style.

[jmowreader]

7. What the hell is this stuff doing on a flash drive in the first place?

In the 1980s, there was a kid working in the security office in 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment who got pissed off at his chain of command, so he loaded 3rd ACR's war plan onto a laptop and tried to defect to East Germany using the war plan as enticement. The East Germans made a copy of the war plan then called the 3rd ACR's staff duty officer to come get him. He's still in jail.

But this guy needed to steal a whole laptop to pull off his nefarious scheme.

Can you imagine how much easier we've made it for the spies of the future now that we're using flash drives that fit on a keyring to hold classified information?

[lonestarnot]

8. Holy crap! The capitalistic march.