The Final Destination of This Week’s Emergency Spending Bill

The Democratic Principle of Free Enterprise is alive and well in Afghanistan. Sadly, the military continues to be run by idiots:

Traders at the bazaar near Bagram’s main gate were openly displaying pilfered U.S. military memory drives in their shops Monday, two weeks after the Los Angeles Times reported on the black market in computer equipment, some of which contained American military documents marked “Secret.”

U.S. soldiers spent thousands of dollars later that week buying scores of flash memory drives from the bazaar. The soldiers walked through the black market with a box of money, purchasing all the computer equipment they could find.

For several days afterward, no more memory drives were available.

But an 18-year-old Afghan man who works on the base said that by Friday, memory drives were being smuggled off the base again. The devices are smaller than disposable lighters.

Several shopkeepers have said in recent days that they are eager for the military to return to the market so they can sell their new stock for premium prices.

We’d make some crack about selling our own classified information back to us being the sole contributer to Afghanistan’s GNP, but that would be ignoring the robust opium trade and warlord protection-money industry.

Leaks of Military Files Resume [LAT]