Market Economy

It looks like some Afghani merchants are learning all about supply and demand:

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.

It's easy to joke about freedom to trade in stolen merchandise being on the march, but seriously, you really have to wonder what the hell is going on here. Is the computer infrastructure at Bagram so primitive that staff has to rely on old-school sneaker-net to move documents around? Or is this a case where convenience continues — inexplicably — to trump security, even after the security hole has been widely publicized? And why did it take the military so long to respond to a problem — even in a completely half-assed way — that was, literally, right on their doorstep?

One shopkeeper said he had been selling pilfered American military flash drives for four years, mostly to young Afghan computer users looking for cheap equipment, but also to some foreigners.

"I may have sold thousands of these flashes since I have come and opened this shop," the shopkeeper said. He asked not to be named because he feared retribution.

So let me get this straight: The President tells me that everything changed on 9/11, and that means the government gets to tap my phone, read my email, and review my library records. But when it comes to security at a front-line military installation, well, who can really be bothered with that? Unbelievable.