BAGRAM, Afghanistan, 15 April 2006 — Shopkeepers outside the US military’s headquarters in Afghanistan said yesterday that American investigators have paid them thousands of dollars to return stolen computer drives — many of which contained sensitive military data.

But dozens of the memory sticks were still on sale in shops outside the base and the shopkeepers let an Associated Press reporter review about 40 of them on a laptop computer.

Most were blank or did not work, but three contained data that appeared to have come from inside the base, including a soldier’s military discharge certificate, troop resumes and photographs of Air Force One during a visit to Afghanistan by US President George W. Bush last month. The surfacing of the stolen computer devices has sparked an urgent American military probe to discover how security was breached at the base.

Military spokesman Lt. Mike Cody said he could not comment about the military’s methods to recover the flash drives because an investigation was ongoing.

One shopkeeper, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retribution, said soldiers went around the market outside the base Thursday carrying “a box full of afghanis (the Afghan currency), buying all they could find.”

He said he sold about 50 for 100,000 afghani ($2,000), roughly about 2,000 afghani ($40) each. A day earlier, he was selling them for about half that price.

“They said they wanted them all and price wasn’t important,” the shopkeeper said.

The troops had not returned to the market by yesterday afternoon despite dozens of the flash drives still being available.

Included on some memory drives seen by the AP earlier this week were the social security numbers of hundreds of soldiers, including four US generals and lists of troops who completed nuclear, chemical and biological warfare training.

None, though, had classified military secrets as reportedly seen by a Los Angeles Times journalist, who in an article on Thursday said he saw maps, charts and intelligence reports that appeared to detail how Taleban and Al-Qaeda leaders have been using southwestern Pakistan as a key planning and training base for attacks in Afghanistan.

The Los Angeles Times report said the drives also appeared to contain the identities of Afghan sources spying for US Special Forces that operate out of Bagram.