CD-rom of key Nato secrets feared sold
John Hooper in Berlin
Guardian
Thursday February 21, 2002
The United States military's European Command last night appealed for
the return of a CD-rom said to be packed with a wealth of secret
military information on the Balkans.
In a report to be published today, the German magazine Stern said the
disk had turned up in a laptop computer auctioned on the internet.
The details on the disk were apparently compiled for Nato's bombing of
Kosovo. US European Command, based in Stuttgart, said: "If someone says
that they have classified information, they should safeguard that
information and turn it in to the appropriate authorities". It would not
say whether a CD was missing or an investigation was planned.
Stern said the disk carried a "Nato secret" classification. It suggested
that American forces were preparing for the conflict almost a year
before the first bomb was dropped. Stern said the CD contained plans,
aerial photographs and the geographical coordinates of 53 potential
military targets in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
There were indications on the disk that the data had been compiled
between April and September 1998, and that they had been put on the CD
in February 1999, the month before Nato began bombing.
The targeting of sites in Bosnia, a Nato-friendly country, suggests a
belief that Slobodan Milosevic might have tried to seize installations
there.
The laptop containing the disk was reportedly bought for just DM118
(�38) in an internet auction by someone in Herten, near D�sseldorf.
Stern said the seller, from Schweinfurt in Bavaria, said he had bought
the computer in an army surplus sale.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4360126,00.html
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