From The Laptops Of Terrorists

There is no question that catching the notebook PCs of terrorists could be of real value to the authorities. But are those who own these notebooks really that sloppy? So far, all signs point to yes.

If you can’t catch terrorists, then the next best thing seems to be snatching their laptop computers. And as luck would have it, they’re just as sloppy about protecting their sensitive personal information as the rest of us.

At least that appears to have been the case when U.S. military forces came surprisingly close to catching the terrorist mastermind of al Qaeda in Iraq, the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

On Feb. 20, the Pentagon says al-Zarqawi was in a truck heading from Fallujah to a meeting in Ramadi when U.S. forces pulled over one of the vehicles in his convoy. Another truck in the group turned around and sped away. When they finally caught up to that truck, Al-Zarqawi was gone, but he had left his laptop in the car. And what they found on it says some hopeful things about our chances of ultimately rooting out and capturing the bad guys. [Read the rest]