As many here know I am in Law Enforcement and specifically Computer Crime Investigation, Computer Forensics. This is good stuff, you can recover data from these drives just like regular HD's. Nothing you delete is really gone most of the time. This story thats why I like this story so much. Its about what you can find on these things and what a positive it is for the fight on Terrorist in Iraq.
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's national security adviser said Thursday a "huge treasure" of documents and computer records seized after the raid on terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's hideout has given the Iraqi government the upper hand in its fight against al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie also estimated that a large number of U.S.-led forces will leave Iraq by the end of this year, and a majority will be gone by the end of next year. "And maybe the last soldier will leave Iraq by mid-2008," he said.
Al-Rubaie said a laptop, flashdrive and other documents were found in the debris after the airstrike that killed the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader last week outside Baqouba, and more information has been uncovered in raids of other insurgent hideouts since then.
He called it a "huge treasure ... a huge amount of information."
When asked how he could be sure the information was authentic, al-Rubaie said "there is nothing more authentic than finding a thumbdrive in his pocket."
"We believe that this is the beginning of the end of al-Qaeda in Iraq," al-Rubaie said, adding that the documents showed al-Qaeda is in "pretty bad shape," politically and in terms of training, weapons and media.
"Now we have the upper hand," he said, speaking in English and Arabic at a news conference in Baghdad. "We feel that we know their locations, the names of their leaders, their whereabouts, their movements, through the documents we found during the last few days."
"They did not anticipate how powerful the Iraqi security forces are and how the government is on the attack now," al-Rubaie said, expressing optimism that the government would be able "to destroy al-Qaeda and to finish this terrorist organization in Iraq."
He said the documents, which he promised to release gradually after investigations were finished, would reveal details about the inner workings of the terror group and show how "al-Qaeda is using everyone as a pawn to play in this wargame, in this game of killing Iraqi people and destroying this country."
They "will show how their central strategy is to divide and destroy," he said.
