Alan Cullison was in Afghanistan during the war against the Taliban, and after his laptop was destroyed in a near-fatal crash, he just so happened to find himself in a position to buy both a desktop and a laptop computer that had previously been in Al-Qaeda's Kabul office.
As it turns out, the laptop was a complete goldmine of information. It had belonged to Muhammad Atef, an Al-Qaeda military commander and a key planner of 9/11 attacks. It was rich with information about budgets, training manuals for recruits, scouting reports for international attacks, and much more.
A fascinating, if not disturbing read, which can be found here.
So, to all of our readers, please remember this: the next time you use your machine to plan a terrorist attack, remember to wipe the HDD before you stick it in the local paper.