IDF Guard Stole Ashkenazi"s Antique Gun, Credit Card Info

(IsraelNN.com) The victim of a theft within the IDF was revealed Sunday night to be none other than the Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. The incident has caused embarrassment among top IDF brass, as it reveals major problems in the security provided to Ashkenazi and the General Staff.

The suspect in the theft is a young soldier who served as a guard in the Kirya base in Tel Aviv. Unknown to his superiors, the soldier, who had immigrated to Israel four years earlier, had become involved in the criminal underworld and had fallen in debt to a group of Arab Israeli gangsters.

In an attempt to repay his creditors, the soldier decided to steal weapons and other items of value from around the base. He managed to steal a decorative, non-functioning gun from Ashkenazi"s office, which he entered by using a master key, and to photograph the Chief of Staff"s credit card with his cellphone in order to use the card data for purchases.

Stole NIS 2,000 from Ashkenazi
The gun and the photograph were passed on to an Arab Israeli criminal in the Sharon region. The criminal used the credit card number to buy goods at a value of NIS 2,000 from a store in the area.

The soldier was caught after stealing two M-16 rifles from the base; in the second case, he and his civilian brother worked together to attack a guard and take his weapon. The attack led to his arrest.

After realizing that the soldier had managed to steal from Ashkenazi, the IDF investigated security around the Chief of Staff"s office, and found it lacking. The suspect was able to wander the area freely, they found.

Security cameras guard the area outside Ashkenazi"s office. However, the closed circuit camera was monitored only by one other soldier, who was guarding the building entrance at the same time, and apparently missed the soldier"s entrance to the office.

IDF sources said that the soldier would not have been able to steal sensitive security information despite his success in entering Ashkenazi"s office, because such information is stored in locked drawers after hours. However, they admitted that the soldier was in a position to plant a listening device in the office or to plant a bomb.

A question being asked in journalistic reports is why the theft of the gun from Ashkenazi"s office was not reported when it occurred. Several high-ranking IDF officers have recently been embroiled in cases which involved lying about their misdeeds