Important data stolen from German state's crime bureau

Files with sensitive data on policeinformants have been stolen during a burglary from the car of anofficial at the Bureau for Criminal Investigation for the northernGerman state of Lower Saxony. The files, stolen at the beginning of May, allow conclusions to bedrawn about the official's work and how he obtained his information.The information emerged from a report by the Interior Ministry madeavailable to dpa.  The bureau initially did not comment on the incident.Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said he wouldexplain further details in a confidential meeting of the Committee onInternal Affairs on Friday morning and then inform the public. "But no files have been lost, everything is there," Pistorius tolddpa.According to the report of the Interior Ministry, the official fromwhose private car the briefcase was stolen works at the Department ofOperational Intelligence and runs informants from there.The documents contained sensitive information and data, the reportsaid. The search for the files was initially unsuccessful. Three daysafter the theft, an angler found the briefcase in a pond south of thestate capital Hanover.While personal items such as cash and a debit card belonging to theofficial were missing, the "obviously" unread documents were still inthe bag.  It could not yet be determined how much damage had been done to thebureau's operations, the report said.After the accidental unveiling of an informant at the Lower Saxonyintelligence agency last year, this is the second known scandalwithin a year in which security agencies have risked the exposure ofinformants, Green lawmaker Julia Willie Hamburg said.