(Second in a series)
One of the "scariest things" that came to the mind of the "document whistleblower" was the risk of identity theft, said Paula, the Jerusalem area woman who bought auctioned file cabinets that included thousands of classified documents. The United States Jerusalem Consulate sold the cabinets for $42 but neglected to remove thousands of documents, some of them classified.
"The documents appeared harmless," said Paula - until, she said, she saw papers with social security numbers and financial records of a credit union concerning American civilian and military personnel. "We were horrified," Paula told Israel National News.
"They are lucky that I am a Jew in Israel and I am the one who bought these cabinets," she declared.
Paula is particularly worried that the Consulate did not even know that any documents were missing and did not know which documents were involved.
"I realized, to my utter amazement, that they didn't even know there had been a security breach. [There were] tons of travel plans (old, but still - perhaps enough for someone who knows how to seek information and find patterns to figure out a way to cause damage)," she wrote on her blog. "I had dozens of budget reports, tax and expense account information and…all those social security numbers, birth dates, and more. 
They didn't even know there had been a security breach.
"The greatest sin here was the simple presence of the documents and how they were carelessly mishandled…. They were more concerned with covering their embarrassment than about what actions they had taken or not taken to cause this situation."
Paula also was worried for her son, an Israeli combat soldier. "I thought of someone carelessly endangering my son's identity - his identification numbers, name, birth date, the dates of his service and [and also felt] hurt for the American Marines and people who served here," she wrote.
"We all seek security - in this case, what could have been is a lot worse than what was; and no matter how the American Consulate tries to spin this story, the truth is that they endangered their own people by failing to follow basic security rules.
"Having returned the documents,… I will leave the Americans who have worked in the Consulate here in Jerusalem with one final thought. In the auction lot we bought, there were dozens of file cabinets. We didn't have room for all of them; several, we left in the place the Consulate rented to dispose of the stuff and several more that were locked and dented, we threw into garbage bins on the side of a road. We do not know if there were documents in those cabinets we did not take or in those we threw away without opening.
"Those who seek to do harm in this world, seek information about who we are, what we do, and when and how we do it. In a world where security is so fragile, it is truly a shame that this basic reality was so badly violated."
The State Department said it is investigating the incident.
Tomorrow: Document Blunder Expose: IDF Women Soldiers Beware of Cute US Marines