SubscribeTwo Fired For Peeking At Obama’s Passport
From the inimitable New York Post:
SNEAKS PEEKED AT OBAMA FILE
FEDS AX 2 PASSPORT GAWKERS
By GEOFF EARLE Post Correspondent
March 21, 2008 — WASHINGTON - Two snooping State Department contract employees were fired for digging through Barack Obama’s restricted government passport files, in what the Obama camp termed an “outrageous breach of security and privacy.”
The State Department said the agency’s inspector general will investigate how the breach occurred - a subject already causing the administration embarrassment.
The incidents occurred in January, February and March, as Obama burst onto the national scene to become a top contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, but Obama wasn’t informed about it until yesterday, his campaign said. Passport files are supposed to be kept secure under the Privacy Act, and employees are instructed not to read them without authorization.
The fired employees got caught by a computer system that monitors people who dig into files of “high-profile” individuals.
A third State Department worker has been disciplined…
Senior staffers then briefed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and contacted Obama’s office yesterday.
Rice called Obama today and apologized.
“I told him that I was sorry, and I told him that I myself would be very disturbed,” Rice told reporters…
They couldn’t say for certain that the fired employees didn’t pass the information on.
Obama has a particularly diverse background that makes his file juicy. His father was from Kenya, and as a child, Obama lived in Indonesia - a country subject to travel warnings and terror threats.
He made a 2006 visit to Kenya that attracted national attention at the time, and more recently, when photos surfaced of him in tribal garb.
“It’s our initial view that this was imprudent curiosity on the part of these separate individuals,” McCormack said.
But on a conference call with reporters, Kennedy acknowledged the possibility that there could have been other motives.
“I don’t want to be dismissive of the possibility that it is something other than that,” he said. McCormack didn’t provide an explanation as to why Obama wasn’t informed sooner. The first breach occurred Jan. 9, just a day after the New Hampshire primary.
“This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years,” fumed Obama spokesman Bill Burton.
“This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama’s passport file, for what purpose, and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach.”
Haven’t we been through this before?
Moreover, it is already being reported that the perps were Clinton appointees.
Still, one suspects that the real reason this is being touted as urgent news is to take the Wright story out of the headlines.
After all, shouldn’t we know where our future President has been? (And what other “tribal garb” he has been donning.)
Why the secrecy?
Update!
Here is a conveniently belated clarification, via Reuters:
Clinton, McCain passport records were also viewed
Fri Mar 21, 2008
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The passport files of presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, and Sen. John McCain, a Republican, were improperly accessed by State Department workers, a U.S. official said on Friday.
The official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, declined further comment.
Again, shouldn’t we know where these people have been? Especially when we are often paying for their travels.
This is way down the scale on the “moral outrage” gauge. Except for when the media decide to create sympathy for one of their favorites when he is being criticized.
(Cf. the aforementioned Bill Clinton.)
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7 Responses to “Two Fired For Peeking At Obama’s Passport”
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March 21st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
They also looked at Mc Cain’s files at the same time as Obama and now Hillary is reminding us it happened to her last year - she forgot to add that hers was a training mistake.
Hillary = busted.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:05 pm
My first thought was the Associate(d With Terrorists) Press (or et al) paid for some stooge (best if it was a GWB stooge) to get the dirt for a new story (or cover their a**es) on some already made up story. . .
Now that it’s come out that it was all the candidates, not just HWCBN - boo hoo. . .
Any idea as to who the NYPost endorses and is carrying water for?
This election ‘coverage’ and ‘campaign’ is becoming a sad, sick joke of what is ‘news’, ‘research’, ‘journalism’ and by November (providing Denver and Saint Paul don’t turn into the killing fields) the result will be either the silent majority rises up and does the right thing or the stupid masses will be numbed to sleep and the 2008 General Election will be the lowest turnout in American history. . .
Which actually is the goal of the DNC and their propaganda machine - to raise American politics to the level of - what does it matter, why should I waste my time, they’re all the same. . .
Look at the candidates - neither Party is really overwhelmed with any of the ‘candidates’ (other than those taken by Obamania - temporary insanity is not a good base on which to base your nomination) - there is a long time between primary day and election day.
Question - isn’t this event the very result of a big, bloated, and out of control Government - which is what Her Royal Clinton and HWCBN and of course McAmnesty want even more of?!? Doesn’t feel very good when it’s you getting the ‘invasion’ of privacy does it?
March 21st, 2008 at 1:18 pm
“imprudent curiosity”
Craig Livingstone, please call home.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Would someone please tell us what might be in a passport file that one would not want anyone else to see?
Would someone please tell us it was no big deal for Sen Schumer’s staff to look at LtGov Steele’s credit report, which could actually have some infomation that would help the opposition, versus someone’s passport file, which if your passport has never been revoked, should have only a list of the places you have been (IMO)?
March 21st, 2008 at 1:33 pm
SG: “Still, one suspects that the real reason this is being touted as urgent news is to take the Wright story out of the headlines.”
Bingo!
wardmama4 -> “Now that it’s come out that it was all the candidates,…”
Not ALL the candidates:
Clinton Says Her Passport File Breached
Mar 21 11:54 AM US/Eastern
By DESMOND BUTLER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that her passport file was breached in 2007
http://www.breitbart.com/artic....._article=1
Hillary’s - Me too…me too…won’t work.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:19 pm
BTW, did Condi Rice call and offer an apology to John McCain? That would seem appropriate, given the precedent.
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:08 am
From the Washington Times
Ah ha!! What do we have here?
The plot thickens. Maybe Obama better keep his trap shut on this one for a while.