Barack Obama's Passport File Breached
by Todd Beeton, Thu Mar 20, 2008 at 04:55:44 PM EDT
From a CNN alert:
The State Department says security on Barack Obama's passport file has been breached, campaign officials tell CNN.
DailyKos diarist Scoopster has more via Keith:
The Dept. of Justice has launched an investigation into the compromising of Sen. Obama's passport data file by two contract employees at the State Department. A third has been disciplined for accessing the information without necessity.
Cycloptichorn has more in the diaries:
Keith is citing a release from State that the breach occurred on three different occasions, on 9 January, 21 February and 14 March. They also are saying there is no political motivation behind this breach, it was "...simply curiosity..."
Ah, sure, what's a little benign snooping among spooks? No biggie. How pathetic.
The Obama campaign took the opportunity to slam the Bush administration for presiding over a government that breaches citizens' security rather than protecting it.
"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. Our government's duty is to protect the private information of the American people, not use it for political purposes. 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," Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement.
Nice.
Update [2008-3-20 21:3:16 by Jonathan Singer]: You think this was the first time that a Bush State Department was caught spying on a Democratic presidential candidate? Think again. Here's The New York TimesRobert Pear in November 1992:
A State Department official who carried out the two-day search of passport files for information about Gov. Bill Clinton said today that he had resigned, just 48 hours before Federal investigators are expected to issue a report criticizing the search.The official, Steven M. Moheban, was a top aide to Elizabeth M. Tamposi, the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs who was dismissed last week by President Bush for her role in the search of files on Mr. Clinton, his mother, Virginia Kelley, and Ross Perot, the independent Presidential candidate.
[...]
Ms. Tamposi has said that White House officials encouraged the search of Mr. Clinton's records and that her superiors approved it. The inspector general has interviewed White House officials. But it is not clear whether he will assign any responsibility for the search to senior officials at the White House and the State Department, or will merely focus on Ms. Tamposi and lower-ranking employees.
Is this really the we do things in the United States?
[editor's note, by Todd Beeton]I had updated the post with info from Cycloptichorn's diary -- restored above -- but it got lost in the updating madness. Sorry about that.
Tags: Barack Obama, passport, State Department (all tags)
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