March 22, 2008 Obama, Clinton,
McCain's
Passport Files Breached
Washington
Contractors working for the US State Department breached the
passport files of presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary
Clinton and John McCain, spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had contacted Democrats Obama
and Clinton to apologize for the mishap and would soon be speaking
with the presumptive Republican nominee McCain, McCormack said.
"We're sorry that this happened and we take it very seriously,"
McCormack said, adding the State Department has launched an
investigation into the incidents.
Obama's file was breached on three occasions beginning Jan 9 by
three different contractors and two of them were sacked for
violating privacy regulations. The third employee who was
disciplined but remained employed also snooped on McCain's file,
McCormack said.
"We are reviewing our options with respect to that person and his
employment status," he said.
"I can tell you that that individual no longer has access to this
kind of information," McCormack said.
Computer mechanisms for detecting unauthorized accesses to the files
alerted the department to the incidents but the breaches were not
reported to upper management, McCormack said, adding that the cases
initially appear to be based on "imprudent curiosity" and not
politically motivated.
"It is deeply disturbing what's happened," Obama said on the
campaign trail in Portland, Oregon. "This is something that has to
be investigated diligently and openly."
News that Obama's file had been violated broke Thursday night, and
Rice told reporters Friday she telephoned the Illinois senator to
apologize and would "make certain that nothing more was going on."
"I told him that I was sorry," Rice said. "And I told him that I,
myself, would be very disturbed if I learned that somebody had
looked into my passport file. And therefore I will stay on top of it
and get to the bottom of it."
Clinton's office released a statement Friday saying she had been
informed by Rice of a violation in 2007.
"The State Department will be briefing Senator Clinton's staff this
afternoon to provide details about the recent unauthorized breaches
of passport records," Clinton's office said. "Senator Clinton will
closely monitor the State Department's investigation into this and
the other breaches of private passport information."
McCormack said the individual who looked at Clinton's file was a
trainee brought in to deal with last summer's backlog of passport
requests.
"Usually in these training circumstances, people are encouraged to
enter a family member's name, just for training purposes," he said.
"This person chose Senator Clinton's name."
McCain was travelling in France Friday.
The House Government Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees said
they were investigating the violations.
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