Breach of Obama passport file launches State Dept. probe

Jet, April 7, 2008 by Kevin Chappell

On three different dates, three different contract employees working in three separate locations accessed passport records of Sen. Barack Obama without a need to do so, the U.S. State Department recently revealed.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice personally called Obama to apologize, and to let him know that she "would stay on top" of the investigation, which is being conducted with the Department of Justice. "I told him that I was sorry, and I told him that I myself would be very disturbed," she told reporters at a news conference.

The incidents happened on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14. On each occasion, a system that was set up to detect any unauthorized access of the records of a high-profile individual tripped, immediately notifying supervisors in each office.

In two cases, the employees were immediately terminated. The other contract employee was disciplined, but remained employed by the contractor, according to State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

"At this point in time, it's our initial view that this was imprudent curiosity on the part of these three separate individuals," McCormack said. "However, we are taking immediate steps to assure ourselves, to be able to assure ourselves, that it is, in fact, nothing more than imprudent curiosity on the part of these three individual and separate employees."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton called the incidents "an outrageous breach of security and privacy." And at least one top staffer inside the Obama campaign worried that a rival political campaign, in an attempt to dig up dirt, could be behind the incident.

The State Department later revealed discoveries that the passport records of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain were accessed as well.

JET has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the State Department in an effort to discover the names of the contractors involved in the incident.