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Snooping into Candidate's Passport files
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Topic Started: Mar 21 2008, 06:33 PM (109 Views)
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24thcenstfan
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Mar 21 2008, 06:33 PM
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2 fired in passport case with Va. firm
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WASHINGTON - The Associated Press has learned that the two contractors fired for snooping into Barack Obama's passport records worked for a Virginia-based company called Stanley Inc. Earlier this week, the 3,500-person company won a five-year, $570-million contract to support passport services at the State Department.
The company is referring all questions to the State Department. An agency official confirmed that the two contractors had been employed at Stanley. The official requested anonymity because the information had not been publicly released.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — State Department employees snooped through the passport files of three presidential candidates — Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain — and the department's inspector general is investigating.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the violations of McCain and Clinton's passport files were not discovered until Friday, after officials were made aware of the unauthorized access of Obama's records and a separate search was conducted.
The incidents raise questions as to whether the information was accessed for political purposes and why two contractors involved in the Obama search were dismissed before investigators had a chance to interview them. It recalled an incident in 1992, when a Republican political appointee at the State Department was demoted over a search of presidential candidate Bill Clinton's passport records. At the time, Clinton was challenging President George H.W. Bush.
McCormack said one of the individuals who accessed Obama's files also reviewed McCain's file earlier this year. This contract employee has been reprimanded, but not fired. The individual no longer has access to passport records, he said.
"I can assure you that person's going to be at the top of the list of the inspector general when they talk to people, and we are currently reviewing our (disciplinary) options with respect to that person," McCormack said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with all three candidates on Friday and expressed her regrets. In the meantime, State Department officials headed to Capitol Hill to brief the candidates' staffs.
After speaking with Obama, Rice told reporters: "I told him that I was sorry, and I told him that I myself would be very disturbed."
Obama said Congress should be part of any investigation.
"When you have not just one but a series of attempts to tap into peoples' personal records, that's a problem not just for me but for how our government functions," Obama told reporters in Portland, Ore. "I expect a full and thorough investigation. It should be done in conjunction with those congressional committees that have oversight so it's not simply an internal matter."
The State Department said the Justice Department would be monitoring the probe in case it needs to get involved.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the case has not yet been referred to the Justice Department for investigation, and indicated prosecutors likely would wait until the State Department's inspector general concludes its inquiry. But Mukasey did not rule out the possibility of the Justice Department taking an independent look at the passport breach.
"Have they asked us to become involved — no," Mukasey told reporters during a Friday briefing. "When, as, and if we have a basis for an investigation, including a reference — that is, one basis would be a reference — we could conduct one."
Asked what another basis could be, Mukasey said: "I don't want to speculate but if somebody walked in here with a box full of evidence, they wouldn't be turned away."
In Clinton's case, an individual last summer accessed her file as part of a training session involving another State Department worker. McCormack said the one-time violation was immediately recognized and the person was admonished.
Obama's records were accessed without permission on three separate occasions — Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and as recently as last week, on March 14.
McCormack declined to name the companies that employed the contractors, despite demands by a senior House Democrat that such information is in the public interest.
"At this point, we just started an investigation," he said. "We want to err on the side of caution."
McCain, who was in Paris on Friday, said any breach of passport privacy deserves an apology and a full investigation.
"The United States of America values everyone's privacy and corrective action should be taken," he said.
It is not clear whether the employees saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age, Social Security number and place of birth, which is required when a person fills out a passport application.
Aside from the file, the information could allow critics to dig deeper into the candidates' private lives. While the file includes date and place of birth, address at time of application and the countries the person has traveled to, the most important detail would be their Social Security number, which can be used to pull credit reports and other personal information.
The firings and unspecified discipline of the third employee already had occurred when senior State Department officials learned of the break-ins to the files. Rice learned about it Thursday, after a reporter inquired about Obama's case.
The violations were detected by internal State Department computer checks because certain records, including those of high-profile people, are "flagged" with a computer tag that tips off supervisors when someone tries to view the records without a proper reason.
The Washington Times first reported the incident involving Obama.
Former Independent Counsel Joseph diGenova said the firings of the contract employees will make the investigation more difficult because the inspector general can't compel them to talk.
"My guess is if he tries to talk to them now, in all likelihood they will take the Fifth," diGenova said, referring to the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination.
The State Department's top management officer, Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy, briefed members of the Clinton, Obama and McCain staffs in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee room midday Friday.
"Mistakes and errors happen from time to time. ... We caught these and we've got to work and correct that process," Kennedy said after the more than 90-minute session.
Kennedy had said Thursday that the incident was not handled properly.
"I will fully acknowledge this information should have been passed up the line," Kennedy told reporters in a conference call. "It was dealt with at the office level."
(Bold Added)
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24thcenstfan
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Mar 21 2008, 06:33 PM
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There is no telling at this point why they went into the candidate's files. It could have been simple curiosity. Or for more nefarious reasons.
That one line about it being State Department employees, would probably be more accurate if they added that they were contracted by the State Department. Not direct employees.
There are issues of security in question though. It looks like Stanley Inc. attempted damage control by firing the employees right away. However, do they deserve to keep the contract now? 
Edit:
Candidates' passport files breached
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At least four State Department workers pried into the supposedly secure passport files of presidential contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, abashed officials admitted Friday in a revelation that had Condoleezza Rice promising a full investigation and telephoning the candidates to personally apologize.
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ImpulseEngine
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Mar 21 2008, 08:32 PM
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Commodore
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I heard about this yesterday. It's unbelievable the things that go on. I'm glad those 2 were fired, but there is a third who wasn't. I wonder who else's files people are accessing?
I don't think Stanley, Inc. should lose the contract unless it turns out to be more than just bad employees. I don't think company's can stop everything and they did fire the 2 employees. Supposedly the third has been "disciplined". A replacement company could have some curious employees as well - at least I hope curiosity is all it was about.
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24thcenstfan
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Mar 22 2008, 09:44 AM
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I hope it was simply curiosity too. However, the repeated looks seem to suggest more than that.
I hope the State Department interviews the people who were fired to better ascertain motive.
Even politicians should have a basic expectation of privacy when it comes to social security numbers and other identification information. Information that can be used to gain other private information (e.g financial records).
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ImpulseEngine
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Mar 22 2008, 04:53 PM
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Commodore
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I agree about the expectation of privacy. And you're right that the repeated looks are suspicious. However, since they occurred by different people, in a way, they weren't repeated. So it comes down to whether the company told them to look or they just did so independently. The fact that two were fired supports that it was done independently, but I'm not so naive as to merely accept that at face value either.
It surprises me, with all the hoopla about identity theft these days, that this was even possible though.
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24thcenstfan
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Mar 22 2008, 09:32 PM
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I hope it turns out to be just curiosity. It does reflect somewhat well that the employees were fired. Although, the firing could have been a coverup too.
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ImpulseEngine
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Mar 23 2008, 02:30 PM
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Commodore
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It's hard to say about the coverup. On the one hand, they were fired before the State Department found out about it, but on the other, they might have realized someone was on to them before it reached the State Department too.
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