Breaking News: Obama State Dept. Breach

Posted: Thursday, March 20, 2008 8:33 PM by Countdown

BREAKING....

So...by now you're in on the story at the State Department. NBC News is reporting that Senator Barack Obama's passport file was breached on three different occasions by three different people who did not have access to do so. The first was January 9th, the second February 21st and the third was last week...March 14th.

The State Department says there was no political motivation for the breaches. They call it "imprudent curiosity" Two of the people were fired, the third case is pending. We don't have names of the people involved yet, but they are said to be low level employees.

The Obama Campaign's statement is as follows:

"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.

There is a State Department conference call scheduled for after 9p eastern...we'll see what come of it.

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Comments

The State Department got into Senator Obama’s stuff in January, and it’s just now coming out??!! Holy *&%$#@! Well, at least someone there got fired! This breech could end up hitting the proverbial fan big-time! No political motivation to this, huh? And, we’re supposed to trust these people, why?

Krista Swisher, Indianapolis, IN (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 8:51 PM)

That tears it; I've got a file. I know I do.

Krista Swisher, Indianapolis, IN (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 8:51 PM)

KEITH, PLZ comment on timing of casual"Friday afternoon" notification

william gardner (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 8:52 PM)

"Aggravated Snoopery" - I'm going to have to check the the regs, but I'm pretty sure that's a naughty, naughty thing. 3 episodes of same; innocent curiosity?

Oopsie.

I think I'm seeing a "pattern of behavior" here. . .

Some folk never learn. They tried this same thing against Pres. Clinton. Backfired then, too.

Administrative bungling? Ya think! But then, why hould be expect competence (or honesty or integrity) out of this administration?

Chris F., just o'er the border (and back under a winter storm warning) in Williconsinois (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 8:57 PM)

Hey, they're just trying to investigate Barack. Obviously someone thinks he needs to be looked at a little harder. After Pastor Wright, who knows what might show up?

Full Moon (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:01 PM)

Keith, you're doing great, and you look faboo! Don't worry. As one of my blogger buddies likes to say, I'm "wed but not dead!" :D

Krista Swisher, Indianapolis, IN (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:01 PM)

I notice that instead of talking about Obama calling his grandmother a "typical white person" ONE DAY after his "historical" speech on race, you are instead making a big deal out of this passport story to make him look like a victim. It certainly seems as though this was completely innocent, and not nearly the big deal you are trying to make it. Seriously, could you guys kiss this mans butt any harder? Why don't you all just come out and say that you want him as president? Your bias is screamingly evident.

Bonnie Gerardi (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:06 PM)

Dumb nosey kids or high-tech Watergate thugs? The world wonders--

greenbrier (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:08 PM)

Fox just read the Obama campaign statement and then commented that it was just a low level employees curiosity. OMG!

B. Johnson (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:12 PM)

Bill Burton's words ring more true than many would like to admit [especially those of the current administration]. I'm as shocked as everyone else, especially because the breach occurred in January! How is it that no one informed Obama? If any citizen's information gets breached, they have the right to know.

What is even more shocking is that when I flipped shortly away from Countdown to watch some of the O'Reilly Factor, he was showing wet t-shirt contests...I'm hoping for that to appear on worsts tomorrow!

Franny, Chicago, Ill. (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:17 PM)

Couple of thoughts...First, these breaches occured a week after Iowa, a week after Potomac Tuesday (when Sen Obama looked particularly strong) Don't know if I buy the snoopy worker explanation. Perhaps they should ask these contractors or anyone at the firms they work for if they have ties to Fox News.

Victoria, Washington DC (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:31 PM)

Anyone notice the photo of Obama in muslim clothes was leaked to Drudge the weekend of the 23rd/24th, a mere 2 days after the Feb 21st violation? And with the employee terminated, the Inspector General has no authority to interview either of the terminated emplyees. Sounds Political to me.

J Quagliano (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:32 PM)

A second live edition of Countdown at 10:00 pm ET. Thanks, kids.

HM, in an ivory tower somewhere (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:01 PM)

Or did anyone notice that Rezko was arrested 2 days before the Texas/Ohio primaries? Coincidence? I don't think so. Remember Alberto Gonzales and his Federal prosecutors on a mission? Were they let loose at just the right time?

Linda Garrity, Duxbury, MA (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:01 PM)

Fired? Shouldn't they be arrested?

Dan, Rochester, NY (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:04 PM)

This whole passport breach debacle makes me curious how many other "contract employees" have checked out files associated with their birthdays out of curiosity. Certainly Mr. Obama's birthday is not uniquely interesting.

J Swanson, Germantown, MN (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:09 PM)

January 9 was the day AFTER Obama lost the New Hampshire primary.

February 21 is the day AFTER Obama won several primaries.

March 14 is the day AFTER the Jeremiah Wright story broke.

Has anyone studied the history of Karl Rove collecting dirt on opponents? Someone needs to face reality. This is NOT coincidental.

M.L. DeNike, San Diego California (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:09 PM)

I don't think for a moment that this was just some "nosey employee" and it should not be just brushed off as such!!! Somebody should check the date that Hillary boldly came out and said she had visited over 80 countries and that Barrack had only visited 1 - and she named it!!!

Anita H., East St. Louis, IL (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:10 PM)

It doesn't matter at this point if it was "mere snoopiness." This administration has no credibility, and there is absolutely no reason to believe them or trust them whatsoever.

Krista Swisher, Indianapolis, IN (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:11 PM)

This is not just a curious employee...you state that the higher ups found out about this when a reporter called them about it...how did the reporter find out about it? Sounds like they were doing a favor for someone.

Terri (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:13 PM)

It's interesting that the Kenyan photograph surfaced right after the supposed first access to his file.

ALindsay (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:17 PM)

While I certainly agree that the State Department's security breach of Senator Obama's passport information is indeed an "outrageous breach of privacy", I have to ask, where is that same outrage against the enormous violation of privacy of COUNTLESS AMERICANS when the telecommunications companies participated with the Bush Administration's illegal warrantless wiretapping of telephone and email accounts?

Kimberly Kent, Wyoming, Illinois (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:19 PM)

Just curious - what GSA Contractors provided these "contract employees" to do administrative data processing? Do these contractors have any connection to/affiliation with any administration/candidate/ party? Haven't heard anyone mention this.

Lee (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:20 PM)

Keith, why aren't you asking the important questions? If this breach was simply due to "imprudent curiosity", were the other two presidential candidates' files breached? If I were to be curious enough to snoop into files, I'd snoop on all three of them, wouldn't you? After all, Clinton's and McCain's passport files would also be pretty detailed, pretty full, and pretty juicy!

And, the State Dept. keeps claiming "no information was disseminated (sp?)"! HOW DID THE REPORTER FIND OUT?

Curious minds want to know!

Heather Elise, Gainesville, FL (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:23 PM)

Obama Passport Breach: There is no Inspector General of the State Department. The post was vacated in 2006. Right now the Deputy Inspector General, William E. Todd, is the acting IG. Get hold of him.

Chris Morton, Boynton Beach, FL (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:25 PM)

Terri (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:26 PM)

It is time the media looked into the trememdous outsourcing/contracting of goverment jobs. It has been a priority of this administration to privatize traditional federal jobs no matter what the cost. When is that story going to finally break. This would be in all departments not just the state department.

Sally Doe, Portland, Maine (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:28 PM)

Who is the contractor? It might be important to look at them and how they got their contract.

anonymous (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:29 PM)

Bonnie Gerardi (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:06 PM) I hope you are as easy-going over some "innocent" lacky hacking into YOUR personal information.

Krista Swisher, Indianapolis, IN (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:31 PM)

Do the Republicans never learn? It's not the crime. It's the cover up!

If they had reported these "idle curiosity" incidents to Obama as they occurred, this would be a non-story. As is it, it's huge and only going to get bigger.

Man, Keith was cooking tonight with as fast as the info was coming in. Go, Keith, go!

Linda, Cleveland, Ohio (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:32 PM)

Why isn't anyone asking this question: Why, if there was a security breach, wasn't the secret service detail to a candidate to the highest office in the land notified so that a proper investigation/precautions could be taken? This is very troubeling.

Shannon, Hawley, PA (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:37 PM)

Linda, Cleveland, Ohio (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:32 PM) Abso-damn-lutely!

Krista Swisher, Indianapolis, IN (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:37 PM)

Have to jump in on the white grandmother bit. Hey I'm white. Hey I grew up in white home. Did I hear any racial slurs growing up? You bet I did. Have I ever been guilty of uttering a racist remark? I have to plead guilty. When are we as a people going to take a good look at ourselves in the mirror? If Senator Obama was trying to step on my toes, he missed. It was my heart that got stepped on and it hurt like the dickens. But maybe I can grow from the experience.
And Keith, I hope you stay on passport business. It is impossible for me to believe anything coming from this administration.

Stevie, SLC Utah (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:38 PM)

sniff sniff

I smell a Clinton.

adam/nyc (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:39 PM)

For this to happen once is plausible, twice is really poor supervisory oversight, three times is WTF!!!
My concern is not so much what info was disseminated, but was any bogus info placed in his file? These folks had update capabilities. They also showed disregard for the law. There has been no investigation and we only have the word of the folks who tried to suppress all this that the incidents were benign. Lets see how aggressively Condie Rice goes after this. I'm not holding my breath...

Richard Green, San Clemente, Cal., 92672 (Sent Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:40 PM)

What does caching mean? This is all new to me.Thanks

A.J.Holmes (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 2:31 AM)

Keith, is this true? What follows is a post I saw somewhere else:

the Clinton camp released this 2 days after the second breach

"As voters evaluate you as a potential Commander-in-Chief, do you think it's legitimate for people to be concerned that you have traveled to only one NATO country, on a brief stopover trip in 2005, and have never traveled to Latin America?"

they know everything about Barack's Travels

Larry (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 2:45 AM)

Yea, I watched tonight and I know you said something about someone (involved in this) being associated with the Clintons...wouldnt suprise me...waiting to hear more about that!

Tanya Sacramento California (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 3:51 AM)

Keep an eye out for information about Obama's past that was previously unknown being spun and "leaked" to the press. What are those nutty Republicans up to now...

Pedro, Fort Lauderdale (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 7:02 AM)

Rachael's questions were right on. Schuster needs to find out the answers. KO will then report the findings. To me that would be a "hat trick". Thanks for treating this as real news and not dismissing this out of hand as others have (Joe, Tucker, Larry Eagleton (sp?)).

Karoelynne, Fremont, CA (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 8:35 AM)

I am wondering now, about the terrible lies in the email that was circulated about Obama, the writers of these smears would have at least needed to know where Obama traveled as a child, to try to give their lies any kind of plausibility, so it would have been the framework that they filled in with their nonsense.

J.Sykes, Greensboro North Carolina (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 9:39 AM)

David Schuster hit the nail on the head last(just as it was occuring to me):Only the Inspector General can determine if this rises to the level of a criminal investigation and the IG was never informed of this.The authority of his office was usurped by low-rank civil servants.

Richard Scott Salamack,Amsterdam,New York (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 10:26 AM)

Why won't the government release the name of the contractor? Were these government contractors even US citizens? Some contractors outsource data entry to Sri-Lanka......

anonymous (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 11:29 AM)

Like father -- like son. Whether or not this has political motivation it appears "odd" to me that both Geo. Bush's have been unable to set the managment integrity in place that lives by the rules and follows set policy in any sort of intelligent fashion.

J Swanson, Germantown, MN (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 11:57 AM)

Maybe we shouldn't contract out positions that deal with sensitive material or war. Call me crazy but I think tax dollars should pay people who are loyal to thier country and not thier company.

jen,il (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 12:00 PM)

I smell passport breaching - or should I say "invading of privacy - they should be fire; they should be in jail.

GT, Nashvill, Tn (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 12:18 PM)

I'm wondering WHY and WHEN the State Dept outsourced these sensitive functions and who are the contracters, how are they vetted, where are they located?

Roxanne Capitola, CA (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 12:30 PM)

both Clinton's and McCain's passports were breached as well. Sounds like a bipartisan job.

Will Garner, JC NJ (Sent Friday, March 21, 2008 12:37 PM)

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