NPR: State Dept. Workers Fired for Violating Obama's Files

State Dept. Workers Fired for Violating Obama's Files

The Washington Times reports that two state department employees were "fired recently and a third disciplined for improperly accessing electronic personal data on Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama" Bush administration officials said.

The Associated Press reports that spokesman Sean McCormack Thursday night confirmed instances of what he called "imprudent curiosity" by the State Department employees. The employees in question were all contract workers. McCormack said their efforts did not appear to be linked to any political campaign or group. The breaches occured Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton sent out an e-mail statement this evening: "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."

Interestingly,a similar breached happened was 1992 when state department officials investigated Bill Clinton at a time when a rumor was circulating that he "had sought to renounce his citizenship to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford."
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Update: The State Department reportedly waited 71 days to notify Sen. Barack Obama that someone has accessed his personal file. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports that the Obama campaign is demanding an investigation. One of the problems with the situation is that senior officials in the state department were not informed about the breach by the contractors' supervisors. McCormack admitted he didn't know about it until a reporter asked him to explain what had happened.

The Justice Department and the FBI are looking into the breach.

9:49 PM ET | 03-20-2008 | permalink

Comments

Uhh, Mr Burton have you noticed that the people were caught and fired by the same administration that you hamhandedly accuse of ridiculous things? If it really was something you could tie to the administration do you think you would even have HEARD ABOUT IT?

Sent by deek | 9:57 PM ET | 03-20-2008

What is disturbing is that they took so long to acknowledge the first breech & had not corrected the access of "curiousity" seekers, so that the second & third case didn't happen! Its one thing if they had happened days apart, but these were three months of Snooping incidents. How many got away? Who else is being spied on for what purpose?

Sent by A S David | 10:43 PM ET | 03-20-2008

An investigation is warranted, but I think it is important to wait till the facts are in before we start blaming people. Too many of the problems we face today are caused and exasberated by people going forward without all the pertinent information.

Sent by Brian Mckillip | 10:59 PM ET | 03-20-2008

There are really only three people in the United States who are likely to be behind having three different low level state department employees accessing Obama'a passport files three different times in the months after Obama started winning primaries (with the first security breach coming the day after Maggie "bury the Rose Law Firm Billing Records" Williams took over the Clinton Campaign). This has got to be either Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, or Hillary Clinton (these three are really one in the same when you think about it) or, it could be that all three of them had their own separate State Department moles access Obama's passport files on different days using different low level state department opperatives. If we had an Administration that had any courage, honor, or decency, it would be a simple matter to get to the bottom of this. But since neither Bush, nor Cheney have any of these attributes, we probably won't find out who was behind this Watergate style dirty trick until after the election is over--count on it!

Sent by Long Tall Texan | 12:19 AM ET | 03-21-2008

Lee Atwater begat Karl Rove and together they refined the weaponry of psychological violence, domestic espionage and character assignation. They lived by two gospels, 1) The rules apply to other people, and 2) Anything is okay if you can get away with it. They could coin phases so tongue-tingling and sparkly it could blind and confuse even an all-seeing eye. Problem is, those guys made it seem like anybody and do it, so naturally many did. It is remarkable, but hopefully not surprising, that some people in the State Department caught on to the snooping, put a stop to it and decided not to keep it a secret. ???Deek??? feels that given the way it was handled, the administration couldn???t possible have had any roll in this. He gives the Admins too much credit and the State Dept. too little. In a couple of years the gate keepers are likely to be Democrats; best rewrite the rules while you still own the pens.

Sent by engram | 1:10 AM ET | 03-21-2008

I hope the State Department will hurry up and release the information they have. The longer they refuse to disclose who the contractors were and who the guilty parties were, then the longer the rumors and suspicions will grow. It does not serve the public to withhold this information and if there was no bad intent (which is probably the case) it only begs the question of "what is being hidden?" On the other hand, if there really is something to hide, I would suggest that it is too late now to hide it. Just 'fess up and get it over with. The longer they wait, the more significance it will have.

Sent by Gary | 8:25 AM ET | 03-21-2008

The people who snooped do have names and can be identified. How long have they worked there as contractors and why have they now decided to snoop?. They do know the rules, because it must have been made clear to them before they started. Is this a Republican job to be channeled through fox news and talk show hosts like ....... or is it the Kitchen and sink from the Clintons?

Sent by Ty | 9:48 AM ET | 03-21-2008

Oh, my goodness....(feigns putting both palms up to the sides of my cheeks in mock surprise)....where are Woodward and Bernstein when we need them?

fred camorra call

Sent by fred camorra call | 9:58 AM ET | 03-21-2008

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