Senior department officials said they learned of the incidents only when a reporter made an inquiry

[maddezmom]

Who was the reporter? Did the call come after Obama's campaign made a statement to the press? Some are saying Conason had the story first, others are saying it was the Washington Times.

Two Fired for Viewing Obama Passport File
State Department Investigating Whether Contractors Broke Law


By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 21, 2008; Page A03

Two State Department employees were fired and a third has been disciplined for improperly accessing Sen. Barack Obama's passport file, the State Department announced last night.

Senior department officials said they learned of the incidents only when a reporter made an inquiry yesterday afternoon. They said an initial investigation indicated that the employees -- all of whom worked on contract -- were motivated by "imprudent curiosity."

Bill Burton, spokesman for Obama's presidential campaign, called the incidents "an outrageous breach of security and privacy." He said this is "a serious matter that merits a complete investigation," adding that the campaign will "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."

Undersecretary of State Patrick F. Kennedy, in a hastily arranged conference call with reporters, said he asked the State Department inspector general to open an inquiry into the matter and acknowledged that it might need to be expanded.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032003422.html

[babylonsister]

1. Sounds like gross incompetence to me if this is true. No one deemed

it necessary to alert senior dept. officials? :grr:

[annabanana]

2. ANY release that starts "Senior Department Official say" is

pretty much worthless, suspect on it's very face. This is for ANY Department in this thoroughly compromised maladministration.

[maddezmom]

3. But they also said they Condi was informed about it the day before

So she knew about it but let her Sr officials find out when a reporter called?

[maddezmom]

4. last night MSNBC said Condi found out Wed, now the record looks to have been changed

McCormack said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was informed of the breaches on Thursday.
http://wcco.com/national/obama.passport.breach.2.682052.html

[flor de jasmim]

5. THIS is what is unbelievable (or should be!):

From the WaPo:

The employees were EACH caught because of a computer-monitoring system that is TRIGGERED WHEN the passport account of a "high-profile person" is accessed, department spokesman Tom Casey said. The system, which focuses on politicians and celebrities, was put in place in recent years, after the State Department was embroiled in a scandal involving the access of the passport records of then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992.


This means that the passport "alarm" went off 3 times. Nothing was done to beef up security on Obama's passport after the first instance (and apparently he was not notified), nor after the second time. Now, once this had happened TWICE I would want my government to realize that if it had happened twice it might again, and give it special protection. This is outrageous. Independently of who did the snooping and why, the fact that despite the alarms having been set off, nothing was done. Is this another "No one could have predicted that it would happen (again)?" situation???