What is contained in and who would have authority to look in a passport file? Here is a clue

[maddezmom]

~snip~

Court orders;
Arrest warrants;
Medical, personal and financial reports;
Affidavits;
Inter-agency and intra-agency memoranda, telegrams, letters,
and other miscellaneous correspondence;


~snip~

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES
OF USERS AND PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
The information maintained in the Passport Services records is used
to establish the U.S. citizenship and identity of persons for a variety
of legal purposes including, but not limited to, the adjudication of
passport applications and requests for related services, social
security benefits, employment applications, estate settlements, and
federal and state law enforcement investigations.
The principal users of this information outside the Department of
State include the following users:

<[Page 1662>]

Department of Homeland Security for border patrol,
screening, and security purposes; law enforcement, counterterrorism,
and fraud prevention activities; and for verification of passport
validity to support employment eligibility and identity corroboration
for public and private employment;
Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,
the U.S. Marshals Service, and other components, for law enforcement,
counterterrorism, border security, fraud prevention, and criminal and
civil litigation activities;

more:http://cryptome.org/dos010908.htm

So not only was there a breach, but is there a record of other people that have accessed each file within the Gov't?

[maddezmom]

1. FAQ: The passport breach: What exactly is in those records?

http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9070438&intsrc=hm_list

[roguevalley]

6. the company and its leaders from www.rawstory.com

The Associated Press later identified Stanley, Inc. as the Virginia-based contractor whose two employees were terminated. One prescient blogger who guessed correctly that Stanley was the contractor in question noted that its CEO is a political donor:

...ne thing that would add to the appearance of impropriety is that CEO Nolan has, according to the Open Secrets database, been a campaign contributor to Sen. Joe Lieberman, a leading supporter of Obama's Republican adversary John McCain. In March 2005 Nolan gave $1,000 to Lieberman's reelection campaign.

The NBC News 'Deep Background' blog has more on Stanley as well as another firm involved in the breaches, The Analysis Corporation of McLean, including the revelation from public records that Stanley CEO Nolan "gave $1,000 to Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign on Feb. 20, 2008" and Analysis CEO John Brennan "gave $2,300 to Sen. Obama on Jan. 28, 2008."

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Rice_apologizes_for_Obama_passport_snooping_0321.html

[maddezmom]

2. Time:Under new guidelines printed in the fed registry on January 9, the same day Obama's records

Under new guidelines printed in the federal registry on January 9, the same day Obama's records were first breached, the Bureau of Consular Affairs allows the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Counter-Terrorism Center, "foreign governments, and entities such as Interpol" to link into the same system. The expanded access is designed, according to the notice signed by recently retired head of the Bureau of Consular Affairs Maura Harty, to be used "for counter-terrorism and other purposes such as border security and fraud prevention." The changes went into effect on February 25, after a 40-day review period. The State Department has yet to respond to TIME's requests for comment on the changes.

The expanded access does not appear to be related to the breaches of the candidates' records. But privacy experts are concerned nonetheless, because the move is part of a trend in which more and more of citizens' personal information is being put at the fingertips of a growing number of government employees. Hundreds of such expansions are happening across the government every year, says Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute. "Federal databases are knitting themselves together into larger databases," says Harper; "we have to worry about the privacy consequences and personal security consequences for average Americans." Administration officials routinely justify linking databases as a key part of rooting out terrorists.

What kind of personal information do these Passport Records actually contain? Contrary to what you might expect, the system doesn't have information about your entries into the U.S. (That's in a separate system run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that actually swipes your passport when you come into the country.) The State Department's records do, however, hold every application for a passport and copies of any supporting documents like birth or marriage certificates. That application has your address, Social Security number, phone number, the name and number of your emergency contact and your photograph. The records also have information on any attempts to change the status of your citizenship, which is what employees in the elder Bush Administration were suspected of looking for in Bill Clinton's records in 1992. A search by name or passport number can also dredge up other items that have been attached to the file, such as court orders, arrest warrants, financial reports and even medical reports, according to the public State Department records.

more:http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1724759,00.html?imw=Y

[kestrel91316]

3. That's just the stuff that's SUPPOSED to be in the file.

What if our passport files have secretly been turned into the repository for all the info gathered during illegal snooping on citizens? And what if the people who "innocently peeked" KNEW this?

Just putting my tinfoil hat on and rampantly speculating here........

[alittlelark]

5. Companies that specialize in information collection + distribution

would pay GOOD $$$ for that info.

'Contractors' MUST be taken out of these positions.

[knitter4democracy]

4. There's no way this isn't political or seriously smelly.

This was all about lower level Rove lovers getting info to use against him in the campaign. I think they did McCain to get stuff to hold over him and make him sit, stay, heel, and roll over. Disgusting.