Breaking!!! Obama Passport Data Breach

Howard Fineman calls the breaches which occurred January up until last Friday, "Breathtaking."


State Dept claims the breach isn't "politically motivated" but how could they possibly know at this point and why ahs this been covered up for three months. Andrea Mitchell "Shocking!"

I don't support Obama but I damn sure don't support this nonsense..

Howard Wolfson said if true, it is outrageous


Obama passport files violated; 2 State Department workers fired

By Bill Gertz
March 20, 2008

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 yesterday.

The officials, all contract workers, used their authorized computer network access to look up files within the department's consular affairs section, which processes and stores passport information, and read Mr. Obama's passport application and other records, in violation of department privacy rules, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was notified of the security breach yesterday, and responded by saying security measures used to monitor records of high-profile Americans worked properly in detecting the breaches.

Mr. McCormack said the officials did not appear to be seeking information on behalf of any political candidate or party.

"As far as we can tell, in each of the three cases, it was imprudent curiosity," Mr. McCormack told The Washington Times.

A similar data breach took place in 1992 when State Department officials looked up data on presidential candidate Bill Clinton, in an attempt to find out information from the late 1960s, amid unfounded political campaign rumors that Mr. Clinton had sought to renounce his citizenship to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.

That incident triggered a three-year investigation by a special prosecutor, who found that no laws were violated but officials exercised poor judgment. The 1992 search of Mr. Clinton's passport records was part of an effort to speed up Freedom of Information Act requests.

One administration official said the FBI is conducting a preliminary inquiry into the officials involved in the unauthorized access incidents related to Mr. Obama, Illinois Democrat. An FBI spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Government records of political candidates are tightly restricted because of concerns they could be used against candidates or the data could be altered as part of campaign dirty tricks.

In this case, it does not appear that records were copied or altered, Mr. McCormack said.

Passport application data includes such details as date and place of birth, e-mail address, mailing address, Social Security number, former names and travel plans. Mr. Obama was born in Honolulu in 1961 to a Kenyan father and American mother. He lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, from age six to 10.

Computer-monitoring equipment detected the activities by the three employees on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14, triggering alarms in each case, Mr. McCormack said.

Mr. McCormack said the officials accessed Mr. Obama's records "without a need to do so."

"In each case, we immediately contacted our contractors, their employer, and two were fired and one was disciplined," he said.

"We have strict rules restricting access to passport records," Mr. McCormack said.

Each time an employee logs on to the passport-records network, they are informed that the records are protected by the Privacy Act and are "available only on a need-to-know basis," he said. But no technical bar prevents a person, once he is in the system, from gaining access to Privacy Act-protected records to which he has no "need-to-know" rights.

But the network has an electronic monitoring system that is tripped when an employee accesses a record of a prominent person, like Mr. Obama. The alarm then triggers an inquiry into the incident, and "when the answer is not satisfactory, a supervisor is notified."

Such records can be accessed when it is part of an official inquiry, but in the case of Mr. Obama, it was not, Mr. McCormack said.

Asked whether a political candidate or party is behind the incidents, Mr. McCormack said: "None at this point in time that we have determined."

Mr. McCormack declined to provide the names of the employees or the contract, but he said they were hired by the contractor involved in producing, processing and approving passports.

"This is supposed to be a transaction between an individual and the government, and this is private information that we take a lot of steps to protect, and we take that responsibility seriously, not only for high profile individuals but for everybody," he said.

Mr. McCormack said the incidents took place at consular affairs facilities in the Washington area.

There was the same sort of thing with hospital employees looking at Britney's records the last go around. As I recall over ten people were fired. Records for everything we do on work computers are saved, doing anything that we should not be on a work computer is putting our career at risk.

Three separate incidents, three separate employees dating back to Jan 9th.

Joe DiGenova, who investigated the Clinton Breaches as an Independent Counsel, says the story the State Dept's is putting out (innocent curiousity) sounds "incomprehensible."

Spokesman claims that the incidents were investigated by lower level managers only and not passed up the chain!



Incomprehensible!

Two State Department officials have been fired, and another suspended, over repeated unauthorized breaches of Sen. Barack Obama's passport files, multiple sources are reporting. The State Department has launched an investigation.

NBC reports:

Two contract employees of the State Department were fired and a third person was disciplined for accessing passport records of Sen. Barack Obama "without a need to do so," State Department officials confirmed to NBC News.


The three people who had access to Obama's passport records were contract employees of the department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, NBC News has learned. The unauthorized activity concerning Obama's passport information occurred in January.

"A monitoring system was tripped when an employee accessed the records of a high-profile individual," a department official told NBC News. "When the monitoring system is tripped, we immediately seek an explanation for the records access. If the explanation is not satisfactory, the supervisor is notified."

Explaining why the contractors had access to the files, the official said: "The State Department uses cleared contractors to design, build and maintain our systems and cleared contract employees provide support to government employees and several steps of passport processing including data entry, file searches, customer service and quality control.

"Each time an employee logs on, he or she acknowledges the records are protected by the privacy act and that they are only available on a need-to-know basis," the official added.

NBC's Howard Fineman reports that "a State Department official called Obama's Senate office to inform him in almost a routine, bureaucratic way that a breach had occurred."

Fratboy punk Tucker Carlson says that Obama just received a "political windfall" and people won't be talking about Wright for a long time.

Interesting coincidence... January 9th was one of the dates his records were breached and on that very same day the State department announced it was changing the rules to ease the access of passport data.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9848259-7.html

Excerpt:



Here's a link to the Notice the State Department sent out:

http://cryptome.org/dos010908.htm

Even more significant is Jan 9th is right after Obama's big Iowa win.

pmcafe

A few more details about the Obama passport breach. According to a new piece out in the Post from Glenn Kessler, the breaches occurred Jan. 9th, Feb. 21st and March 14th.

That would be the day after the New Hampshire primary, the day of the Democratic debate in Texas and the day the Wright story really hit.

=====================================

David Schuster reports that someone involved in Passport-gate has ties to Hillary Clinton....developing...

The gossip I amhearing in the blogosphere (progressive) is that Hillary may be behind it. The woman in charge who kept this from going hire ahs ties to the Clintons. Stay tuned. This is going to be fun.

Grab some

emptywheel's two cents:

The Breach: McCain Dates, Not Obama Dates?
By: emptywheel Thursday March 20, 2008 8:20 pm

As you've no doubt heard, three second-rate burglars have been caught accessing Obama's passport files. The WaPo reports the tree days when his files were accessed:

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the employees had individually looked into Obama's passport file on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14. To access such a file, the employees must first acknowledge a pledge to keep the information private.

To which Josh connects three events:

A few more details about the Obama passport breach. According to a new piece out in the Post from Glenn Kessler, the breaches occurred Jan. 9th, Feb. 21st and March 14th.

That would be the day after the New Hampshire primary, the day of the Democratic debate in Texas and the day the Wright story really hit.

I'm rather more interested in two of the dates on the Republican side. The day after the New Hampshire primary (when it became clear McCain's campaign was far from dead), and the day of the Texas primary (when McCain sealed the nomination). After all, New Hampshire was a set-back for Obama. Why would a Democrat waste bribes to do oppo research on Obama when it looked, once again, like Hillary would win the primary? But I can understand why McCain would start doing oppo research at a time when his chances started looking up.

Though, I would still have to explain the February 21 date.

.....BM.....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/21/MN4DVO6PN.DTL&type=politics

Why was it not publicized sooner? I think (call me paranoid) that it was being held in abeyance, to be used when politically expedient. Now what could be better than this story coming out just a couple of days after the Wright incident? Yet another case of wagging the dog!

Oh brother Phoenix.

Weird coincidences get my "radar" percolating!

So you think people in the state department didn't release this information until after the Wright thing to get people minds off the Wright thing? Or you think the people in the state department who did the breaching kept this information until after the Wright thing? Pretty implausible.

Certainly a cultural difference - but most Europeans would be more than just alarmed that some contractors can look at data which "normally are an application for a passport", just "out of curiosity".

I wonder who looks at the 34 various data we have to anytime when entering the USA ... ...

... and why the Obama was kept secret by authorities since January, Februray, too.

revel- My "take" on this incident sounds strange, even to me. The thing is, this has become such a nasty election season, that I would not put anything past anybody, so I cannot disregard what just may be a possibility.