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| 2008/3/20-25 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton] UID:49520 Activity:nil |
3/20 2 State Department Employees fired for looking at Barack Obama's
passport file. WTF?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obama_passport
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23736254
Apparently there were three breaches over the past three months.
This smells really bad, given the Bush Administration's habit of
replacing career bureacracts with Republican operatives.
\_ Wouldn't be a Repub conspiracy if they didn't fire them?
\_ Didn't Clinton have the FBI do the same thing?
\- yes, and then they made lame comments like "well we stopped
at the letter G". and "we were evaluating if they were
security risks, and we were considering giving them jobs"
... so did they consider james baker iii a possible security
risk or a possible clinton admin job candidate?
\_ Fired? I bet they get a promotion:
http://www.csua.org/u/l33 |
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| news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obama_passport AP Feds fire 2 for looking at Obama file By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer 1 hour, 2 minutes ago WASHINGTON - Two contract employees for the State Department have been fired and a third disciplined for inappropriately looking at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's passport file, and the department is investigating whether political or other motives were involved, senior officials said Thursday. Click Here Spokesman Sean McCormack said that for now it appears that nothing other than "imprudent curiosity" was involved in three separate breaches of the Illinois senator's personal information. It is not clear whether the employees saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age and place of birth that is required when a person fills out a passport application. The department's top management officer, Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy, said certain records, including those of high-profile people, are "flagged" with a computer tag that tips off supervisors when someone tries to view the records without a proper reason. The State Department would not release the names of those who were fired and disciplined, or the names of the two companies they worked for. "We believe this was out of imprudent curiosity, but we are taking steps to reassure ourselves that that is, in fact, the case," McCormack said. The firings and unspecified discipline of the third employee already had occurred when senior State Department officials learned of the breaches. "I will fully acknowledge this information should have been passed up the line," Kennedy told reporters in a conference call Thursday night. Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama's presidential campaign, called for a complete investigation. "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," Burton said. "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," he said. The department informed Obama's Senate office of the breach on Thursday. Kennedy said that at the office's request, he will provide a personal briefing for the senator's staff on Friday. No one from the State Department spoke to Obama personally on Thursday, the officials said. Obama was born in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia for several years as a child before returning to the states. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has traveled to the Middle East, the former Soviet states with Sen. Obama's father was born in Kenya, and the senator still has relatives there. The disclosure of inappropriate passport inquiries recalled an incident in 1992, when a Republican political appointee at the State Department was demoted over a search of presidential candidate Bill Clinton's passport records. The State Department's inspector general said the official had helped arrange the search in an attempt to find politically damaging information about Clinton, who had been rumored to have considered renouncing his citizenship to avoid the Vietnam war draft. The State Department said the official, Steven Berry, had shown "serious lapses in judgment." Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady who is challenging Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, said of the breach: "It's outrageous and the Bush administration has to get to the bottom of it." In the current case, Kennedy and McCormack said it was too soon to say whether a crime was committed. The searches may violate the federal Privacy Act, and Kennedy said he is consulting State Department lawyers. The State Department inspector general's power is limited, because two of the employees are no longer working for the department. McCormack said it was premature to consider whether the FBI or Justice Department should be involved. McCormack said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was informed of the breaches on Thursday. The State Department conducts background checks of its contract employees who perform passport applications work, but does not ask about political affiliations, Kennedy said. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. |
| www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23736254 Obama's passport file breached March 20: NBC's David Shuster and Andrea Mitchell talk to Keith Olbermann about the firings at the State Department due to a security breach in accessing Sen. Countdown NBC News and news services Two contract employees of the State Department were fired and a third person was disciplined for inappropriately looking at Democratic Sen. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the department itself detected the instances of "imprudent curiosity," which occurred separately on Jan. He would not release the names of those who were fired and disciplined. The three were working in separate offices within the passport system, according to State Department officials. "We believe this was out of imprudent curiosity, so we are taking steps to reassure ourselves that that is, in fact, the case," McCormack said. The State Department was looking into possible violations of the Privacy Act and would meet with lawyers on Friday, officials said. Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama's presidential campaign, called for a complete investigation. "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," Burton said. "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," he said. "We briefed Senator Obama's office on this issue this afternoon," McCormack said. "That was when senior management first became aware of these incidents." McCormack said it was not immediately clear what the contract employees may have seen in the records or what they were looking for. He said he did not know the names of the companies they worked for. The department has informed Obama's Senate office of the breach, and a personal briefing for the senator's staff was scheduled for Friday, McCormack said. The State Department does not check the political affiliation of its contractors, but a senior official told NBC News there was "no political motivation" to the incidents, adding that the three were low-level contract employees doing administrative work when they accessed Obama's records. This official told NBC News that he does not believe any of the accessed information was sent anywhere. Monitoring systems are tripped when an employee accesses the records of the 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. Hillary Clinton's campaign refuses to deny reports that it's using controversial figure Jeremiah Wright to make Sen. Barack Obama seem unelectable, but the Democratic candidate isn't answering all of the questions reporters are asking her on the matter. |
| www.csua.org/u/l33 -> query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE1D7103BF93AA25752C0A965958260 Save By ROBERT PEAR, Published: January 19, 1993 A State Department official who was demoted for his role in the search of Bill Clinton's passport files during last year's Presidential campaign has been hired by Senate Republicans to monitor State Department activities under the new President. The official, Steven K Berry, was Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs at the time of the search. On Wednesday, he will go to work for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, having been hired by Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, the ranking Republican on the committee. In November, the inspector general of the State Department, Sherman M Funk, said Mr Berry had helped arrange the search through passport files in an effort to find politically damaging information about Mr Clinton. Mr Funk recommended disciplinary action against Mr Berry, saying he had shown "serious lapses in judgment" and seemed, through improper use of his position, to be trying to influence the outcome of the Presidential election. Mr Berry was relieved of his title as Acting Assistant Secretary of State, but has continued to perform miscellaneous duties at the department. A colleague, Elizabeth M Tamposi, was dismissed as Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, on orders from President Bush. "I have no faith at all in the inspector general's report," he said. Mr Nance said Mr Berry had been just as diligent in getting information requested by Democratic members of Congress as he was in assisting Republicans who sought information on Mr Clinton. He said Mr Berry had promptly supplied information to Democrats seeking information about Bush Administration dealings with Iraq and a scandal involving the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. The hiring of Mr Berry dismayed some Senate aides from both parties. But on the Foreign Relations Committee, as on most Senate panels, Republicans and Democrats hire separate staffs. While Democratic aides say it will be difficult for them to work with Mr Berry, they cannot block Republican staff appointments. Mr Nance said Mr Berry would work on the State Department authorization bill, a wide-ranging charter for the department, which also serves as a vehicle for Congressional efforts to shape foreign policy. As a member of the committee's professional staff, Mr Berry will also have general responsibility for monitoring State Department operations, especially dealings with Russia and Eastern Europe. Investigation Continues An independent prosecutor is investigating the search of Mr Clinton's passport files. The prosecutor's charter directed him to focus among other things on the activities of Janet G Mullins, the White House political director, who worked closely with Mr Berry in arranging the search. Mr Funk, the inspector general, said Mr Berry had helped orchestrate a letter to the State Department from a Congressman asking for records that would show if Mr Clinton, while a student at Oxford University in England, had ever considered renouncing United States citizenship to avoid military service in Vietnam. State Department employees searched for Mr Clinton's passport files on Sept. "Tamposi said that Berry wanted to know if Tamposi could look through consular files on her own for the letter. Tamposi said she adamantly refused to do this and became frightened about its impropriety." Ms Mullins was Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs and Mr Berry's direct superior before she moved to the White House last August. The two were friends and talked often about the Clinton campaign, Mr Funk said. |