Three unauthorized security breaches, in January, February and March, and no one from the State Department contacted Barack's campaign OR his Secret Service Detail. (This is my first EVER diary. Please be gentle and don't attack me for format mistakes, Do please correct me however, if warranted.)
(New per AP : HRC too!!!)
State Dept. Punishes Aides for Obama Passport Breach
By Helene Cooper, New York Times
Updated, 2 a.m. | WASHINGTON — The State Department has fired two employees and reprimanded a third for improperly opening electronic information from the passport file of Senator Barack Obama, State Department officials said Thursday night.."
Apparently, these three curiousity seekers were "independent contractors."
Who did they work for? Who did they TELL this Private information too? Who else knows about this and when did they know it??
On three separate occasions in January, February and March, three employees looked through Mr. Obama’s file in the department’s consular affairs section, violating the department’s privacy rules, the State Department spokesman, Mr. McCormack; he also said the department’s internal controls flagged the breach, which he attributed to "imprudent curiosity."
Oh, so THAT was the reason. Move on, nothing to see here...........
State Department officials said that they had no idea why the employees broke into Mr. Obama’s files. The department is continuing to investigate, Mr. McCormack said.."
McCormack has "no idea" why the employees broke into the files, but don't worry, it was only "imprudent curiousity"!
Anyone have any ideas?
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was told of the security breach, which was first reported in The Washington Times on Thursday evening.
Condi on the ball as usual!
Mr. McCormack said security measures used to monitor records of high-profile people like Mr. Obama worked properly in the three instances to alert department officials of the breaches.
Mr. Obama’s campaign said that the breaches were reprehensible.
"
Obama's campaign manager Bill Burton asked, "Why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach."
Only three months! I guess everyone at the state department is busy working on imporatant items like helping Dick Cheney on his Mid-East charm (harm) offensive. ("SO?")
Obama learned of the passport situation while he was flying from West Virginia to Oregon on Thursday night.
Patrick F. Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management, said that he and other top officials at the State Department found out about this most recent problem Thursday afternoon, after Mr. McCormack received a telephone query from a reporter who had been alerted of the incident.
"
A Reporter!
McCormack noted in a conference call lst night, that the MULTIPLE SECURITY BREACHES should have been passed up the line to a sufficiently high level.!
OOPS!!! How about mentioning it to the TARGET???
Why not passing it up the line to Obama's Secret security Detail. Wouldn't they kinda want to know about some potentially crazies or another campaign's oppo research team who might use or pass on the PRIVATE passport and consular information of a likely Democratic Presidential Nominee and his FAMILY??
As I said, don't worry, because Condi is now on the job, ( I see she's on MSNBC)and will have her usual helpful non-answer, uninformed slogans, warnings and platitudes to get to the bottom of this "imprudent curiosity."
I feel better already. And anyway, this minor flap is interfering with more important news like the endless looping of the played-out Wright saga.