Obama’s Passport File Breaches: A Timeline
January 9, 2008: The New Hampshire Primary. Even though Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, Barack Obama tied her in delegates. Barack Obama also challenged the Bush administration assertion that an encounter with Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz was aggressive.
Employees of the United States Department of State also accessed Barack Obama’s passport records that day.
February 21, 2008: Campaigning in Texas. A huge rally takes place at a Dallas arena for Barack Obama. Later that day, the news breaks that there were serious security breaches at that (and other) rallies, ordered by officials in charge of security for his campaign. Though it was reported that the orders came from his Secret Service detail, there have not been further reports pointing at specific culprits.
Also on February 21, 2008: CNN/Univision Democratic Debate
Employees of the United States Department of State also accessed Barack Obama’s passport records that day.
On February 25, 2008, a photo of Barack Obama is circulated from a 2006 trip to Africa, where he’s dressed in native garb.
March 14, 2008: With the Jeremiah Wright story getting a life of its own, Barack Obama makes the rounds of cable and network news to discuss his pastor’s words, and in the process makes it clear he was not in church during the 9/15/01 “God damn America” sermon.
Employees of the United States Department of State also accessed Barack Obama’s passport records that day.
March 21, 2008 News breaks of the breaches of Barack Obama’s passport records. The Department of State claims the breaches were by “low-level contract employees” (think “plumbers”), and they don’t ‘think’ those records were passed on to anyone.
Anyone who accepts this answer needs to go back in history and study Watergate, and the way the story was revealed.
There are no low-level employees at the consular level of the State Department, there were three breaches of Barack Obama’s confidential passport records which contain information relating to security clearances, background checks, and other important personal information. Hillary Clinton’s passport records have not been breached. John McCain’s have not been breached.
There is much more of this story yet to be told.
Update: CSC.com is the contractor providing consular services. Ten-year contract awarded the day George W. Bush was inaugurated - January 18, 2001. Contractor was Stanley, Inc. and while they admit to the breach of Obama’s, they say there is no record of Hillary Clinton or John McCain’s records being accessed by their employees.
Update #2: CNN reports that Hillary Clinton’s files were breached in 2007, too.
I’ll be updating this as I find more. It’s also on Digg - your Digg is much appreciated.
Technorati Tags: passport breaches, security, senate, Barack Obama
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March 20th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
[...] Update: The first blogpost (from people I follow-this is @Karoli) in an attempt to put a timeline on the passport breach. [...]
March 20th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
When I got to this part:
-
A shiver went through me.
Thanks for putting all this together. Anxious to learn what it all means.
March 20th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Thanks, Victoria! I added some links to stories from those days to place it in context.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Thank you for being the only other person to notice the fact that not only was this THREE separate breaches by THREE different people in THREE consecutive months - but that ONLY Obama’s files were breached…if people were just ’snooping’ - wouldn’t they have looked at several of the candidates records instead of just one? If there had been even ONE other breach of one OTHER candidate in ANY of these occurrences, I would believe the ’snooping curiosity’ theory.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Hi Scott,
Even more appalling is the lack of disclosure until the THIRD time it happens. Only the tip of his iceberg has been revealed.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
[...] here. Timeline of events here. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web [...]
March 20th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Thanks for this timeline. Looking forward to seeing what else you find.
FYI, the story is at sk*rt as well: http://www.sk-rt.com/story.php?title=Obamarsquos_Passport_File_Breaches_A_Timeline
Or http://tinyurl.com/2b7vtv
March 20th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
[...] Bang the Drum - Obama’s Passport File Breaches: A Timeline [...]
March 21st, 2008 at 5:35 am
I think an important date is missing here- Feb 25, photos from Obama’s 2006 trip to Africa start appearing in the press. These pictures, showing Obama dressed in traditional Somalian local garb, are spun to make it look like Obama is a Muslim with possible terrorist sympathies/connections.
If someone was looking for political ammo to use against Obama when they breached his file, found the 2006 trip on his records, and tracked down all the info related to that trip, we would have a perfect explanation as to why those photos suddenly started making their rounds.
March 21st, 2008 at 7:22 am
There’s nothing to this story.
Taylor Marsh, Jeralyn Merritt and Larry Johnson told me so.
March 21st, 2008 at 7:54 am
Some Dude, Excellent point. I’m updating with this now.
Pug, I wonder if they’ll keep saying that now that CNN is reporting that Hillary Clinton’s passport files were breached in late 2007.