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