Snooped: Obama’s Passport File

Barack Obama’s passport information was breached by three State Department employees.

Two contract employees of the State Department were fired and a third person was disciplined for inappropriately looking at Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s passport file. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the department itself detected the instances of “imprudent curiosity,” which occurred separately on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14. 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.

Obama’s campaign reacts.

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. 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.

“Imprudent curiosity”? Anybody buying this? I suppose if I had access to the passport information of celebrities, I’d be tempted to have a look. But surely these guys had to know that a record would be created anytime somebody took a peek. This smells funny.

(Via – Politico)