Four contract workers snooped through the passport records of not only Barack Obama, but Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

Condi Rice--rumored to sit on the VP short list--had this to say about that:

"None of us wants to have a circumstance in which any American's passport file is looked at in an unauthorized way," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as she offered apologies to the candidates.

"I told him that I was sorry," she said of her conversation with Obama, "and I told him that I, myself, would be very disturbed if I learned that somebody had looked into my passport file. And, therefore, I will stay on top of it and get to the bottom of it."

The big question is motivation--political or online voyeurism?

The Washington Times and CNN say one of the contract employees worked for a company called The Analysis Corp. That firm, in turn, is led by CEO John Brennan -- an adviser and contributor to Obama's campaign. TAC has apologized for the actions of its employee (who the company says has not been fired, at State's request, while an investigation is underway). The company has also issued a statement saying that "this individual's actions were taken without the knowledge or direction of anyone at TAC and are wholly inconsistent with our professional and ethical standards."

Meanwhile, according to The Washington Post, the chairman of the the company that the other two contract workers came from -- Philip Nolan of Stanley Inc. -- "contributed $1,000 to (Sen. Hillary Rodham) Clinton's campaign on Feb. 20, federal election records show. He has also contributed to moderate Republicans." The two Stanley contractors were fired.

Neither company seems to have been involved in the other passport breech -- of Clinton's file -- in 2007.

One would think in our post-9/11 world that access to anyone's passport would prove as impossible as prying open a can of tuna fish will a butter knife.

But as observed by The Houston Chronicle...

In the era of computers, there's no such thing as total privacy.

last edited: 8 months ago