Clinton, McCain passport files also peeped at

Myrtle Beach Online

March 21, 2008

1/83/8

WASHINGTON | The passport files of all three major presidential candidates were improperly examined and the incidents are being investigated, the State Department confirmed Friday.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., learned Friday that their files had been breached.

The department had disclosed Thursday night that three of its contractors had snooped through Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's passport file on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14.

All three campaigns called for investigations into the lapses.

Obama urged congressional involvement 'so it's not simply an internal matter.'

Two of the contractors were fired and the other suspended, the department said. It declined to identify them.

It said an internal monitoring system had identified the breaches. The State Department will examine the contractors' political backgrounds as part of its investigation.

Two of the contractors worked for Stanley Inc., according to the State Department. The third worked for The Analysis Corp., a 175-employee company based in McLean, Va., that aids in national security efforts.

Stanley is a large government contractor with more than 3,500 employees and more than $284 million in revenue in 2007. It was founded in 1966 and works with more than 40 federal agencies. Its biggest customer is the Defense Department.

The company said its subcontractors undergo several security, credit and background checks and are required to sign Privacy Act papers before beginning work.

The company announced this week that it had been awarded a five-year, $570 million contract to support the State Department's passport work.

The incidents came to light at a time when the federal government is making it easier for other agencies to review passport files in the name of national security. That means thousands of other employees and contractors could have access to the private information of millions of Americans.

McCain's file was breached by one of the same contractors who invaded Obama's file earlier this year. Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said he didn't know when the McCain incident occurred. That contractor hasn't been fired.

'We're reviewing our options with respect to that person and his employment status,' McCormack said.

In Clinton's case, someone accessed her file last summer as part of a training session involving another State Department worker. McCormack said the violation was immediately recognized and the person was admonished. That person was not involved in the later incidents, meaning four people were involved in all.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apologized personally to Obama and Clinton and was trying to reach McCain, who's in Paris.

'I told [Obama] that I was sorry, and I told him that I, myself, would be very disturbed if I learned that somebody had looked into my passport file,' Rice told reporters in Brazil. 'And therefore I will stay on top of it and get to the bottom of it.'

Passport files contain, at a minimum, the personal information that Americans provide on their passport applications, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth and full names. The data could be a rich mine for identity thieves.

McCormack said he didn't know what other information could be in passport files.

Contrary to popular opinion, however, the records do not 'maintain evidence of travel, such as entrance/exit stamps, visas or residence permits, since this information is entered into the passport book after it is issued,' according to a Jan. 9 notice in the Federal Register.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ONLINE

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination Friday. To find out why he backed his former rival, go to the Online Extras page at MyrtleBeach Online.com.

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