Obama's State Department Records Illegally Accessed in January 2008

Heard this on Countdown.

2 people, so far, have been fired for illegally accessing Barack Obama's State Department Records.A third employee has been disciplined. It happened in January 2008 - Obama only recently found out.

Who knew what?
Why did they access it?
Who did they tell, WITHIN the State Department and OUTSIDE of the State Department?
WHY did it take so long for the State Department to tell the Obama Campaign?

Article I found through a link at DailyKos:

Obama demands probe over passport breach
Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor
March 20, 2008 08:21 PM

Barack Obama's campaign tonight is demanding a full investigation of reports that his passport files at the State Department were viewed without authorization.

“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,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement.

NBC News is reporting that several low-level State Department employees have been fired over the January incident, and the department is conducting an internal investigation.

UPDATE- From DailyKos:

Barack Obama's passport file was breached without his consent, in violation of the Privacy Act, at least three times this year (on Jan. 9, Feb. 21, and Mar. 14). On Thursday night State Department spokesman Sean McCormack blamed the snooping on mere curiosity. Two of the three contract employees of the Bureau of Consular Affairs reportedly involved were fired, and the third disciplined.

......................................


On Thursday evening, the Obama campaign emailed to Daily Kos the following statement.

"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," said Obama campaign
spokesman Bill Burton.

Update: Some interesting questions found at DailyKos (debatablepolitics's diary):

The State Departments explanation is lacking. Here are 5 questions that need to be asked:

1. If these 3 incidents were purely innocent curiousity why no access breach of Clinton, McCain or any other candidate?
2. Who is this contractor employed by the State Department?
3. Who sits on their board? Who is the CEO?
4. Is there any link to other political campaigns to this contractor at any level?
5. Why were these guys fired prior to the proper inspector general investigation?