Comments on: State Dept. Contractors Caught Snooping Obama Records

By: Karl

Karl — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:56:29 +0000

But the network has an electronic monitoring system that is tripped when an employee accesses a record of a prominent person, like Mr. Obama. The alarm then triggers an inquiry into the incident, and “when the answer is not satisfactory, a supervisor is notified.”

Giving them the credit of the doubt here: such electronic monitoring systems and automated inquiries are not the norm as far as I know. So I certainly would give the department or their contractor credit for taking steps to perform these kinds of security checks.

In fact the state of the art in this field has to my knowledge only significantly advanced since Bush was elected to office.

Given my opinion of the Bush administration I'm personally floored that this became public knowledge!

By: Bithead

Bithead — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:22:07 +0000

The charge of the lightly brained... that the breach is a major deal and is the work of the Booooosh administation, ignores the idea that State has been a thorn in Bush's side since day one.Such, I suppose are the symptoms of the paranoia and political opportunism we've come to expect from those suffering BDS....The fact is, though, that State and the WH can't agree on LUNCH, much less a evil scheme to defame Obama... (Who, it should be pointed out, apparently doesn't need the help, he's doing that job rather well on his own, lately).

By: charles austin

charles austin — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:18:36 +0000

Cui bono? I find it humorous that the GOP is immediately and automatically suspected, especially given the political inclinations of so many in the State Department.

By: Richard Gardner

Richard Gardner — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:22:10 +0000

This does make me wonder what records are kept during passport renewals. The basic passport application is rather humdrum, place of birth, parents, etc. But when you renew a passport, you send in the old one, so your travels are potentially recorded. I saw potentially because:

- Not all places stamp the passport, like most of my travels to Mexico and Canada.
- Not all passport stamps are legible, nor do arrivals and departures match. I can just see a minor army trying to figure out passport stamps (not).
- Some folks have filled up their passports, and get extra pages that can be removed.

But still, I wonder. But a basic passport application, nothing there.

By: John Burgess

John Burgess — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 04:00:03 +0000

Chris: Your analysis sounds right to me. Some records you can't just keep behind lock and key else it burdens the entire system. Flagging access, however, like subtly numbering pages of copies of classified documents, doesn't prevent improper use, but sure makes prosecution easier after the fact.