( Bloomberg )- The U.S. State Department is investigating the improper breach of confidential passport files of all three presidential candidates by department contract employees, spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The private data of Democratic Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain were accessed in separate incidents, McCormack said yesterday in Washington.
``We're going to do a full investigation,'' McCormack said. ``We take very seriously the trust that is put in us'' to safeguard personal data, he said. McCormack said earlier that the breaches might have been ``imprudent curiosity.''
State Department officials were visiting the Capitol Hill offices of all three senators yesterday to explain the incidents. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke by phone with Obama and Clinton to apologize and planned to call McCain, McCormack said.
The department's acting inspector general will supervise the internal investigation. They are ``also going to take a look at whether there are any systemic issues that need to be addressed,'' McCormack said. The results of the investigation will be given to the committees in Congress that oversee the department, he said.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman said yesterday that, while the State Department appears to have taken ``appropriate'' action, he will investigate the incidents.
The State Department late on March 20 said two contract employees were fired and a third was disciplined for accessing Obama's passport data.
``Our initial view is this was imprudent curiosity on the part of these three individuals,'' McCormack said the night of March 20. Still, the State Department was taking steps ``to assure ourselves that it is nothing more than that.''
Last year, the State Department brought in hundreds of contractors to process U.S. passports to ease a backlog that was forcing Americans to cancel vacations. Currently there are 1,800 employees working within the Office of Passport Services. An additional 2,600 contract employees work in the office.
Former President Bill Clinton was the target of a similar incident when he was running for the White House in 1992.
The data was accessed at a time of unfounded speculation that he sought to renounce his citizenship so he could avoid being drafted for the Vietnam War while he was at Oxford University in the U.K., the Washington Times reported.
Senator Clinton's campaign said in a statement that Rice contacted the senator to tell her that the senator's passport file was breached in 2007.
``Senator Clinton will closely monitor the State Department's investigation into this and the other breaches of private passport information,'' the campaign said.
McCormack cited an incident last summer when a trainee had unauthorized access to Hillary Clinton's passport file. It was part of a training seminar in which people usually ``are encouraged to enter a family member's name,'' he said. The individual was ``immediately admonished,'' he said.
The State Department also detected earlier this year that one of the people who accessed Obama's file also accessed Senator McCain's, McCormack said. That individual was disciplined.
The State Department's inquiry began March 20 after a reporter asked about the breach of Obama's records. After senior management researched the incidents surrounding Obama, they decided to examine whether Clinton's and McCain's records had been breached. Yesterday morning, it became clear that they had, McCormack said.
The State Department said the only document kept in an individual's passport file is the application package. The application form includes information such as place of birth and Social Security number. The passport system has between 180 million and 200 million applications in its database.
``Passport files do not contain travel information, such as visa and entry stamps, from previous passports,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. ``Almost all passport files contain only a passport application form as submitted by the applicant.''
McCormack said the State Department was still trying to determine if any laws had been broken.
``We must await a final determination of the facts to determine what precise laws may have been violated,'' he said.
The two companies that gained unauthorized access to Obama's passport files were Stanley Inc. and Analysis Corp., the State Department said in an e-mailed statement.
Stanley is a 3,500-person Arlington, Virginia-based company that this week won a $570 million State Department contract to continue passport services. Both the employees who accessed Obama's information in separate incidents were terminated the day the breach occurred, Stanley said yesterday in a statement.
Employment candidates for Stanley and its subcontractors submit to security and government-sponsored background checks and are trained in the Privacy Act, Stanley said. They also sign a statement that includes acknowledgement that they are subject to immediate dismissal, civil charges and criminal prosecution for knowingly obtaining access to information under false pretenses, the company said in the statement.
McLean, Virginia-based Analysis Corp., known as TAC, said late yesterday that the ``individual's actions were taken without the knowledge or direction of anyone at TAC and are wholly inconsistent with our professional and ethical standards.''
``We deeply regret the incident and believe it is an isolated incident,'' according to a statement by TAC, whose Web site says it supports counterterrorism intelligence and analytic efforts, including ``national watchlisting activities.''
TAC President and Chief Executive Officer John O. Brennan is an informal foreign policy adviser to Obama's campaign. Jim Flynn, a spokesman for the company, didn't immediately return a call today seeking comment on Brennan's role in the campaign.
Brennan spent 25 years as an intelligence officer, including in the Central Intelligence Agency and as interim director of the multi-agency National Counterterrorism Center. TAC said in January 2006 that he'd been awarded the National Security Medal by then-Deputy Director of National Intelligence Michael Hayden, who is now head of the CIA.
McCain was in Paris yesterday on a congressional trip to the Middle East and Europe. He said after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the presidential palace that he didn't know much about the passport affair because he's been overseas for a week.
``If anyone's privacy has been breached, they are owed an apology and an investigation,'' McCain said.
`Very Disturbed'
Rice told reporters she personally apologized to Obama for the security breach.
``I told him that I was sorry, and I told him that I, myself, would be very disturbed'' by such an incident, Rice said yesterday morning. She promised a full investigation ``to get to the bottom of it and make sure nothing more was going on.''
The department briefed Obama's office on the matter when senior management became aware of the incidents. The senator from Illinois learned of the breach the night of March 20. Campaign spokesman Bill Burton called for a thorough investigation.
``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,'' Burton said.
Obama, 46, leads the race for the Democratic presidential nomination over Hillary Clinton, 60, a senator from New York.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey, speaking to reporters in Washington, said the Justice Department will likely wait for a referral from the State Department before looking into the matter.
``When, as and if we have a basis for an investigation'' into the breach ``we would conduct one,'' Mukasey said.