I second your agreement. They cant have Obama looking like a a victim or a martyr… a fascinating struggle on a grand chessboard is being played out here….it literally is the people versus the machine…obama is no saint, but if he wins, I beleive alot of scumbags and parasites in suits are going to lose their golden eggs and many will go to jail, so he has my support…

Uh-huh.

Why would that be the case?

I agree, this definitely doesn’t pass the sniff test.
The claims about Clinton and McCain seem to be last minute add-ons for damage control or to allay suspicion.

FC

A SSN opens a whole can of worms. Been charged for a little gay PPV? Dined at a restaurant that has nefarious political connections? Just about anything can be dredged up with enough time along with the passport file info.

And wow TP your hillary-worship rears its ugly head once again. Her ONE file breach was IMMEDIATELY reported (it was an accident during employee training). Leaving just Obama and McCain. I’m putting my money on a clintonian having done the deed.

apparently all the info in the passport file can be found in dozens of other databases so what’s unique?

Answer: Passport number.

Now waht can be done with that? Can that be used to plug in to another database. It would be a very uncommon “keyword” or identifier that might not raise any electronic flags in another system—of course that would mean there would have to be field allowing the search term.

This may all be much ado about nothing other than contractors breaking the rules.

But if not, maybe the passport numbers are the key? If so, what are the locks that they open?

Aah, it’s probably nothing.

“Last night, MSNBC noted a Clinton connection to the story that Barack Obama’s passport had been breached. The network reported that Maura Harty, the State Department official in charge of the Bureau Of Consular Affairs during the first two breaches of Obama’s passport, had served as an ambassador under Bill Clinton.
Today, the State Department confirmed Hillary Clinton and John McCain’s passport files had also been breached.

“Harty was a Consular Affairs Chief until the end of last month when she retired from foreign service work. Before her stint as the Assistant Secretary of State of Consular Affairs, Harty was an Ambassador to Paraguay under President Bill Clinton,” MSNBC reported.

Harty began her State Department career in 1981. She worked for the Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton, and Bush administrations until she resigned February, 29.”

So that deflates the Clinton operative implication doesn;t it?

As of 1.40 pm today there has been no update to the story, even though it also bee reported that the breaches were not
reported up the chain of command.

There IS a new Update Post top right which notes Clinton. McCains Passports breached”

As Arianna is complaining (justifiably) about BillO’s attacking of Ariann and Huffpo for its comments rather than the content of the posts and throwing “fair anb balanced back in his face. I submitted a comment that the Maura Harty Breach post was deliberate misrepresentation and at least she had control over THAT and when was it going to be changed to reflect the truth rather continue prominently displaying the innuendo.

I didn’t swear or use any invective. I did note Arianna is an ex-Republican.

My comment was NOT APPROVED–even though plenty of other commenters have remarked that the story as presented is a stretch.

Of course I challenged Arianna directly to take respnbility for the post. Guess her staff didn’t like that.

They did allow a follow up though :

“I note also the choice to feature Sam Steins “Clinton Ethics” piece directly below the “Maura Harty” dsitortion . Coincedence?”

Ariana always impresses me when I see her on TV in a hostile environment, relaxed and sharp. But I really think she’s got a personal beef with Clinton–at least the HUFFPO never misses an excuse to work against Hillary, no matter how tenuous the reason, and Arianna clearly does nothing to discourage that.

NONE of the employees who accessed McCain’s or Clinton’s files were fired. The one employee who Accessed Obama And McCains files was NOT Fired. WHY NOT?

Obviously, a Judgement was made as to the Seriousness or Innocense of the Accessing.

According to an NPR report, there is an automatic detection system in place, which is how the breaches were noticed in the first place. But reportedly, the breaches were not passed up the ladder until just yesterday. Why then? I don’t get it.

As for McCain and Clinton having suffered the peeking too, I don’t buy it. Those breaches either occurred earlier or at the same time so if they were real, why was only Obama’s brought to the attention of the top levels of the State Department and the other two a good 24 hours afterwards?

I don’t buy the BS about McCain and Clinton’s files being accessed too. It’s way too convenient.

The contract employees who accessed Obama’s files were FIRED.
The contract employees who accessed Clinton and McCain’s files were NOT FIRED.

Why would that be the case??

Beacsue that’s not exactly the case. There were 4 breaches involving 4 employees. Breach #1 (Nov ‘07 – Clinton) occurred during a training exercise and the employee was not fired. Breaches #2 & #3 (Jan 9 & Feb 21 – Obama) resulted in the firing of the 2 employees responsible. The employee responsible for Breach #4 (Mar 14 – Obama and McCain) was not fired.

Passport info alone, maybe not, but perhaps one could make the case that this, along with other records that don’t have a “trip-wire”, were accessed to build a profile.

Bush has already admitted to data-mining all kinds of useless information on the American people. Their thinking could be that you never know when some of that information could become useful.

Again, it’s just speculation, but something obviously isn’t right here.