The US presidential race took a bizarre turn when the State Department disclosed that workers had improperly rummaged through the passport files of all three candidates. Senator Barack Obama called for a congressional investigation.
The snooping first surfaced against Obama, the Illinois Democrat whose file was accessed three time this year. In the course of Friday, however, department officials said the contract workers with access to the files also had dipped into the private information of New York Senator Hillary Clinton, the other Democratic hopeful, and Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has wrapped up his party's nomination.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who reportedly only heard of the incidents starting on Thursday, apologized to the candidates and promised her department would investigate.
But Obama was not satisfied and said Congress should investigate to insure the probe was not "simply an internal matter."
It was unclear whether the incidents were politically motivated. But they dominated US news at the start of a quiet holiday weekend and were a welcome diversion for the Obama campaign after a week of political battering over incendiary remarks by the candidate's longtime pastor.
The passport issue flared as Obama, locked in an increasingly nasty nomination battle with Clinton, secured a key endorsement, the backing of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.
Richardson served former president Bill Clinton -- candidate Clinton's husband -- as UN ambassador and energy secretary.
"You are a once-in-a-lifetime leader," Richardson said, speaking at a spirited rally in Portland, Oregon, with Obama at his side. "Above all, you will be a president who brings this nation together."
The passport disclosures were a major embarrassment for the State Department and viewed as a serious breach of privacy. The snooping into supposedly secure government records on politicians recalled a 1992 case in which a Republican political appointee at the State Department was demoted for searching Bill Clinton's passport records when he was running against US president George H.W. Bush.
Two of the workers who breached Obama's records on Jan. 9 and Feb. 21 have been fired. A third worker, who accessed the Illinois senator's file on March 14, had only been reprimanded. It subsequently turned out that person had also looked at the McCain file earlier this year.
Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the individual no longer has access to passport records.
"I can assure you that person's going to be at the top of the list of the inspector general when they talk to people, and we are currently reviewing our [disciplinary] options with respect to that person," McCormack said.
The two fired contractors worked for a company called Stanley Inc. Earlier this week, the 3,500-person company won a five-year, US$570 million contract to support passport services at the State Department. The company refused comment, but a State Department official confirmed that the two contractors had been employed at Stanley. The official requested anonymity because the information had not been publicly released.
In the Democratic battle, winning Richardson's backing was a major boost for Obama, and was seen as a rebuke to Clinton because of Richardson's service in her husband's administration. Richardson is also a Democratic superdelegate and former presidential candidate.
Richardson's backing of Obama, who aspires to become America's first black president, could show most dramatically among the governor's fellow Hispanics -- the US' largest ethnic bloc, which has largely backed Clinton.
He told Democrats it was time to stop bickering and get behind Obama, but the Clinton campaign dismissed the endorsement.
Senior strategist Mark Penn, noting Clinton's February victory in the New Mexico primary, said, "Perhaps the time when he could have been most effective has long since past."
Penn added that he didn't think it was a "significant endorsement."
The nod from Richardson had been sought relentlessly by both Obama and Clinton. Bill Clinton even went to Richardson's New Mexico home in January to watch the US' premier television sporting event, the football Super Bowl.
As a Democratic superdelegate, Richardson has a key role in the tight race for nominating votes and could bring other superdelegates to Obama's side. He also has been mentioned as a potential running mate for either candidate.
Obama leads Clinton among delegates whose votes were determined by primaries or caucuses, 1,406 to 1,249. But neither is on track to win enough pledged delegates to clinch the nomination -- 2,024 are needed. So the outcome could be decided by superdelegates -- elected and party officials who can choose whomever they like.
Including Richardson, Clinton leads 250 to 215 among superdelegates who have announced a choice. About 40 percent have not declared.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS