Call for Probe Over Passports Gains Bipartisan Support

[babylonsister]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120632264633058439.html?mod=politics_primary_hs

Call for Probe Over Passports Gains Support
By JAY SOLOMON
March 24, 2008; Page A4


Bipartisan support is mounting for the Justice Department to investigate the unauthorized searches of all three presidential candidate's passport files by a State Department employee and three contracted workers in recent months.

The State Department's inspector general is conducting its own probe of the security breaches, which trace from last summer through this month. Lawmakers are demanding the Justice Department's involvement on the grounds that federal laws may have been broken.

"That kind of a breach of privacy is just despicable," Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition." "I think that ought to be a very intense investigation." Sen. Specter said the Senate Judiciary Committee may hold its own hearings.

Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the candidates and apologized for the searches. Her aides said they believed that those involved were driven by "imprudent curiosity" rather than politics. They also said the State Department's inspector general would investigate and the Justice Department could get involved.

Sen. Barack Obama's file was breached three times, State officials said; Sen. John McCain's was searched once. Last summer, a junior State Department official opened Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's file.