NYT's Helene Cooper: "The State Department has fired two employees and reprimanded a third for improperly accessing electronic information from the passport file of Senator Barack Obama, State Department officials said tonight. On three separate occasions in January, February and March, three different employees looked through Mr. Obama’s file within the department’s consular affairs section, violating department’s privacy rules, according to the State Department spokesman, Sean D. McCormack." Bill Gertz, who broke the story, adds that the FBI is investigating the breach.

Friday Update: WP: All three candidates' records breached.

Stranger still: AP: "McCormack said the individual who accessed Obama's files also reviewed McCain's file earlier this year. This contract employee has been reprimanded, but not fired. The individual no longer has access to passport records, he said." Obama and Mccain's --- but not Clinton's.

"...Aside from the file, the information could allow critics to dig deeper into the candidates' private lives. While the file includes date and place of birth, address at time of application and the countries the person has traveled to, the most important detail would be their Social Security number, which can be used to pull credit reports and other personal information. "

Posted by Laura at March 20, 2008 10:51 PM