If you recall, during the presidential election, I ran a number of stories on the passport breach of Obama's passport at the Department of State.
It bears noting that John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, who made those recent incredible pro-terror remarks, some in Arabic no less, about the beauty of jihad, was connected with the tampering with Obama's passport.
Back in March 2008, the State Department launched an investigation of improper computer access to passport records of Barack Husssein Obama. The investigation was focusing on one employee — a contract worker with a company headed by an adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (more here at The Washington Times)
Pbama said at the time:
In Portland, Ore., Mr. Obama said the series of attempts to "tap into people's personal records" were "a problem not just for me but for how our government functions."
Laughable considering how intrusive his administration has been and continues to be in accessing private information.
Officials do not know whether information was improperly copied, altered or removed from the database during the intrusions.
[...]
"As soon as we realized that there were these unauthorized accesses for Senator Obama's passport files, we collected the information, we briefed the secretary, we briefed Senator Obama's staff, all before we ever replied to the reporter," Mr. McCormack said.
You will also recall that the key witness in the presidential Passport tampering case mas murdered. Shot in the head, in his car, in front of his church.
Chief of firm involved in breach is Obama adviser
updated 9:10 p.m. EDT, Sat March 22, 2008
cnn.com
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The CEO of a company whose employee is accused of improperly looking at the passport files of presidential candidates is a consultant to the Barack Obama campaign, a source said Saturday.
John O. Brennan, president and CEO of the Analysis Corp., advises the Illinois Democrat on foreign policy and intelligence issues, the source said.
Brennan briefed the media on behalf of the campaign this month.
The executive is a former senior CIA official and former interim director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
He contributed $2,300 to the Obama campaign in January…
Back in March 2008, State Department employees had tampered with the passport files of Barack Obama.
At the time, "State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the violations of McCain and Clinton's passport files were not discovered until Friday, after officials were made aware of the unauthorized access of Obama's records and a separate search was conducted".
The incidents raise questions as to whether the information was accessed for political purposes and why two contractors involved in the Obama search were dismissed before investigators had a chance to interview them.
I always thought they rifled through Clinton's and McCain's files to make it look as if it was all three, but it was Obama's passport records that they accessed. Secondarily, almost as an afterthought, there were "violations" concerning Clinton and McCain. But who stood to gain from a tampering, and why?
There is a video here of Obama's response to the passport "breach" back on March 21, 2008. Watch it -- I think it's telling that he says, not that he has anything to hide: "not because I have any particular concerns" [minute -.23]. This is before the birth certificate question. Who would say that?
Passport breach March 21, 2008.
On April 8, 2008, Obama confessed to having taken a trip to Pakistan in 1981. Here is what Obama said -- Jake Tapper was there:
Tapper was surprised and said:
Much speculation has been made about what national passport Obama used when he traveled to Pakistan in 1981.
So Obama confessed to this trip two weeks after his passport was tampered with.
Pakistan was on the banned travel list for US Citizens at the time and all non-Muslim visitors were not welcome unless sponsored by their embassy for official business. (more here)
Key witness in passport fraud case fatally shot Washington TimesApril 2008
A key witness in a federal probe into passport information stolen from the State Department was fatally shot in front of a District church, the Metropolitan Police Department said yesterday.
Lt. Quarles Harris Jr., 24, who had been cooperating with a federal investigators, was found late Thursday night slumped dead inside a car, in front of the Judah House Praise Baptist Church in Northeast, said Cmdr. Michael Anzallo, head of the department's Criminal Investigations Division.
Cmdr. Anzallo said a police officer was patrolling the neighborhood when gunshots were heard, then Lt. Harris was found dead inside the vehicle, which investigators would describe only as a blue car.
Emergency medics pronounced him dead at the scene.
City police said they do not know whether his death was a direct result of his cooperation with federal investigators.
"We don't have any information right now that connects his murder to that case," Cmdr. Anzallo said.
Police say a "shot spotter" device helped an officer locate Lt. Harris.
A State Department spokeswoman yesterday declined to comment, saying the investigation into the passport fraud is ongoing.
The Washington Times reported April 5 that contractors for the State Department had improperly accessed passport information for presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, which resulted in a series of firings that reached into the agency's top ranks.
One agency employee, who was not identified in documents filed in U.S. District Court, was implicated in a credit-card fraud scheme after Lt. Harris told federal authorities he obtained "passport information from a co-conspirator who works for the U.S. Department of State."
Also disturbing is this analysis from Bahukutumbi Raman, a former Indian counterterrorism chief:
How much – if anything – the 19- or 20-year-old Obama knew about the Afghanistan jihad during that 1981 visit is unclear.
But it’s precisely the shortage of details that worries some, like veteran security analyst Bahukutumbi Raman, a former Indian counterterrorism chief.
Mulling how a President Obama would deal with each of South Asia’s historical foes, Raman said that as an Indian, he naturally felt troubled that Obama had not disclosed the Pakistan visit earlier.
“Why did he keep mum on his visit to Pakistan till this question was raised?” asked Raman, who is the director of India’s Institute for Topical Studies. “Has he disclosed all the details regarding his Pakistan visit? Was it as innocuous as made out by him – to respond to the invitation of a Pakistani friend or was there something more to it?”
Raman continued, “As I read about Obama’s visit to Pakistan in the 1980s, I could not help thinking of dozens of things. Of the Afghan jihad against communism. Of the fascination of many Afro-Americans for the jihad. Of the visits of a stream of Afro-Americans to Pakistan to feel the greatness of the jihad. Of their fascination for Abdullah Azzam …”
Raman said although having such thoughts may seem “morbid,” it was “understandable when one has a feeling that one has not been told the whole story, but only a part of it.”
“It is the right of the Americans to decide who should be their president,” he said. “It is my right to worry about the implications of their decision for the rest of the world, including India.”
The Obama campaign did not respond to an invitation to comment on some of the speculation surrounding the visit to Pakistan or to provide further details about the trip.