Passport files of candidates breached

0 01u00Passport files of candidates breached02u00 (=an action that breaks a law, rule, or agreement)02br
00Records of Clinton, McCain, Obama inappropriately (=without legal permissions) accessed, officials say02br
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00WASHINGTON - State Department employees snooped (=to try to find out about someone's private affairs by secretly looking in their house, examining their possessions etc) through the passport files of three presidential candidates — Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain — and the department's inspector general is investigating.02br
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01span00State 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.02span02br
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01b00Question: When did the officials come to know about the violations of McCain and Clinton's passport files - before or after the unauthorized access of Obama's record?02b02br
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00The 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. It recalled an incident in 1992, when a Republican political appointee at the State Department was demoted (=to make someone's rank or position lower or less important) over a search of presidential candidate Bill Clinton's passport records. At the time, Clinton was challenging (=to question something) President George H.W. Bush. 02br
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00McCormack said one of the individuals who accessed Obama's files also reviewed McCain's file earlier this year. This 01span00contract02span00 01b00Question: What is a contract employee?02b00 employee has been reprimanded (=to tell someone officially that something they have done is very wrong), but not fired. The individual no longer has access to passport records, he said.02br
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01span00"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.02span02br
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01b00Question: In ''they talk to people what does 01i00they02i00 stand for - If it stands for inspector general then inspector general is singular person, not plural?02b02br
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01u00Apologizing and investigating02u02br
00Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with all three candicates on Friday and expressed her regrets. In the meantime, State Department officials headed to Capitol Hill (=Capitol is the building in Washington D.C. where the US Congress meets and Capitol Hill is the hill in Washington D.C. where the Capitol building stands. Congress consists of the group of people elected to make laws in the US, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. House of Representatives consists of the members directly elected by the people or elected by popular vote) to brief the candidates' staffs.02br
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00After speaking with Obama, Rice told reporters: "I told him that I was sorry, and I told him that 01span00I myself would be very disturbed02span00."02br
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01b00Question: I would have written, 01i00I myself would be very disturbed if such a thing has happened to me02i00. Is my way correct? If I am correct, then why is the shorter form used? 02b02br
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00The State Department said the Justice Department would be monitoring the probe (=an investigation in which many questions are asked to discover the truth about something) in case 01span00it needs to get involved02span00.02br
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01b00Question: I couldn't understand the part where it says 01i00it needs get involved02i00.02b02br
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00Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the case has not yet been referred to the Justice Department for investigation, and indicated prosecutors likely would wait until the State Department's inspector general concludes its inquiry. But Mukasey did not rule out the possibility of the Justice Department taking an independent look (=an attempt to find something) at the passport breach.02br
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00"Have they asked us to become involved — no," Mukasey told reporters during a Friday briefing.01span00 "When, as, and if we have a basis for an investigation, including a reference — that is, one basis would be a reference — we could conduct one."02span02br
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01b00Question: What is a reference? I couldn't find any meaning which fitted in the context. And I also couldn't understand the part 01i00when, asn and if02i00.02br
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00Asked what another basis could be, Mukasey said: "I don't want to speculate but if somebody 01span00walked02span00 in here with a box full of evidence, 01span00they02span00 wouldn't be turned away (=to refuse to allow sb/sth to enter a place)."02br
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01b00Question: I would have used 01i00walks02i00 instead of 01i00walked02i00. What do you say on this? What does 01i00they02i00 stand for?02b02br
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01u00Record of incidents02u02br
00In Clinton's case, an individual last summer accessed her file as part of a training session involving another State Department worker. McCormack said the one-time violation was immediately recognized and the person was admonished (=to tell someone severely that they have done something wrong). 02br
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00Obama's records were accessed without permission on three separate occasions — Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and as recently as last week, on March 14.02br
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00McCormack declined to 01span00name the companies that employed the contractors02span00, despite demands by a senior 01span00House Democrat02span00 that such information is in the public interest.02br
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00Question: What are these companies? What is a House Democrat?02b02br
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00"At this point, we just started an investigation," he said. "We want to err on the side of caution (=to be too careful rather than take a risk)."02br
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00McCain, who was in Paris on Friday, said any breach of passport privacy deserves an apology and a full investigation.02br
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00"The United States of America values everyone's privacy and corrective action should be taken," he said.02br
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00It is not clear whether the employees saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age, Social Security number (=in the US, an official identity number that everyone is given when they are born) and place of birth, which is required when a person fills out a passport application.02br
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01u00Privacy issues02u02br
01span00Aside from the file02span00, 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, 01span00which can be used to pull credit reports and other personal information02span00.02br
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01b00Question: The part 01i00aside from the file02i00 doesn't seem correct in my opinion. I believe it should have been ''aside from the basic personal data. What do you say?02br
00What are credit reports?02b02br
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00The 01span00firings02span00 (=to be severely criticized for something you have done - used in news reports) and 01span00unspecified discipline02span00 of the third employee already had occurred when senior State Department officials learned of the break-ins (=an act of entering a building illegally and by force, especially in order to steal things) to the files. Rice learned about it Thursday, after a reporter inquired about Obama's case.02br
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01b00Question: I would have used 01i00firing02i00 instead of 01i00firings02i00. What do you say?02br
00What does 01i00unspecified discipline02i00 mean? 02b02br
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00The violations were detected by internal State Department computer checks because certain records, including those of high-profile people, are "flagged" with a computer tag that tips off (=a secret warning or piece of information, especially one given to the police about illegal activities) supervisors when someone tries to view the records without a proper reason.02br
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01span00The Washington Times first reported the incident involving Obama.02span02br
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01b00Question: I would have written: The Washington Times was the first to report.... What do you say?02b02br
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00Former Independent Counsel Joseph diGenova said the firings of the contract employees will make the investigation more difficult because the inspector general can't compel them to talk.02br
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00"My guess is if he tries to talk to them now, in all likelihood (=almost certainly) they will take the Fifth," diGenova said, referring to the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination (=is the act of accusing oneself of a crime for which a person can then be prosecuted).02br
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00On Thursday, the State Department's top management officer, Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy, said the incident was not handled properly.02br
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00"I will fully acknowledge this information should have been passed up the line," Kennedy told reporters in a conference call. "It was dealt with (=handled) at the office level."02br
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00In answer to a question, Kennedy said the department doesn't look into political affiliation in doing background checks on passport workers. "Now that this has arisen, this becomes a germane (=relevant) question, and that will be something for the appropriate investigation to look into," he said. 0-