Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Saturday, March 22, 2008 7:30:47 PM
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.
When asked about the contribution, a State Department official told CNN's Zain Verjee, "We ethically awarded contracts. Political affiliation is not one of the factors that we check."
On Friday, the department revealed that Obama's passport file was improperly accessed three times this year, and the passport files of the two other major presidential candidates -- Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain -- had also been breached.
Three contractors are accused in the wrongdoing, including the one who works for the Analysis Corp. and who was disciplined. That contractor accessed McCain's file in addition to Obama's. None of the contractors was identified.
The Washington Times, which broke the story Thursday night that Obama's records had been improperly accessed, reported Saturday that the State Department inquiry is focusing on the Analysis Corp. employee. Also, the investigation by the department's inspector general will include polygraph tests for supervisors in the passport section to find out whether there was any political motive.
Here's my nutjob conspiracy theory for the day:
Since Obama could not get out from under his relationship to hateful anti-American Jew-hating pastor Jeremiah Wright, he had a strong supporter in a position of power (Brennan) cook-up a breach of privacy with all the candidate's passports. Substitute dates, a breach of network/system security, and hang a few lowly fools out to dry. Bam! You've got yourself a brilliant conspiracy. Guess what? It worked! The Jeremiah Wright controversy has been deminished and the passport story is now taking up at least as much time in the media. And I thought the Clinton machine was sneaky! I guess Obama showed me. He's a racist pro-Palestinian jerk, but he can sure control the news when he wants to.