Rice promises investigation into breach in Obama's passport files

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (MARCH 21, 2008) (POOL) - 
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apologized on Friday (March
21) to Sen. Barack Obama for the fact that State Department contract workers
improperly viewed the Democratic presidential candidate's passport files. 
    "I told him that I was sorry and I told him that I myself would be
very disturbed if I learned that somebody had looked into my passport file and
therefore, I will stay on top of it and get to the bottom of it," Rice
told reporters. 
    The State Department said on Thursday that it had fired two contract
employees and disciplined a third for having looked into Obama's passport
files without authorization. 
    The department has begun an investigation by its acting inspector
general, who in turn has called in the Department of Justice to involve it in
the probe should it turn out that any laws were broken. 
    Asked if she believed laws may have been broken, Rice told reporters:
"I can't comment before there is an investigation but there will be a
full investigation."