Obama's Cell Phone Records Looked At By Verizon Workers

WASHINGTON — Verizon employees snuck a peek at President-elect Barack Obama's old cell phone records and will be reprimanded accordingly, the company said late Thursday.

Obama aides said no voicemails or e-mails were accessed.

In a statement, Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam apologized to Obama and disclosed the breach, saying: "a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed President-elect Barack Obama's personal cell phone account."

He said the account has been inactive for several months and Obama had been using a simple voice flip-phone without email capabilities.

"All employees who have accessed the account _ whether authorized or not _ have been put on immediate leave, with pay," McAdam said. "Employees with legitimate business needs for access will be returned to their positions, while employees who have accessed the account improperly and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate disciplinary action."

Comments

[DaBluAce]

WTF....leave with pay.....that is an unscheduled vacation.....it isn't enough Verizon put up a cell tower for j mac....but those jerks are taking a peek at Pres. Elect cell records.....

[imusintheevening]

Those who infringe rights to privacy should go to jail.

[DrDemon]

And minimum -- > F I R E D !

[IAB]

Just wanted to add: this should be a lesson to Obama about letting the telecoms get off scot free for cooperating with warrantless wiretaps...

[IAB]

God, I just signed up with Verizon after years away for their FIOS service...it's great and all, but it makes me realize that these telecoms are way out of control that employees are able to access Obama's cell phone...this should be a matter for the Justice Dept., Homeland Security and the FBI...a serious security breach...if these employees were able to access it, who else might? Darn scary.

[Eriq]

Right, and those of us who use Verizon service should flood the company with protest calls... and drop their service and refuse to pay the drop fees!! If this company allows this to happen, and then gives those responsible for the infraction a paid leave, then they don't deserve to be paid.

[Mikeeee]

Obama voted to give them immunity. Now he's reaping the benefits.

[IAB]

My point exactly...the end result of supporting dangerous, intrusive and Constitution-violating legislation...as a supposed Constitution scholar, Obama should know better...appalling breach...no "with pay" for these employees: jail time...with numerous threats out there about Obama's safety, access to his personal calls is a dangerous situation...I want these employees to face serious charges...federal charges and years of jail time, at least.

[anopenmind]

They should be brought up on criminal charges, period!! Same sort of thing happened with his passport!!

[IAB]

This is really out of control...if employees can do this...what might happen amongst some terror group or someone wishing him ill? This is chilling, and downright shameful.

[Eriq]

And it also means that thrill-seekers are looking for any little tidbit of information that can be sold to the hard-right media.
How shameful!!!

[BillMelater]

What's the use? George Bush has been listening in on his phone calls for years. Why else would he have wanted unfettered access to tap American's phones if not to listen to Democrats?

http://billmel8er.wordpress.com

[politicalminded]

Why am I not surprised? After all, VZ CEO, Lowell McAdam is Republican. VZ is one Company that benefited heavily from the Bush Administration. Like you said, they've been spying on Democrats for a long time.

[epitomized]

If that were the case, the CEO would have covered it up and surely wouldn't have spoken out about it.

Unless there was a potential whistle blower ... that would be a changed game.

[epitomized]

adding to my comment ... it's probably the same as the state dept employees who were checking out passports. As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back (or something like that...).

[Eriq]

Yes, and perhaps we will end up throwing George W. Bush in jail... and throwing away the key. Or perhaps putting him on death row after a fair trial, since he is responsible for an illegal war, a world-wide economic meltdown, and the deaths of tens of thousands of civilian victims with his illegal Iraq war.

Let justice and freedom rule in America again!! G.W.Bush needs to be jailed!

[BillMelater]

Unfortunately, I don't think Obama will do anything to persue the Bushies after he's in office. He will take the Pelosi road and want to forgive and forget.

http://billmel8er.wordpress.com

[Forester]

Verizon has rooms in their buildings for the spook contractors. This is all so wrong.

[bostongreen]

not fun being spied on, is it Mr. Obama?

[IAB]

As I said, this should give him pause about giving immunity to the telecoms...a direct result of their getting off scot free from suffering serious liability for their Constitution-busting cooperation with the NSA, That said, these employees need to face some federal charges and severe sentences...this is not a minor infraction, by any means, since one cannot help but be sensitive in light of all the threats out there that have been coming at Obama...

[whyanything]

Can you hear me now?

[DrDemon]

LoUd & cLEaR !