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

[Kong2008]

The DUMBEST move of their lives.....

[midlifecrisis]

Sure, the employees should get their due process, but it's still a potential breach of national security, and it should be assumed the people doing this mean the president and the country harm until demonstrated otherwise. Regardless of Verizon's internal discipline process and union contract, the Secret Service and the FBI need to have a serious chat with these wonderful folks.

Hey Neocons - remember, we're at war, right? What would you have assumed if someone was caught peeking at Roosevelt's phone call records during WW II?

I'd say the exact same thing if this had happened to Bush...

[Ramirez]

This should be fully investigated and the employees should be disciplined as appropriate.
Assuming the union agrees, of course.

[junkee]

Verizon Wireless does not have any unions. You are confusing it with Verizon Communications.

[huffposeur]

for someone in a midlife crisis you seem to have the intellect of a child.

"What would you have assumed if someone was caught peeking at Roosevelt's phone call records during WW II?"

you really think these are analogous???? first of all, FDR WAS president during WWII not a candidate for president who was trying to prevent his birth certificate from being seen by those who might be able to determine if he had a right to run for president.

second, even back in WWII presidents were using SECURE phone lines.

to equate obama's OLD cellphone record to FDR is stupid and nonsensical. and to those who think that whatever was discovered by looking at his records could do the country harm and/or jeopardize our national security, well, if obama, as a candidate, not as a president acting as commander in chief, was dumb enough to discuss matters of national security over an UNSECURE cellphone line, then he, like everyone else born in kenya, has no business being president.

[PATina]

I agree... I think midlife is having a crisis. I agree w/ the poster who said these were probably just star struck employees just wanting to take a "peek". I agree w/ those who say they should be fired... and if they broke the law... should be prosecuted (although I think jail time is a bit much for just checking out someone's phone records... unless they actually sold them to subversive forces or something extreme like that).

[DiBaskin]

You sound like a hater. Obama wasn't trying to prevent his birth certificate from being seen. Obama is an American citizen. He unlike other candidates has shown evidence and it has been proven over and over he was born in Hawaii. So get over it and move on.
Have we seen McCain's birth certificate. Did we see Bush's or Clinton's. You might as well get used to the fact that your president in Black.

[FreedomAgain]

I agree this is a security matter. Can't he get some sort of secure phone? I guess someone could look at that as well.

[TimeGrid]

This is not surprising after all... all ads from Verizon make it very clear that once you subscribe with them there will be a bunch Verizon workers following you everywhere you go...
IT'S THE NETWORK!

[SpoxLogic]

NIICE!!

[learnsomething]

TimeGrid....lol

[LilyJ89]

LOOOOL!

[PATina]

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.... that was a good one !!!!!!!

[fcsakes]

Well heck, Verizon and AT&T had no problems turning over the records of every single one of their customers to bushie w/o warrant so why is this such a big surprise? The telcoms have already learned that it's okay to violate the privacy of Americans and get away with it.

[learnsomething]

So, it's AT&T too huh?. Damn, damn, damn!

[Ramirez]

Obama voted in support of FISA.

[RJII]

please God, give me one of those loser's job. those losers are about to find out how bad the job market is.

[JR-Vette]

As a FORMER Verizon (business) contractor AND US citizen, unless you are of Indian heritage, you won't get any of those open positions. The company's directive is to off-shore as much as corporatily possible.

It's under the disguise of "saving money"

[NativeTexan]

I am recently unemployed. I was layed off from a telecom equipment supplier two months ago. I talked one of the "team" last week. They have been informed the entire department will closed down and the jobs will go to Turkey. These are internal technical support jobs to help deploy the equipment.

And by the way, people in telecom routinely listen in on middle of the night phone calls to help while the night away. They have to be there in case something happens to the network but aren't busy sometimes. They can legally listen for 30 seconds or so to verify line quality.

I can see how someone not very far sighted might access phone records of the rich and famous for grins with no intention of doing anything with those records.

[isom74]

Just part of the "team" that comes with Verizon service.

[neesy08]

Immediate leave with pay? In other words, collect your last pay check, YOU'RE FIRED!!

[spage71]

Can you hear me now :)

[jcwtts1]

Which is why he has to give up his blackberry

[notconfindtweenhatnboots]

And this is why he may not even get his own cell phone anymore.

[emstrem]

Whoa people, I thought we didnt need a warrant anymore to go thru peoples phone records. Why should Obama be any different?

[ninagoneobama]

Get a life.

[TimmySlagle]

Interesting.

But why hasn't the Huffington Post linked any articles about unauthorized government employyees looking theough Joe the Plummber's personal records?

At least the Verizon workers did it with a prurient interest, the State of Ohio tried to destroy Joe, for the crime of asking Obama a tough question.

[Ramirez]

Democrats supported the use of government employees and facilities used to investigate Joe W.

[learnsomething]

Why do you want to make this a Dem vs Repub thing. My goodness, Repubs should be against this type of thing too.

It is not a Democrat thing. This is about ALL Americans right to privacy.

What is your problem?!

[Reaganwater]

When did Obama approve that ? OH..., yes, he isn't the President yet .
I am sorry but you folks are just going to have to wait until Jan 20 to blame him for every problem real or imagined or handed to you by HannityRushbo .

[LilyJ89]

I wouldn't call that "destroying Joe", since when was puttig out that truth on someone called "destroying them". Joe posed as someone he was not and therefore he was exposed. Let it go already.

[Ramirez]

"Putting out the truth on some one."

So you support the investigation of Joe W by agencies of the Ohio state government?

[divemate]

I was wondering how long it would take before someone brought up Joe The Plant again. You really need to try a different approach. I know how about discussing the issues that matter.

[ladyv]

When someone whose child support is kept fairly low proportionate to their income has a windfall, like with lottery winners or unemployed men who go on television and claim to have the $$$ to buy a business that will give them a yearly personal income of $250k+, state law requires an investigation to make sure that if they have had a huge windfall their child support is increased proportionately.

He didn't ask Obama a tough question. Democrats were thrilled with the question and the fact that Obama took 5 solid minutes out of his day to give a tough but honest response to a guy on the street who stopped him to ask a question. It was the "liberal blogosphere" who started passing around the link to the video. You see, only extreme right wing types saw that video and saw something bad for Obama, because only you guys hear those sorts of dog whistles. Reasonable people saw an intelligent man speak respectfully and at length to a guy with the obvious assumption that the guy wasn't too dumb to understand his response, and that guy was stunned that he actually got a lengthy answer to his question rather than a typical politician "response." He *thought* it was a "gotcha" question, but only because right wing talk radio thinks of it that way. Everyone except right wing talk radio and the people that listen to their nonsense perceived Obama as looking fabulous in that video.

[LilyJ89]

That was a beautiful response. Right on point...muy bien. ;-)

[Ramirez]

Okay. So therefore you support the use of government staff and facilities to investigate him and provide his personal information to the media. Is that correct?

[huffposeur]

"state law requires an investigation to make sure that if they have had a huge windfall their child support is increased proportionately."

NICE TRY. THERE IS NO SUCH LAW. none none none

[azcamp]

Are these employees in India?

The last time I spoke to someone from Verizon, they were calling me from India. Let's hope that we do not have a national security issue because we outsourced so many of our customer service jobs in the telecom industry to India.

[dholl69]

Are you sure you are talking about wireless? Those call centers are definitely in the US

[echota]

Don't get me started on outsourcing. The new trend is that dental offices are outsourcing their billing and releasing American's dental records and information. I say we should outsource these dentists and see if they fare as well in a third world country

[Dandywalker]

This is so crazy. If I was T-Mobile I would make a commercial out of this stuff. All should be fired. If I was verizon, this burn me even more. Verizon workers have unions? Who doesnt have a union !

[BowlingForRevenge]

Leave WITH pay...now that's some serious punishment.

[coastalcarla]

Yeah, I better do something bad really soon - I need about a month off with pay.

[spage71]

It's a damn vacation that is ashame.......

[gi]

Forget fireing the new law should be JAIL TIME. I bet they'll think about it twice.

[Ramirez]

We usually have a trial first.

[dholl69]

Go to jail for looking at a phone account? What is the crime? Being nosey?

[newshadeofblue]

Extremist are dangerous! Left or Right still equals wrong!

[Chris]

Huffsters rightfully outraged by this but when OH government looks into an everday citizen the Huffsters justify it.

[DarkandStormyNight]

What on earth are you talking about?

[Ramirez]

Joe the Plumber case still dripping
Half-dozen agencies access records of Ohio man

By Dennis J. Willard
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Nov 14, 2008

The election is over, but the Joe the Plumber case is not.

Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles said his office is now looking at a half-dozen agencies that accessed state records on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.

The Beacon Journal has learned that, in addition to the Department of Job and Family Services, two other state offices — the Ohio Department of Taxation and Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers — conducted database searches of Joe the Plumber.

Wurzelbacher became an instant celebrity after he asked Barack Obama a series of questions in his Toledo driveway about the Democrat's tax policies. ...

http://www.ohio.com/news/34453464.html

[LilyJ89]

Yeah an everyday citizen who owes back taxes, and lies in order to get fifteen minutes of fame. Joe the "Plumber" put himself in that position..well remember in the debates John McCain was the one who brought him up. He was put in the limelight so therefore he deserves to be scrutinzed.

[Ramirez]

That was Chris's point, i.e., that Democrats like you supported the investigation of Joe W by state employees on state payroll using the state's facilities and records.

Democrats have no sense of irony.