State Department Acknowledges Presidential Candidates' Passport Files Breached (2/3)

"And I have to tell you that we take very seriously the trust that is put in us in safeguarding American citizens personal data."

Secretary of State Rice expressed regret about the incidents in phone calls to all three presidential candidates, including Senator Obama.

"I told him that I, myself, would be very disturbed if I had 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."

The State Department is responsible for issuing passports in the United States. Passport files usually contain personal identity information and may include information about countries the person has traveled to.

State Department officials became aware of the breaches from a computer monitoring system that flags attempts to access the passport files of high profile people like politicians and celebrities.

Meanwhile on the presidential campaign trail, Senator Obama got a boost Friday when one of his former rivals, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, endorsed him during a campaign rally in Portland, Oregon.

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“并且，我必须要说的是，人们信任我们会保护美国公民的个人信息，我们会对此予以重视."

美国国务卿赖斯在电话中向包括参议员奥巴马在内的三位总统候选人表达了对此事的歉意。

“我对他说，如果某人告诉我，我的护照档案被人偷看，我会感到非常烦恼，因此，我会亲自过问此事并彻查到底。”

在美国，国务院负责发放护照。护照文档中通常包含个人身份信息，并且，也可能包括一些其所到国家的信息。

国务院通过一个监控系统发现偷看行为，该系统可以标记那些试图进入像政治家和名人这样引人注目的人的护照文档中行为。

同时，周五，在俄勒冈州波特兰市的一次总统竞选集会中，参议员奥巴马获得了曾经是他对手的新墨西哥州州长比尔•理查森的支持。

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