2 I The Behrend Beacon
Obama’s passport illegally accessed
According to State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack, presidential candidate Barack
Obama’s passport has been accessed three times
by contract workers lacking the authorization to
do so.
The State Department hired contractors to
build and maintain their systems, and did not
have the authorization required to view Obama’s
passport. Two of the contractors have since been
fired, and the third disciplined. According to
McCormack, none of the contractors had man
agement positions and were not linked with one
another.
The Obama campaign has called for a com
plete investigation into the
security breaches. “This is
an outrageous breach of
security and privacy, even
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VOTKSPA.com
Quotes on Civility
"It is less important to redistribute
wealth than it is to redistribute
opportunity."
Arthur Vandenberg, American
journalist and senator (1884-1951)
Janet Neff Sample Center H 99
for Manners & Civility ■kXM
Source: CNN, BBC News
READY SIT
< ,' , :ri:ni''n , .c.ikh ,>i I'emi-vR-jina. Department of Stale
from an administration that has shown little
regard for either over the last eight years,” said
Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama cam
paign. “Our government’s duty is to protect the
private information of the American people, not
use it for political purposes.”
McCormack stated the breaches were just a
case of curiosity. Despite the breaches occurring
on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14, the state
department was not aware of them until
Thursday. The White House was notified of the
breach shortly after it was discovered, but
declined to comment,
A similar breach occurred in 1992 during for
mer president Bill Clintion’s campaign. After
the breach was made public, the FBI launched
an investigation and learned someone had tom
out pages of his passport.
577-VOTKSPA (877-86 S-3772)
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Chinese fire on Tibetan protestors
On Thursday, the Chinese government admitted
opening fire on Tibetan protestors for the first time
since unrest in Tibet began last week. Until this
point, the Chinese denied using lethal force on the
protestors but as of press time, the Chinese still gov
ernment denied responsibility for any deaths.
According to the Xinhua news agency, police
opened fire in “self-defense” on protesters on
Sunday in Aba county, the location Tibetan activists
said eight people were killed during the protesting
near the Kirti monastery.
Earlier this week, a Tibetan activist group called
The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and
Democracy released photos of dead bodies with bul
let holes, claiming they were casualties of police
opening fire on protestors. The group claimed the
bodies were deceased monks that joined protestors
fighting for independence in Tibet and the return of
the Dalai Lama.
The Chinese government has said only 13 people Tibetan leader is willing to meet with the Chinese
have died during the protests, all a result of “rioting” present Hu Jintao.
Five years of war in Iraq revisited
Continued from page 1
the willing" in 2003 is now shouldered almost sole- President Bush gave another speech on the war.
ly by the United States. extending the same promises of victory made at the
In the summer of 2007, the United States sent a war's commencement, as yet unfulfilled. "I prom
surge of American troops to try and create a neces- ised the American people that in the struggle ahead
sary space for political reconciliation. Violence has we will accept no outcome, but victory. Today,
declined significantly since, but questions remain if standing before men and women who have helped
the Iraqi government has made sufficient progress liberate a nation, I reaffirm the commitment. The
to go along. General Petraeus, commander of U.S. battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just,
forces in Iraq, has recently stalled on drawing down And with your courage, the battle in Iraq will end in
troops. victory."
Question of the Week:
Five years after the United
States invaded Iraq, how do
you feel about the war?
in Lhasa. The Tibetan government paints a different
picture, claiming 99 deaths so far, some a result of
security forces opening fire on crowds.
On Thursday, the Chinese government also admit
ted that the protests had spread into areas in south
western China which has a large Tibetan population.
Before, the government claimed the protests were
contained within the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
Large numbers of Chinese troops have been
deployed in Tibet, with reports of over 400 Chinese
military transports entering the country in a single
day.
As of Thursday, all foreign press has been forced
out of Lhasa. The last reporter to leave was an
anonymous German reporter who was notified by
authorities that he was the last foreign journalist in
the country.
Despite the Chinese government accusing the
Dalai Lama of orchestrating the protests, the exiled
And so, five years later, on March 19. 2008
Matt Kierzkowski
Freshman, Electrical Engineering
“I don’t think we should be over there. It
doesn’t make sense to me. First we go for
[Osama] bin Laden, then the weapons of
mass destruction, then [Saddam] Hussein.
It’s a big rat race. We’re just trying to find
reason after reason to be over there. ”
Alyssa Baran
Sophomore, Electrical Engineering
“I don’t think we should have went in the
first place. So now that we ’re there we’ve
got to stay. We don ’t want to pull out and
give ourselves the Vietnam image and
show weakness as an entire nation. I know
people who have been over there and they
tell me how drastic the improvements have
actually been. ”
Mike Sceiford
Sophomore, Finance
"I feel that we should pull out of Iraq, but
not too fast. We need to definitely head in
that direction though. Reasonably, it was
helpful at first. [I think] a lot of people are
concerned about that spending and deaths,
but in comparison [with other wars], it’s
not that high. ”
° Compiled by:
Evan Koser and
Jeremy Korwek
Friday, March 21, 2008