US reveals snooping in candidates' passport files

The U.S. State Department apologized on Friday that its workers had snooped into the passport files of presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

The revelation came just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she called Obama to apologize for the unauthorized access to his computerized passport file by three department contract workers, two of whom were fired over the incidents.

"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. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that Rice "had expressed the same sentiment" to Clinton and would when she speaks with McCain.

Democrats Obama and Clinton are locked in a heated battle for the party's nomination to meet the presumptive Republican nominee McCain in the Nov. 4 presidential election. The department is investigating the actions -- who officials said appeared to act independently and without any political motive -- and contacted the Justice Department about the probe as a precaution in case any laws were broken.

The incident is an embarrassment to the Bush administration and revived memories of the controversy that erupted in 1992 after State Department officials searched former President Bill Clinton's passport and citizenship files when he was the Democratic presidential candidate.

Earlier on Friday Obama received a coveted endorsement from a key Democrat, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as Obama campaigns in the state ahead of its May 20 primary. Richardson's decision is a blow to Obama's rival Clinton, who had sought his backing in part because the Hispanic politician could garner support among Hispanics, who could be a key voting bloc in November.

Hispanics, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate, largely backed Clinton in nominating contests on "Super Tuesday," with exit polls showing her winning two-thirds of the Latino vote in several states. "Barack Obama will be a historic and a great President, who can bring us the change we so desperately need by bringing us together as a nation here at home and with our allies abroad,"

Richardson, who had made his own run for the Democratic nomination, said in a statement. While saying his "affection and admiration for Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton will never waver," Richardson said it was time "for Democrats to stop fighting amongst ourselves and to prepare for the tough fight we will face against John McCain in the fall."

Richardson, 60, was Clinton's energy secretary and U.N. ambassador. A skilled negotiator and diplomat, the popular governor has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate or secretary of state in a Democratic administration. He also is a superdelegate who would have a vote in the nominating contest if neither Obama nor Clinton win enough delegates during the primaries.

Richardson praised a speech Obama made earlier in the week on bridging divides between blacks and whites, and extended that speech's message to appeal to Hispanic immigrants. "As a Hispanic, I was particularly touched by his words. I have been troubled by the demonization of immigrants -- specifically Hispanics -- by too many in this country," Richardson said.

He said Obama's speech "asked us to rise above our racially divided past, and to seize the opportunity to carry forward the work of many patriots of all races, who struggled and died to bring us together." Obama gave that speech in response to a political firestorm ignited when news outlets called attention to sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright at a Chicago church that the Illinois senator attended for two decades. Wright, who retired recently, has railed that the Sept. 11 attacks were retribution for U.S. foreign policy, called the government the source of the AIDS virus and expressed anger over what he called racist America.