Security inquiry after Bush emails hacked

A criminal inquiry was under way on Friday after personal photographs, paintings, security information and even funeral details involving the former US presidents George and George W Bush were obtained by an email hacker.

The American Secret Service is investigating how the hacker gained access to material including pictures of the older Bush in a hospital bed and the four-digit security code for a gate to one of his son's homes.

He also obtained a confidential list of home addresses, mobile phone numbers and email addresses for dozens of members of the Bush family, including the former presidents, their siblings and children. Self-portraits painted by the younger former president - two of which depict him relaxing in the bath and taking a shower - were also published on the internet by the hacker, who called himself Guccifer.

The material is believed to have been gleaned from messages sent between 2009 and last year and stored in six different email accounts belonging to Bush family members and their friends.

"Why would someone do this?" Dorothy Bush, the youngest daughter of the Bush Snr and his wife, Barbara, asked The Smoking Gun, a website where some of the hacked material first emerged. Detailed information about George W Bush's plans to play golf with friends were also obtained. He remains protected around the clock by government agents.

Spokespersons for the former presidents declined to comment. Jim McGrath, an aide to Bush Snr, would only tell the Houston Chronicle that the matter was "under criminal investigation". A hacked message sent last December by Jean Becker, his former chief of staff, shed light on the older Bush's ailing health. He was being treated in hospital after being taken ill at the time.

"Your dad's funeral team is having an emergency meeting at 10am just to go through all the details," she told the 41st president's children, urging them "not to tell your mother".

On Boxing Day, George W Bush emailed his siblings inviting contributions to a eulogy for their father. "Hopefully I'm jumping the gun," he wrote. "But since the feeling is that you all would rather me speak than bubba, please help." "Bubba" is a nickname used by former president Bill Clinton, who enjoys a close relationship with his White House predecessor and is pictured alongside him in one of the hacked photographs.

In a reply sent the following day, George W Bush's brother Jeb, a former Florida governor, paid tribute to their father's "kindness and good nature".

He also suggested that the eulogy note "how kind he was with President Clinton" and how he "helped restore his sordid reputation" after the scandal over his affair with a White House intern.

His older brother replied: "Might be tough to say it that way in a eulogy with President 42 [Clinton] there." Another leaked email contained a message from President Barack Obama passed on by one of his closest aides. "Michelle and I haven't wanted to impinge on you while you are recuperating," the president wrote. "But please know that we are thinking of you and the entire family." Bush, 88, was eventually released from hospital last month.

In an email exchange with website, the hacker said that he had accessed "hundreds of accounts" in the past and that authorities had begun investigating him "a long time ago".

The Secret Service did not return a request for comment. A spokesman earlier told a newspaper that it was investigating. In 2010, a 20 year-old from Tennessee convicted of breaking into the email account of Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, was sentenced to a year in prison.