One year after bombs ripped through London?s central business district, killing dozens and wounding hundreds, some U.S. elected officials seem to have forgotten that terrorists target the West for attacks.
Why else would a great state such as Maryland put millions of Americans at risk every day by thumbing its nose at a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission?
Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich seems like a reasonable man. So does Maryland Senate President Thomas “Mike” Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch.
But through their actions, or inactions, they are proving themselves either obtuse or to be among the most irresponsible elected leaders in America.
Ehrlich?s Maryland is among a handful of states that continue to hand out driver?s licenses to virtually anyone who applies for them.
They do so despite having clear knowledge that driver?s licenses were an instrumental tool used by the Sept. 11 terrorists to plan and execute their attacks.
For the terrorists, the driver?s license was the ID card that gave them access to the improbable weapons they used to strike us: American Airlines Flight 11; United Airlines Flight 175; American Airlines Flight 77, and United Airlines Flight 93.
Because they carried driver?s licenses, the 19 terrorists waltzed onto those planes with few questions asked.
But boarding the planes with licenses was only half the story. Well before they hijacked those flights, they used state-issued driver?s licenses to operate under the radar of law enforcement and to prepare their attacks.
And there is clear evidence to suggest that other terrorist organizations operating in the United States today, most notably Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has cells in an estimated 10 American cities, have become experts in using fraudulently obtained driver?s licenses to cloak their presence and activities here.
When the Sept. 11 al-Qaida cell arrived in the United States, members quickly learned that having a driver?s license in today?s America is essential to anyone seeking to operate in this country unlawfully and unnoticed.
They were able to get the licenses from states that required minimal identification.
In some cases, a utility bill or an easily forged document was enough to do the trick.
Applicants did not have to prove definitive legal residency in the state, or in the country for that matter, and some of the states routinely issued multiyear driver?s licenses to foreign visitors, even though their visas would expire within months.
Moreover, some of these state licenses had no biometric identifiers, such as digital photographs, so they could be altered with ease.
And their motor vehicle offices had no way of knowing if an applicant was suspected of terrorist activities or of crimes in other states.
There was no sharing of databases.
Granting the al-Qaida operatives state-issued driver?s licenses was like handing them the keys to America. It opened all the doors necessary to plan and execute an attack.
After Sept. 11, many states, including Florida, Virginia, New Jersey and New York, tightened their licensing requirements to safeguard against further terrorist breaches.
Maryland did virtually nothing.
So today, Maryland has become a magnet for people seeking licenses who lack the proper ID to get them elsewhere.
It is the threat of terrorists again using driver?s licenses to attack us that prompted the 9/11 Commission to urge uniform standards for state-issued driver?s licenses.
The Department of Homeland Security is expected to issue those standards soon, but not soon enough to stop Maryland from handing powerful ID to thousands of people unknown.
Amanda Bowman, the mother of six licensed drivers, is president of the Coalition for a Secure Driver?s License. www.securelicense.org
