9/11 Commishes: Leave Immigration Loophole Open

Newsmax.com ^ | Sunday, Nov. 28, 2004 3:00 p.m. EST | With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[Prost1]

The chairman and vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission said Sunday that Congress shouldn't press to close a giant national security loophole exploited by the 9/11 hijackers before passing new intelligence reform legislation - even though the Commission itself urged dealing with the problem.

"We're very reluctant to see that whole bill held up just by this one provision," Commission chairman Tom Kean told NBC's "Meet the Press," when asked about a proposal favored by House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., to deny drivers licenses to potential terrorists who are non-citizens.

Sunday, Nov. 28, 2004 3:00 p.m. EST 9/11 Commishes: Leave Immigration Loophole Open

The chairman and vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission said Sunday that Congress shouldn't press to close a giant national security loophole exploited by the 9/11 hijackers before passing new intelligence reform legislation - even though the Commission itself urged dealing with the problem.

"We're very reluctant to see that whole bill held up just by this one provision," Commission chairman Tom Kean told NBC's "Meet the Press," when asked about a proposal favored by House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., to deny drivers licenses to potential terrorists who are non-citizens.

"I mean, we recognize that [Sensenbrenner] wants this very, very badly," Kean continued. "But to hold up every single one of these other provisions to make the American people safer for this one provision or two provisions, to me doesn't make any sense." Vice chairman Lee Hamilton acknowledged that Sensenbrenner's provision was part of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, but said closing the terrorist loophole wasn't the job of the federal government.

"There isn't any doubt that the hijackers use the state driver's licenses to get by a lot of checkpoints," he told "Meet the Press." "So standards are important here."

"But the fundamental question . . . . whether or not, for example, you issue a driver's license, that's a state matter and ought to be resolved by the state," Hamilton contended.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Rep. Sensenbrenner argued that preventing terrorists from getting drivers licenses was critical to preventing another 9/11-style attack.

"The 19 murderers on Sept. 11 got 63 separate legally-issued drivers licenses from five states. They used those to open bank accounts and to get on the plane."

Sensenbrenner warned that unless the terrorist loophole was closed, U.S. law enforcement wouldn't be able to prevent another 9/11-style attack.

"The 9/11 Commission specifically recommended that aliens who are here on temporary visas, which were the 9/11 murderers, have their drivers licenses expire on the date of the expiration of their visas," he noted.

"What's wrong with having a uniform national standard to apply to drivers licenses so that people who want to commit terrorist attacks can't game the system?" the Wisconsin Republican asked. "What good is reorganizing intelligence if we don't have homeland security?"

[CORedneck]

Driver's licenses should be used for its original purpose, the permit to drive a motor vehicle. It should not be a means for social engineering such as suspension for unpaid child support/alimony, backdoor national ID, etc.

Instead of focusing on the need for national id especially through driver's licenses, how about profiling when a person boards a plane. How about special scrutiny for Middle Eastern people. If they cannot behave which is proven, then they should be scrutinized versus an 87 year old grandmother. I traveled about a year and half ago to Canada and stopped in Toronto. I was in a neighborhood that had quite a few businesses with Arabic writing and the neighborhood did not look well kept. There was a lot of trash on sidewalks and streets.

It is time to enforce the current laws instead of creating new ones. The American People should not have to lose more civil rights because of these Middle Eastern people abusing our freedoms but instead, a novel concept, since they are known to abuse our open society (not Soros'), they should be scrutinized.

We don't need no damn Driver License Agreement (DLA) or national ID which one person, who is a democRAT, would financially benefit from, Larry Ellison of Oracle. He would benefit from this DLA.

[Iscool]

I'm amazed at what these people in Washington will do to keep the borders as porous as possible...

If they trashed the entire bill and just closed the borders, we, the people, would be far better off...

[spodefly]

BTTT

[dagnabbit]

Bears repeating:

Call to express your support of the common-sense provisions against alien terrorist drivers' licenses

Congressional switchboard: 1-877- 762-8762

White House comments: 1-202-456-1111

Tell Bush and company that their lust for Hispandering stops when it crosses the treason line!

[AuntB]

The transcript isn't up yet,but onLou Dobbs/Cnn they were talking about MALDEF, the big law firm for illegals. They promote the protests in Long Beach (pictures on CNN) and shot down prop. 187 in California. I'm still looking for the board of directors, but their donors are interesting. This is the outfit we are fighting. This is just a partial list.

aken from pages 15 and 16 of MALDEF's annual report
[MALDEF's] vision is of an America where being Latino is no longer an obstacle to full participation in society. We imagine an America where all people, including Latinos, enjoy the same rights and protections under the law; where Latino voices are fully heard and represented in the political process; where all people work together to maintain high levels of justice and fairness throughout the American system. Thank you to all of you who have supported MALDEF throughout this year.

OUR CORPORATE AND
FOUNDATION PARTNERS
PLATINUM PARTNERS: $100,000+
Anheuser-Busch Companies
The Ford Foundation
The James Irvine Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation
The Sandler Family Supporting
Foundation
Soros Foundation
Washington Mutual
GOLD PARTNERS: $50,000 ú $99,999
America's Charities
California Community Foundation
Center for Law in the Public Interest
The Gerber Foundation
Houston Endowment Inc.
Jeht Foundation
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Kaiser Permanente
Levi Strauss Foundation
Marguerite Casey Foundation
The Rosenberg Foundation
The State Bar of California
SILVER PARTNERS: $10,000 ú $49,000
Arthur M. Blank Foundation
AT&T
Bank of America
BELO Corporation
BP
Bracewell & Patterson, L.L.P
The Bravo Foundation
The California Endowment
The Coca-Cola Company
The David & Katherine Moore Family
Foundation
David & Lucile Packard Foundation
Exelon Corporation
Fannie Mae Foundation
Ford Motor Company
Fried, Frank Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
The Gas Company, A Sempra Energy
Company
General Motors Corporation
Health Care Service Corporation
Intercultural Development Research
Kilpatrick Stockton LLP
Law Offices of Enrique Moreno
Linebarger, Goggan, Blair, Pena &
Sampson, LLP
Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw
McDonald's Corp.
Motorola, Inc
NBC4 / Telemundo 52
Prudential Financial
Shell Oil Company
Southern California Edison
Southwest Airlines
Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation
Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc.
TXU Corporation
Tyson Foods, Inc
Univision Television Group, Inc.
Verizon Communications, Inc.
Walt Disney Company
Wells Fargo & Company
Winston & Strawn
Zubi Advertising Services, Inc.
BRONZE PARTNERS: $1,000 ú $9,999
AARP
WALMART

[AuntB]

See post 25

[dagnabbit]

Looks like the folks who own this country have decided that it needs merging with Mexico. Sad. And now, when we need a strong President who could resist these powerful forces for the abolition of the USA, we get instead...this stammerer-in-chief.

[Iscool]

And now, when we need a strong President who could resist these powerful forces for the abolition of the USA, we get instead...this stammerer-in-chief.

The leadership of both parties is bought and paid for by these people/corporations and many others... In my view, we, the people have been sold out...

[dalereed]

As far as i'm concerned getting rid of the illegals and drivers licences is part of it and closing the borders is far more important than terrorist attacks.

If the illegals destroy our country and economy terrorist attacks don't really mean much.

[texastoo]

Do you think terrorists are going to tell the truth? I know a person who lost his drivers license when moving and found it after he had another state license.

[dagnabbit]

It shouldn't be a matter of just telling. If DL applicants have to prove US citizenship or legal alien status with birth certificates or passports, or with US-issued long-term visas or green cards, then that's another opportunity to catch them with false documents, a falsified application, non-credible situation, etc. Every bit helps - and a restrictive, tight immigration regime helps a lot.

What would help the most, however, to prevent a massive terrorist attack by muslims, would be a ban on the immigration of alien muslims to the USA. Of course that would make too much sense.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

"We're very reluctant to see that whole bill held up just by this one provision," Commission chairman Tom Kean...

So now the 9-11 commission turns against its own recommendations, stabbing its supporters in the back. The ones holding this up are the ones opposing the commissions drivers' license recommendation. It's the one opposing common sense who is slowing things down!

Rush has been talking about this quite a bit. I think Hannity covered it, too. When the FR, Rush, and Hannity back up an elected official, whoever opposes this network of thought is in for some rough times.

[goldstategop]

Nothing like Democrats and RINOs singing together from the same songsheet.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

If the illegals destroy our country and economy terrorist attacks don't really mean much.

Yard workers and farmers are not going to destroy our country. They might be more easilly duped into voting for rats, but that's about it. The convicted murderers and rapists, now that's sickening to think about. They sneak over to here and can commit crimes with impunity. You almost have a strong point, there.

But it would take more combined scum than Mexico has to outperform a member of al qaida with a dream package under his arm, crossing our border. There's no taking the war seriously until we take our border seriously. To play games with one issue is to play games with both.

But then there's the Kosovo affect. If California becomes our Kosovo [us as the Serbs, seeing a flood of hostile immigrants], then we have an entirely new war on our hands. That would be a very ugly war in itself, and if the immigrants get taken over by hostile leaders, there's no way to ultimately prevent a para-military fight from both sides.