Posted on 02/05/2005 8:59:51 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - The terrorist believed to have flown a hijacked airliner into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, obtained a California driver's license without providing the required Social Security number for identification, officials are acknowledging for the first time.
Nawaf Alhazmi then used that license when he registered for the flight training that enabled him to pilot the doomed airliner.
Alhazmi used a loophole, since closed, in California law that allowed hundreds of thousands of foreign drivers without Social Security numbers to use a generic number in its place. Even some foreign citizens with Social Security numbers skirted the identity check required of U.S. citizens.
Although the process changed a year ago, some of the drivers still have their original licenses. Only this fall, when their licenses come up for renewal, will the Department of Motor Vehicles run identity checks on the last of the drivers who used the loophole.
California was one of the first states to require that Social Security numbers be verified as part of a routine identification check when driver's licenses were issued. But a 1994 court decision required the state to also give driver's licenses to qualified applicants, such as foreign students, who had no Social Security number. Those forms were processed with the bypass code.
Alhazmi used his own name and presented other identification to get his license. But a Social Security number is the nation's standard identification number; if Alhazmi had used one for his license, he might have been easier for authorities to track.
The fact that Alhazmi and other 9/11 terrorists obtained driver's licenses has been a key point in arguments against efforts in some states to allow illegal immigrants to get licenses. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed such a bill last year from the California Legislature, saying it didn't provide adequate security protection.
DMV officials closed the loophole after the attacks, prodded in part by former investigator Paul Satkowski, a whistle-blower who says he suffered retaliation from DMV officials based in part on his frequent and sometimes public warnings about driver's license security flaws.
While it was commonly known after 9/11 that Alhazmi had a California driver's license, it has not previously been reported in any detail that he obtained it using a bypass number also used by thousands of other foreign citizens, DMV spokesman Bill Branch said.
From December 2000 through February 2002, the department issued more than 184,000 licenses using the bypass code.
"My hair is getting gray from thinking about this stat," Satkowski wrote in a March 6, 2002, e-mail to department Deputy Director John McClellan. "In my opinion, that is a lot of persons welcomed into this state on foreign student visas where the Social Security numbers are not verified!"
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On the Net:
California Department of Motor Vehicles: http://www.dmv.ca.gov
Admit it. This article isn't about our chief executive doing wrong in this case. He didn't do wrong in this case.
Shall I diagram it for you?
Of course this has nothing to do with President Bush but you just can't pass up an oppritunity to take a potshot at him.
I don't blame you! Only time I like it is when it is pouring rain or sleeting. Otherwise, I put the nozzle in myself and wait for the idiots to push the button.
Do you have a source for such a statement that President Bush ever made to that effect?
Or are you just repeating the old Buchanan lies from 2000.
Bush defeated Buchanan long ago, get over it.
And as usual, you can't help but try to pigeonhole someone. I didn't support Buchanan then and don't now, and I voted for Bush twice. So shove your insults.
Thanks, Howlin.
It really amazes me that Pres. Bush did not stop this process in the first 5 minutes of his term beginning!
Yes, that was extreme sarcasm.
On the Homeland Security front...
After 9/11, President Bush authorized 2,000 new border-patrol agents per year for five years. Unfortunately, the figure now stands at 200, due to budget constraints (budget constraints that, sadly, have not applied to other agencies, such as DoEd, DoT, and PBS). Strangely, $74 million has been substituted for surveillance and aerial technology, in the hopes that this will make up for the lack of manpower on the ground. But if there was any message in the 9/11 report, it was that technological intelligence is no substitute for human intelligence.
This is not simply about Mexican illegals looking to work on a farm. Al-Qa'ida already has a foothold in countries like Venezuela, where it is suspected that the Chavez government had (has?) been protecting them with false-identity papers and passports. Former Taliban mullahs also fled there in 2000. If these cutthroats try to enter the U.S., it won't be through Nova Scotia.
The Federalist Patriot (FederalistPatriot.US)
http://FederalistPatriot.US/current2004a.asp
Feb. 4, 2005
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Many on this board don't think this is a problem. I do think it's a big problem that could become a huge problem if there's another terrorist attack with terrorists entering via Mexico. America will not take kindly to the free-for-all via Mexico that has been going on before and after 9/11/01. A nation without borders will fall.
Good night, janetgreen, I'm going to go harass my family for a while.
'Night, JAS. I think I'll do the same!
Why not compare the principles of the two parties in question? Are you a John Kerry supporter, or did you want Howard Dean as president? You take the good with the bad, no President is perfect, but after the criminal bill clinton, I would think you could cut our present President some slack. What the h e double q do you want? Perfection is not one of the choices.
Personally, I don't particularly like the immigration policies or the suspected policies or the direction the policies are going, but it is C O N G R E S S that makes those decisions, so take it up with your congress persons, and give the President some respect for having information a brain and advisors, with far more information related to the immigration subject than you or I ever thought of having.
1. The "two parties" are so closely aligned now on so many issues that it's sometimes hard to tell the difference;
2. I pulled the lever twice for President Bush and have respect for him as a person of decency and intergrity, and I've given him plenty of slack on his exorbitant spending and other matters.
3. As the chief law enforcement officer of the country, it is his duty to ensure the laws of the land are enforced by directing the resources he has available, which are plentiful;
3. I doubt Bush has experienced 2 or 5 or 8 illegals traipsing through his back yard, scaring his children and breaking his side gate and leaving trash and crap on his Texas ranch. I lived a mile from "Smugglers Gulch" on a curve that caused the illegals to take a short cut through our modest little home. I've seen sections and even entire towns in Southern California turn into barrios. I've experienced this invasion first hand in many ways for many years, so don't lecture me about his informed position;
4. President Bush is just plain wrong on this issue and I have the right and duty to criticize my representatives.
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