Bush administration vs. Homeland Security.

"Almost two years to the day after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the General Accounting Office (GAO) released an astonishing report stating that its undercover investigators were 100 percent successful in obtaining valid state driver's licenses using fake identities," observed security specialist Bruce Mandelblit in an October 3 Newsmax Internet column. Some of the 9-11 hijackers "used illicitly obtained state driver's licenses to help carry out their wicked deeds," he continues, sensibly observing that bogus IDs "are a direct and genuine challenge to our homeland security...."

As noted elsewhere in this issue (see page 25), our porous southern border with Mexico has been a major entry point for illegal aliens from terrorist-sponsoring nations in Asia and the Middle East. But astonishingly, the Bush administration seems rather blase about the potential security threat posed by illegal aliens from Mexico using "matricula consular" cards (IDs issued through Mexican consulates) to obtain driver's licenses. In fact, the administration used the crisis of Hurricane Isabel--which temporarily shut down Washington, as jittery congressmen fled the capital--to announce that it would recognize the Mexican ID cards.

In October 1 testimony before the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, administration officials "angered lawyers by refusing to take a position on illegal aliens obtaining U.S. driver's licenses and avoiding questions about its decision to recognize Mexican identification cards," reported the October 2 Washington Times. Asked about potential security risks posed by the matricula cards, Homeland Security assistant secretary Stewart Verdery replied: "I am not aware that the department or administration has taken a position on that." That evasive response prompted Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) to rejoin: "It seems to me that the administration had better get a policy, pretty quick."