The 9/11 terrorists infamously used state-issued driver's licenses to plan and execute their attacks. They received dozens of them from states with weak licensing laws and used them to attend flight schools, rent cars and safe houses, receive money wire transfers from operational contacts overseas ($100,000) and, ultimately, to board the airplanes that day -- some in Portland, Maine. In addition, driver's licenses, America's de facto identity card, can be used to buy guns and ammunition, enter sensitive government and commercial facilities, and to appear as legitimate citizen's at security checkpoints around the nation.
"Driver's licenses are a key terrorist tool that open doors to places we cannot allow terrorists to enter again," said Peter Gadiel, a Coalition Board Member and President of 9/11 Families for a Secure America. "A Maine license in the hands of a terrorist can do as much damage in New York or Washington, D.C. as in Portland or Augusta. The al Qaeda cell that killed my son in the World Trade Center got its licenses from Florida, Maryland, California and Virginia."