On page 390 the Commission report states:

Recommendation: Secure identification should begin in the United States. The federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as drivers licenses. Fraud in identification documents is no longer just a problem of theft. At many entry points to vulnerable facilities, including gates for boarding aircraft, sources of identification are the last opportunity to ensure that people are who they say they are and to check whether they are terrorists.

The driver's license recommendation follows a section that urges tighter identification standards to enable more complete tracking of illegal immigrants:

It is elemental to border security to know who is coming into the country. Today more than 9 million people are in the United States outside the legal immigration system. ... All but one of the 9/11 hijackers acquired some form of U.S. identification document, some by fraud. Acquisition of these forms of identification would have assisted them in boarding commercial flights, renting cars, and other necessary activities.

Despite the clear and specific language, supporters of the current intelligence reform legislation continue to insist that illegal immigration be treated as a separate issue.

"The problem on 9/11 was not an immigration problem," Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who represents a lower Manhattan district near Ground Zero, told WWRL Radio's Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter on Tuesday. "This particular bill was designed to respond to that intelligence failure in the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission."

Apparently oblivious to the portion of the 9/11 Commission findings that deals specifically with the issue of driver's licenses, Maloney said the topic "was not in the 9/11 Commission report."

Editor's note: