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Driver's license a potential terrorist weapon
By Michelle Malkin
writemalkin@gmail.com
PUBLISHED: December 15, 2006

What's the harm in allowing illegal aliens to have driver's licenses? They're just innocently doing the jobs Americans won't do, right? Since they're already here, we might as well let them drive legally, right? We'll all be safer, right?

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Driver's licenses are tickets into the American mainstream. They allow residents to open bank accounts, enter secure facilities - and drive tractor-trailers carrying hazardous materials.

Last week, law enforcement officials arrested an illegal alien enrolled at a Smithfield, R.I., tractor-trailer training school who was trying to obtain a commercial driver's license and permit to haul hazardous materials. Not many people paid attention. You should. Illegal alien Mohammed Yusef Mullawala, 28, of Jamaica, N.Y., had driver's licenses from New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. He reportedly was in a hurry to get his commercial driver's license and permit.

An investigation was initiated after school officials became suspicious. "His behavior was consistent with terrorist-type activity," said Maj. Steve O'Donnell of the Rhode Island state police. "He showed no interest in learning the fine art of driving a tractor-trailer. He had no interest in learning how to back up." Sort of like learning how to steer a plane, but not take off or land.

As in several other cases since 2001, it was alert private citizens who notified the Department of Homeland Security of the suspicious behavior. And once again, enforcement of immigration laws played a critical role. Like some of the 9-11 hijackers and other al-Qaida operatives identified in the United States, Mullawala was here on a temporary student visa he had overstayed.

Terrorist truck bombs have killed hundreds of Americans in Beirut, at the Khobar Towers, and in Iraq. For operatives behind the wheel, a license to drive is a license to kill.

During the past two years, the FBI has put law enforcement on high alert for U.S.-based operatives connected to al-Qaida who might be in possession of commercial driver's licenses and might be planning to use truck bombs.

In Boston, al-Qaida suspect and illegal alien Nabil al-Marabh obtained a license permitting him to drive semi-trucks containing hazardous materials. In Minneapolis, suspect Mohamad Elzahabi, who got a green card through a fake marriage, was able to obtain a commercial driver's license to drive a school bus and to haul hazardous materials - despite FBI knowledge he had been tied to terrorism.

In just a few weeks, Democrats led by Nancy Pelosi - a staunch opponent of strengthened ID laws and strict immigration enforcement - will reassume power in Washington. An open borders-friendly White House has expressed willingness to deal with them. So we know who supports illegal alien workers and potential terrorist drivers waiting for amnesty. But who will stand up for us?

Write Michelle Malkin at writemalkin@gmail.com.