Thread: ALBANY, N.Y.Government transition lends urgency to driver's

Government transition lends urgency to driver's license push

Michael Gormley
mgormley@ap.org.

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ALBANY, N.Y. - Last summer, three failed car bombings in London and Glasgow tested the new British prime minister's mettle shortly after Tony Blair left office.

In 2004, terrorist attacks on Madrid trains helped lead to the electoral defeat of the pro-U.S. government and Spain's early withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

In a grave guessing game of when terrorists might strike, the transition of government _ such as the 2008 U.S. presidential election _ has been a consistent red flag, pointed to by the independent Sept. 11 Commission as a potentially fatal lapse. It's enough to push states like New York to move more quickly to secure its driver's licenses.
Al-Qaida has done things in keeping with political calendar, absolutely," said Michael Balboni, New York state's homeland security chief. The 9/11 attacks fell on a primary election day and the upcoming national election was a motivator in fervent, closed-door talks two weeks ago involving Balboni, Motor Vehicles Commissioner David Swarts, Gov. Eliot Spitzer, and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Those talks led to a three-tiered license system that Chertoff, who opposes giving illegal immigrants licenses, said was among the most secure in the nation.

And while Spitzer's argument that illegal immigrants should be allowed to get licenses continues to dominate headlines and inflame opponents who call the plan a boon to terrorists, homeland security experts have praised the other elements of the compromise announced Oct. 27.

One license will be as secure as a U.S. passport for crossing the Canadian border, another will work for boarding airplanes, and a third will not be valid federal identification but will be available to illegal immigrants and others for driving. Spitzer said the new approach would make New York roads safer and protect New Yorkers from terrorists by identifying and bringing illegal immigrants "out of the shadows" to become more accountable for their actions.

"We are very much encouraged by New York coming forward to work with us," said Laura Keehner of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "This is a step in the right direction. We are working with other states on similar types of agreements."

But she quickly added: "Let's be very clear. We in no way endorse giving licenses to illegal immigrants."

She said Michigan and other states are now talking with the Bush administration about changes to their driver's licenses.

Excluding the element of providing illegal aliens licenses _ which Spitzer said Friday he might reconsider if he cannot build more support _ Balboni said the New York compromise is being talked about as a national model.

"Secretary Chertoff has mentioned he is trying to make sure that, regardless of who's in his seat, that there is a continuity of security for the nation, that he leaves in place an apparatus that can function," said Balboni, for years the homeland security point man for the Republican-led Senate.

"It was very much what Eliot Spitzer said to me when he hired me, that, `When the ball comes into my court on Jan. 1, I want to make sure we have the capability to respond if, God forbid, something should happen,"' recounted Balboni.

That's the kind of early transition called for in a little noticed recommendation of the independent Sept. 11 Commission that studied the terror attacks on New York and Washington.

"The new (Bush) administration did not have its deputy cabinet officials in place until the spring of 2001, and the critical sub-cabinet officials were not confirmed until the summer _ if then," states the commission's report under the recommendation "Improve the transition between administrations."

"In other words," the report stated, "the new administration _ like others before it _ did not have its team on the job until at least six months after it took office ... since a catastrophic attack could occur with little or no notice, we should minimize as much as possible the disruption of national security policy making."

U.S. Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said the Bush administration is acting on those recommendations now.

Back in Albany, Balboni said those eight paragraphs on Page 422 of the commission's report helped fuel the quick and surprising compromise on driver's licenses as well as new initiatives to secure the border with Canada.

"We're absolutely keeping it in mind," Balboni said. "There are so many different pieces of this puzzle.

"You can't be paranoid, but you always need to be looking for the things a terrorist could be thinking about," Balboni said, "especially in a time of transition, in particular in a country that is pretty much divided down the middle."

hopefully if Ron Paul is elected there will be no seat in homeland unsecurity. They are a wasted arm of the government.

Homeland Security isn't wasted, it is not utilized as it should be. It should be the umbrella of all government functions having to do with security, with total coordination between them, i.e., CIA, FBI, NSA, etc. CIA is external, FBI is internal, and yet each does not know what the other knows. This could be tragic.