Thread: Phony ID"s are still just a phone call away

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Phony IDs are still just a phone call away

Sunday, September 17, 2006

By MIKE KELLY
RECORD COLUMNIST



AN EFFECTIVE TOOL for would-be terrorists turned up again recently in our area. Did anyone notice?

Sorry. Not this time.


Our nation claims to be busy building anti-terror safeguards. We think big and expensive – billions to monitor shipping containers at our seaports, millions for TV cameras, guards and electronic fences around chemical plants, millions more for airport security to check whether water bottles and lipstick containers hold bombs.

All these safeguards are necessary. But consider this irony: With all the money and attention on high-tech security now, America still has not completely cracked down on the sale of low-tech, phony ID cards – the same IDs used by the Sept. 11 hijackers. Why?

That question should thunder through government offices and police agencies throughout New Jersey and the rest of the nation. Unfortunately, there isn't even a whimper of outrage.

Last month, an advertisement appeared in a Spanish-language newspaper that circulates in northern New Jersey. The ad did not specifically mention "phony IDs" – this scam isn't that obvious. The ad merely proclaimed that a buyer could obtain an "International Driver's License" or a "Photo ID." Price: $45 for the license, $25 for the photo ID.

The ad lists a Brooklyn post office box address, two phone numbers – one of them toll-free – and a Web site.

I picked up the phone.

Maria Gomez answered.

She confessed that the office has only two employees – herself and the owner. But the owner was on vacation.

Curious explanation

Gomez explained that the so-called "International Driver's License" is a not really a license at all. It's a "translation of the driver's license," she said. To buy one, customers must show driver's licenses from their home countries.

Don't be alarmed if you are confused by that explanation. Confusion seems to be part of this line of work.

Then Gomez also made another important concession: The driver's license her firm sells -- and its cheaper step-child, the photo ID -- are not official government documents.

So what are they?

"This does not depend on the government," she said. "This is a private office."

Still confused?

You should be. Only state government agencies have the authority to issue driver's licenses. Photo IDs are issued by a variety of government agencies and private firms – but usually to identify workers.

Legitimate licenses

Only two private agencies in America, the American Automobile Association and the smaller American Automobile Touring Association, are authorized by the U.S. State Department to sell "International Driving Permits." But those "permits" are meant to authenticate U.S. driver's licenses only for Americans traveling overseas. They are not meant to be used inside America.

So what about the "licenses" sold by U.S. firms like the one in Brooklyn?

"It is illegal," said Linda Marsh, who investigates phony license scams for AAA.

So why does it continue?

Questionable motives

The notion of selling IDs should raise suspicions. Why would anyone want to pay for a photo ID when the government and many employers issue them? And why pay for a private firm's driver's license when it's not valid?

Simple answer: People who buy phony licenses and unauthorized photo IDs don't want the authorities to know who they really are.

"It's a scam," added AAA spokesman Mike Pina.

Many customers are illegal immigrants, experts say. But in the months leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, at least two customers of a Paterson firm that sold so-called "international driver's licenses" and photo IDs later turned out to be hijackers.

That firm, located across Market Street from Paterson's City Hall, operated in full view of police and government officials.

In the naive days before Sept. 11, the authorities tended overlook the variety of phony ID scams that allowed illegal immigrants to establish identity – and thereby set up bank accounts, rent apartments, and generally assimilate into American life.

But then came the news that two hijackers purchased a driver's license and phony ID from the Paterson firm. What happened next was a Jersey version of that comic scene in the movie, "Casablanca," when the French police tried to impress their Nazi occupiers by cracking down on illegal gambling at a nightclub run by Humphrey Bogart.

In the movie, the shock by the French police is phony – the cops were gamblers themselves. In Paterson, though, the shock seemed real.

The ID firm's owner, Mohamed el-Atriss, a naturalized American citizen from Egypt, was arrested and tossed in jail with a $500,000 bail. El-Atriss, who says he never knew he was dealing with hijackers, later pleaded guilty to selling illegal IDs and was fined $15,000 and given five years probation.

Meanwhile, New Jersey – and many other states – also established new safeguards to stop the even more sophisticated trade in counterfeit licenses.

We all thought the phony ID problem was solved. But it wasn't.

ID scams crept back – like crabgrass. Besides the firm in Brooklyn that advertised in the Paterson newspaper, there are dozens more, police say.

So why aren't the authorities shutting them down?

Good question.

Will terrorists repeat strategy?

One misguided theory by some counter-terror experts is that future terrorists will not return to the same Sept. 11 script and purchase phony IDs. So why waste time cracking down?

Another theory is that count-terror resources are better used to protect seaports and chemical plants – the more glamorous targets and jobs. Busting phony ID scams is considered by far too many counter-terror agents the equivalent of handing out parking tickets.

These scams may be low-rent. But the consequences of letting them flourish are hardly small. The hijackers reportedly used their unauthorized IDs and licenses to establish residency and make it easier to cash checks, rent post office boxes and cars, check into motels, and buy airline tickets – all important to the hijacking plot. That's hardly low-rent.

As we commemorated the fifth anniversary last week of the Sept. 11 attacks, politicians everywhere declared their support for all manner of elaborate and costly anti-terror measures. Fine.

But why overlook phony IDs?

A fundamental lesson of the Sept. 11 attacks was how easily the hijackers exploited the obvious holes in America's safety net. One of those holes was our clueless tolerance for phony IDs.

It's time to close that hole, finally.

Haven't we learned our lesson?

Sounds like the Hispanics screwing other Hispanics. They should be shut down permanently and the owners hauled off to jail for a very long time.

you can go to the flea market in Fort myers Fl. and buy any kind of id you need. A elaborate computer system set up in a booth. Oh it's at the spanish flea market. Our friends took us to the flea market to show it to us. I couldn't believe it! dvers license green cards the works. Big poster signs. should of brought my digital camera probably wouldn't of found me or the camera again!

Posylady I would report what you saw to ICE or the police.

Motor vehicle workers nationwide are being arrested for giving out fake licenses to illegals. If you see it call it in. Throw these criminals in jail!!

I agree that the police or ICE should have been notified. This is something I would have take pictures with even with a cellphone if needed as that way the authorities have evidence of it.

Originally Posted by posylady

you can go to the flea market in Fort myers Fl. and buy any kind of id you need. A elaborate computer system set up in a booth. Oh it's at the spanish flea market. Our friends took us to the flea market to show it to us. I couldn't believe it! dvers license green cards the works. Big poster signs. should of brought my digital camera probably wouldn't of found me or the camera again!

You can go under any overpass/train tressel in NYC and get whatever your heart desires.

posylady wrote:

you can go to the flea market in Fort myers Fl. and buy any kind of id you need. A elaborate computer system set up in a booth. Oh it's at the spanish flea market. Our friends took us to the flea market to show it to us. I couldn't believe it! dvers license green cards the works. Big poster signs. should of brought my digital camera probably wouldn't of found me or the camera again!

posylady, did you file a police report?

They used to sell them right by the immigration building in Miami but legals found out about it and notified the proper authorities and they were all arrested. They are no longer doing business in the open and you only learn about them by word of mouth. The police find out and they still get caught every now and then.
These people need to be reported.