Bruce Mandelblit
Friday, Oct. 3, 2003

Almost two years to the day after the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, the General Accounting Office (GAO) released an astonishing report stating that its undercover investigators were 100 percent successful in obtaining valid state driver’s licenses using fake identities.

This alarming finding by the GAO was made despite the fact that a few of the 9/11 hijackers themselves used illicitly obtained state driver’s licenses to help carry out their wicked deeds.

Sadly, this is just another in a series of highly disturbing and shocking GAO investigations in which these federal investigators were able to use bogus driver’s licenses to purchase firearms as well as use phony law enforcement credentials to enter government buildings while armed.

For details, log on to www.gao.gov.

Worldwide, including most large cities in the United States, sham IDs such as bogus birth certificates and passports are commonly sold and easily purchased. In addition, with the advent of advanced technology such as scanners, digital photography and powerful computers available at low cost, the ability to “home manufacture” counterfeit identification documents has become virtually ubiquitous.

Even if one is not proficient in using a computer to produce fake identification, they can easily obtain sham ID with a few clicks on the World Wide Web. Still two years post-Sept. 11, 2001, you can find dozens, if not hundreds, of Web sites worldwide claiming to sell so-called “novelty replicas” of various official credentials including driver’s licenses, immigration documents, Social Security cards, birth certificates, college degrees, and even military and law enforcement identification.

In fact, according to a Dec. 20, 2002, U.S. Department of Justice press release, federal prosecutors charged eight men for their alleged involvement in an international conspiracy to sell and obtain phony identifications documents over the Internet. Five convicted felons, including a child molester, allegedly sought bogus but authentic-looking documents with assumed names, from the Web sites.

For more information, go to www.justice.gov. In addition, there have been numerous media reports stating that in almost any sizeable metropolitan area, you can easily obtain, for a couple hundred bucks or so, high-quality counterfeit identification on the street. In many cases, these bogus documents sold on the street may be used to obtain genuine government ID, especially driver’s licenses.

If this was not outrageous enough, other news reports have claimed that in certain states, a few corrupt motor vehicle office employees have accepted bribes to issue legitimate driver’s licenses and state identification cards to those who otherwise would not be eligible to obtain such documents.

Who purchases fake ID?

The market is vast and ever on the increase. Everyone from underage drinkers and illegal immigrants to felons and identity thieves drive the demand for phony identification. Today, we can add one more potential user of bogus identification: the terrorist.

My Final Thoughts: The idea that fake IDs are merely “prank” tools for teenagers to drink is no longer valid. Bogus identification is a direct threat to our national security.

Sophisticated identification authentication equipment needs to be installed at all our ports of entry, and we need to mandate the appropriate training for our border agents. Local law enforcement officers, who are the most likely of all officials to have contact with those using phony identification once they enter our country, should also receive advanced instruction on how to detect bogus documents.

In addition, enhanced security safeguards should be integrated into all official government documents, especially state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards. Like it or not, the driver’s license has become a de-facto national identification card, so immense efforts should be employed to ensure the sanctity of these fundamental government-issued documents.

However, no matter how secure driver’s licenses become, and no matter how many holograms, barcodes, computer chips and encryptions they have, if the underlying documents used to obtain driver’s licenses are fraudulent, a driver’s license will never be a trustworthy identification document.

Simply put, regardless of how many high-tech safeguards are incorporated into any type of official identification, an ID is only as good as the genuineness of the primary documents, such as birth certificates, used to acquire it.

We do not have the luxury of time to point fingers or place blame in reference to the problem of phony identification. It is imperative, however, that the government officials involved, on all levels, with issuing and checking identification be extra vigilant and have the equipment, training and resources to properly authenticate all credentials presented.

As with almost all issues of national safety, there is little room for error. Just one person with malicious intent can cause unimaginable devastation using legitimate identification obtained by using fraudulent documents.

Bogus IDs are a direct and genuine challenge to our homeland security that we must face head-on, and hopefully defeat.

Note: If you manufacture or distribute any security, safety, emergency preparedness or crime prevention-related products, please send information on your product line for possible future reference in this column to: CrimePrevention123@yahoo.com.

Copyright 2003 by Bruce Mandelblit

“Staying Safe” with Bruce Mandelblit is a regular column for the readers of NewsMax.com and NewsMax.com Magazine.

Bruce welcomes your thoughts. His e-mail address is CrimePrevention123@yahoo.com.

Bruce is a nationally known security journalist, as well as a recently retired, highly decorated reserve Law Enforcement Officer.

Bruce writes Staying Safe, a nationally syndicated weekly column covering the topics of security, safety and crime prevention.

Bruce was commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel – the state's highest honor – by Gov. Paul E. Patton for his public service.

This column is provided for general information purposes only. Please check with your local law enforcement agency and legal professional for information specific to you and your jurisdiction.

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