The Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License,” a group that includes family members of 9/11 victims, Thursday said it was “alarmed and stunned” by Governor Eliot Spitzer’s campaign vow to eliminate what they call “a key anti-terrorist safeguard” at the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.

At issue is a current DMV requirement that license applicants provide a valid Social Security number, which is cross checked against the federal Social Security data base to authenticate its validity and the applicant’s identity. The procedure, which is performed in 36 states around the country, is considered a crucial tool in keeping driver’s licenses out of terrorist hands, they said.  Spitzer has said that he will stop requiring it, despite instructions from the 9/11 Commission that safeguards like this are desperately necessary in states across America.  

The 9/11 terrorists obtained dozens of licenses from states with weak licensing laws and used them to plan and execute their attacks—to take flight lessons, rent safe houses, receive large international money wire transfers, and ultimately to board the airplanes that day. Driver’s licenses, America’s de facto identification card, also can be used to rent trucks and small planes, buy guns, and enter sensitive government and commercial facilities, the group said.

“When Governor Spitzer looks at this issue carefully, we are certain he will do the right thing,” said Peter Gadiel, a coalition board member whose son was killed in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11. “Driver’s licenses are the keys to America, and you don’t give terrorists the keys to America a second time. The price we already have paid is too dear. The security of Americans must come first.”