the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, from the Center for Imigration studies, one of the key rules in terrorist travel is to get a government-issued ID. Why? IDs are essential for appearing assimilated, which is important for mission success.
9/11 Terrorist IDs. All four 9/11 pilots had Florida driver’s licenses, including, of course, the operational leader and first World Trade Center pilot, Mohamed Atta. This is Florida’s record of Atta’s driver’s license:
Eight other muscle hijackers had Florida IDs as well.
In sum, there were 30 state-issued IDs among the 19 hijackers:
18 driver’s licenses/IDs issued from Florida’s DMV, five of which were duplicates.
Eight IDs issued from Virginia’s DMV, all in August 2001.
Two driver’s licenses issued in California to Hazmi and Mihdhar, both watchlisted.
Hanjour, the Pentagon pilot, had four state-issued IDs, including one each from Arizona and Maryland, and was the only hijacker to attempt to take the Virginia driver’s license test (he failed).