OPINION:
State motor-vehicle departments have become the means for millions to acquire Real ID cards in lieu of passports, military IDs or other federally approved documents, so that they may board commercial airliners for travel within the U.S. Compliance is required by October 2020.
While it would seem that the public at large is trying to comply, it has been revealed that all aviation personnel, including pilots, have the same standard licenses without pictures. No improvement in this situation has been made by the Federal Aviation Administration since Sept. 11, 2001.
Enter Iranian Nader Sabouri Schruder Haghigi, who has used this national security flaw to steal another pilot’s identity in order to obtain a fraudulent license after his had been revoked a decade previously. After having been arrested for various offenses involving Lear passenger jets in Mexico and Denmark, and turning up in other places such as Iran and Indonesia, his two-year stint in a Texas prison ended about one year ago. Lo and behold, earlier this month Haghigi and a Venezuelan co-pilot were arrested in Paraguay after flying a U.S.-registered Lear jet with a revoked pilot’s license.
A Paraguayan journal reveals that Haghigi will be sent back to the United States. The questions now begging to be asked are, What will the Justice Department do with him? And when will the FAA finally provide aviation personnel with the appropriate IDs?
BERNARD BUDNEY
Temecula, Calif.
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