that Jarrah was a strong visa candidate, given his long residence in Germany (approximately four years), academic involvement in Germany (at two universities) and Lebanese nationality" said the commission staff.

But once inside the United States, Jarrah wasted no time in beginning to execute his terror mission — and violate U.S. immigration law.

"He immediately violated his immigration status by going from the airport straight to full-time flight school," said the staff report.

"Jarrah never filed an application to change his status from tourist to student," says the report. "This failure to maintain legal immigration status provided a solid legal basis to deny him entry on each of the six subsequent occasions in which he reentered the United States."

But he was not denied reentry.

He did secure two drivers licenses in Floridain May 2001 and a third in Virginia on Aug. 29, 2001.

"Jarrah's objective was to crash his airliner into symbols of the American Republic, the Capitol or the White House," said the 9/11 Commission report.

And he did not fail because our federal government had done its job in securing our borders.

"He was defeated," said the commission, "by the alerted, unarmed passengers of United 93."

"It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country," concluded the 9/11 Commission staff report on terrorist travel, published three years after the attacks.

But, even then, the problem had not been fixed.

"Indeed," said the commission staff in 2004, "even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining