Word: truck
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...Hamad Alokzai noticed. The gaunt Afghan, with a beard like matted wool and gaudy silver rings on his fingers, had returned to Afghanistan from exile in Quetta, Pakistan, to check on his former comrades. On Thursday night he sat with his old Taliban commander under blankets in a pickup truck, safely tucked away in the hills outside Kandahar. "The bombs make a sound, then you see green lights falling through the sky," the commander told Alokzai. "The missiles have flashing yellow lights." That night, Alokzai counted 30 missiles striking targets around the city: "It was like Kandahar was covered...
...agents and other law enforcers have contacted or visited dozens of the 600 truck-driving schools across the U.S. and are seeking enrollment records going back as far as 1994. Some have asked for records of only students with Middle Eastern names or students who paid in cash, received haz-mat permits or abruptly quit their training. Some agents have shown pictures of the 19 hijackers to determine if they attended classes. Others have asked for lists of student names to be checked against the Federal Government's terrorist watch lists...
...trucking-school executive has given the FBI a promising lead: 25 to 35 Arab men attended a Denver school in small groups over the past two years. Each student paid cash for the program--and none sought job placement afterward. Because none of the students spoke English, they were accompanied by an interpreter, the same person for each group. Even though English proficiency is a license requirement, all the Arab students received driver's licenses, trucking sources say. (It's not clear how they passed the written test, which is in English.) Charlie Tweedy, the owner of Careers Worldwide...
...Panic buttons aren't standard equipment yet, not even for hazardous-material haulers. But since Sept. 11, more trucking companies are looking into them. Another device that could help, also made by Qualcomm, can stop a truck from operating when the messaging system is disabled. The technology is used in other parts of the world where terrorism has been a bigger threat, but few U.S. truckers know about it. "We didn't do it here because it wasn't a big issue," says Qualcomm's Chris Wolfe. "We weren't projecting a terrorist problem...
...Some security advocates are asking Congress to help fund the installation of a panic button on every truck that hauls blasting agents. The Institute of Makers of Explosives, a trade group whose products are often shipped by truck, advocates federal background checks on drivers who haul explosives. "I don't mean you need a top-secret clearance," says James Ronay, a former FBI bomb expert who runs the institute. "But you need to know who that person is." Ronay's group is also pushing for a new federal licensing system for all purchases of explosives. Such licensing is now required...