| WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security has
found 29 truck drivers licensed to carry hazardous materials with possible ties to terrorist organizations. And if that wasn't bad enough news, a
man who authorities believe may have been part of an al Qaeda "sleeper cell" obtained a license to haul hazmat months after he was identified
as a suspected terrorist by the FBI.
Customs agents found the possible terrorist ties while checking the backgrounds of those drivers who are
licensed to haul hazmat, according to a Homeland Security spokesman. Those drivers suspected of having ties to terrorism are being investigated
further, but the security spokesman declined to provide further details.
The FBI identified one of the drivers as a suspected terrorist before
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to unidentified law enforcement
officials. However, Minnesota Department of Public Safety officials
said they did not know that the driver was suspected of having al Qaeda
connections when he applied in early 2002 for a CDL to drive a school
bus and to haul hazmat.
The specified driver was charged June 25 with lying to federal authorities about helping ship sophisticated portable field radios to Pakistan from
1995-97 and lying about helping a man, later convicted in Jordan as a terrorist, obtain a driver's license in Massachusetts.
The FBI ran the driver's name through a database before he was cleared
to receive a CDL in 2002, according to the interim director of the state Public Safety Department's Division of Driver and Vehicle Licensing.
As of June 29 the suspected driver's CDL was still valid to haul hazmat, but his school bus driver's license was canceled in February. |
