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N A T I O N
Eyes And Ears Of The Nation
By AMANDA RIPLEY/LITTLE ROCK
Thousands of truckers, bus drivers and rest-stop workers are being enlisted to spot terrorists. Is this comforting news?
STEVE JONES FOR TIME
I SPY: ôFrom trucks to taxis, school buses to NASCAR.ö ThatÆs the exuberant motto of a program to train drivers like Larry Lawson, of the Central Arkansas Transit Authority, to identify terrorists
Sunday, Jun. 27, 2004
On a blazing hot morning last week, 75 men and women of the highway ù bus drivers, truckers and van operators ù convened at a nondescript office building in Little Rock, Ark., to be trained as terrorist hunters. The Department of Homeland Security this year gave $19.3 million to the American Trucking Associations, which is based in Alexandria, Va., to recruit a volunteer "army" called Highway Watch. So far, 10,000 truckers have signed on to become amateur sleuths. Over the next year, the goal is to add tollbooth workers, rest-stop employees and construction crews, creating a corps of 400,000 people drawn from every state.
Waiting for the training to begin, Jo Anna Cartwright, who manages the rural public bus system in northern Arkansas, said she had not yet encountered any terrorists in her job, as far as she knew. "We got a terroristic phone call the other day," she said, "but it turned out it was just the boyfriend of an employee." Her bus drivers pay special attention to a gentleman from Afghanistan who recently married a regular rider, she said. Cartwright had come to the training to learn what else she could do.
More on the web sites...
N A T I O N
Eyes And Ears Of The Nation
By AMANDA RIPLEY/LITTLE ROCK
Thousands of truckers, bus drivers and rest-stop workers are being enlisted to spot terrorists. Is this comforting news?
STEVE JONES FOR TIME
I SPY: ôFrom trucks to taxis, school buses to NASCAR.ö ThatÆs the exuberant motto of a program to train drivers like Larry Lawson, of the Central Arkansas Transit Authority, to identify terrorists
Sunday, Jun. 27, 2004
On a blazing hot morning last week, 75 men and women of the highway ù bus drivers, truckers and van operators ù convened at a nondescript office building in Little Rock, Ark., to be trained as terrorist hunters. The Department of Homeland Security this year gave $19.3 million to the American Trucking Associations, which is based in Alexandria, Va., to recruit a volunteer "army" called Highway Watch. So far, 10,000 truckers have signed on to become amateur sleuths. Over the next year, the goal is to add tollbooth workers, rest-stop employees and construction crews, creating a corps of 400,000 people drawn from every state.
Waiting for the training to begin, Jo Anna Cartwright, who manages the rural public bus system in northern Arkansas, said she had not yet encountered any terrorists in her job, as far as she knew. "We got a terroristic phone call the other day," she said, "but it turned out it was just the boyfriend of an employee." Her bus drivers pay special attention to a gentleman from Afghanistan who recently married a regular rider, she said. Cartwright had come to the training to learn what else she could do.
More on the web sites...

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