Possibility Of Using Trucks For Terror Remains Concern
After the terrorist attacks last year, intelligence agencies and experts warned that America's vast fleet of
trucks, particularly rigs hauling loads of explosive fuel or toxic chemicals, would be ideal terrorist weapons.
Fresh threats against economic targets and three attacks overseas this year using fuel trucks have convinced
security officials that America's trucks pose a greater risk than ever, particularly with aviation security
tightened. But little has been done to make trucks safer.
Truck security systems already widely used elsewhere in the world remain novelties here. Truck inspections,
although there are more of them, remain rare. Industry groups have started training drivers how to spot
possible terrorists but have reached only a few thousand of the country's three million licensed drivers. At
many truck stops, idling rigs still sit unattended in unguarded lots.
"We have to consider the trucking industry as a potential target to be misused in a terrorist attack," said
George A. Rodriguez, director of cargo security for the Transportation Security Administration.
Congress set tough deadlines and provided billions of dollars to enhance airline security, but except for
$500,000 a year for the industry's driver-training course, little money has flowed so far to secure the most
dangerous trucks, even though nearly 800,000 loads of hazardous cargo move on American highways each
day.
Some trucking companies, operating on tightening margins, say they have held off investing in new security
technologies, like tracking devices in use in South America, while they wait for federal rules or money.
Federal action has also been delayed by bureaucratic tangles at the Transportation Department, which has
been trying to impose domestic-security duties on divisions dealing with truck safety and hazardous materials
management, department officials say.
Regulations on truck safety and security equipment are many months away, they say.
Mr. Rodriguez said the size and diversity of the trucking business hampered the effort. "You've got a
half-million trucking operations out there," he said. "To come up with some systems that cover all the bases is
difficult."
As a result, an array of experts and industry people, including some truckers who haul the hazardous loads,
say it is just a matter of time before a deadly load is snatched and put to devastating use.
"A tractor-trailer with the right cargo offers a horrendous weapon," said Richard W. Carr, the vice president
for safety and risk management at Quality Distribution Inc., a Tampa, Fla., company.
The company has the country's largest tank-truck fleet, more than 3,200 vehicles in all.
Recent events overseas have raised fresh concerns.
Two taped warnings attributed to Al Qaeda both specified that attacks would target America's economic
lifeline. Intelligence officials say this most likely means transportation or finance.
A more ominous sign, experts say, is that fuel-laden trucks have been used three times this year in terrorist
attacks. On April 11, a terrorist driving a truck carrying liquefied natural gas ignited his cargo in front of a
synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba, killing 21 people, mainly German and French tourists. Germany
blames Al Qaeda.
In May and August, terrorists remotely triggered bombs attached to Israeli fuel tankers. Neither bomb caused
substantial damage, but the incidents signaled a new tactic.
A senior terrorism analyst for the federal government said American truckers needed to be alert to the
heightened risk. "Information sharing is particularly important when a technique has been looked at or tried
overseas," he said.
This month, Mr. Rodriguez has met repeatedly with industry groups, and counterterrorism teams from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation have provided fresh updates to local officials and trucking businesses. At one
briefing, federal authorities said truck inspectors should watch for drums laid out in a V shape, the
configuration used by Timothy J. McVeigh in 1995 to focus the blast of his truck bomb at the Oklahoma City
federal building that was his target, meeting participants said.
Still, federal terrorism analysts and other officials concede that a bomb is not necessary because the nation's
hazardous cargo offers the same opportunity that airliners provided 13 months ago the chance to transform
ubiquitous vehicles into mobile weapons of war.
About 50,000 trips are made each day by gasoline tankers, many of which hold as much fuel as a Boeing
757. Many of the depots where they fill up are unattended, dispensing fuel with the stroke of a driver's card.
The trips often end with a late-night delivery to a deserted gas station. Experts say that chemicals present an
even greater risk, particularly those like chlorine or cyanide, which can form clouds of deadly fumes.
Across North America, terrorism officials were alerted in May when a truck hauling 96 drums of sodium
cyanide was stolen north of Mexico City. Most of the 55-gallon drums were quickly recovered, but the hijacking
showed the ease with which terrorists could appropriate a potential chemical weapon.
The very placards that trucks must carry to inform firefighters of toxic contents could also direct terrorists to
particularly deadly cargo, experts say.
"Gasoline and propane are very spectacular, but realistically they pale in potential damage or injuries
compared to a lot of other products that move by truck," said a senior official at a chemical-hauling company.
"And the placards pretty much advertise exactly what's inside."
As officials and the trucking industry focus on security, two strategies are foremost: finding technology that
can deter hijackings and changing habits of drivers that expose them to risks.
Technological solutions may eventually help, but the government has only begun to assess them.
Last month, the Transportation Department announced a two-year project to test satellite-tracking systems,
coded switches that disable a truck if an unauthorized driver takes control, and other security devices.
Industry groups are helping pay for the $5 million project, which will equip 100 trucks as rolling test beds.
But some companies that make such equipment say it should already be in use, pointing to its popularity in
places like Brazil, where hijackings are common.
One system, sold by QualComm, a San Diego company, allows a fleet manager to disable a truck by remote
control if it strays from its route. For nearly a decade, it has been used on 25,000 trucks in Brazil, helping
companies recover $500 million in stolen freight, QualComm officials said. Some industry officials have
concerns about such systems, which could pose a safety risk if a truck was disabled while moving on a
highway.
Drew Robertson, the head of the Freight Transport Security Consortium, a new group representing
manufacturers of truck security systems, says the impediment to wider use is disagreement over who pays the
truck owners, the oil and chemical companies that hire them or the government.
Other experts and industry officials say technology is only half the battle. "Truckers really have to look at how
they operate and do basic things like put padlocks on trailers, don't leave tractors running, lock their tractors,
be observant," Mr. Rodriguez said.
The clearest vulnerability, experts agree, comes when trucks are stopped. To avoid long layovers, some
companies have begun using crews of two drivers or setting up relays in which one driver turns a load over to
another without pause.
In May, the Trucking Security Working Group, representing everything from moving companies to the
country's 1,100 private truck stops, began a campaign to train drivers how to recognize the rehearsals or
reconnaissance that terrorists undertake before an attack.
Drivers are advised to report people photographing truck depots, following trucks on routes or asking
questions.
Sessions for 40 or 50 drivers and managers at a time have been held in 18 states since May, with the goal
being raising the awareness of all 3.1 million licensed truck drivers, said officials at the American Trucking
Association, a trade group.
But glaring vulnerabilities remain all along transportation corridors. A paucity of secure parking areas causes
many drivers to seek quiet side streets, vacant mall lots or highway ramps as a place to rest.
The vulnerability is illustrated by a continuing crime wave. Truck and cargo theft results in more than $10
billion in annual losses, according to industry officials, and some 1,800 large trucks are stolen each year just
in New Jersey.
In the absence of quick federal action, some states are intensifying efforts to cut risks of a terrorist truck
attack.
The California Highway Patrol has hired 150 new officers to bolster patrols, said Dwight O. Helmick, the
highway patrol commissioner. The state is also installing radiation detectors at weigh stations.
Florida has ordered two gamma ray systems to scan trucks. They are similar to systems being installed at
ports to scrutinize cargo containers. State officials said the scanners can identify small details inside an
18-wheeler in 10 to 20 seconds including modifications hinting that a truck has been turned into a weapon.
Still, experts acknowledge that inspectors and detectors can screen only a tiny percentage of the endless flow
of vehicles.
Mr. Carr, the security chief for the tank-truck company in Tampa, said that roadside inspections of Quality
Distribution's trucks tripled over the last year but still involved only 3,600 stopped trucks out of the 300,000
deliveries.
This month, as state inspectors conducted a spot check along Interstate 84 in Promised Land, Pa., the
parade of hissing giants spoke of the challenge facing antiterrorism officials.
Many trucks carried innocuous cargo kitchen cabinets, french fries, garbage. But others hauled 40-ton loads
of gasoline or toxic chemicals. On one low-slung gray tanker, the orange safety placards read simply:
"blasting agents."
While focused on safety, such inspections provide chances to find trucks that might have been stolen or
modified by terrorists.
Stan Madurski, one of the inspectors, said three kinds of vehicles were considered the highest terrorism risk:
rented trucks, trucks toting the sealed metal containers that move from ship to rail to roads, and tankers.
Without any cues from the industry or officials, some drivers have begun to change their habits, sensing that
they are the last line of defense.
At a rest stop an hour east of Promised Land, Ronnie Yliniemi, 58, a driver for 34 years, roused himself from
a nap and conducted what has become a post-9/11 routine: a quick circuit of his gleaming tanker to check for
tampering.
Everywhere he goes, he said, he still sees trucks idling unattended and others with deadly chemicals but no
locks on the valves.
In the wrong hands, he said, it would be simple to crash one into a building or open valves to release clouds
of deadly gas.
"It'll happen eventually," he said. "I've got that feeling."
By Andrew C. Revkin
New York Times - 10/20/2002
After the terrorist attacks last year, intelligence agencies and experts warned that America's vast fleet of
trucks, particularly rigs hauling loads of explosive fuel or toxic chemicals, would be ideal terrorist weapons.
Fresh threats against economic targets and three attacks overseas this year using fuel trucks have convinced
security officials that America's trucks pose a greater risk than ever, particularly with aviation security
tightened. But little has been done to make trucks safer.
Truck security systems already widely used elsewhere in the world remain novelties here. Truck inspections,
although there are more of them, remain rare. Industry groups have started training drivers how to spot
possible terrorists but have reached only a few thousand of the country's three million licensed drivers. At
many truck stops, idling rigs still sit unattended in unguarded lots.
"We have to consider the trucking industry as a potential target to be misused in a terrorist attack," said
George A. Rodriguez, director of cargo security for the Transportation Security Administration.
Congress set tough deadlines and provided billions of dollars to enhance airline security, but except for
$500,000 a year for the industry's driver-training course, little money has flowed so far to secure the most
dangerous trucks, even though nearly 800,000 loads of hazardous cargo move on American highways each
day.
Some trucking companies, operating on tightening margins, say they have held off investing in new security
technologies, like tracking devices in use in South America, while they wait for federal rules or money.
Federal action has also been delayed by bureaucratic tangles at the Transportation Department, which has
been trying to impose domestic-security duties on divisions dealing with truck safety and hazardous materials
management, department officials say.
Regulations on truck safety and security equipment are many months away, they say.
Mr. Rodriguez said the size and diversity of the trucking business hampered the effort. "You've got a
half-million trucking operations out there," he said. "To come up with some systems that cover all the bases is
difficult."
As a result, an array of experts and industry people, including some truckers who haul the hazardous loads,
say it is just a matter of time before a deadly load is snatched and put to devastating use.
"A tractor-trailer with the right cargo offers a horrendous weapon," said Richard W. Carr, the vice president
for safety and risk management at Quality Distribution Inc., a Tampa, Fla., company.
The company has the country's largest tank-truck fleet, more than 3,200 vehicles in all.
Recent events overseas have raised fresh concerns.
Two taped warnings attributed to Al Qaeda both specified that attacks would target America's economic
lifeline. Intelligence officials say this most likely means transportation or finance.
A more ominous sign, experts say, is that fuel-laden trucks have been used three times this year in terrorist
attacks. On April 11, a terrorist driving a truck carrying liquefied natural gas ignited his cargo in front of a
synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba, killing 21 people, mainly German and French tourists. Germany
blames Al Qaeda.
In May and August, terrorists remotely triggered bombs attached to Israeli fuel tankers. Neither bomb caused
substantial damage, but the incidents signaled a new tactic.
A senior terrorism analyst for the federal government said American truckers needed to be alert to the
heightened risk. "Information sharing is particularly important when a technique has been looked at or tried
overseas," he said.
This month, Mr. Rodriguez has met repeatedly with industry groups, and counterterrorism teams from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation have provided fresh updates to local officials and trucking businesses. At one
briefing, federal authorities said truck inspectors should watch for drums laid out in a V shape, the
configuration used by Timothy J. McVeigh in 1995 to focus the blast of his truck bomb at the Oklahoma City
federal building that was his target, meeting participants said.
Still, federal terrorism analysts and other officials concede that a bomb is not necessary because the nation's
hazardous cargo offers the same opportunity that airliners provided 13 months ago the chance to transform
ubiquitous vehicles into mobile weapons of war.
About 50,000 trips are made each day by gasoline tankers, many of which hold as much fuel as a Boeing
757. Many of the depots where they fill up are unattended, dispensing fuel with the stroke of a driver's card.
The trips often end with a late-night delivery to a deserted gas station. Experts say that chemicals present an
even greater risk, particularly those like chlorine or cyanide, which can form clouds of deadly fumes.
Across North America, terrorism officials were alerted in May when a truck hauling 96 drums of sodium
cyanide was stolen north of Mexico City. Most of the 55-gallon drums were quickly recovered, but the hijacking
showed the ease with which terrorists could appropriate a potential chemical weapon.
The very placards that trucks must carry to inform firefighters of toxic contents could also direct terrorists to
particularly deadly cargo, experts say.
"Gasoline and propane are very spectacular, but realistically they pale in potential damage or injuries
compared to a lot of other products that move by truck," said a senior official at a chemical-hauling company.
"And the placards pretty much advertise exactly what's inside."
As officials and the trucking industry focus on security, two strategies are foremost: finding technology that
can deter hijackings and changing habits of drivers that expose them to risks.
Technological solutions may eventually help, but the government has only begun to assess them.
Last month, the Transportation Department announced a two-year project to test satellite-tracking systems,
coded switches that disable a truck if an unauthorized driver takes control, and other security devices.
Industry groups are helping pay for the $5 million project, which will equip 100 trucks as rolling test beds.
But some companies that make such equipment say it should already be in use, pointing to its popularity in
places like Brazil, where hijackings are common.
One system, sold by QualComm, a San Diego company, allows a fleet manager to disable a truck by remote
control if it strays from its route. For nearly a decade, it has been used on 25,000 trucks in Brazil, helping
companies recover $500 million in stolen freight, QualComm officials said. Some industry officials have
concerns about such systems, which could pose a safety risk if a truck was disabled while moving on a
highway.
Drew Robertson, the head of the Freight Transport Security Consortium, a new group representing
manufacturers of truck security systems, says the impediment to wider use is disagreement over who pays the
truck owners, the oil and chemical companies that hire them or the government.
Other experts and industry officials say technology is only half the battle. "Truckers really have to look at how
they operate and do basic things like put padlocks on trailers, don't leave tractors running, lock their tractors,
be observant," Mr. Rodriguez said.
The clearest vulnerability, experts agree, comes when trucks are stopped. To avoid long layovers, some
companies have begun using crews of two drivers or setting up relays in which one driver turns a load over to
another without pause.
In May, the Trucking Security Working Group, representing everything from moving companies to the
country's 1,100 private truck stops, began a campaign to train drivers how to recognize the rehearsals or
reconnaissance that terrorists undertake before an attack.
Drivers are advised to report people photographing truck depots, following trucks on routes or asking
questions.
Sessions for 40 or 50 drivers and managers at a time have been held in 18 states since May, with the goal
being raising the awareness of all 3.1 million licensed truck drivers, said officials at the American Trucking
Association, a trade group.
But glaring vulnerabilities remain all along transportation corridors. A paucity of secure parking areas causes
many drivers to seek quiet side streets, vacant mall lots or highway ramps as a place to rest.
The vulnerability is illustrated by a continuing crime wave. Truck and cargo theft results in more than $10
billion in annual losses, according to industry officials, and some 1,800 large trucks are stolen each year just
in New Jersey.
In the absence of quick federal action, some states are intensifying efforts to cut risks of a terrorist truck
attack.
The California Highway Patrol has hired 150 new officers to bolster patrols, said Dwight O. Helmick, the
highway patrol commissioner. The state is also installing radiation detectors at weigh stations.
Florida has ordered two gamma ray systems to scan trucks. They are similar to systems being installed at
ports to scrutinize cargo containers. State officials said the scanners can identify small details inside an
18-wheeler in 10 to 20 seconds including modifications hinting that a truck has been turned into a weapon.
Still, experts acknowledge that inspectors and detectors can screen only a tiny percentage of the endless flow
of vehicles.
Mr. Carr, the security chief for the tank-truck company in Tampa, said that roadside inspections of Quality
Distribution's trucks tripled over the last year but still involved only 3,600 stopped trucks out of the 300,000
deliveries.
This month, as state inspectors conducted a spot check along Interstate 84 in Promised Land, Pa., the
parade of hissing giants spoke of the challenge facing antiterrorism officials.
Many trucks carried innocuous cargo kitchen cabinets, french fries, garbage. But others hauled 40-ton loads
of gasoline or toxic chemicals. On one low-slung gray tanker, the orange safety placards read simply:
"blasting agents."
While focused on safety, such inspections provide chances to find trucks that might have been stolen or
modified by terrorists.
Stan Madurski, one of the inspectors, said three kinds of vehicles were considered the highest terrorism risk:
rented trucks, trucks toting the sealed metal containers that move from ship to rail to roads, and tankers.
Without any cues from the industry or officials, some drivers have begun to change their habits, sensing that
they are the last line of defense.
At a rest stop an hour east of Promised Land, Ronnie Yliniemi, 58, a driver for 34 years, roused himself from
a nap and conducted what has become a post-9/11 routine: a quick circuit of his gleaming tanker to check for
tampering.
Everywhere he goes, he said, he still sees trucks idling unattended and others with deadly chemicals but no
locks on the valves.
In the wrong hands, he said, it would be simple to crash one into a building or open valves to release clouds
of deadly gas.
"It'll happen eventually," he said. "I've got that feeling."
By Andrew C. Revkin
New York Times - 10/20/2002
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