National security jitters have trucking firms focusing on vigilance

Driving to work one morning, the government official charged with keeping the trucking industry safe from terrorists spotted an Osama bin Laden look-alike on the Capital Beltway.

The tall, bearded, white-robed foreigner tending to a stalled Toyota on the American Legion Memorial Bridge, the official later learned from police, was just a Sikh fixing a flat tire.

But Bill Arrington, general manager of the Transportation Security Administration's Office of Highway and Motor Carrier, said he felt pretty good about calling the cops with his suspicions. "What if that bridge had been blown up and I had done nothing?"

Speaking to transportation professionals at the Traffic Club of Memphis last week, Arrington brought to the forefront the TSA's largely advisory efforts to ward off terrorist threats to commercial transportation. Full Story......