Bob McCarty Writes

A Pakistani semi-truck driver and his passenger reportedly raised red flags with law enforcement officials when their load mysteriously lightened between weigh stations while on I-70 en route to Denver, host city for the Democratic National Convention Aug. 25-28.

I became aware of this report after my comprehensive Google Alert search for the phrase, “Terror Alert,” returned three links this morning.  One of those links caught my attention and led me to an exclusive post published by Steven M. Nielson this morning at The New Conservative blog.  Details at the heart of Nielson’s post appear below:

(One) large semi-truck traveling towards Denver on I-70 checked in at one weight station under normal circumstances. However, the truck was stopped at the next weight station when the load weight was some 4000 pounds lighter than the previous check. The truck driver and passenger were Pakistani, raising significant red flags. At the time of this information leak, the occurrence was still under initial investigation, which leads me to believe that this had happened within the last 24-48 hours. I did not ascertain the information as to the location of the truck during the arrests, but did find that the truck was headed toward Denver.

If Nielson’s admittedly-sketchy report can be verified as credible, it should cause everyone caught up in Olympics, presidential politics and other so-called “pressing concerns” to pause and consider national interests over partisan political ones.

Developing…

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UPDATE 8/15/08 2:20 p.m. Central — Dan Little, president of the independent truckers organization, Owner Operators United, read the article above and sent me an e-mail in which he explained several reasons why he doesn’t think there is any truth to the story:  First, he said scales don’t keep records of truck weights unless an “overweight ticket” is issued; and, Second, he explained that it is not uncommon to have a multi-drop load that would result in the truck being lighter at some point during transit than it was at the beginning.  He concluded by adding, “Anyone would be hard pressed to prove this story true.”  Thanks for the education, Dan.