Federal officials yesterday warned the nation’s cops to be on the lookout for a new danger – terrorist school-bus drivers.
Suspected members of extremist groups have signed up to drive school buses in undisclosed parts of the country, the FBI and the Homeland Security Department told local law-enforcement agencies.
But after word of the cautionary bulletin leaked, officials said that there was no immediate threat and an FBI spokesman insisted that “parents and children have nothing to fear.”
The alert and subsequent explanations sent mixed signals. On the one hand, the bulletin said that foreigners under recent investigation had included “some with ties to extremist groups [that had been able to] purchase buses and acquire licenses.”
Foreigners who drive school buses or are licensed to do so have engaged in “recent suspicious activity,” the bulletin added.
On the other hand, the feds claimed to have “no information indicating these individuals [were] involved in a terrorist plot.”
They said, “Most attempts by foreign nationals in the United States to acquire school-bus licenses . . . are legitimate” – and they called the alert a routine advisory.
“There are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern,” FBI spokesman Rich Kolko said.
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the government had no credible information to suggest terrorists were “involved in buying school buses or seeking licenses to drive them.”
The bulletin did not mention how often foreign extremists had sought such licenses.
A counterterrorism official said the feds considered it likely that in vestigated foreigners were merely employed as bus drivers and did not intend to use the buses as part of any terrorist plot.
In 2005, Homeland Security launched a program called School Bus Watch to train school-bus drivers to spot terrorists. Drivers take a short course in how terrorists operate, how to recognize unusual behavior, and how to report it. Upon completion, they get a School Bus Watch ID number and card.
With Post Wire Services