LAS
VEGAS -- Federal, state, and local officials here this week have
angrily denounced internal FBI memos that suggested city leaders
ignored or dismissed terrorism warnings last year in order to
avoid scaring off visitors.
And yet, it's a measure of the enduring image of shady casino
operators and compliant Sin City authorities that these allegations
could gain such widespread credibility. Regardless of how mainstream
and Wall Street-driven the gambling business has become, it
remains well within the realm of possibility for many that if
any city would hush terrorism threats to protect its bottom
line, it's this one.
''There's still this whole image of Las Vegas as a place where
all the strings are pulled, where everything is controlled,
where there's a surveillance camera everywhere and there's a
bunch of paranoid guys guarding their money -- and some of that
is true," Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist and author John
L. Smith said.
Indeed, the fear of that distrustful public image may explain
why Las Vegas authorities have spent three days aggressively
lambasting damaging internal FBI memos by Detroit Assistant
US Attorney Keith Corbett leaked to the Associated Press. In
them, Corbett complained FBI, Justice Department, and casino
officials in Las Vegas all reacted with disinterest to Detroit
FBI agent Paul George's efforts last year to show them alleged
Al Qaeda surveillance videotapes featuring images of Las Vegas
hotels.
The videotapes, one seized in Detroit and the other in Spain,
contained images of the MGM Grand, Excalibur, and New York-New
York resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. One tape also contained
utterances referring to Khalid Sheik Mohammed, alleged mastermind
of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Other images on the tapes included
Disneyland and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Corbett's memos allege that George could get just two local
police officers to appear at a screening of the tapes and that
casino officials did not show up because they said they feared
liability in the event of an attack.
In a separate leak, the AP also obtained an e-mail written
by another Detroit assistant US attorney, Richard Convertino,
who claims he was told by Las Vegas assistant US attorney Sharon
Lever that the Las Vegas mayor and sheriff both had said they
fear a terrorism probe would have a ''deleterious effect on
the Las Vegas tourism economy."
Convertino led the successful prosecution of a terror cell
in Detroit but is now on leave from that case while an investigation
proceeds into whether he withheld evidence from the defense
during the trial.
Angry denials poured out from every corner of Las Vegas. Nevada's
US Attorney, Daniel Bogden, in an unusual statement critical
of another US attorney and FBI office, said Wednesday, ''No
public official in the District of Nevada . . . has ever expressed
concern to our office that information pertaining to public
safety should not be released because of any potential impact
to the local economy."
Las Vegas FBI special agent David Nanz insisted that the reason
local authorities declined to view the videotapes was because
''everyone had already seen them." He also insisted that several
agents attended George's screening and, far from treating him
dismissively, officers escorted George on the Strip as he examined
the hotels.
The FBI did not issue a public warning about the videotapes
because the videotapes did not amount to a specific threat,
Nanz said. In fact, Nanz questioned the contention that they
were even terrorist surveillance material, noting, ''Any tourist
could have shot that tape."
Particularly outraged was Mayor Oscar Goodman, who was implicated
personally in Convertino's e-mail.
''This comes from some disgruntled prosecutor who is under
siege for maybe having blown the convictions he got, trying
to make me and my city the scapegoat," Goodman said. ''He's
full of crap and now [Bogden's statements] show that he's full
of crap."
The resort industry jumped in, too, with Las Vegas Convention
and Visitors Authority executive director Rossi Ralenkotter
saying, ''We want the world to know if we have information of
a specific and credible threat, we'd share it with the public,
even if people decided to stay home."
Indeed, to further demonstrate forthrightness, Governor Kenny
Guinn held a press conference yesterday to announce the local
FBI had earlier that day received seven videotapes that contained
images of at least 34 sites in Las Vegas. Those tapes were found
in the New York apartment of a Pakistani man, Kamran Shaikh,
arrested in Charlotte, N.C., last month on immigration violations
after he was questioned for filming buildings in Charlotte.
FBI special agent Ellen Knowlton said that the tapes did not
amount to a specific threat but that Guinn had called in the
media to ''show that when we know something, we'll share it
with you."
Still, Las Vegas's unique sensitivity to terrorism has been
on display before, and frank talk of even the potential for
an attack is barely tolerated.
Sheriff Bill Young learned that the hard way when he caught
harsh criticism for a December 2002 speech in which he said:
''Being America's playground, we have to be a prime target for
fundamentalists whose beliefs are radically different from ours.
If we have a terrorist attack here, we're done as a community.
We have only one industry -- importing people to come here to
have a good time. And it's entirely predicated on people feeling
safe and secure to come here."
Indeed, while the resort and local officials claim it's preposterous
that they'd withhold terrorist information, some experts say
that it would certainly damage Las Vegas to be frequently associated
with terrorism warnings.
''Of course it would hurt the economy if Las Vegas, and only
Las Vegas, was seen as a target of terrorism as opposed to Miami
Beach or Seattle or Los Angeles or another destination," said
Hal Rothman, history department chairman at University of Nevada
Las Vegas. ''But the idea that one place is singled out is very,
very dubious."
Just as dubious, others say, is the notion that Sin City could
cover up something like a credible terrorism threat even if
it wanted to do so.
''In this case, the conspiracy would have had to cut across
all sorts of partisan lines and between different companies,
I just think it's very, very unlikely that everyone could be
under the spell of the 'What-Happens-Here-Stays-Here' Las Vegas,"
Smith said.
###
