FBI calls in help to probe many LV leads on suspected hijackers

Jeff German, Adrienne Packer and Keith Paul

Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2001 | 10:59 a.m.

FBI agents from other parts of the country have been brought to Las Vegas to help the local field office track the movements here of key suspected hijackers prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

The additional agents are necessary to pursue a massive amount of leads regarding the Las Vegas visits of the hijackers and their associates in the weeks leading up to the attacks, which killed thousands, FBI spokesman Daron Borst said this morning.

"We're following up on hundreds of leads," Borst said. "Because of the time-critical nature of the investigation, we need to get them completed as soon as possible."

The FBI has accumulated evidence through hotel and car rental receipts that five of the suspected terrorists -- Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Ziad Samir Jarrah, Nawaf Alhazmi, Hani Hanjour -- were in Las Vegas at various times between May and August. All five are reported to have died in the attacks.

Among the many leads being pursued by agents are reports that employees of the West Charleston Library may have recognized some of the hijacking suspects there.

"Obviously we're in the process of looking into that," Borst said.

The library, which is near the Community College of Southern Nevada, has been cooperating with the FBI.

Agents, however, have yet to obtain any records from the library, which has computers that can hook up to the Internet.

Law enforcement, by state law, needs to show sufficient cause to have a court order the release of library records, said Daniel Walters, executive director of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.

"It would be illegal for us to release any library record without a court order," he said. "At this time, no law enforcement agency have found sufficient cause to have such an order issued."

The employees of the library on Charleston Boulevard thought some of the terrorist may have been in the branch after seeing the pictures of them in the newspaper.

Walters said library officials encouraged them to call the FBI directly, and he does not know what the employees saw or told agents.

Prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, local libraries didn't require patrons to show identification to use computers, but they now do.

Library officials also did not keep a log of who used the computers only a booking sheet because of high demand. However, those booking sheets are not kept, Walters said.

Last month agents copied the hard drives of 10 computers at the Cyber Zone, a web-surfing hub, where at least one of the suspected hijackers, Atta, was reported to have visited.

Word of the influx of FBI agents from around the country was first announced Tuesday during a regularly scheduled meeting of the Clark County Emergency Management Team.

FBI Agent Robin Salvadore, the local field office's weapons of mass destruction coordinator, told emergency management officials that other FBI offices had been contacted to assist Las Vegas agents.

"They do that normally on a lot of cases," said Lt. Martin Lehtinen of Metro's emergency management section. "If Phoenix had a big case, they might call our FBI office for additional agents."

Salvadore didn't say how many more agents were added to the local office. Nevada has 110 agents, who staff offices in Reno, Carson City, Elko and Las Vegas.

Borst also wouldn't comment on the amount of extra agents here.

"As investigations demand, agents may be shifted on either a permanent or temporary basis," he said. "We can't provide any specifics on manpower allocation."

Meanwhile, Tim Donovan, president of the Las Vegas Security Chiefs Association, said this morning that casinos on the Strip and downtown have beefed up security in the wake of the air strikes in Afghanistan.

"Now that the bombing has begun, security is at a heightened state of alert," Donovan said. "We're looking at trying to get a better understanding of what's going on."

Donovan, who attended Tuesday's emergency management meeting, said some hotels now are searching vehicles entering casino parking lots and asking drivers for identification as part of new stepped-up security measures.

Other hotels, he said, have purchased X-ray machines to scan mail for possible explosives before opening it.

And casino security officers are considering counter-terrorism training, and they are keeping in touch with county health officials to protect their properties against a possible bioterrorism attack, Donovan said.

Donovan, however, stressed that hotels so far have received "absolutely no threats."

At Tuesday's meeting, Donovan told the emergency managers that visitors will be subjected to more intensive scrutiny, whether they use self-parking garages or valet services.

The Emergency Management Team, which meets quarterly, also discussed holding the sessions every other month to update Southern Nevada governments and organizations regarding the investigation and security issues, Clark County Administrator Jim Spinello said.

The team is headed by county Emergency Manager Bob Andrews and includes representatives of the public works division, the fire department, Metro, FBI and the health district.

Commissioner Dario Herrera, who also attended Tuesday's meeting, said that, because of heightened awareness in the wake of American strikes in in Afghanistan, the management team has a new role.

"(The team) was set up to respond to floods; we never had anything like terrorism or bioterrorism before," Herrera said. "We reviewed plans to make sure they were able to handle it."

Local members of the medical community updated the team on Southern Nevada's level of preparedness in the event of a bioterroist attack.

Sun reporters Mary Manning and Jace Radke (TM)contributed to this story.