Safety, not terror, police’s main holiday concern

Keith Paul

Wednesday, July 3, 2002 | 11:14 a.m.

While there has been talk of terrorism threats nationwide over the Fourth of July, law enforcement officials say there is a more definitive threat for the residents of Las Vegas.

"I am more concerned that a child will get hurt using illegal fireworks than I am of a terrorist attack," Sheriff Jerry Keller said. "We are at a heightened state of alert (for terrorist attacks), but we aren't doing anything different than any other July Fourth."

Keller said he wasn't making light of the possible terrorist attacks, but each year in Las Vegas there are fires started by people setting off bottle rockets and children and adults injured playing with illegal fireworks.

"We are extremely sensitive to firecracker calls because of the drought and the potential fire hazards," Keller said.

Metro Police and the FBI have been investigating information related to terrorism through a joint task force, but have not come up with anything that would warrant special preparations, said Ellen Knowlton, special agent in charge of the FBI's Las Vegas office.

"Yes, Las Vegas has a potential to be a target, but we have no information that leads us to believe that there will be an attack (in Las Vegas) on July Fourth," Knowlton said.

Knowlton stressed that anyone with information regarding terrorist plots should contact the FBI.

Knowlton said the FBI has reviewed many tips, but news of the tips rarely becomes public. She stated that news of such information that has not been verified can cause a panic.

Such was the case when Henderson resident Michael Hamdan reported to the FBI and the media he accidentally intercepted a cellular phone call of men talking in Arabic about an attack on "the city of sin" on "the day of freedom." The FBI ultimately stated the allegations were not credible. Hamdan said he was told he failed a lie detector test, but he maintains his account of what he said were two minutes of conversation.

Hamdan's allegations notwithstanding, Keller said he is not putting any additional officers on the street. Keller said he is not changing any plans or telling anyone to avoid any area of Las Vegas.

"I am concerned as a citizen, as a father, as a husband and as sheriff," he said. "But we have taken every step to ensure (everyone's) safety."

Each officer has been told of the department's lack of tolerance for illegal fireworks, Keller said.

The dry weather has made the potential for wildfires reach into the extreme range, and each Fourth of July there are always a few house fires started by fireworks, said Bob Leinbach, a Clark County Fire Department spokesman.

"Our busiest months of the year are always the summer months and our busiest time of the summer months is always in late June and early July, which happens to coincide with the sale of fireworks," he said.