Ashcroft to meet terrorism task force

Jace Radke

Friday, May 3, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

Attorney General John Ashcroft is scheduled to visit Las Vegas on Wednesday to meet with Nevada's Anti-Terrorism Task Force.

Ashcroft is scheduled to meet with the task force as well as Department of Justice officials and U.S. District Court judges in closed meetings at the George Federal Building, U.S. Attorney Natalie Collins said.

"It will be a chance for him to talk to the task force about his vision and to answer questions," Collins said.

Ashcroft is also planning to hold a news conference with the task force Wednesday morning at the George Building.

The Anti-Terrorism Task Force is a team of federal and local law enforcement officers put together in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. There are task force groups in both Southern and Northern Nevada, and representatives of both groups will meet with Ashcroft.

Additional details of Ashcroft's visit were not available today, but Collins did say the visit would be brief.

"I'm not sure I have any recollection of an attorney general visiting before,"said U.S. District Judge Lloyd George, who will miss the visit because of a prior engagement to sit with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.

"I think we're finally getting past what is an unfair stigma that Las Vegas is not a very important place."