Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2002 | 9:10 a.m.
Concrete barriers baking in the Las Vegas sun and security guards outside mark an otherwise nondescript office building on East Charleston Boulevard as local FBI headquarters.
Last summer, when hijacker Mohamed Atta was staying at a Strip motel a few blocks away, he may not have even known that the drab brown and white building around the corner housed scores of FBI agents.
The preventative measures outside the building match the new focus inside, where FBI agents' No. 1 priority is ferreting out terrorist plans and stopping them before they can be implemented.
"Our ultimate goal is to make sure that 9-11 doesn't happen again," Special Agent John Victoravich said.
Organized crime, violent crime and public corruption have been replaced by terrorism, foreign intelligence operations and cybercrime as the FBI's priorities, and building criminal cases has taken a back seat to prevention.
"Our mandate is now focused on prevention," said Roy Handley, special agent in charge of the Las Vegas Joint Terrorism Task Force. "We're used to methodically gathering evidence for a grand jury indictment and building a case to get the bad guy.
"Now it's reversed. We want to make the threat go away."
To accomplish this goal the FBI is relying on the public and sharing of information more than ever, said Ellen Knowlton, special agent in charge of the Las Vegas office. Hundreds of tips and leads provided by the public have been tracked in the investigation into what five terrorists and an Algerian pilot suspected of associating with them were doing in Las Vegas last year.
"The scope of the investigation is international, and there is still information being developed," Knowlton said. "I'm hopeful that we will be able to determine why they were here."
After a year, others aren't sure that the investigation will ever reach a fruitful conclusion.
"I don't think that we will ever know," Sheriff Jerry Keller said. "Five are dead and one isn't talking."
The Algerian pilot, Lofti Raissi, was arrested in London after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and detained after a federal grand jury in Arizona indicted him.
He was freed on bail in February, however, and the extradition case against him was dismissed in April after federal authorities couldn't link him to terrorism. Prosecutors have maintained that Raissi remains a suspect.
Atta, Hani Hanjour, Nawaf Alhazmi and Ziad Samir Jarrah were among the hijackers killed on Sept. 11.
Theories abound as to why the group was in Las Vegas, and include everything from a planning meeting to laundering money in casinos.
"The best theory we have is they may have been testing the flights from the East Coast to the West Coast," Keller said. "They may have been checking out the plane and where was the best place to sit. We don't know the actual purpose. We can only surmise."
The question of whether Las Vegas could be a target of terrorism is one that officials answer with a qualified yes.
"Nevada enjoys a number of freedoms, from the gaming industry to prostitution being legal in some counties," Handley said. "The freedoms are out on the forefront and that could make Las Vegas a possible target, but no more than any major tourist destination that promotes itself."
University of Nevada, Las Vegas Political Science Chairman Ted Jelen doesn't see Las Vegas as a prime target for future terrorism.
"I doubt it because from what I can tell about these people is they are against the physical presence of the United States," Jelen said. "I think it would be centered on American capitalism (centers) in the East."
The FBI reports no evidence of any credible threats against Las Vegas, Victoravich said.
"Every city has something that could be a target," Victoravich said. "Things that identify that city, like the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C."
Telling the public when there is the possibility of a threat is part of the FBI's new focus, Handley said.
"Prior to 9-11 it was kind of a one-way street, where we'd take your information, thank you, and then send you on your way," Handley said. "Now there is a sharing of information with federal and local law enforcement and the public."
The information is disseminated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes full-time members from the U.S. Attorney's office, Metro Police, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Secret Service, U.S. Customs and Immigration and Naturalization.
Every FBI field office in the country now has a task force, and all are linked so that leads and information can easily be passed back and forth.
"Why not have everyone together and utilize everyone's resources?" Handleysaid. "If we don't then we're incredibly stupid. Missing resource opportunities shouldn't be allowed to happen, and we won't let it."
The Las Vegas task force was reformatted in July with Knowlton transferring additional agents from violent crimes and drugs to the counterterrorism unit. By January the Las Vegas office is expecting to get eight additional agents, the majority of whom will be funneled to the task force and counterterrorism interests.
"We're not walking away from any of our other responsibilities, we're economizing our resources so that we can do our job better," Knowlton said.
The Las Vegas field office is scheduled to receive two more waves of agents next year -- likely for cybercrime and filling any needs in violent crimes, drugs and areas that agents were pulled from.
The FBI's future will be intertwined with the proposed Homeland Security Department, Knowlton said.
"We don't know the extent of the role that homeland security is going to have, it's still being formed," Knowlton said.
While the FBI's role could change, Knowlton said she doesn't think it will go back to what it was before Sept. 11.
"There have been instances of terrorism (in the United States) in the past, but I think that the American people will maintain their awareness," Knowlton said. "It's human nature for people to become more lax as time goes on, but I don't see that happening this time."
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