Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.
Before Sept. 11 Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharon Lever hadn't seen much of Nevada, but now the Las Vegas-based lawyer finds herself regularly traveling to places such as Ely, Minden and Goldfield.
Lever is the lead coordinator of Nevada's multiagency Joint Terrorism Task Force, and she has been charged with establishing a statewide anti-terrorism network.
Over the last year homeland security has become the nation's top priority, whether it is within the law enforcement community, at airports, in the military or among businesses. In Nevada that commitment stretches across 110,000 square miles, and so do Lever's travel plans.
"We have to bring everyone into the fold and improve communication with the officials in all 17 counties," Lever said. "I've been getting a tour of the state, and it is beautiful, but there is a lot of area to cover."
While Lever gets used to the state's wide-open spaces, local law enforcement is getting comfortable with the sharing of terrorism information, and with Lever herself.
"We remember her because she has that British accent," Douglas County Sheriff Ron Pierini said of Lever, who actually has a South Africa accent. "We are receiving information about threats and terrorism from the federal level, and we didn't have that before Sept. 11.
"There are a lot of smaller agencies out here that probably wouldn't be a target, but we all need to be in the loop."
Spinning the web
The U.S. attorney's office is suited to manage the communication between each of the agencies in the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which also includes the FBI, Metro Police, Immigration and Naturalization and the Secret Service among other agencies, U.S. Attorney Dan Bogden said.
"Our office encompasses the entire state, so it makes sense that we would be the coordinators," Bogden said.
His office will also be filling a new analyst position, which will monitor incoming information and criminal intakes and look for links, Bogden said.
"Terrorism has jumped up to our No. 1 priority, and it puts us in a different role," Bogden said. "We've had to broaden our mission. Before we were prosecutors looking to put the bad guys in jail, but now we also have to work to prevent terrorism from happening."
The change requires prosecutors to look at every case differently and question the motives behind what could be considered routine financial fraud or false document or identity theft cases.
One example is the arrest of seven men in Las Vegas in June for allegedly trying to cash three counterfeit cashier's checks at MGM Grand. The checks were drawn on the same Pomona, Calif., bank branch as $12 million in phony checks found on a man arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in July.
The man, Omar Abdul-Fatah Hamed Shishani, is being investigated by the FBI for possible terrorist links, and the two cases are being looked at to see if there is any connection.
The key is getting information out and allowing investigators to fit pieces together, said Bogden, who cited the May arrest of alleged mailbox bomber Luke Helder outside of Reno as another example.
"The best thing about the task force is how quickly it allows us to get information out," Bogden said. "When Mr. Helder was running around up north, we had great teamwork between the FBI, ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) and the Lovelock authorities, and it led to an arrest."
Military muscle
In the days after Sept. 11 those trying to get into Nellis Air Force Base found themselves sitting in their cars for more than an hour as base security forces searched vehicles and checked identification.
Now the concrete barriers that marked the base's entrances are usually off to the side, and security checks have generally been reduced.
After an initial response of moving high concentrations of security personnel to base gates, base commanders are looking at other ways to protect the Air Force's primary tactics training ground.
"We call it economies and efficiencies," Col. Del Eulberg, Nellis installation commander, said. "We have to weigh the risk against the resources we have available.
"We review security posture on a regular basis, and there will be changes where it will go up and down."
Some of the things officials are looking at are new technologies and modifying existing buildings and gates.
People who live and work on the base have encountered long lines at the gates, and although security levels aren't as high as they once were, they could shift back if the United States were to attack Iraq, for instance.
"The people have been extremely patient and understanding," Eulberg said. "Whether it's picking their kids up from school or going to the store, the families on this base understand that this kind of screening is necessary to mitigate the risk."
Nellis is also providing more security for the Air Force, with the number of personnel deployed out of the base nearly doubling over the last year. Air National Guardsmen are being used to fill in for the deployed forces.
Training at the base has also changed as instructors work to teach new strategies and weapons systems that have been put on the fast track since Sept. 11. Training with a "cave-busting" bomb and instructing pilots and ground troops in precision bombing for close air support are among recent efforts.
Other government-protected installations in Nevada have beefed up their security over the last year, including Energy Department facilities in North Las Vegas and the Nevada Test Site.
Darwin Morgan, a department spokesman, said that the number of Wackenhut security guards has been increased, but would not comment on the exact number for security reasons.
Further increases in security at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, could be on the way if an advanced laboratory and its weapons-grade plutonium and uranium are moved from Los Alamos, N.M., to the Nevada facility.
Airport evolves
Security has also been increased at McCarran International Airport, which has been constantly evolving over the last year.
Van-sized bomb detecting machines, new checkpoints and long lines are now the identifying features of an airport once better known for slot machines and metallic palm trees.
"Before, customer service was the most important thing, but now security is driving airports," Rosemary Vassiliadis, McCarran deputy director, said.
As million-dollar luggage-scanning machines arrive in ticketing areas, airport employees are reminded how their lives and those of travelers have changed, Vassiliadis said.
"We don't park in the same place; there is no more employee bypass of the security checkpoints or waiting at the departure curb," Vassiliadis said. "It still doesn't feel natural. It doesn't feel normal."
One change that may seem insignificant compared to bag-screening -- but has changed how the airport operates -- is that custodial carts are now stored in each concourse instead of one area.
"Custodians have to go through the metal detectors now, and we didn't want them going through the nightmare of getting a cart through," Vassiliadis said. "We've had to look at every area and make the needed changes."
Bomb-sniffing dogs and a $150 million renovation to make space for 60 explosive-detection machines are in the future for the airport, but it's two federal deadlines that loom as the biggest challenges this year.
On Nov. 19 checkpoint screening is scheduled to be taken over by the new Transportation Security Administration, and by Dec. 31 airports are required have the ability to screen every piece of baggage for explosives.
Airport managers, including Clark County Aviation Director Randy Walker, have consistently said that the Dec. 31 deadline can't be met because of a lack of detection machines and a place to put them. Walker and Vassiliadis support proposed legislation to push that deadline back a year to Dec. 31, 2003.
Any complaints McCarran officials receive will be logged with the new federal department, which replaces the Federal Aviation Administration as security overlord at the nation's 429 passenger airports.
"The TSA is another player that we now have to deal with," Vassiliadis said. "The FAA mostly dealt with the airlines, but with the TSA we're much more involved in the decision-making process.
"We meet with the local TSA officials many times a week, and we are privy to classified information that we didn't have before."
Casinos change
The theory that a Strip resort could be a target for a terrorist attack has been suggested several times since Sept. 11, and casino operators take the idea seriously.
Bomb-sniffing dogs, car searches at parking garages and an increase in security are some measures that resorts are taking, said Tim Donovan, president of the Las Vegas Security Chiefs Association, which represents more than 90 casino and resort properties.
"We've changed the way we do business," Donovan said. "We've rewritten the disaster manual to include training in dealing with unknown substances and terrorism.
"The properties have enacted any number of new programs from X-ray machines for the mail to facial recognition programs in the casinos.
"There has also been an increase in the hotels sharing information with each other. We talked before, but now it's almost automatic that if they run into something suspicious they call around to the other properties."
Of the 15,000 casino workers laid off by area resorts last fall, none were security officers, Donovan said.
"People have been very understanding, and we've found that guests don't mind any extra inconvenience that added security might bring," Donovan said. "In fact they want to see the precautions and the security."
Resorts haven't had any problem balancing their new security responsibilities with safeguarding the casinos' winnings and protecting guests, Donovan said.
"There has been an amazing amount of sharing information between us and the FBI and that has helped," Donovan said. "We're getting calls from the local FBI and FBI agents from other parts of the country.
"We're being included in a lot of things that we weren't involved in before Sept. 11."
archive
