Columnist Jeff German: Is Ridge a good listener?

Wednesday, April 14, 2004 | 10:52 a.m.

Within the next several days we'll be hearing more talk about homeland security than we probably need.

Sen. Harry Reid is holding an election year "Nevada Hometown Security Forum" at Sam Boyd Stadium Thursday morning with all of the usual first-responders, such as Nevada Homeland Security Adviser Jerry Bussell and Sheriff Bill Young.

But the biggest homeland security show will come Monday during the visit of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. Could Ridge's sudden interest in Nevada have anything to do with President Bush's re-election?

Ridge plans to do some networking with local officials and explain a new high-tech information network that is supposed to make it easier for federal and local law enforcement agencies to share classified intelligence on terrorism threats.

That's a good thing because not too long ago Nevada's first responders saw that there was room for improvement on that front.

Just before Christmas, when Ridge raised the nation's terror alert to orange, the second-highest threat level, there were reports in the national media that Las Vegas had become a holiday al-Qaida target.

The reports gave Bussell and Young fits. They had been maintaining that Las Vegas could be an appealing target to terrorists, but they also had been assuring us that there was no credible evidence of a direct threat here.

Then, at a news conference in Washington, Ridge mentioned Las Vegas, with its big New Year's Eve celebration, as one of the cities that could expect extra Al-Qaida attention.

Our New Year's festivities went off without a hitch, primarily because of unprecedented security measures -- a no-fly zone for commercial aircraft over the Strip, barricaded streets leading to Las Vegas Boulevard, armed military helicopters hovering above the celebration and a large police presence on the ground.

After the holidays, however, when Ridge lowered the threat level from orange to yellow, there was more confusion. Ridge said some sectors of the economy, such as the airline industry, would remain on higher alert status -- not as high as orange, but not as low as yellow. Something like mango.

McCarran International Airport fell into that colored twilight zone and, since then, Bussell hasn't been happy with Ridge's color-coded system.

"It sends mixed messages," Bussell said. "It doesn't tell you what you should do in a clear and concise way."

Bussell isn't sure how to fix the system, but he knows it needs fine tuning.

Maybe it's just a matter of reducing the threat levels from five colors to two. You know, keep it simple -- blue for a general threat and red for an imminent and specific threat.

Whatever the answer is, Bussell wants a chance to convey his concerns to Ridge during the secretary's high-profile visit on Monday. Gov. Kenny Guinn, who is well aware of Bussell's concerns, already has a Monday morning chat set up with Ridge.

Before Ridge leaves Las Vegas, he's likely to put on a good show for the public. We can expect him to deliver a standard pep talk to the local troops.

Whether Ridge actually bolsters local morale in the war on terrorism, however, will be determined not by how much he says, but by how much he listens.