Officials review tapes found in N.Y.

Jace Radke

Friday, Aug. 13, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.

Local and federal authorities are reviewing five videotapes containing what appears to be tourist footage of Las Vegas casinos and other local sites recovered from the New York apartment of a Pakistani man arrested last month on immigration charges.

After intense media coverage of local and federal officials' decisions not to promptly disclose to the public two previous videotapes, one of which was used as evidence in last year's Detroit terrorism trial, local authorities confirmed the existence of the new tapes.

"The reason we are doing this is because of the great deal of interest in the previous tapes, and it was obvious that there would be interest in these as well," said Ellen Knowlton, special agent in charge of the FBI's Las Vegas office, at a Thursday press conference. "We felt that the information was pertinent to the community and we wanted to put it out to the public.

"The footage in the Detroit tapes was years old and we didn't get them for a long time, but we're getting this footage in real time with a person in custody."

Kamran Akhtar, 35, of Elmhurst, N.Y., was arrested in Charlotte, N.C., on July 20 after running from police who questioned him while he was filming the Charlotte skyline. Akhtar, who was born in Pakistan and entered the United States through Mexico in 1991 according to immigration records, was charged with immigration violations and making false statements but was not charged with any terrorist-related crimes.

On Aug. 3 New York's FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force searched Akhtar's apartment and found videotapes with footage of various U.S. cities, including Las Vegas.

While casino security chiefs and state and local officials have all seen portions of the tapes, and at this point say they don't represent any kind of credible terrorist threat to Las Vegas, Knowlton cautioned that the investigation is ongoing. She said the tapes are still being reviewed, and have not been translated to English.

"I can't characterize the tapes until we get it translated," said Knowlton who estimated that a thorough review of the tapes and the translation process would take weeks. "We don't know the circumstances of why they were made, but if you found it on the street and watched it you would think that someone had lost their vacation video."

A total of seven tapes were received by local FBI agents Thursday morning, five of which included footage of Las Vegas intermixed with footage of about 10 other U.S. cities. The tapes show at least 34 locations on and around the Las Vegas Strip, with those speaking in the tapes using a different language, possibly a Pakistani dialect known as Urdu.

Once local FBI agents received the tapes at 10 a.m. they began reviewing them with Metro Police and other law enforcement agencies. By 2 p.m. hotel security chiefs, Gov. Kenny Guinn, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and other local officials and emergency managers had all seen at least a portion of the Las Vegas footage.

Metro Undersheriff Doug Gillespie said that anytime there is this kind of tape he has concerns and wants to see it.

"My assessment as I look at the tapes today is that they are tourist-type video, with family members walking along sidewalks and in and out of hotels," Gillespie said while flanked by Guinn, federal and local law enforcement, government officials and hotel security chiefs at the press conference.

Tim Donovan, head of security at the Monte Carlo and the president of the Las Vegas Security Chiefs' Association, said that the portions of the tapes he has seen were similar to the tapes tied to the Detroit terrorism trial.

"There was nothing that I saw that indicates any problems that we should be concerned about," Donovan said.

Knowlton said that the Las Vegas Joint Terrorism Task Force, made up of FBI agents, Metro and other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, has done a preliminary review of the footage and continues to investigate.

"The tapes appear to have been shot in 2003 or earlier this year," Knowlton said.

Knowlton estimated that there were "hours and hours" of footage to sift through, and said that one of the seven tapes contains exclusively Las Vegas footage. She said that the videos show the insides and outsides of buildings that are all in the general area of the Strip.

Knowlton said she didn't believe Hoover Dam was shown on the tapes, and that there was no footage of electrical boxes, or restricted areas in casinos.

There is also footage of casinos in other cities on the tapes. Officials would not comment on what cities besides Las Vegas are shown on the tapes, but the Associated Press has reported that Charlotte, Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta are also shown.

Knowlton said that the tapes are not classified but are considered evidence. She added that her office has asked FBI headquarters for permission to show the tapes to the media. Security officials for all the properties identified on the tapes have been notified, Knowlton said.

After the New York authorities recovered the tapes on Aug. 3 they notified the Las Vegas office of the FBI that the tapes contained footage of Las Vegas on Aug. 6, and that information was in turn shared with local authorities, Knowlton said.

On Tuesday Knowlton's office was notified of what locations in Las Vegas were on the tapes, and security officials at the locations were notified. At 10 a.m. Thursday the Las Vegas office of the FBI received the tapes and began reviewing them with local authorities. By 2 p.m. those in attendance at the press conference had seen a portion of the footage.

It took only nine days from the discovery of the tapes until they were being viewed in Las Vegas.

"We have to make sure that all of our lines of communication are set up to process information like this," Guinn said. "Over the New Year's holiday it worked well, and it has worked well again."

Akhtar, who also goes by the name Kamram Shaikh, was scheduled to have a bond hearing in federal court today in North Carolina.

Earlier this week Richard Convertino, the assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the Detroit terrorism case last year, accused Las Vegas officials of dismissing two videotapes shot in Las Vegas by supposed terrorists because of concerns that a terrorist threat could hurt tourism.

Convertino is not working in the U.S. attorney's office in Detroit while being investigated by the FBI for prosecutorial misconduct in the trial that resulted in two terrorism convictions.

Las Vegas officials have vehemently denied the allegations, saying that local officials knew about and saw the tapes recovered from an alleged Detroit terrorist cell and Spanish authorities in Madrid. The tapes were shot in 1997 and 1999, and Las Vegas officials, who say they viewed them in September 2002, characterized the tapes as tourist video.

At the press conference Thursday, Goodman accused the Associated Press, which broke the story of Convertino's allegations, and the Washington Post of irresponsible journalism.

"I want the Associated Press and the Washington Post to give me an appropriate retraction with the same emphasis they used to attack Las Vegas," Goodman said.

Goodman asked the media to spread the word that the tapes found in New York did not pose a threat to Las Vegas.

"I've not been told today that there is any threat as far as Las Vegas is concerned," Goodman said. "That's the bottom line."

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