U.S. lowers threat level

Jace Radke

Friday, Jan. 9, 2004 | 11:29 a.m.

McCarran International Airport will remain at an elevated terrorism alert level despite the today's announcement by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge that the nation's terror alert level has been lowered.

Ridge said that certain unnamed areas would remain at a high state of alert, and government sources said that those areas would be airports.

McCarran Airport spokeswoman Debbie Millet said that the airport was notified this morning to continue at level orange by the Transportation Security Administration. TSA officials refused to confirm that, however, saying that if they did that information might provide terrorists with "a road map."

Nevada Homeland Security Adviser Jerry Bussell was notified of the dropping of the alert from orange to yellow about 6 a.m. this morning, but said he wasn't surprised that McCarran stayed at orange.

"We were told that airports could stay at an elevated threat level," said Bussell who has been getting constant intelligence updates since the nation went to the second highest terror alert level on Dec. 21. "I've been on the phone all morning trying to nail down what's going on, and I thought we might see something like this."

Officials at Hoover Dam had not been told to change their alert level and said they would stay at orange until notified.

A government official speaking to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity said some security precautions undertaken during the period when the nation was at orange alert will remain in effect. A second government official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said airlines and airports will be among the areas kept at high alert.

McCarran is the seventh busiest airport in North America and 12th busiest in the world, airport officials said. During the orange alert period, U.S. officials said they were focused on possible threats to the aviation system, particularly the threat of overseas flights being hijacked and used in Sept. 11, 2001-style attacks on American targets.

Metro Police have stationed additional officers at McCarran since the terror level was bumped to orange, and National Guard soldiers were patrolling the airport during the New Year's celebration. Additional vehicle checks and security patrols have also become the norm at the airport that many of the 270,000 New Year's revelers used as an entry point to Las Vegas last week.

Earlier in the day Bussell and Sheriff Bill Young had been told by federal officials that there were no areas in Las Vegas that would remain at level orange. That included McCarran.

The conflicting information was frustrating for local officials who were bombarded with questions from the media.

"Coming out of a heightened level may prove to be more difficult than going up," Bussell said. "We have to make it so it's one message and not disjointed."

Sheriff Bill Young said top federal officials in Washington informed him that Las Vegas' alert level would drop with the rest of the nation's.

"We're definitely at yellow, but we're going to remain vigilant," Young said

Young said he was upset that CNN told the nation this morning that Las Vegas, along with New York, Washington and Los Angeles would still remain under orange alert.

"It was bad reporting that hurts us," he said. "They put out half-baked and bad information."

Young said a ranking federal homeland security official told him some cities would remain under orange, but that Las Vegas definitely was not one of them.

A government official speaking on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press offered no reason for reducing the alert to the middle level of the five-color scale, but the move suggests the immediate threat of attacks on U.S. targets has abated somewhat.

Rachael Sunbarger, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that reports of certain cities remaining at an elevated threat level is pure speculation.

"The secretary lowered the level to yellow for the nation," said Sunbarger, who added that she would not comment on certain sites that may remain at orange around the country.

Security was raised to extraordinary levels over the last several weeks. Several international flights were canceled and security was increased for New Year's Eve in Las Vegas.