Guinn says Nevada town threatened at New Year’s

Jennifer Shubinski

Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004 | 11:24 a.m.

Gov. Kenny Guinn said today that a small town in Nevada received the most credible terrorist threat during recent weeks of heightened security.

He said the threat came from within the United States and was not linked to the terrorist group al-Qaida. Guinn said there are threats of more "Timothy McVeighs," and he said even small towns had to be vigilant.

"The most serious threat that we got was to a very small city that went all the way to the White House," Guinn said.

Guinn mentioned the threat in a question-and-answer session after a speech to the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. He wouldn't name the town or specify what part of the state.

The country was put on high alert shortly before Christmas and high-profile cities around the country -- including Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York -- beefed up security at public New Year's Eve parties and at public venues such as airports.

Authorities said there were no credible threats to Las Vegas. The Homeland Security Department lowered the threat level to yellow, or elevated, on Jan. 9.

After his speech, Guinn seemed to back off on the seriousness of the threat.

"Today we have to pay attention to everything," Guinn said.

Guinn said there is always the chance that there are other McVeighs who want to hurt the United States. McVeigh was convicted in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people. McVeigh was put to death for the crime. His accomplice, Terry Nichols, whose family lives in the Las Vegas area, is serving a term of life in prison.

"We are being very vigilant and we are looking at everything," Guinn said.

Nevada Homeland Security Adviser Jerry Bussell talked to Guinn after being told about the speech. He said Guinn told him that he was speaking generally and said small towns can face threats.

"We have no specific threats in Nevada and we had no specific threats during the elevated alert," Bussell said.

FBI Special Agent Todd Palmer said that there were no credible specific threats in Nevada during the elevated alert.

"I don't know of any threats to any small towns, any big towns or any towns," Palmer said.

Sheriff Bill Young said he was not familiar with the threat that Guinn was talking about.

"I'm totally unaware of any issue with a small town," Young said of the raised terrorism alert level that lasted from Dec. 21 to Jan. 9. "I was not briefed on anything like that, but the governor is responsible for the entire state."

Young said his responsibility is Clark County, and said he was confident that he received the intelligence he needed during the elevated alert period.

Michael Cyphers, emergency management coordinator for Henderson, said that he had not heard anything about any kind of threat to a small Nevada town.

Despite the seriousness of his comments highlighting the immediate threat of terrorism, Guinn pointed out some positive aspects to the concern that people now have for terroristic threats. He said that there has been a decrease in the number of false bomb threats at schools in the past year.