Domestic terrorism still major concern in LV

Jace Radke

Monday, Jan. 19, 2004 | 10:07 a.m.

While international terrorism gets most of the headlines domestic terrorism remains a top priority for the FBI and local law enforcement.

"If international terrorism is 1A then domestic terrorism is 1B," said Al Pisterzi, supervisory special agent in charge of the Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force. "International terrorism may be more sophisticated, but domestic terrorists are no less dangerous."

Gov. Kenny Guinn raised the issue of homegrown terrorism last Thursday when he said that the only specific terroristic threat Nevada had received in recent weeks appeared to have been from a "Timothy McVeigh-type" within the state.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights law firm that tracks hate groups, skinheads, neo-nazis and black separatists are among the groups that are in Nevada.

Sgt. Dave Stansbury works in Metro's gang unit, which investigates hate crimes in Clark County. He said that there are white supremist groups in Clark County.

"It's hard to say whether we have more or less than other places, but we certainly don't have as much as what you see in Idaho, Utah and California," Stansbury said. "Mostly what we see in Las Vegas are individuals committing crimes of opportunity.

"Sometimes an individual is related to a certain group, but we don't see a lot of hate crimes committed by a group."

Pisterzi declined to talk about specific groups in Nevada, but said that they are out there.

"Every state has its fringe elements or groups," Pisterzi said "It's kind of a misconception that hate groups and militias are more prevalent in the West.

"Timothy McVeigh was a part of the Michigan militia."

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, and his accomplice, Terry Nichols, whose family lives in the Las Vegas area, is serving a term of life in prison.

The 1996 bombing at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta that wounded 111 people and killed a woman and a cameraman is another example of domestic terrorism. Eric Robert Rudolph was arrested on May 31, 2003 and charged with the bombing and two attacks in 1997 on an abortion clinic and a nightclub.

From the 1960s to the 1980 left-wing groups posed the most serious domestic terrorist threat in the country, but the threat has now shifted to right-wing groups and anarchists, according to the FBI's website.

Right-wing hate groups such as the Aryan Nations and the National Alliance adhere to the principles of racial supremacy.

Extremist groups and individuals caused much of the damage during the 1999 World trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle, FBI officials said.

The FBI estimates that the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front have committed more than 600 crimes since 1996, resulting in excess of $42 million in damages.

Tracking domestic hate groups is difficult, because,like gangs it is not against the law to belong to a group or to espouse your beliefs, Pisterzi said.

"Domestic hate groups aren't as structured as what you might see with al-Qaida where you have Osama bin Ladin and his right hand man," Pisterzi said. "A lot of the domestic groups are smaller and have less communication with each other."

The convention and tourism business in Las Vegas is something that authorities are aware can draw domestic terror activity, Pisterzi said.