E-mail threat detailed Nevada targets

Jace Radke

Monday, Jan. 19, 2004 | 11:07 a.m.

An anonymous e-mail sent to the White House around New Year's Eve predicted the death of "the leader of Nevada" and referred to 10 suicide bombers on Las Vegas streets, according to sources close to a federal investigation of the threat.

Local and state officials said last week that they were made aware of the e-mail after Dec. 31, and it is believed to have originated from the Carson City area, Gov. Kenny Guinn's spokesman Greg Bortolin said.

The e-mail was passed on to the FBI and to state officials by the Homeland Security Department, but it is unclear when the White House originally received the e-mail, sources said.

FBI officials would not comment on the e-mail's contents.

"We are investigating and we take all threats seriously," FBI spokesman Jim Stern said. "There are no credible threats against Las Vegas."

The e-mail stated that the "Nevada capital will burn" and that the "walls of a green hotel will fall," but it did not mention New Year's Eve or any specific date, hotels or streets, sources said.

Sheriff Bill Young said this morning he never saw the e-mail and didn't even know it existed until the Sun asked him about it last week.

"If it was pertinent to Las Vegas somebody -- either the governor or (Nevada Homeland Security Adviser) Jerry Bussell or the Homeland Security Department -- would have told me," Young said today.

The sheriff described the e-mail as a "non-event" and said he wasn't worried about either its contents or the delay in his learning about it. In the past Young had complained about federal officials failing to provide him with timely notification about possible terrorist threats to Las Vegas.

"Time has passed," he said of the e-mail. "It's old. It was supposed to happen on New Year's Eve."

Bussell, who would not comment on the content of the e-mail, said that "there was nothing to corroborate the threat in the e-mail" and that the threat was isolated to one e-mail.

After Guinn's vague reference to the e-mail stirred up questions on Thursday, Bussell and other officials continued to say there had been no specific, credible threats against Nevada.

"For something to be a specific, credible threat it has to have more than one source, or something to corroborate it," Bussell said. "It needs to be evaluated and determined that we really have something."

But, Bussell said, all threats are taken seriously and checked out even if they don't reach a level considered specific or credible.

"We get things like this e-mail, and you have to take a look at them," Bussell said. "We take every precaution to ensure the safety of the citizens and visitors of this state, and that's what we'll continue to do."

The public might never have learned of the e-mail, however, had Guinn not referred to it in passing during a question-and-answer session after a speech to the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties in Las Vegas on Thursday.

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

Guinn said that 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.

Bortolin said that at the time Guinn was trying to make the point that there were no specific threats against Las Vegas.

Guinn told the Sun after the session that there is always the chance that there are other McVeighs who want to hurt the United States. McVeigh was put to death for the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people.

If the FBI's investigation locates the person who sent the e-mail, the perpetrator could face charges of sending a threatening message or could face terrorism-related charges.

Locating the person that sent the e-mail could be easier said than done, as e-mail accounts can be accessed from different computers and false information can be used to register for an account, law enforcement officials said.

The country was put on high alert on Dec. 21, and 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.

The Homeland Security Department lowered the threat level to yellow, or elevated, on Jan. 9, and Metro Police and other agencies followed suit, lowering the local threat level to yellow.

Although not at high, or level orange, McCarran International Airport and other major airports around the country continue to take additional security precautions.