E-mail threat against LV called not credible

Jace Radke

Friday, March 26, 2004 | 9:43 a.m.

FBI and homeland security officials are calling an e-mail threat against Las Vegas hotels not credible and nonspecific.

"Everything I've seen and heard is that this had no substance to it, no credibility," Jerry Bussell, the state's homeland security adviser, said.

FBI officials would not release the contents of the e-mail, but said that it came from the same source that made a threat against unspecified Washington, D.C., buildings earlier this week.

The threat did not specify any particular casinos and was sent anonymously from the same e-mail address as the Washington threat, FBI officials said.

The FBI is investigating the threats to try to determine who sent them, but it is believed that the threat against Las Vegas is not credible, Special Agent Todd Palmer, spokesman for the FBI's Las Vegas office, said.

Homeland security sources said that the e-mail talked about bombing an unspecified Las Vegas casino, and that the specific time period for such an attack has since passed. The e-mail was received Thursday morning and security at hotels were notified, but there was nothing to corroborate the threat, sources said.

If potential threat information is received, regardless of its specificity or credibility, it will be disseminated to the pertinent organizations or industries, Palmer said.

In December an anonymous e-mail threatening Las Vegas originated from a publicly accessible computer in Carson City, FBI officials said.

The e-mail, also determined to be a noncredible threat, predicted suicide bombers on Las Vegas streets and the death of "the leader of Nevada," according to sources close to the investigation.

The investigation into the source of the e-mail was been closed because there are no records as to who may have been using the computer that the e-mail originated from, FBI officials said.