Thursday, May 27, 2004 | 11:01 a.m.
Las Vegas taxicab drivers and police officers were asked to watch out for seven people identified Wednesday by Attorney General John Ashcroft as terrorist suspects.
The state Taxicab Authority forwarded an FBI alert to taxicab companies and cabdrivers Wednesday with the seven photos of people suspected in the terrorist threat.
"Together, we are thousands of eyes and ears," Taxicab Authority Administrator Yvette Moore said in a brief letter that went out with the photos.
Metro Police also received the photos, and Metro investigators who specialize in homeland security were reopening cases, reinterviewing suspects and making sure leads were followed, spokeswoman Carla Alston said.
Sheriff Bill Young said, "We're doing everything we can to determine if anybody who could pose a threat to this country has been here or is planning to come here."
But the force had no plans to increase patrols using overtime, as was done over the New Year's Eve celebration, Alston said, noting that there was no specific threat to Las Vegas.
"You're not going to see hundreds of cops out this weekend," she said. "This is not like New Year's Eve."
The nation's top law enforcement officials released the names and pictures of the seven suspects Wednesday morning, asking anyone with information about their whereabouts or activities to tell authorities.
Leaders of law enforcement agencies in Southern Nevada were summoned for a meeting at the Las Vegas FBI headquarters to discuss the latest threats, said George Togliatti, director of the state Public Safety Department, who takes over as acting homeland security adviser on Friday.
The suspects were identified as Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistan who graduated from MIT; Abderraouf Jdey, a Canadian citizen born in Tunisia; Adam Yahiye Gadahn, a convert to Islam born in the United States; Adnan G. el-Shukrijumah, a Saudi native who lived in the United States for 15 years before fleeing U.S. authorities; Amer el-Maati, a licensed pilot; Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who was indicted in two 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa; and Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, indicted with Mohammed in the 1998 attacks.
Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller said the suspects may be traveling in a family group to reduce suspicion and may be posing as Europeans. It was not known if the seven were in the United States.
Local cab drivers said it made sense to distribute photos among their ranks.
"Las Vegas has shown to be an international meeting place," Craig Harris, a cab driver and managing editor of local transportation guide "Trip Sheet," said.
Harris said that a Las Vegas cab driver reportedly drove Mohammed Atta, one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, from an Econo Lodge on the Las Vegas Strip to the Olympic Gardens, a topless club.
"We're due for another attack," Harris said. "You just gotta try to catch somebody by getting the word out, by putting photos out."
Checker Cab Company driver Mark Sherlock, while waiting in line downtown Las Vegas Wednesday night, said, he would keep the seven photos in his cab and show the pictures to fares so they can help keep watch.
"I think Las Vegas is a magnet for all types," the Marine Corps vet said. "We still don't know what Mohammed Atta was doing here."
Checker Cab driver Richard Cohen, a former U.S. Army military intelligence agent working the Las Vegas Strip Wednesday night, noted, "We see just about everybody -- tourists and locals -- depending on who's where and where they're going," he said.
But while local law enforcement and cab drivers were asked to watch for the terrorist suspects, state officials said nothing specific indicated that Las Vegas would be the target of a summer attack.
A spokesman for Gov. Kenny Guinn said, "We have not received anything specific to us" from intelligence briefings by federal officials.
Jerry Bussell, outgoing Nevada director of Homeland Security, said, "There is nothing specific and actionable against Nevada."
But residents are advised to be on their toes to look for anything suspicious, said Bussell, who leaves his job Friday, and he suggested a "media blitz" of the photos of the seven suspects.
"It is not very likely that intelligence will intercept something, but it will be up to the average citizen to watch out for anything unusual," Bussell said.
Bussell said the terrorists want to hit a location with "international implications. Las Vegas has international implications."
In his daily briefings from the FBI, Bussell said he was told the government "has credible information from multiple sources" that al-Qaida or other terrorists are "90 percent complete in their planning" for an attack on the United States.
Intelligence reports indicate there are "six or seven operatives who may well be in the United States," Bussell said.
Bussell said it was important to note that the government did not change the color code that signifies the danger level of a threat. "We are now at a level of understanding that we don't have to jump at everything. The color code doesn't tell the average citizen what to do."
The good news, said Togliatti, who attended the Wednesday morning briefing for local law enforcement, is that the federal alert did not single out Las Vegas. The whole country was put on notice, he said.
Lawmen are now on the lookout for the suspected terrorists Ashcroft identified on Wednesday, Togliatti said. Otherwise, he said, no major changes would be made in security.
"Things will not be different from today," he said. "It's not going to be like New Year's Eve," when high security was posted to guard against a possible attack in Las Vegas.
Young said he expected the heightened sensitivity to a terrorist threat to last awhile.
"We're going back to the perception of an increased threat," Young said Wednesday. "I think that's going to continue through the holidays for us unfortunately."
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