Terror task force’s loss called a risk

Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2007 | 7:05 a.m.

A decision to remove a state Taxicab Authority investigator from the Southern Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force is drawing fire from law enforcement officials.

The investigator, Ivan Williams, was told by his boss that he was being promoted to supervisor and would no longer be assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multi jurisdiction agency led by the FBI.

Williams will remain the Taxicab Authority's contact with the task force for the time being, said his supervisor, Tom Czehowski, the authority's interim administrator. But Czehowski would not commit to assigning someone else to the terrorism-fighting agency in place of Williams. The authority has maintained a physical presence at the task force for about a year.

"I don't run the Taxicab Authority, but I think it's a very poor choice if they choose not to replace him," said John Plunkett, a Federal Air Marshal Service supervisor who attends task force meetings. "It would be a big loss . "

Plunkett is a former career FBI agent who used to run the Taxicab Authority and he now sits on the five-member board that oversees the agency. He said the authority's investigators routinely provide the anti-terrorism task force with vital intelligence.

That view was shared by FBI spokesman Dave Staretz.

"The Taxicab Authority is extremely important," Staretz said. "They definitely bring valuable assets to the table."

Within the past year, Taxicab Authority sources said, Williams has identified more than 100 people applying for cab driver jobs as being sympathetic to terrorists.

Williams and his fellow Taxicab Authority investigators also watch the local homeland security effort on the streets, keeping an eye on the Las Vegas Valley's 7,300 cabbies, half of whom come from foreign countries.

"They have a pulse on the taxicab industry," said Ron Cuzze, executive director of the Nevada State Law Enforcement Officers' Association, the union that represents the investigators. "They have resources that no other agency in the state has."

Cuzze first raised concerns over the decision about Williams last week at a meeting of the Nevada Homeland Security Commission .

Cuzze said it was part of efforts by Czehowski and his boss, Mendy Elliot, the executive director of the Nevada Business and Industry Department, to chip away at the police powers of the investigators - an allegation that Czehowski disputes.

Several Homeland Security Commission members, including Las Vegas FBI chief Steven Martinez, joined Cuzze in expressing uneasiness over the move.

State Sen. Dennis Nolan, a non voting commission member who also chairs the Senate's Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, said Monday that he plans to voice his displeasure directly with Gov. Jim Gibbons.

"The experts in this area, the people responsible for protecting us, are saying this is a critical position," Nolan said. "I think we should keep that person there."

Added Cuzze: "The more law enforcement people we have out there, the safer we will be. You don't remove law enforcement agencies from the war on terrorism. You add them."