Terrorism task force loses again

Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007 | 7:04 a.m.

It isn't easy for a state investigator to obtain top secret clearance to join the elite Joint Terrorism Task Force.

"A lot of time and resources go into that type of background investigation," FBI spokesman Dave Staretz said. "It's very thorough because of the access to information these folks will have."

Staretz said it takes the FBI, which runs the multijurisdiction agency, three to six months to pore over every aspect of a prospective task force member's life and costs the government $7,500 to $15,000.

So when the FBI this year concluded a background check on Ron White, a veteran investigator with the Nevada Transportation Authority, the agency that regulates buses, limousines and moving companies, it expected he would become a full-time member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

But the man heading the Transportation Authority had other ideas.

Andy MacKay, chairman of the three-member commission that runs the Transportation Authority, said his agency is understaffed and doesn't have the manpower to assign an investigator full time to the task force.

The Transportation Authority is the second state agency, both under Mendy Elliott, the executive director of the Nevada Business and Industry Department, to balk at placing an investigator on the task force, a 21-member law enforcement agency that heads anti-terrorism efforts in Nevada.

In August Interim Taxicab Authority Administrator Tom Czehowski promoted investigator Ivan Williams to a supervisor's position and pulled him from the task force. Williams remains the agency's liaison to the task force, but Czehowski has refused to commit to replacing him full time. He said he is consulting on that matter with Elliot and Rick Eaton, the state's new homeland security adviser.

Both state agencies are valued in the task force's effort to keep watch over Southern Nevada's vibrant transportation and tourism industries, long considered by intelligence sources to have caught al-Qaida's eye.

The failure of the two agencies to take action has enraged Ron Cuzze, president of the Nevada State Law Enforcement Officers' Association, a union that represents state investigators.

Cuzze views the developments as part of a broader attempt by Elliott - a banker by trade and a political confidante of Gov. Jim Gibbons - to strip away the police powers of the two agencies.

"Mendy Elliott has no business running a law enforcement agency," Cuzze said. "She doesn't know what she's doing."

Elliott did not return phone calls. But through spokespeople, she has denied trying to inhibit the law enforcement abilities of the Taxicab Authority and the Transportation Authority.

MacKay said he did not learn that White was slated for a full-time position until earlier this year, after the background check was completed.

"His involvement in the Joint Terrorism Task Force is important," MacKay said. "But from an operational standpoint, it's a huge hole to fill in terms of staffing."

The agency, MacKay said, has only five investigators to cover the state.

MacKay said he has spoken to Joint Terrorism Task Force officials and is exploring allowing White to work there part time.

The FBI has said it would like to see the Taxicab Authority put an investigator back to work full time on the Task Force. But Staretz also said , "We do recognize the manpower constraints placed on certain agencies."

Cuzze, however, said both state agencies should have a full-time role at the task force.

"They bring a special intelligence dynamic to the task force," he said. "They both have a good handle on what's happening within the transportation industry, which is one of al-Qaida's weapons of choice."