Vacancy seen helping terrorists

Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007 | 7:02 a.m.

Jeff German

More than a month after pulling a Nevada Taxicab Authority investigator from a critical federal task force that fights terrorism, the state agency's interim administrator won't say whether the investigator will be replaced.

The lack of action troubles law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, which runs the Southern Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force.

"You can be sure that we've expressed our concerns about the need to have a taxicab investigator on the task force," said FBI spokesman Dave Staretz, who helped establish it after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Over the past year, Ivan Williams, a veteran Taxicab Authority investigator with top secret federal clearance, had been providing the task force with anti-terrorism intelligence gleaned from the taxicab industry. Among other things, he identified more than 100 people applying for cab driver jobs as being sympathetic to terrorists, Taxicab Authority sources said.

But last month, interim Taxicab Authority Administrator Tom Czehowski informed Williams that he was being promoted to supervisor and being called back to the state agency.

At the time, Czehowski did not commit to replacing Williams on the task force. When pressed again this week, Czehowski said he is seeking the advice of his boss, Mendy Elliot, the executive director of the Nevada Business and Industry Department, and the state's new homeland security advisor, Rick Eaton.

Eaton could not be reached for comment, and Gail Anderson, deputy director of Business and Industry, said there was no timetable for a decision.

When Czehowski explained the situation to the five-member Taxicab Authority Board on Aug. 27 as he was interviewed in his bid to win permanent appointment as administrator, his answer didn't sit well with at least one board member, John Plunkett, a former career FBI agent and administrator at the Taxicab Authority.

Plunkett, who attends Joint Terrorism Task Force meetings as a Federal Air Marshal Service supervisor, said the decision to replace Williams should have been a "no-brainer" for Czehowski, who was not one of the three candidates the board recommended to fill the administrator's post. Elliott will make the decision.

"I don't understand what the delay is," Plunkett said. "Terrorism is the No. 1 priority now within the FBI. For the Taxicab Authority not to address this need in a timely manner makes no sense."

Ron Cuzze, executive director of the Nevada State Law Enforcement Officers' Association, the union that represents the taxicab investigators, said Czehowski is doing the community a disservice.

"As far as I'm concerned, not replacing Williams only serves to aid the terrorists," he said. "Taxicab investigators bring resources to the task force that only they have. They have their pulse on the taxicab industry."