Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002 | 11:20 a.m.
Officials with the FBI and Southern Nevada law enforcement agencies said they expect no terrorism threat to Las Vegas today.
The Bush administration on Tuesday raised the nation's terrorist alert to its second-highest level, code orange. This was primarily because of a risk of terrorist attacks overseas, said Ellen Knowlton, special agent in charge of the FBI in Nevada.
"We have received information that U.S. installations overseas are at a heightened risk," Knowlton said at a news conference at FBI headquarters. "We have no information to suggest that there is a domestic target or a target in Southern Nevada.
"We had a similar alert in August 2001 with the intelligence community picking up an increase in terrorist activity overseas, and it turned out to be targets in the U.S. Armed with what we learned last year we are taking precautions."
Those precautions are putting law enforcement at a higher level of readiness and initiating a 24-hour command post where all incoming information will be disseminated. Any credible threats will be reported to the public, officials said.
Hoover Dam has been closed to tour traffic, said Colleen Dwyer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The dam's visitor center, parking lots and concessions will remain open.
Traffic conditions will remain as they have been since last Sept. 11, with commercial trucks and buses carrying luggage barred from crossing the dam. All other vehicles may still cross.
Visitors will still be allowed to walk around the top of the dam during daylight hours, but should expect to see a more visible security presence, Dwyer said.
FBI agents and police know that they could be called upon at any time, and Metro Police will be increasing patrols at mosques and at McCarran International Airport, where three additional officers have been stationed, Keller said.
"I've been in contact with Henderson, North Las Vegas, the FBI and all of our law enforcement partners, and we're all on the same page," Keller said.
When the terrorism alert went out Tuesday, the Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force quickly spread the word to all corners of the state, U.S. Attorney spokeswoman Natalie Collins said.
"An e-mail went out immediately, but for some of the more rural areas we had to rely on faxes and telephones," Collins said. "Everyone was informed within a two hours."
The task force, an FBI and U.S. attorney-led group that includes representatives from virtually every law enforcement agency in Southern Nevada, is responsible for notifying the state of possible terrorist threats and sharing information among agencies, FBI Special Agent Roy Handley said.
"In the unlikely event that something does happen, we need to be able to share information between all these smaller agencies in the remote parts of the state," Handley said. "It's very possible that these are the people that are going to catch the bad guys. Look at what happened with the mailbox bomber."
Alleged mailbox bomber Luke Helder was arrested by the Nevada Highway Patrol on Interstate 80 in a rural area outside of Reno in May.
At McCarran, travelers probably won't notice the difference, but there will be a larger security presence there, said Jim Blair, the airport's federally appointed chief of security.
"We'll have a more visible presence there, but there will also be other security measures that people won't see," said Blair, who would not elaborate on the measures, citing security concerns.
Sun reporter Stephen Curran contributed to this story.
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