QandO

August 09, 2004

Headline v. Story
Posted by Dale Franks

The headline to the AP story that, at the time of this writing, appears on the right-hand sidebar, states "U.S. Didn't Warn Las Vegas of Threats". The slug continues: "A year after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Justice Department obtained video surveillance tapes suggesting terrorists were targeting Las Vegas casinos but authorities never alerted the public as they discussed whether a warning might hurt tourism or increase the casinos' legal liability, internal memos show."

Wow, once again, the Bush Administration must be failing in protecting us sgainst terror. But if you don't read the story, you won't know this:

In late summer 2002, FBI agents discovered the casino footage when they belatedly decoded a European surveillance tape found a year earlier in the Detroit terror cell's apartment. A few weeks later, a Justice expert provided prosecutors similar surveillance that Spanish authorities had recovered from an al-Qaida cell in Madrid.

When FBI supervisory agent Paul George flew to Las Vegas to show the Detroit tape, "the FBI, casino representatives, Clark County Sheriff's Department and the JTTF (joint terrorism task force) declined to attend," Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Corbett wrote.

"No one showed up except for two Metro officers," Corbett added. "Indeed, the casinos informed Agent George that they did not want to show up because of concerns about liability."

In a series of e-mails, Convertino pleaded with Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharon Lever in Las Vegas to take the video footage seriously, even though local officials were cool to it. He noted two experts had concluded the tape matched other al-Qaida surveillance.

"While I understand your previously stated concerns that the mayor of Las Vegas, the local sheriff and others believe our indictment may temporarily have a deleterious effect on the Las Vegas tourism industry, it is unconscionable that any reasonable person would assert that anyone here possessed a cavalier attitude toward the tape," Convertino wrote.

So, evidently, the reason the US failed to inform Las Vegas of the threat, was that no one in Vegas wanted to listen.

Maybe it's just me, but if I was writing the headline, it might read something like, "Las Vegas Officials Ignore Security Concerns".

Actually, there's video at the page that gets the story right, and blames vegas city and casino officials. But, of course, you wouldn't know that if you only read the headline and the slug. you'd have an entirely differnt impression.

Coincidence?

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