By Ken Ritter, The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- The FBI has been checking hotel and airline records against terrorist watch lists in advance of a New Year’s Eve celebration expected to draw 300,000 to Las Vegas, authorities said Wednesday.
None of the counterterrorism checks has turned up a specific threat against Nevada or Las Vegas, FBI spokesman Todd Palmer said.
“The information we’re getting, the names, are being run by all the different watch lists,” Palmer said. “People can take comfort that anything and everything that can be done is being done.”
A Southwest Airlines spokeswoman, Christine Turneabe-Connelly said Dallas-based airline complied with an FBI subpoena for records of passengers traveling into or out of Las Vegas from Dec. 22 through Jan. 4.
Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn and top federal, state and local law enforcers announced Tuesday that armed military helicopters will enforce no-fly restrictions late Wednesday and early Thursday in a 23-mile radius around McCarran International Airport and the Las Vegas Strip.
More than 100 Nevada Army National Guard troops were deployed Wednesday to provide curbside and perimeter security at McCarran and airports in North Las Vegas and Henderson, said Staff Sgt. Erick Studenicka, guard spokesman in Carson City. A guard security unit was also stationed at nearby Hoover Dam.
Studenicka said the citizen-soldiers included medical teams with two Chinook and one Blackhawk helicopter, all unarmed.
Las Vegas and the Strip are hosting events including a New Year’s Eve fireworks show that tourism officials expected will draw 300,000 people to a three-mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard that boasts 18 of the nation’s 20 biggest hotels.
Police said people attending the event, one of the nation’s largest outdoor gatherings, could expect to see sharpshooters on hotel-casino roofs and concrete barricades closing off access routes. Backpacks and bags will be searched.
The FBI and an Energy Department official downplayed the discovery on Monday of a small amount of a radioactive isotope at a public storage unit off the Strip. They said the material was determined to be of a type usually used for medical cancer treatment.
Allen Lichtenstein, lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, expressed concern Wednesday about the behind-the-scenes FBI name checks violating constitutional and privacy rights of airline passengers and hotel guests.
“Even in a world of heightened security concerns, people have a fundamental right to be left alone and not have the government watching their every move,” he said.
Palmer said the review of guest and passenger names from hotels, rental car agencies, public storage places and truck rentals companies began started after the federal Department of Homeland Security raised the nation’s terror alert level to “high” on Dec. 21.
Intelligence officials cited information that al-Qaida might be planning a major attack on large gatherings during the holiday season.