OPPOSITE REACTION
Shouldn't Nevada officials be jubilant that Vegas was removed from the terror-target list?
BY LEWIS WHITTEN

When the government removed Las Vegas from a list of cities considered potential high-risk targets for terrorist attacks, nobody celebrated. Apparently Las Vegas wants to be on that list. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has refused to accept the wager placed by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who announced that Las Vegas is no longer at high-risk.

"Las Vegas is the 24th largest city in the country," Goodman told the Las Vegas Sun. "You don't want to gamble with its future."

Rep. Jim Gibbons, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, also fears the worst now that Las Vegas does not rank with the top 35 cities. Gibbons fears Las Vegas has been left alone, in God's hands only, without the federal government's protection.

"God help us if something happens in Las Vegas and this government does not see the writing on the wall as it did in 9/11," Gibbons told the Review-Journal.

While some would expect a sigh of relief after being removed from a list of potential high-risk targets for terrorist attacks, the opposite has happened. Every high-ranking politician in Nevada has spoke out in anger, some demanding that Chertoff resign from his post.

Of course the real issue here is money. Las Vegas government has received millions of high-threat dollars since 9/11 and now is at risk of losing access to those funds.

Sen. Harry Reid called the Homeland Security funding decision foolish, shortsighted and wrong.

"It does nothing to help homeland security," Reid said. "It's hard for me to comprehend that Las Vegas is not an entity that's going to be given money."

Dr. Dale Carrison, who heads that State of Nevada Homeland Security Commission, is concerned but still keeping the faith.

"We will be able to show what our needs are and why we need that money," Carrison said.

According to Chertoff, the reason Las Vegas was removed from the list was based on science with over 3 billion calculations to ascertain which geographic regions would be most at risk to terrorism.

Clark County Sheriff Bill Young called that "hogwash" and believes Chertoff should resign. Unfortunately, Young and the force he commands have a monetary interest in keeping our town on high-terror alert.

While some would argue that not being on a high-terror list would be a welcome relief to the millions of Las Vegas vacationers, Gov. Kenny Guinn's top state security adviser Giles Vanderhoof used the news to scare tourists and possibly taunt would-be terrorists.

"Some of us, me included, think the lifestyle that we project in Nevada - of gambling, nightlife, floor shows and the party atmosphere of Sin City - would draw the attention of terrorists," Vanderhoof said.

Vanderhoof went on to say that Las Vegas needs a pro football team in order to become more appealing to terrorists, noting that cities with pro football teams had made the high-threat list. 

Then like a superhero out of a comic book, Sen. John Ensign takes the stage to announce that he has saved the day! Las Vegas will continue to collect high-threat government money.

All it took was a phone call to Chertoff. According to Ensign, Chertoff has promised Las Vegas government the same amount of high-threat funding this year as they received last year. LW