FBI head says no new threats for Las Vegas

Despite unsettling events in the Middle East, Las Vegas does not face new threats of terrorism, FBI Director James B. Comey said Tuesday during a brief visit here.

“You are a city of the world,” Comey told reporters. “So you are the focus of attention by good people and bad people all over the world. I don’t see that having changed appreciably in the last few months.”

Las Vegas has been considered a terrorist target since it was revealed that the al-Qaida hijackers of the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington visited here before carrying out the attacks. But over the years, authorities have maintained that there have been no credible threats.

Comey, in Las Vegas to meet with local FBI agents and top law enforcement officials, said counterterrorism remains the FBI’s No. 1 priority.

“It’s a promise we made to the American people after 9/11 and one we work all day and every day to try to keep them safe from terrorist attack,” he said two days before the 13th anniversary of the attacks.

The terrorist threat around the world is changing in two ways, said Comey, who has been at the helm of the FBI for a year.

The world has seen the emergence of homegrown violent extremists who are inspired by the “poisonous propaganda” of al-Qaida and other high-profile terrorist groups, he said.

Then, there are the smaller splinter groups emerging in the war-torn countries of Syria and Iraq that are attracting recruits from across the globe, including the United States, he said.

“Everything I’m worried about touches Las Vegas,” Comey said.

On another subject, the FBI director declined to discuss the criminal investigation of the April confrontation between law officers and Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters.

In May, Sheriff Doug Gillespie said the FBI was investigating allegations of threats and assaults on the law enforcement officers.

The armed standoff occurred as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, backed by federal court orders, started seizing Bundy’s cattle over his failure to pay the agency about $1 million in grazing fees over two decades. Militia members flocked to Bundy’s aid.

With each side pointing rifles and tensions reaching a critical level, federal land officials backed away and agreed to return Bundy’s cattle.

The BLM said it halted the roundup for the safety of its agents and the public.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter: @JGermanRJ.