Jonathan Bernstein, a former military intelligence ‘covert ops” agent writes about the exposure Las Vegas has to a terrorist attack. His piece coincides with CEO-CFO Group’s October Speaker, security expert, George Haskell, who will speak on the vulnerabilities of Las Vegas and his experience of running security at Radio Music Hall in New York before and after 9/11.
Consider the following lead from a Reuters story on August 15, 2007:
“In July, a possibly suicidal man stood above the casino floor at the 2,024-room New York, New York hotel in Las Vegas and fired 16 shots from a semiautomatic gun, wounding four people.”
“This month, a dispute over a woman at a nightclub in the famed Caesar’s Palace hotel ended with two men shot. In May, an explosive device in the parking lot of another Strip hotel, the Luxor, left a Mexican fast-food employee dead.”
“During each of these incidents, private hotel security heavily supplemented a local police force struggling to keep up with a rapidly growing population in one of the world’s most prominent tourist destinations.”
At this point in world history, does anyone doubt that it’s a matter of time before suicide bombers are a fact of life in the United States, just as they already are in many other Western nations? Bombers were a reality even “back in the day” when I was part of Military Intelligence covert ops that sought to stop a group called the Baader Meinhof Gang from blowing up military bases — the threat is obviously worse today.
There is probably no location in the United States more representative of the luxury centered, “decadent” lifestyle abhorred by the fanatics who have sworn to kill us than Las Vegas. There are few locations where so many people are congregated in such small places, optimizing the horrific impact of shrapnel. Tragically, other “All American” locations are probably also high on the target list, to include major theme parks such as Disneyland and renowned shopping malls such as Mall of the Americas, both of them icons of Americana. Still, the economy of Las Vegas, the economy of Nevada, the economy of all gambling-centered towns and even countries, could be dramatically harmed by a successful terrorist attack on Las Vegas.
No matter how much we loathe the terrorist forces which threaten us, no one thinks they’re stupid people. Quite the opposite. They have proven themselves, usually, to be smarter than the governments who are trying to destroy them. People that smart must realize the impact of an attack on Las Vegas. It’s too bad that the businesspeople who control Las Vegas don’t seem to realize that.
The Reuters article reported some improvement in private security. But a reliable source of mine who spoke on condition of anonymity (wow, does that hearken back to my investigative reporting days), a true “Vegas insider,” said, “I haven’t noticed any increased security. In fact, the only security, other than plainclothes and uniforms in the casino, I’ve seen is at the Venetian, where a security guard simply waves cars into the parking lot.”
It seems like a ‘this can’t happen to me’ view at each casino, where clearly the focus is on everyday crime, e.g. rowdies, fights, disorderly conduct, cheaters. They don’t want to do anything to upset the gaming industry. Frankly, any Caucasian, well dressed and clean, could walk into virtually any casino with a suitcase and wreak havoc.
There’s clearly a desire not to impede visitors from giving away their money by, say, subjecting them to more stringent security measures prior to entering establishments. There’s also a definite sense of denial and delusion regarding crisis preparedness - i.e., development of crisis communications plans to be implemented in the event of an actual incident, with related training and simulations. Such planning, along with improved screening and education of both visitors and residents, can at least reduce risk and minimize the long-term impact of a successful attack.
I am going to get absolutely no satisfaction out of saying “I told you so” when the inevitable occurs. I only hope that, in the interim, we hear the loud “POP!” which occurs when heads come out of……the sand.
Jonathan Bernstein is President of Bernstein Crisis Management and can be reached at http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/. This article was previously printed on “Stern at Glance blog” on September 5, 2007 http://asternglance.com/. Stern and Company have a strategic relationship with Jonathan Bernstein. This article was printed by permission from Jonathan Bernstein.
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