Monday, August 09, 2004
What would the Las Vegas public do without memos?
'Memos: Las Vegas public not alerted to possible terror attack' - headline, TheIowaChannel.com.
UPDATE (7:30 AM, 8-10-04): In my zeal for the one-liner, I missed the really interesting point of this story, which the A.P. has elaborated on. Apparently, alerted to the existence of videos that seemed to suggest that jihadists were casing casinos in "the city of Satan" (the jihadists' term, not mine!), casino managers declined to see the videos for fear that they would then be held liable in the case of an attack:
The depressing part is that it is not at all surprising in today's United States that a business would not want to get involved for fear of future liability. For this we can thank the professional achievements of the people who put John Edwards on the Democratic ticket.
UPDATE (7:30 AM, 8-10-04): In my zeal for the one-liner, I missed the really interesting point of this story, which the A.P. has elaborated on. Apparently, alerted to the existence of videos that seemed to suggest that jihadists were casing casinos in "the city of Satan" (the jihadists' term, not mine!), casino managers declined to see the videos for fear that they would then be held liable in the case of an attack:
The other tape found in a Detroit terror cell's apartment had eerily similar footage of the MGM Grand, Excalibur and New York, New York casinos — three hotels within a short distance of each other on the Las Vegas strip with a combined total of 11,000 rooms....
Another memo states the casinos didn't want to see the footage for fear it would make them more likely to be held liable in civil court if an attack occurred.
"The information, unfortunately, was not taken as seriously as we believed it to have been," Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino told AP in an interview, recounting how only two local police officers accepted the FBI agent's offer to see the tape.
"The reason that he (the FBI agent) was given for the low turnout was because of liability, that if they heard this information they would have to act on it. It was extraordinarily unacceptable and absolutely outrageous," Convertino said.
The depressing part is that it is not at all surprising in today's United States that a business would not want to get involved for fear of future liability. For this we can thank the professional achievements of the people who put John Edwards on the Democratic ticket.
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