Las Vegas Urges Officials To Cancel Mock Nuclear Blast

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is asking the Department of Homeland Security to cancel it’s plans for a simulated nuclear explosion scheduled to take place in Las Vegas next May.

In a letter Wednesday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Rossi Ralenkotter said the premise of an upcoming emergency preparedness drill “will generate undue anxiety about visiting or conducting business in Las Vegas.”

FEMA has been planning its 2010 “national level exercise” since last year. The simulation, which is designed to test the capabilities of first responders to catastrophic events, involves the response to a mock nuclear blast in Clark County.

Nearly 10,000 local, state, and federal agents are expected to participate in the exercise.

In the letter to FEMA’s regional office in Oakland, Calif., Ralenkotter asked FEMA to consider “a non-nuclear scenario” for the exercise. He also requested that the simulation not be associated with the resort corridor.

“Our destination already receives a disproportionate amount of attention when the Department of Homeland Security releases even the most routine bulletin,” Ralenkotter wrote. “This exercise has the potential to escalate that attention and potentially harm our economy.”

Ralenkotter also sent his letter to Nevada’s congressional delegation and other local politicians.

Sen. Harry Reid, in a letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano today, weighed in with objections to the exercise.

“I am deeply sympathetic to the need of our first responders to conduct preparedness training, and I look forward to revisiting this issue when Nevada’s economy has improved,” Reid wrote. “However, at this time, economic recovery efforts would be stymied, or reversed entirely, by artificially creating anxiety surrounding tourism and investment in Las Vegas.”

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Terror-Related Arrest Began in Las Vegas

Last week we linked to a story on Fox News about a a Somali man on the U.S. government’s terrorist watch list who was stopped  outside Las Vegas along with four other men. The man was released because the officer had no legal authority to detain him. As we stated in the post, the story didn’t end there.Two days after the vehicle was pulled over outside Las Vegas, two of the passengers appeared at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in San Ysidro, Calif.

So is that the end of the story?  Apparently not.

The Channel 8 I-Team in Las Vegas has additional details as well as pdfs of a Criminal Complaint and Criminal Indictment

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Man On Terror Watchlist Stopped Then Let Go – Las Vegas

Fox news is reporting that a Somali man on the U.S. government’s terrorist watchlist was stopped last week by a police officer outside Las Vegas along with four other men, but the officer had no legal authority to detain the man so he was sent on his way, according to the report.

Apparently the story doesn’t end there. According to the Fox News ‘Liveshot’s report. Two days after the vehicle was pulled over outside Las Vegas, two of the passengers appeared at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in San Ysidro, Calif.

According to court documents, they had been dropped off by a taxicab, and they told a customs official at the border crossing “that they would be flying from Tijuana airport to Mexico City airport, and [they] displayed airline tickets to the Officer.”

In several cases over the past decade, Mexico has been a waypoint for travel between the United States and Somalia.

Meanwhile, the driver of the rented vehicle, is the only one of the five Somali men to be facing charges so far.

He has been charged in a criminal complaint with lying to the FBI.

The officer who stopped the vehicle found $4,000 in the car and eventually learned that the driver’s wife had filed a missing persons report in Minneapolis. The officer contacted the FBI, which interviewed the man on Oct. 8.

Read The Full Article and Comments Here

Las Vegas Boy Believed Kidnapped by Mexican Drug Cartel Found Alive In Las Vegas

Update – Missing 6-Year-Old Cole Puffinburger Found Alive in Las Vegas

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UPDATE – Grandfather Capture By Police In California – A senior law enforcement agency involved in the manhunt for the grandfather of a kidnapped Vegas boy has confirmed to FOX News that Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer has been arrested.

Investigators captured Tinnemeyer near the Riverside, Calif., area after receiving tips of his whereabouts.

Officials were looking for a motor home and his truck, but there is no word on whether or not that was found with Tinnemeyer.

Tinnemeyer will be facing a judge soon.

Metro Police Capt. Vincent Cannito had said Friday that Tinnemeyer, 51, was a “person of interest” in the nationwide search for 6-year-old Cole Puffinburger.

From Adam Housley’s Blog
Original Post

Millions of dollars stolen from a Mexican drug cartel by 6-year-old Cole Puffinburger’s grandfather may have been the catalyst for the Wednesday morning home invasion that led to the boy’s kidnapping, according to sources and authorities.

The three men believed to be Mexican nationals who stormed Cole’s east valley home were looking for money Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer had stolen through drug trafficking, primarily in methamphetamine, according to Las Vegas police.

When the men couldn’t find the money, they took Cole, Capt. Vincent Cannito said Friday.

“They wanted to send a very clear message,” Cannito said. “Message sent, message received. They got the attention of an entire nation.”

Tinnemeyer hasn’t been seen in Las Vegas since May 21, and sources said the 51-year-old man is in hiding. Sources have also said he was an alleged money launderer for the cartel and owes them between $8 million and $20 million.

Cannito would only say that the amount of money was in the “millions.”

Police have added Tinnemeyer and his white, four-door 2004 Dodge Ram pickup to the Amber Alert network that has been sent out to multiple states. Numerous federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are also investigating the case.

“Tinnemeyer has stolen a large sum of money, all proceeds of illegal drug activity,” Cannito said. “There are millions of dollars involved in major drug trafficking that this individual was a part of.”

Police are also looking into potential involvement in illegal narcotics activity by other family members.

“It would be no understatement that other members of the family are involved as well,” Cannito said.

The involvement of a Mexican drug cartel in the kidnapping, sources have said, raises questions about the well-being of the boy. Cannito wouldn’t comment on whether a cartel was involved, but didn’t understate the severity of the situation.

“These are extremely dangerous people,” Cannito said. “We said it yesterday, we’ll say it again: This is as bad as it gets.”

Violence involving cartels have risen in Mexico in recent months to include women and children, according to media reports, and reports of torture and beheadings have become almost commonplace.

“The pressure (from authorities) that’s being put upon drug cartels in Mexico, and specific individuals vying for the control of the Mexican cartels, has caused an escalation in violence,” DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen said from the agency’s office in Los Angeles.

“It’s violent. It’s horrific,” she said. “And if you look at what’s happened with many of the beheadings that have happened down there, the killings that are done, are definitely to send a message, to terrorize and impact the community.”

ReviewJournal.com – News – Las Vegas police announce search for grandfather of kidnapped 6-year-old boy

Las Vegas – Plane Delayed After Suspicious Incident

McCarran passengers on a flight headed to Minneapolis were forced to get off the plane and be re-screened after a suspicious incident.

McCarran officials say a Northwest Airlines flight was boarding early this morning when the pilot noticed an employee of the wheelchair contractor had boarded the plane and was talking with a passenger. Read more