EmergencyNet News *Flash* Report

02/19/98 - 12:15CST

By C. L. Staten, ERRI Sr. Analyst

Las Vegas, NV - (EmergencyNet News) --Two men, alleged members of a white supremacy group called the "Aryan Nation" have been taken into custody in connection with an alleged plot to release a biological agent into the subway system of New York City. They were reportedly arrested outside a doctor's office in Henderson, Nevada. Both individuals in custody are believed to be U.S. citizens.

A senior emergency official in New York City told EmergencyNet News that the FBI in Las Vegas had accused two men with possession of a "dangerous biological substance" suspected to be anthrax or a similar agent. Sources close to the investigation emphasized that the identity of the agent has not been verified at this time. A vehicle driven by the two suspects has been impounded and taken to Nellis Air Force base for further examination.

According to federal officials, special teams and chemical/biological experts have been dispatched to Nevada to assist in the investigation. Other special assets have been alerted should they be needed in the case. An unconfirmed report received by EmergencyNet News, would suggest that one of the men involved in the Henderson incident may have been previously arrested for involvement with biological substances.

Emergencynet News will continue to monitor events in Las Vegas and New York and will provide additional details as more becomes available.

From the ERRI Watch Center

LAS VEGAS (EmergencyNet News) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation acted on information from an informant and arrested two men in possession of the dangerous biological material known anthrax on Wednesday evening.

The FBI had been following the men by ground and air, briefly losing them in the desert darkness. They were arrested in Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb, as they allegedly tried to arrange the lab test with the informant for $20 million.

The men were charged Thursday with possessing a deadly material for use as a weapon. The two-count complaint alleges conspiracy to possess and possession of a biological agent. The FBI would not discuss a potential motive. In an affidavit, the FBI said one suspect was a white supremacist who last summer spoke of a plan to release bubonic plague on New York City subway system, causing "hundreds of thousands of deaths" in a massacre that would ruin the economy, surprise the military and be blamed on Iraqis.

The main suspect is 46-year-old Larry Wayne Harris, of Lancaster, Ohio. His accomplice was identified as William Leavitt, age 47, of Las Vegas.

U.S. government experts are still running tests on the material seized to determine whether the anthrax was military grade or simply an anthrax livestock vaccine.

Leavitt has no criminal record and owns a microbiology lab in Logandale, north of Las Vegas, and another in Frankfurt, Germany. The informant told the FBI that Leavitt told him he had "military grade anthrax" in flight bags in the trunk of the Mercedes that was also confiscated in Henderson. The informant said he saw eight to ten bags marked "biological" in the trunk of the car.

The FBI said the two suspects were attempting to arrange to buy the informant's testing equipment for $2 million up front and another $18 million later.

FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Bobby Siller said authorities acted quickly on the tip from the informant because of the potential danger from anthrax, an infectious disease that usually afflicts only animals, especially cattle and sheep. But anthrax spores can be produced in a dry form suitable for weapons and can be fatal to humans in microscopic amounts. Siller added that there was no indication the men had any target.

Almost immediately, the arrests raised the specter of domestic chemical/biological terrorism and Clark Staten, senior analyst of ERRI, was contacted by several local and national emergency response agencies. ERRI provided an update (see above report) and began to consult and provide background information to both government agencies and the media. He was interviewed 'live' about the Las Vegas situation by several national and local news outlets.

After the arrests at a business complex in Henderson, the Mercedes the men were driving was sealed in plastic and taken to Nellis Air Force Base. The FBI affidavit said the informant called them on Wednesday to say he was a research scientist and had been contacted by Harris and Leavitt, who asked him to use some of his equipment to test vials of the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which causes anthrax.

Over the next 12 hours, the informant kept in touch with the FBI and at least one phone call was recorded. The FBI document also outlined a meeting of Harris and Leavitt with another man at the Gold Coast Hotel. That man, who was neither identified nor charged, was later found by the FBI and related their conversation.

The FBI affidavit said: "Harris had shown him what appeared to be a vial, which was wrapped in cardboard and stated that it contained anthrax. Harris held the vial in his hand and further stated that there was enough there to `wipe out the city.'"

The FBI did confirm the informant's claims to be a research scientist, specializing in cancer research. The source had two felony convictions for conspiracy to commit extortion in 1981 and 1982, but the FBI said there was no deal cut for his cooperation. The informant said he first met Harris at a Denver science convention last August and met Leavitt about six weeks ago. The three allegedly were working on a project to test a device to supposedly "deactivate" viruses and bacteria.

According to the FBI, the suspects had also contacted the informant "some time ago" about testing E. coli and Bacillus subtilis bacteria, and on Tuesday told the source they had other organisms to test, including Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus anthracis.

The FBI observed Harris and Leavitt leaving a hotel at 1830 MST on Wednesday, with Leavitt carrying a white foam cooler which he placed in the Mercedes. They met the informant at a restaurant before going to the medical office, where they were arrested an hour later.

Harris is well known to authorities and in the internet conspiracy groups. In a 1997 interview for a documentary, Harris claimed he got anthrax spores by sinking a probe into a 20-year-old burial site for cows infected with the disease. Harris claimed he cultured the spores in his lab, but would not say if he possessed anthrax.

One Las Vegas FBI agent said that Harris was notorious enough that when his name came up in the Las Vegas case "our planning and care level raised 20 levels higher."

Also in 1997, Harris pleaded guilty to a count of fraud after he was accused of illegally obtaining freeze-dried, inactive bubonic plague bacteria through the mail from a Maryland laboratory. Harris is the author of a self-published book called "Bacteriological Warfare: A Major Threat to North America," and said he never intended to hurt anyone and was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

Harris has often claimed that he wants to raise Americans' consciousness about the possibility of a biological attack. In one interview, he said conversations with a graduate student from Iraq sensitized him to the threat of bio-terrorism from that country.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer was reporting on Friday that Harris, on a shortwave radio program in 1996, said he worked for the CIA from 1985 to 1990, training Iraqi scientists in biological warfare.

Harris said in an interview on "The Intelligence Report," a program produced by the militia-linked Wolverine Productions of Ann Arbor, Michigan: "I was actively involved in training Iraqi microbiologists on how to conduct biological warfare. We provided the weapons for them. We trained them." Harris said the plan was for Iraq, then a U.S. ally, to use the materials against Iran.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which publishes the quarterly newsletter Intelligence Report about such hate groups, says that Harris was an Aryan Nations member at the time of the plague case.

Harris, at first, denied he had been a member, but Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler said Thursday that Harris joined the group in the early 1990s and left in 1995.

Even though no one has ever carried out a deadly act of biological terrorism in the United States, experts warn that it may just be a matter of time. The Internet and self-published books abound with information on how to grow and distribute biological toxins, make it relatively easy for anyone with a grudge to injure or kill.

Jonathan Aronson, a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California and an expert on terrorism, said, "We've been very lucky so far. We should be very worried. We already have a delivery system for delivering these things called express mail. We can whip this stuff up much more easily than a lot of people are comfortable with."

According to Maurice Eisenstein, a security and weapons of mass destruction consultant for the think-tank Rand Corp, it is relatively easy to obtain a sample of a deadly bacteria from a laboratory and grow it at home. Many self-published books and the Internet provide information on how to grow and distribute the material. He added that hate groups such as the Aryan Nations known for violence against the federal government are much more likely to use a biological weapon.

Eisenstein said, "If they had vial of this stuff and knew how to use it you could easily do what they did in Oklahoma City, without explosives."

In many cities, such as Los Angeles, there are several multi-agency teams in place that train for possible biological attacks, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, head of emergency operations for the nation's most populous county. Block, however, admitted that the public isn't well educated on how to respond in case of such attacks.

Block said, "This country has never been conditioned to deal with this type of situation."

Several experts agree there's no reason to panic or stockpile gas masks, some questioned whether Americans might have to give up some civil liberties in order to stay safe.

Tom Preston, the president of Preston International, a Versailles, Kentucky, -based company that helps organizations prepare and respond to terrorism and workplace violence, said federal law enforcement agencies have recently beefed up their counterterrorism units.

Preston said, "It is a point well made that they consider it more of a threat than in the past." He believes that militia and hate groups have doubled in size in the last two years.

He added that combating terrorism may mean that citizens will undergo more scrutiny in public places -- searches at the airport, sporting events or concerts, even random stops on the street.

If there were a terrorist act on U.S. soil, an elaborate contingency plan, with the FBI as the lead agency and involving as many as a dozen other federal agencies, would go into action immediately. Federal officials caution they have no information that the threat of a terrorist strike has heightened because of Iraqi-U.S. tensions.

The "chemical/biological incident contingency plan," an outline for crisis management, has been in place since the late '80s and is continually updated. It relies on the cooperation of, among others, the Defense Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Public Health Service and, particularly if the president's personal safety were at risk, the Secret Service.