West January 16, 2004
http://www.backstage.com/backstage/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2071523 Ridge Putting Liaison in Hollywood
By Paul Bond
For more stories from The Hollywood Reporter Click Here
Tom Ridge said Thursday that he will station a team in Hollywood to act as a liaison between the entertainment industry and the Department of Homeland Security.
Secretary of Homeland Security Ridge, addressing a group of television executives in Beverly Hills, also suggested that Hollywood remain vigilant in light of terrorist threats leveled against it, even though there has been no recent evidence suggesting that Islamic terrorists are targeting the entertainment industry.
In this industry, Ridge said, "There's an openness, a diversity, and you reflect and affect the culture."
What radical Islamists "don't understand, don't tolerate and abhor, they destroy," he said. "The notion of New York, Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles being a potential target probably comes as no surprise."
Do you remember the section of this thread on LA and the Staples Center (was that back in the 600s?)...and the airport location and the distance between the water and the Staples Center? The demographics alone make it a target, put the Hollywood movie industry in the area and it's a highlighted target...you want bellydancers, you got them on the big screen in technicolor.
Ridge's Hollywood team is going to have a hard time keeping their eyes on the ball.