Despite the high levels of concern, the Department of Homeland Security has raised eyebrows in recent weeks by cutting terrorism prevention grants to New York and Washington, D.C., and placing Las Vegas --widely viewed as a prime terrorist target--on a "sustainment list," which could result in the city being dropped from the funding list altogether next year. That worries Sheriff Bill Young, the head of the Las Vegas police department. "We have gone to extraordinary lengths," Young says, "in providing for our tourists' safety." Many big Las Vegas casinos have hired former FBI officials as heads of security and are beefing up intelligence capabilities as much as possible, without breaking the city's signature "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" marketing promise. Las Vegas police officers have undergone suicide bombing response training, and Young is trying to get the city's 6,500 private casino security personnel on the same page.

The Los Angeles Police Department is on the cutting edge of suicide bomb response training and has deployed unprecedented security for high-profile events like the Academy Awards ceremony. Detective Ralph Morten, a former marine, 28-year LAPD veteran, and member of the bomb squad, has traveled to Israel seven times since 2002 and six times to Iraq and is helping train police departments all over California, as well as U.S. marines deployed to Iraq, about suicide bomber response. "I'm not sure we can stop these attacks from happening," says Morten. "But we sure can make it more difficult." Morten helped create a training bulletin on legal and tactical issues for LAPD officers. He and John Miller, then chief of the LAPD's counterterrorism and criminal intelligence bureau, also produced the nation's first suicide bomber interdiction training video.

The LAPD has tested and deployed thermal imaging sensors at public events, like a recent Emmy Awards ceremony, says Miller, who's now the FBI's chief spokesman. A cautionary coda: Prior to the event, the LAPD had exhaustively tested the sensor on volunteers so that officers could train their eyes to discern guns, bombs, and other objects under clothing. On Emmy night, the LAPD posted sharpshooters and plainclothes and uniformed interdiction teams around the Shrine Auditorium. Suddenly, the officer deploying the sensor reported spotting four cylindrical tubes under the jacket of a man waiting to buy tickets, much to Miller's confusion and alarm. Miller thought perhaps it was just another volunteer.

"So I asked, 'You guys still practicing?'" says Miller. "They said, 'This is not a drill.' I said, 'Oh, Oh!'" The interdiction teams swarmed in, grabbed the man, pinned his arms, and carted him away. But the mysterious tubes were merely two pairs of binoculars.

"It shows the system worked, and it shows that you have to be careful with it," says Miller. "Because if you go on the idea that any time you see a potential threat, that it's a head shot, you're going to be killing a lot of guys with binoculars. It's got to be the totality of information."

THE NEXT ATTACK

Regardless of what you think about the timing of an attack, what two methods are most likely to be used in America by global terrorists?

PERCENTAGE OF RESPONDENTS WHO SELECTED

Suicide bombing attack 67

Attack on major infrastructure 66

Attack using radiological weapon 20

Cyberattack 12

Attack on chemical or nuclear plants 11

Chemical weapon attack 10

Biological weapon attack 9

Nuclear weapon attack 6

Sources: Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for American Progress