A Denver-based exhibit that seeks to renew the public’s focus on terrorism reopened on Wednesday amid rising global tension, a sobering reminder of the 9/11 attack that killed thousands of Americans and the need for vigilance against radicalism, officials said.    

While the logo of the Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab — made to look like a bomb counting down — may reference Hollywood tropes, the center’s goals and mission are squarely based in reality, officials said. 

Long after 9/11, terrorism still poses a threat to Americans, officials noted.   

Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser headlined the center’s reopening, while the event’s keynote speaker, Tom Sanderson, outlined the worldwide threat of terrorism, as well as the challenges that Coloradans face. 

“The conditions I encountered in Somalia and the other countries I conducted field work in are clearly not present in Colorado or across the U.S. in the same ways,” said Sanderson, who serves on the board of directors of Hostage U.S., a nonprofit organization that works with families of those detained by nations like Iran, Russia, North Korea and China.

“But we are not immune to violent extremism in our country, including in Colorado. We’ve seen (and foiled) attacks or plots in America in the name of ISIS, Al Qaeda and those religiously and ethnically motivated extremists,” added Sanderson, who has spent time in more than 80 countries and recently did work in Somalia, Kenya and Ukraine as a consultant. 

He called the CELL one of the “best institutions” he’s seen in his 25 years of counterterrorism.

Polis, who is Jewish, praised the efforts and mission of the CELL. 

“(Current events) highlight the need for educational efforts like the CELL,” he said. “It also works to help make sure that people can disagree better and not engage in threats or attacks on people simply because they have different points of view.” 

That perspective is one of the CELL’s key missions, exhibit leaders said, adding the exhibit seeks to educate people and avoid a path of fear that leads to anger, hate and suffering.

At several points in the exhibit, visitors can interact with objects and screens to test their knowledge on identifying extremism, all of which were created through the lens of protecting civil liberties, exhibit staffers said.

Sanderson said the mission of counterterrorism — and by extension that of the CELL — is just as important now as it was 20 years ago.

“There’s not a zero sum approach to threats. We’re focusing on China as the most significant threat, but that doesn’t mean other threats are non-existent,” he said. “The underlying conditions that led to 9/11 are as prevalent as ever. These factors make terrorism as much of a threat today as it was 10 years ago and 20 years ago.”

Sanderson specifically highlighted vast swathes of ungoverned territory worldwide, which he said can be an incubator of extremism, as well as state sponsored terrorist groups like the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah. Intensifying rivalries on the world stage serve as a “distraction from violent extremist groups” that should not be ignored, he said.  

During a news conference preceding a media tour of the exhibit, Larry Mizel, founder of the Mizel Institute, which operates the CELL and the Mizel Museum, explained why he wanted to create the exhibit. 

“After the tragic events of September 11, my daughter Courtney and I set out to create a place where everyone could learn about the most pressing security threats and become empowered to help keep their community safe,” he said. “No one really understood (at the time), but today I don’t need to explain to anyone what’s happening throughout the world.”