Olympic security

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I think the fear would be equal as both can result in death. the difference between Sars and terrorist bombings is that one is random and localized and the other is random and covers a wide area. Other then that not much difference at all.

 

not to be alarmist, but a single terrorist act could easily wipe out our sr. nat. team. if you're talking about a choice, bring on sars any day.

 

As for the terrorist threats... they go for the big bang. The soccer tournaments are on the outskirts in smaller towns. Not as likely a location.
SARS is preventable!!! A healthy person doesn't get it.

GB out.....

 

perhaps because you believe this to be true, they make good targets?

 

Here's something from the May 17 edition of Sports Illustrated:

Athens organizers say that security has always been their No. 1 priority. The budget for safe-guarding these Olympics is $1.2 billion, almost six times the amount spent in Sydney for the 2000 Games. More than 70,000 security personnel are expected to be in place in August, and the job of protecting the Olympics is being handled not by the Greeks alone, but also by a seven nation task force that includes the United States, Britain, France, Israel and Germany. (Similar arrangements were also in place in Salt Lake City.) NATO will provide air surveillance.

"I would tell athletes to definitely go," says FBI speicla agent Ray Mey, a senior representative on Olympic security who has been making regular trips to Athens for the last two years to discuss antiterrorist plans with Greek law enforcement officials. "The world in general is a dangerous place to travel now. But vigilance level will be high in Greece."

Athletes seize on such reassuring words. "I think we are going to be the most protected people on the planet [during the Olympics]," Australian field hockey player Katrina Powell said last week. Adds U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, whose gold medals figures to one of the Games' biggest stories, "It's pretty much going to be like Fort Knox over there."

 

While most may be worried about Bombings, I am far more concerned about another Munich. All it takes is for these people to just have one person on the inside with direct proximity to the players/team and they are in. Here's to hopeing they have done a serious and therough background check on every person involved in security and transportation of the atheletes.

 

Why don't just tell all Terrorist's organization around the world to stop their activities during the months of Olympic, I think if we tell them nicely they will listen...........

 

My comments above are based on Military Intell FACTS!!!! I work with Army Intelligence and know certain tendencies of these "people". I use the word people only because I do not think the animal kingdom deserves to have them called animals.
Terrorists want BIG bangs. If we know what they are planning in advance then it takes the thrill away.

LOGIC AND KNOWLEDGE

GB out........

 

I actually am more worried about bombings. Munich occured because the organizers did not want to believe that such an event could happen.

I may have the exact details wrong, but before the games, at the request of the organizers, a criminologist put together a list of about 20 scenarios of terrorist attacks. One was a Palestinian group sneaking over the fence and taking hostages. The organizers thanked the criminologist and did not implement any of his suggestions. In fact, the German police were mostly unarmed. "Black September" (a PLO front group) followed the criminologist's scenario almost exactly. The Germans did not have a SWAT team, so they simply found 3 officers who shooted competatively on weekends to try and stop the terrorists. They were sent into position without radios and without a plan. So the result was no surprise.

Given the advances in European anti-terror techniques, I doubt the same could happen.

A bomb however, is easier to place, and less likely to be discovered. And I am not so worried about Arab terrorist groups as I am about Greek homegrown terrorists. Greece has a history of radical Marxist/anarchist terror groups who were formed initially to fight the royalists after WWII but got new life when the Greek Army seized control of the country in 1967. When the Army was finally overthrown in the 1970s, these groups then turned their wrath on the socialist dominated governments who they felt had "betrayed" the people be setting up a democracy and not a communist government.

While most of these groups have been destroyed, their remnants are still out there and they are increasingly desperate. They recently enagaged in a few attacks in Athens, and said they did not want wealthy foreigners comeing to Greece for the games.

All that said, the Greeks have a lot of experience dealing with these groups. The Bill of Rights does not apply to Greece, and their police has been known to deal with these groups harshly.

I am more worried that the stadia and facilities will not be ready in time.

 

Hey anthony:

thanks for shareing your knowledge of the history serounding the tragedy in Munich.
here is my 2 cents for what it is worth which with the rise of inflation is not much. but; here it goes anyway.
Picture this. athens itself is going to be heavily fortified with military police from several different countries, local police and event security staff. Athens itself will be a vairiable fortress.
but; some events will be occuring outside of that wall of security. While there will be a pocket of security around the venue, it will not be nearly as well protected as the city of Athens itself. Don't think that that has not crossed the minds of terrorists groups and those with a political agenda. as has been said We are not the favorite kid in the sand box right now. How many Hi-jackings have occured to get certain political prisoners released?
and as for terrorism?.....well it is not only terror that they want to create, but; in so doing they also want to make a statment. thus the targets they choose for bombings.
Now let us take this one step further. You have atheletes wearing the red white and blue of the hated U.S. of A.......seems to me that no matter how you slice it, that makes them a very pleasing target. and the easier to get to that target (because the location is far more isolated comparatively) not only in planing but in implimentation the more likely that location to bare the brunt of attack no matter what mode that attack may come in or it's purpose.