Subject: [NEXTEL-1] The Olympics: How Safe?

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 17:57:33 -0400

The Olympics: How Safe?
In terrorism's shadow, Athens gears up for the most
security-conscious Games ever

By Jack Ewing in Athens, with Brian Hindo and Ciro Scotti in New York

Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET June 24, 2004

Police with automatic weapons and guard dogs patrol a fenced-off
perimeter. Fighters and AWACS surveillance planes circle overhead.
Armed frogmen -- and further out, powerful warships -- guard the nearby
waters. Spy cameras and motion sensors pinpoint intruders.  Metal
detectors and X-ray machines scan all entrants.

A summit of world
leaders? No, just
another round of field
hockey, shot put, or
ping-pong at the
Athens Olympics.
Whatever feats are in
store at the 2004
Summer Games, the
Greeks have already
shattered the record
for security
measures. They will
spend $1.2 billion --
four times what was
spent by Sydney in 2000 --
with much of the money
being used to turn 126
stadiums, athlete housing,
and other Olympics-related
facilities into virtual armed camps.

The heavy weaponry was inevitable for these Summer Games, the first
since September 11. Now, with less than two months remaining until the
opening ceremonies on Aug. 13, Athens officials are straining to
reassure athletes, participating nations, and sports fans that the city
will be as risk-free as humans can make it. Yet terrorism fears appear
to be keeping some fans away, raising the embarrassing prospect of
swaths of empty stands. All that led Mayor Dora Bakoyannis to take her
not-to-worry road show to New York and Washington in early June, telling
Americans that Athens is tanned, rested, [almost] ready -- and
fortified. "The answer to terrorism must be given," she said in New
York, "and it will be given by Athens." But cheerleading aside, how safe
will the Olympics be?

SPARING NO EXPENSE

For Greek organizers, already criticized for getting started too late on
stadium construction and other preparations, security is a massive
burden. When Athens won the Games in 1998, no one dreamed of the deadly
terrorist attacks that lay ahead. Now organizers must walk a narrow
line: They have to deter potential attackers and calm visitors and
athletes. Yet they can't be so heavy-handed that the Olympic Village
feels like Stalag 17. "We will try to keep a balance. The Games are not
a military event," says Colonel Eleftherios Ikonomou of the Public Order
Ministry, which oversees security preparations.
Greece has a lot riding on safe Games. Its massive investment in
infrastructure such as mass transportation could hit $12 billion, or 7%
of gross domestic product -- about twice original estimates. The outlays
have blown a hole in the national budget: Greece's deficit hit 3.2% last
year, over the 3% Maastricht Treaty limit for euro zone members, and is
estimated to rise even higher this year, depending on the final cost of
the Olympics.

The budget-busting will pay off only if Greece can demonstrate to the
world that it is a modern country able to handle a huge management
challenge. So the government is sparing no expense to create a safe
Olympics. Some 41,000 police will keep an eye on sports venues as well
as major hotels. An additional 10,000 Greek soldiers will provide
backup, while special forces will lurk in secret locations, ready to
storm buildings or defuse bombs.

No threat is too far-fetched. Patriot missiles will guard the skies. In
the port of Piraeus, where more than 13,000 visitors will sleep aboard
docked cruise ships, sensors on the ocean floor and armed frogmen will
protect against underwater attacks. About $300 million will be spent on
a surveillance and emergency communications system that includes some
1,600 Siemens closed-circuit TV cameras. The security project is led by
Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC], a $6.7 billion NASA and
U.S. military contractor that has developed battlefield software. San
Diego-based SAIC designed a system for the Salt Lake City Winter
Olympics in 2002, but this one is four times as large. Other big
contractors are Motorola, which is supplying a $25 million,
two-way-radio system, and E Team Inc., a Los Angeles company that
specializes in emergency-response software.

Organizers are even girding for cyber-terrorists. Not only have attacks
increased since Sydney but so have destructive computer viruses that
could scramble competition results. Paris-based Atos Origin, which will
oversee information technology for the Games, has developed software
that alerts technicians of aberrant traffic patterns, such as someone
trying to log in with a false password too many times.

FEARS AMONG FANS?

No one suggests such measures are foolproof. "We all know it's a
troubled world," says Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, president of the
Athens 2004 Organizing Committee. As if to emphasize how hard it is to
protect an open society, local anarchists have been planting homemade
bombs around Athens in recent months. "These groups have been operating
for years. They very rarely injure anyone. It's just that they know this
is a great opportunity to scare people," says James Ker-Lindsay,
director of Civilitas Research, a think tank in Cyprus.

Security preparations have been made even tougher by construction delays
on many venues. Unfinished projects, for example, are holding up
installation of SAIC's surveillance system. The May deadline for
completion has come and gone, but builders insist it will be in place
and tested by the end of June.

At least ticket and package tour sales seem to be picking up after a
slow start. Most of the expensive tickets to Olympic events are gone,
helping the organizing committee meet 90% of its revenue goal of $220
million. About 3 million less expensive tickets remain unsold, though,
and agents estimate that 15% could still be available once the Games are
under way. Officials attribute the delay to the lower purchasing power
of Greeks and a cultural inclination to do things at the last moment.
There are indications, though, that Americans in particular are worried
about personal safety. Many affluent fans will be staying on yachts
offshore for as much as $30,000 a week, in part for security reasons,
says Richard M. Copland, CEO of the American Society of Travel Agents.
German travel company Dertour says it has booked 90% of the available
beds on a cruise ship that will be docked in Piraeus, at more than
$3,000 per person for a five-day stay. Athens "will be the safest place
on earth. But people are nervous, and justly so," says Sead Dizdarevic,
president of Jet Set Sports, a Far Hills [N.J.] travel-package outfit.

Of course, it's not clear if sports fans fear terrorism -- or just an
explosion of their credit-card balances. Jet Set advertises rooms
without event tickets beginning at about $300 per night for a budget
hotel and as much as $2,900 for luxury digs. Dimitri Georgi, a retired
Westinghouse Electric engineer, was shocked to find that a favorite
hotel outside of Athens wanted $7,800 per night for a bungalow, albeit
near a pleasant slice of Mediterranean coast. "I said: 'Hang on, I don't
want to buy the place, just rent it,"' says Georgi, a native of Greece
who has lived in Germany most of his life. He is waiting to see if
prices come down. If they don't, Athens can always pray that terrorists
will be scared off, too.

Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5286718/