Go to Main Article

Counter-Terrorism to Be Olympic Event

Federal authorities, saying the U.S. Olympics in Atlanta this summer could become a prime target for terrorists, for the first time at such a gathering are taking precautions against the use of unconventional weaponry such as poison gas, germ weapons or even a nuclear device.

Although the FBI said it has "not identified a credible [terrorist] threat" against the Games, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and last year's bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building have provoked heightened concern about the possibility of some kind of terrorist attack at the Olympics.

Moreover, the terrorist use of poison gas in the Tokyo subway system last year has sown unprecedented anxiety about threats from unconventional weapons, which can be far more deadly than explosives. As a result, a task force under Vice President Gore has been devoting considerable effort to preparing for what officials say until recently was a virtually unthinkable event in this country.

In protecting against all kinds of threats, Olympic officials are forming what they describe as the largest security force ever assembled in peacetime for a public U.S. event. The group will be more than double the force of 12,000 law enforcement officers that protected the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, an event that had only half as many athletes.

Billed as the largest international sporting event in history, the Atlanta Olympics formally open July 19 and will nearly double the city's population. One official compared the fundamental logistical challenge to holding seven Super Bowls per day for 17 days in a single city, at the same time that a half million people are constantly in transit nearby. More than 40 heads of state are expected to visit, each requiring protection by the U.S. Secret Service.

With roughly two-thirds of the Olympic sporting events packed into a relatively small area near the city's center, and as many as 1.5 million to 2 million spectators, officials said they are concerned that the event could provide the world's extremists or kooks with a rare opportunity to command wide public attention.

Those attending the Games will see only a small portion of the immense security operation. At its heart will be an estimated 3,000 Army troops, 6,300 National Guardsmen, and at least 10,000 other police and private security guards at peak strength, with an additional force of agents from the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and other federal agencies stationed nearby.

Security officials said they will try to strike a balance between ensuring adequate protection and transforming the Olympic grounds into an armed camp. The troops will not carry weapons, for example. "We keep telling everybody we will be armed with a radio and a smile," said Maj. Gen. Robert R. Hicks Jr., head of the Army Forces Command in Atlanta.

The unorthodox preparations also include a series of secret exercises by the FBI and other agencies to simulate a chemical, nuclear or biological attack and cope with the mayhem it might produce.

In one drill, staged by the FBI and other federal and local agencies in Atlanta over a three-day period last week, a mock terrorist group carrying deadly VX nerve gas drove a van through the city and crashed into a tanker carrying gasoline while other members of the same group held passengers hostage aboard a hijacked plane at the Atlanta airport.

Several officials said the field exercise was the first ever to be held by U.S. authorities involving a simulated release of poison gas at a public event.

In another exercise last month under the direction of the Defense Nuclear Agency, a terrorist group threatened to detonate a nuclear device composed of spent reactor fuel near Atlanta's center. Still another simulation is planned involving the use of germ weapons, according to congressional testimony last month by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Thomas E. Swain.

"I believe the Atlanta Olympics will be most security-conscious . . . in history," said Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), who has been monitoring the effort and pressuring federal agencies to coordinate their activities more carefully with each other and with local officials. Steve Wrigley, executive assistant to Georgia Gov. Zell Miller (D), said of the terrorist threat, "I think it's obviously something that's on everybody's minds."

At a White House task force meeting April 12, Gore negotiated what one official described as a 10 to 20 percent increase in the total Olympic security force to correct deficiencies identified in secret reports by several federal agencies. But the official would not explain what those deficiencies are.

Underscoring the high-level attention the problem is getting, the field exercise last week included Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick and other senior officials in Washington, with Gore's staff getting a daily briefing. In a real crisis, Gorelick would have to help decide when special U.S. military units should be dispatched to help the FBI capture suspected terrorists.

In a separate exercise next month, 70 officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other organizations plan to board a high-tech military plane outfitted as a disaster command post for a practice emergency flight to Atlanta. The plane, which was developed by the Pentagon for use in a nuclear war, will be on standby during the games.

Federal authorities will establish two Atlanta "explosive centers," where conventional bombs can be detonated or defused, in contrast to the single such center established in Los Angeles in 1984 and used to disarm an unspecified number of explosives, one official said. The centers will be supported by dozens of military and civilian explosives detection teams checking autos and trucks in sensitive areas.

"We expect hundreds of bomb threats [in Atlanta] . . . and we will have the most high-tech detection gear available," the official added.

The Defense Department, meanwhile, is planning to deploy special chemical or germ weapon detection gear around some of the sites where sporting events are scheduled. Its troops will also be equipped with night vision goggles to help guard the Olympic Village; in addition, Army helicopters will be outfitted with special infrared radars to track nighttime movements at key sites.

The Pentagon's office of special operations and low-intensity conflict plans to place its elite counter-terrorism teams -- which have been vaccinated against likely disease agents -- in readiness for swift transfer to Atlanta.

Although such military forces usually are barred by law from involvement in law enforcement, the Justice Department and the White House have already prepared unsigned, legal authorizations to use the forces at the Olympic Games if necessary.

"For any terrorist group that would like to make a statement or extort demands from the U.S. government, [the Olympics] . . . constitutes a very juicy target," a Defense Department official said. "We don't have any special intelligence that there is going to be an attack on the Games, but we are in the Boy Scout frame [of mind]: Be prepared."

Some of the U.S. efforts are aimed at preventing an eruption of regional and ethnic rivalries among participants. But counter-terrorism experts are mostly worried about possible threats arising from outside the Olympic community, such as extremist groups of Chechens, Kurds, Serbs, Islamic fundamentalists, or perhaps guerrillas from Thailand and the Philippines, one of which might target the Games to "make a really big splash," as one official said.

To keep tabs on such potential foreign threats, around 25 CIA officers will be stationed alongside officers from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the FBI at an "all-source" intelligence command post to be established at an undisclosed location in the Atlanta area.

In the event of a disaster, the FBI -- which has taken the lead role in security planning -- plans to hand off overall management to FEMA. FEMA has a detachment of special high-tech trucks stationed at Thomasville, Ga., that it would use as command posts; the trucks, which were developed by the Pentagon during the Cold War, can sustain 100 persons for 10 days with air and water that is filtered to keep out radiation and other lethal substances.

The cost of all these efforts has not been calculated, officials said. But the Pentagon budget for supporting the Games is at least $47 million and the state of Georgia has committed to spending an additional $25 million on security. "People can go to the Games feeling reasonably safe," one federal official said. "These efforts are being made not because we expect trouble, but to prevent trouble."