Olympic delegation will travel without security personnel

THE Irish Olympic delegation travelling to Athens next month will not be employing any security personnel additional to that provided by Greek authorities.

Olympic Council of Ireland chiefs and senior gardaí are satisfied with the security for competitors having attended a high level meeting on the issue last month.

“Members of the gardaí attended a security conference last month along with Pat Hickey where they heard a briefing from the organising committee on the security in place,” OCI spokesperson Jack McGouran said yesterday. “The gardaí were very happy with the response from that meeting.

“As a result of that we have no intention of bring out any bodyguards or security for our personnel,” he confirmed.

“In the past we have had security, such as members of the gardaí, especially for the Moscow Games in 1980. But, on the back of last month’s meeting, and following advice from high ranking gardaí, we are perfectly happy with that provided by the Organising Committee,” said McGouran. Around 70,000 security personnel will outnumber athletes in the unprecedented proportion of almost seven to one.

Greece expects to spend around €1.2 billion on the Games’ security, five times more than at the previous summer Olympics in Sydney.

NATO will provide AWACS air surveillance planes and parts of its Mediterranean fleet as well as its biochemical battalion unit to safeguard the Games.

Officials from seven countries are advising Greece on security - the United States, Britain, Australia, Germany, France, Spain and Israel and other countries such as Russia, China and Italy are providing intelligence.

Yesterday the Greek Public Order minister said that foreign athletes can be accompanied by armed guards from their countries, but only outside Olympic venues at next month’s Games.

Security personnel from embassies in Greece accredited here for some time could accompany athletes from their countries while carrying arms, but will have to part with them when entering Olympic venues, the minister told an Athens radio station. “All teams can have their escorts... if these escorts are security personnel from their embassy accredited by the (Greek foreign ministry) for a long time, (they) will get to the stadiums, leave their weapons and enter the stadium,” said Minister Yiorgos Voulgarakis.

Separately, around 400 United States Special Forces would be on standby to intervene in the August 13-29 Games in case of a major emergency.

Greece’s leftist parties and Greek media have protested in recent days against what they called “Big Brother” style surveillance of the city for the Games by a camera-carrying balloon backing up some 1,000 security cameras on the ground.

Israel, which lost 11 athletes to Palestinian terrorists in the 1972 Munich Games, will send armed guards and is among a half-dozen countries contributing security expertise at Greece’s request.

Still, the brunt of securing the games rests with the Greeks, whose pride at being the hosts is tempered by private concerns.

Greek officials have said confidently they are on top of the security problem.