Security Blanket
The Secret Service leads the effort to protect 2,500 Olympic athletes and a million spectators
Some of the Secret Service's counterterror measures seem worthy of a James Bond movie. Securing a 2-mile ski run is trickier, for example, than securing the entrances to an ice-skating rink. But Secret Service agents-buttressed by special forces teams from the National Guard, Forest Service cops, and backcountry Park Service rangers-will patrol the frigid alpine venues 24 hours a day by snowmobile, on skis, and on snowshoes. Sharpshooters will be stationed on some mountaintops, and alpine observation teams will be equipped with infrared night-vision goggles and thermal imagery equipment that can detect the elevated body temperature of intruders.
To prevent aerial assault, F-16 aircraft will be on alert at nearby Hill Air Force Base, and U.S. Customs Service agents will patrol the skies in Black Hawk helicopters. Throughout the Olympics, Salt Lake City International Airport will be at the center of restricted airspace that extends more than 50 miles, and it will shut down during the opening and closing ceremonies, which expect to host more than 40,000 people. Gliders, crop-dusters, and radio remote-controlled aircraft will be banned from re stricted airspace. Anthrax precautions have been boosted, too. All mail will be inspected off site and screened for biohazards, and chemical and biological sensors have been added in and around venues.
Utah and Salt Lake provide several other unexpected deterrents to terrorist assault. The September 11 attacks caught virtually everyone off guard in New York and Washington, but Olympic planners have known for years the exact time and place that events will take place. "Terrorists depend on surprise and complacency, and they won't find it here," says Governor Leavitt. In fact, September 11 may provide a security dividend. "The public is much more ready to report suspicious activity to law enforcement now," says the UOPSC's Tubbs. And while Salt Lake competition venues are spread over a vast area, the winter games are actually much smaller than the summer games-the 2000 Sydney games, for example, had roughly four times as many events and athletes as Salt Lake.
Well prepared. The relatively remote location and modest size of Salt Lake City provide additional counterterror protections. "Geography gives me some encouragement,'' says Mitt Romney, president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. "You couldn't close down airspace on the East Coast in New York City or Atlanta area for an extended time like we will do here." If an attack does occur, Salt Lake is one of the best-prepared cities in the country to handle it, owing to its long history of training for possible contamination from chemical and biological weapons stored at nearby Army depots. Nine hospitals in the area are prepared to decontaminate victims of chemical attacks.
Olympic officials hope that peaceful protests and the many hoaxes the games inevitably attract don't distract from maintaining security. Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson has limited protest demonstrations to eight designated areas during the games, and several groups have already applied for protest permits. "We don't want the real bad guy to get away while we are diverted dealing with an animal rights protest group," says the Secret Service's Camillo.
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