Olympic Security: Questions Continue

An Olympics that starts on Friday the 13th might make superstitious folks jittery.

If that doesn’t, then the bombs exploding from time to time in Athens surely would.

All the assurances in the world -- and there are plenty coming from Greek Minister of Public Order George Voulgarakis, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Olympic officials of all stripes -- do not lessen worries about the Summer Games.

At $1.2 billion and rising daily, the price tag for security at the Athens Olympics, Aug. 13-29, raises questions for the Greeks and for all athletes and spectators:

* Where is all that money going and will even that much buy peace of mind?

* Does it make sense to spend so much to protect two weeks of sports?

* Will the Games wreck Athens’ economy?

* Will other cities want to take on similar or greater costs for future Olympics?

* And why, amid all that security, are bombs still going off?

There are no easy answers.

The security bill is double what was estimated two years ago -- and nearly four times what was spent in Sydney -- when officials calculated what would be needed to protect the Games from terrorists in a post-Sept. 11 world.

That money is coming out of Greek pockets, whether from the Olympic committee or the government. It’s going toward 70,000 police and soldiers, NATO air and sea patrols, and a dazzling array of high-tech security devices that nobody wants to talk about too much.

Except for the big numbers that are supposed to keep everyone calm, it’s all very hush-hush, and for good reason. But when bombs go off, even little ones apparently set by self-styled local anarchists, one wonders whether there aren’t holes in the plan and perhaps big bucks that are being misspent.

After a series of timed blasts in Athens that caused no injuries last week, Voulgarakis said Greek and U.S. officials have no information to suggest international terrorist cells are operating in Greece and no evidence of plots aimed at the Olympics.

That could mean no such cells or plots exist, or that the security people simply don’t know about them.

For athletes or spectators, a bomb is scary no matter who is behind it. All it took to set everyone on edge in Atlanta was one person’s deadly homemade bomb that went off among strolling tourists in the Olympic park.

“This Olympics has the potential of enormous symbolic appeal to terrorists,” terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman of the Rand think tank told Associated Press. He said the activities of homegrown terrorist groups in Greece show that the country is still at risk despite the new levels of security.

“From Al Qaeda’s point of view it’s manna from heaven because you now have another group the Greeks have to be concerned with,” Hoffman said. “It increases the attraction for the really more serious terrorists to take advantage of this opportunity.”

American athletes might be the most high-profile targets. The war in Iraq and revelations of prisoner mistreatment have only increased antipathy toward U.S. policies. But the goals of terrorists could be achieved just as easily by attacking tourists on the street or in hotels.

American travelers to these games are likely to be down about 20% from Sydney, said Don Williams, vice president of sales and marketing for Cartan Tours, an official licensee for the Olympics.

“There are four main reasons,” Williams said. “No. 1 is the worry about security. Next there’s the value of the U.S. dollar against the euro, the fact that there are fewer seats available because of smaller stadiums, and weakness in the general economy.”

Athens will be expensive for Americans even if the economy in Greece is not exactly booming.

The $1.2 billion the Greeks are spending for two weeks of security could be going toward schools and hospitals, things that many Athenians consider higher priorities than a big show -- even if they take pride in being the birthplace of the Olympics.

It’s easy to argue that security at any price is worthwhile if it prevents deaths. It’s part of the cost of freedom, money well spent to fight terrorism and go on with the good things that bring people together in the name of peace, like the Olympics.

But maybe we should all question whether the Olympics have outgrown their usefulness. If Athens is saddled with decades of debt, will this summer’s Games be fondly remembered?

And what about the future Games? China, with its expanding economy and tightly controlled government, might not find itself in the same predicament as Greece. But the bidders for the 2012 Summer Olympics -- including New York, London, Moscow, Paris, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Istanbul, Turkey -- might find even their considerable budgets strained by the games.

A decision on which of those and other bidders made the short list for 2012 will be made next week. The winners could be losers.