Security Breach Is Latest Blunder

Olympic organizers struggling with transportation snafus and technological glitches Tuesday were trying to explain another embarrassing slip-up: Security guards allowed a man with a gun to slip into the stadium where President Clinton and other dignitaries were to attend opening ceremonies.

The man, who wore a security guard’s uniform, was arrested at 7:15 p.m. Friday, before Clinton arrived, Olympic officials said. He carried a loaded semiautomatic .45-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun and a pocketknife.

“I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to determine how he got in,” said William Rathburn, Olympic security director.

The Atlanta Games are being touted as the most heavily guarded event ever held on U.S. soil, with an unprecedented price tag for the 30,000 security personnel and variety of high-tech devices being employed to protect athletes and spectators. The opening ceremonies, attended by the president, the first lady, important U.S. officials and foreign heads of state, was supposed to be one of the most secure events of the Games.

But authorities were not able to adequately sweep the venue before the start of the ceremony because a security fence wasn’t erected until 4:20 p.m., Friday, about four hours before the start of opening ceremonies, Rathburn said.

“The perimeter fence was not completed and the area not sealed until a very short time before the ceremonies began,” he said. “Ideally, it should have gone up days before the opening ceremonies. We would’ve had a lot more confidence in the security that was in place.”

The security breach was the latest in a host of glitches that have bedeviled the Games, which continue until Aug. 4. The International Olympic Committee has demanded that local organizers act swiftly to solve transportation and technology problems that have marred the first five days and has even called Mayor Bill Campbell into meetings to ensure the city is doing all it can to assist.

Indications are that local organizers simply have been overwhelmed by the scope of their responsibilities. The Atlanta Games are the largest in history, with a projected attendance of 2 million and 10,700 athletes from 197 countries participating.

Only 7,055 athletes participated when the Games were held in Los Angeles in 1984. The 11 million tickets available to events in Atlanta are more than the tickets available in the Los Angeles, Barcelona and Lillehammer Olympics combined.

An estimated $300 million is being spent on security, most of the money coming from the federal government. But with all of the attention being paid to security in the wake of recent terrorist events, a man with no ticket, no credentials and a holstered gun in plain sight managed to get into the stadium.

Rolland Atkins, 55, of Aurora, Colo., was arrested Friday when security personnel noticed him sitting in a spectator seat wearing a security guard’s uniform. Officials say he had no connection to Olympic security.

After Secret Service agents determined he posed no threat to dignitaries, he was turned over to local police who charged him with criminal trespass, carrying a pistol without a license and theft of services.

A police spokeswoman said Tuesday he had been released on bail.

Atkins, who has a criminal record in Colorado, including arrests for assault and shoplifting, told authorities he wore the uniform and carried the weapon only because he wanted to get into the stadium to watch the program.

Rathburn was unsure whether security personnel allowed him through checkpoints or if he was able to sneak into the stadium before the fence was erected.

If he entered before the facility was “locked down,” Rathburn said, “that would mean he entered several hours before the ceremonies began and somehow was not visible to security personnel until he was arrested. . . .

“A lot of people might have seen him earlier and might have assumed he was a police officer,” he said.

Rathburn said he did not know why there was a delay in erecting the fence, which was put up by a contractor. Nor had any security personnel been found who admitted allowing Atkins into the stadium.

Rathburn said, however, that security measures had been increased at venues to keep similar breaches from occurring.

“We’re very concerned about this having happened, and we’re going to do everything we can to avoid a recurrence,” he said.

Mal Hemmerling, chief executive officer of Sydney 2000, the organization that is putting on the next summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, said no city is really prepared until the Games actually start. But he has been closely observing the Atlanta Games in hopes of learning from the mistakes here.

“Atlanta shows that planning for transportation systems and everything else has to be thorough and that the technology has to be proven and tested before you get to the event,” he said.

The computer system devised by local Olympic officials and IBM to deliver results of competition to journalists has been beset by so many problems that several news agencies have demanded a refund of the $15,000 they paid for the service.

And the European Broadcast Union reportedly has written a letter to Olympic officials demanding a partial refund of the $250 million it paid for broadcast rights to make up for costs it has allegedly incurred because of the organizers’ disorganization.

“I haven’t seen that letter,” said Bob Brennan, a spokesman for local Olympic organizers.

Brennan and Michele Verdier, spokeswoman for the IOC, insisted Tuesday that the problems are being corrected. The city has put more police officers on the street directing downtown traffic, and adjustments have been made to the Olympic transportation plan that moves athletes and journalists through the city, they said.

During a contentious news conference Tuesday, Brennan maintained that the problems, while significant, have no impact on the vast majority of spectators and athletes.

“Spectators continue to enjoy the Games,” he said. “The athletes continue to enjoy the Games. . . . We will be judged at the end of the Games, not the beginning of the Games.”

In response to a question about whether the IOC might consider taking over day-to-day operation of the event, Verdier said IOC officials already are intimately involved in the effort to solve the problems. During daily meetings, local and international officials grapple with the problems, with local officials reporting on what specific steps are being taken, she said.

Hemmerling, the Australian Olympic official, has sat in on the meetings.

“They are focusing their attention on resolving the problems,” he said. “There are no recriminations in the meetings. The attitude is: ‘We’ve got things here we have to solve. Let’s solve it. We have to solve it.’ ”

Sydney will avoid some of the transportation issues dogging Atlanta, he said, because the Olympic village will be situated within walking distance of the basketball venue and the halls where boxing, wrestling, taekwondo and weightlifting will be held. And, because Sydney is on a bay, waterways may be used for transporting athletes, Olympic personnel and the media, leaving the roads and transit system to the spectators.