Security Reconsidered for Salt Lake Olympics

Together with the Secret Service, FBI and other law enforcement agencies, organizers of the Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games next February are undertaking a thorough security review, Salt Lake Organizing Committee President Mitt Romney on Wednesday told the International Olympic Committee.

Noting, however, that the $200-million security framework for the Games was in place well before last week’s terrorist attacks, he said he envisions “some changes,” not a wholesale restructuring of the plan. In response, the IOC said Salt Lake’s security plans were “robust” and need “no specific conceptual modifications.”

Visitors to the Games can expect limits or bans on bags, totes or coolers, Romney said. Sites such as the alternate Olympic Village--located in remote Midway, Utah, site of the Soldier Hollow cross-country and biathlon courses--may now “receive an added level of security.”

And, he said, authorities have the ability to restrict air space over Salt Lake City, to monitor the sky and to “intercept any aircraft” heading for Rice-Eccles Stadium during the opening ceremony next Feb. 8--a prospect the IOC’s director general, Francois Carrard, had on Tuesday labeled a part of Games security planning and the IOC’s “catastrophe scenario.”

Speaking after the videoconference presentation Wednesday to the IOC, Romney referred repeatedly to security and military concepts such as “hardened perimeters.” He spoke of the possible use of AWACS radar-carrying military jets and of “intercept capabilities.” He said that the medals plaza in downtown Salt Lake City would be fenced in and under surveillance--with the aim of making athletes, officials and visitors feel safe.

He also said he hoped the Games would “represent something about the world going forward.” Even with the images of the attacks “in our hearts,” he said, there is also “a desire to have the Games be fun and bring a great smile to one’s face and be a celebration.”

But, Romney said, “That is something that’s hard to feel right now. I don’t know when that is going to change.” He paused and added, “I don’t know when and whether we can make it.”

Last Tuesday’s attacks immediately raised questions about whether the Games would be held. Newly elected IOC President Jacques Rogge said last week that the Games would go on; the IOC’s ruling Executive Board affirmed that commitment in a unanimous vote here Tuesday.

Influential German IOC delegate Thomas Bach said the vote sent “the message that the Olympic movement will not bow to violence.” Rogge, for his part, had earlier said he wished to stay in the Olympic Village during the Games. Romney said Wednesday that plan is still in the works.

Security has been not only a priority but a keen IOC sensitivity since Palestinian terrorists kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes and coaches at the Olympic Village at the 1972 Munich Summer Games. All 11 were killed, either in the Village or later in a firefight at a German airport.

A pipe bomb exploded at Centennial Olympic Park at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games, killing one woman and injuring more than 100 other people. That experience suggested that the medals plaza in downtown Salt Lake ought to be fenced-in and access restricted to checkpoints in and out, Romney said.

“That did not exist in Atlanta and may account for the challenge they had there,” he said.

He and IOC officials declined Wednesday to provide explicit details of safety measures being planned for the Games--citing security concerns.

Carrard said the IOC expects the United States to admit all accredited athletes, coaches and journalists. The IOC issues Olympic identity cards, which take the place of visas.

Shortly after the attack, the IOC asked for a report on whether it could be held financially or legally liable for any terrorism during the Olympics. Romney said it appears SLOC “is on the hook for any terrorism act that we have not prepared for.” But he said, “We’re not spending our time worrying about it.”

Romney had been in the Washington area when the Pentagon was attacked. He had been in the midst of a two-day effort lobbying Congress for $12.7 million, what was supposed to be--before the attacks--the final chunk of security funding for the Games.

Last Thursday, a $40 billion package unanimously approved by the Senate in the wake of the attacks included that $12.7 million.

“I think the basic plan is probably a very good one, a very sound one,” said William Rathburn, director of security for the Atlanta Games in 1996 and before that the LAPD’s coordinator of security for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. He now serves as a security consultant; among his clients is a provider of electronic security equipment at the Salt Lake Games.

Rathburn said, however, that he would “expect a lot more bomb detection personnel, a lot more bomb-handling equipment, bomb-sniffing dogs, things like that,” as well as “expanded interest” in certain electronic security measures.

He also said he expects “some increase in the use of military personnel, reservists and National Guard troops.”

As for the possibility of a hijacked jetliner screaming toward Rice-Eccles Stadium, Romney said, “Our air threat capacity is substantial.”

An F-16 wing is located at Hill Air Force Base, minutes from downtown Salt Lake City.

“We can restrict a much wider area of air space than is practical in a major transportation hub like New York, Washington or Atlanta, and therefore have more than sufficient time to intercept any errant aircraft,” Romney said.