2014 Sochi Olympics continue to generate concerns

Worrisome stories are nothing new in the days before the Olympic Games.

There are often complaints about the cost of preparations and concerns about how the host city will perform.

But the 2014 Sochi Games have attracted an unusual amount of negative publicity, and the bad news continued Thursday.

A top U.S. intelligence official told the Senate Intelligence Committee that there has been an increase in reports of security threats against the Olympics, specifically for areas on the perimeter of the competition venues.

“The greater threat is to softer targets in the greater Sochi area, and in the outskirts, beyond Sochi, where there is a substantial potential for a terrorist attack,” Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said.

In a separate story, ABC News says Russia won the Olympic bid with the help of Gafur Rakhimov, an Uzbek businessman who U.S. authorities believe is an organized crime boss and drug kingpin.

“He is one of the four or five most important people in the heroin trade in the world,” Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, told “World News With Diane Sawyer” for a report to be aired Thursday night.

“He’s absolutely a very major and dangerous gangster,” Murray said.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities say they have identified the two suicide bombers who recently attacked public transport in the city of Volgograd and have arrested two suspected accomplices.

The suspected bombers were said to be members of a terrorist group based in Dagestan.

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