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Olympic security shake-up after online casino stunt Tue Aug 17,10:56 AM ET ATHENS (AFP) - Olympics Games organisers ordered beefed-up security at all venues after an embarrassing breach involving a Canadian man who leapt into the pool during a synchronised diving event. The order to step up security was launched after the 31-year-old, dressed in a tutu and clown shoes, mounted one of the boards and plunged into the water during the competition Monday evening. He stayed in the pool for several minutes before officials at the Aquatic Centre realised he was not supposed to be there and pulled him...

ATHENS, Aug 15 (AFP) - An undercover British reporter upped the ante in a longstanding game of cat-and-mouse between Greek police and foreign journalists testing Olympic security, drawing an angry response from Greek officials. The British tabloid Sunday Mirror said Sunday its reporter Bob Graham, who had got a job as a lift car boy at the stadium under an alias, planted three mock bombs that went undetected by a security sweep conducted before the Games' opening ceremony on Friday. Greek authorities have promised ultra-tight security for the Olympiad, the first summer Games since the September 11 attacks in the...

Armed British and US security guards will be deployed at the Olympics despite a Greek ban on foreign agents carrying weapons.Officials are reported to have privately allowed police to carry guns, though the arrangement will not be formally acknowledged as it is barred under Greek law. In deference to local rules, British handguns will be sent to Athens in diplomatic bags. The British Olympic Team will have an security squad of 130 Scotland Yard staff, with armed cover provided for visiting dignitaries. The move comes as the Turkish city of Istanbul was rocked by explosions at two hotels and a...

U.S., NATO forces to protect Olympic Games By Scott Schonauer, Stars and Stripes European edition, Monday, August 9, 2004 NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain — As American athletes go for the gold in this month’s Olympic Games, U.S. and NATO planes and ships will patrol nearby to protect against a terror attack in Greece. NATO allies will provide air and maritime patrols, intelligence and a special chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense team as part of an operation dubbed “Distinguished Games.” Military forces began operations on Monday and will augment Greek military authorities until the end of the Olympic and Paralympic...

British special forces sent in to counter Olympics terror threatBy Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent(Filed: 08/08/2004) British special forces have been sent to Greece to help protect British athletes taking part in the Olympic Games. Two six-man teams, one from each of the armed forces' elite counter-terrorist units, have been advising Greek army and navy officials on how to thwart attacks by al-Qaeda. The troops were dispatched following fears expressed by British and American security services that the terror group might try to disrupt the Games with an outrage designed to inflict mass casualties. The Special Boat Service and the Special...

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti military commentator Viktor Litovkin) - Early August saw intensified anti-terrorist preparations, and not only in Athens, where the Olympics will begin soon. Or in the US, where the threat condition is Orange, one below Severe (Red), and means a high risk of terrorist attacks. Or in Iraq, where coalition forces seem unable to do anything about terrorists. A tactical exercise, Avariya (Accident) 2004, is planned in Russia for August 3-5 outside the city of Olenegorsk in the Murmansk region, and the Rubezh (Frontier) 2004 exercise of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) are to begin at the...

ROME - NATO (news - web sites) has begun deploying forces from an anti-biochemical weapons unit to Greece as part of security at the Olympics, officials said Friday. The first forces left from the Czech Republic on Wednesday for Halkida, 55 miles north of Athens, said Lt. Col. Dimitrios Iliadif of NATO's southern Europe command in Naples. Personnel, vehicles and equipment for the unit were also deploying from Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain, NATO said. The Multinational Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Task Force can conduct surveillance and decontamination, among other tasks that are part of efforts to protect against...

Frustrated by delays, the Greek government has postponed payment on a multimillion-dollar security system being built for the Summer Olympics by an American-led consortium. The final installment of $173 million has been put on hold due to government concerns about whether the security system will be ready for the Aug. 13 opening, the Athens daily To Vima reported yesterday.

Israel and the United States will be allowed to bring their own security force to protect athletes during the Olympic Games in August. Most of the other delegations at the Aug. 13-29 games will be guarded by Greek security, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. However, Israel and the United States will bring an unspecified number of security guards to protect their athletes, the report said. [Greece plans to enforce a no-fly zone over the Olympic sites and to hoist a huge aerostat surveillance system, Middle East Newsline reported.] "Competitors from high risk countries, presumably including the...

Monday, June 21, 2004 Strategic Studies Association - June 21, 2004 Balkan Islamists Note Continued Push for Olympics-Related Action Despite Support for Iraq Exclusive. From GIS Stations Sarajevo and Belgrade, and other sources. Proven reliable sources within the Islamist mujahedin in Bosnia-Herzegovina confirmed to GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily in mid-June 2004 that planning by al-Qaida-related groups, Bosnian Islamists and Iranian Pasdaran forces for terrorist action related to the August 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens was proceeding on schedule, despite the significant movement of Islamist fighters and weapons from Bosnia to Iraq via Syria. GIS had conducted an...

Athena, a company co-owned by former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit and Yossi Maiman's Merhav group, recently won a tender issued by the American television network NBC to plan and run security for the network's facilities at the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens. Shavit will advise NBC on security measures, and Athena may also send its own security teams to the games. Athena did not disclose the terms of the contract, but industry sources said it was for a substantial sum - as well as being extremely prestigious. NBC decided to hire Athena due to persistent reports that terrorist organizations intend...

Athens airs Olympic doubts for first time By Harry de Quetteville in Athens (Filed: 04/06/2004) The first cracks in the Greek government's united front in promoting this summer's Olympics have appeared after ministers questioned publicly whether the Games were worth all the bother. After foreign criticism over delays and mishaps in the preparations, the public works minister, Giorgos Souflias, who is in charge of many Olympic building sites, left colleagues in the Greek parliament aghast by airing his "doubts as to whether we should have undertaken the Olympic Games". Giorgos Alogoskoufis, the finance minister, announced that the spiralling costs had...

GREECE WILL ’SHOOT DOWN’ TERROR PLANES 27.5.2004. 14:25:42 Greece has vowed it will shoot down any plane attempting to target the Olympic Games in a September 11-style attack, and has pledged to offer total security at the Athens Games. Hundreds of special forces, bomb experts, snipers and sniffer dogs will secure the Olympic village where 16,000 athletes and coaches will stay during this summer's Games, officials said. Public Order Minister George Voulgarakis said NATO surveillance planes would monitor the skies. "If a renegade plane, a plane that is not on its proper course over Greece, enters restricted airspace, and does...

Thief Takes Briefcase From IOC Member at Security Talks The Associated PressPublished: Nov 28, 2003 ATHENS, Greece (AP) - A thief stole a briefcase belonging to an Israeli International Olympic Committee member visiting Athens for discussions on security for the summer games, police said Friday. The briefcase containing committee documents, cash and credit cards was taken Tuesday from a limousine used by IOC member Alex Gilady. Gilady went to a police station to report the theft, which occurred while he was visiting the Greek Olympic Committee building. He was in Athens during a visit by IOC President Jacques Rogge, who...