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| Europe |
| NYT call your office: Italian coppers monitor 'hundreds' prior to Olympics |
| 2005-12-27 |
| Six weeks before the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics here, Italian authorities are conducting surveillance on at least 700 people to try to prevent a terrorist attack on the Games, a top Italian security official says. Luigi Renella, the Italian National Police's liaison to the U.S. government, won't characterize those under surveillance. But he says the operation reflects rising concerns that after recent terrorist bombings in London and Amman, Jordan, the Torino Olympics are a logical target for al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups. There have been no specific threats to the Games, he says, but Italy is a U.S. ally The surveillance is part of a security program for Torino that contrasts with the one used for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Before Athens, there were widespread concerns about the Greeks' ability to organize security. Athens wound up being protected by an armed, multinational security force; Greek units were bolstered by thousands of officers from NATO and the United States and other countries. In Torino, Renella says, security will be led almost exclusively by Italian forces - which fared well last April at the funeral of Pope John Paul II - and only Italian officers The United States, which sent nearly 1,000 agents to Athens from the State Department, the FBI and other agencies, will have fewer than half that many in Torino, says an Olympics security official with knowledge of the U.S. plan. The official declined to be identified because he is not allowed to speak publicly about U.S. preparations. The limited U.S. presence reflects the smaller scale of the Winter Games - about 2,500 athletes will compete in Torino, compared with 11,099 in Athens - and amounts to an acknowledgment of Italy's ability to secure major events. (Former US Secret Service agent) Jarvis notes that besides terrorists, Torino security forces could face protests by anarchist groups and by radical environmentalists opposed to a high-speed rail line that would link Torino with Lyon, France. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |