Atlanta to host safest Olympics: Organizers
JAKARTA (JP): Organizers of the Atlanta Olympic Games reconfirmed yesterday their guarantee to hold the safest world sporting extravaganza ever in Olympic history.
"The preparations, from the security point of view, will be the most sophisticated and extensive in the history of the world. Atlanta will be the safest place in all the world during the Olympic Games," former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson said during a satellite interview with panelists from Jakarta, Manila, Singapore and Sydney yesterday.
Reuters reported that 14,000 soldiers -- part of a US$50 million security contribution to the Games from the Defense Department -- will be prepared to handle the security problems.
The biggest issue in the Olympics' preparation will be the security in the city, due to the Black September tragedy in Munich in 1972, where 11 Israelis were slaughtered by terrorists.
"All I can tell you is the security is going to be super tight, super sophisticated and what happened in Munich is highly unlikely to happen in Atlanta," said Jackson, the United States attache during the 1996 Centennial Olympics.
"The preparations for the Olympics in the security area have been profound. So I think that we can look beyond Munich, never forgetting it and always sympathizing with the tragedy there. But at the same time, we can look forward to Atlanta being the safest place on the globe during those days," he added.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has coordinated an exercise against terrorists in Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport recently.
Director of communications of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Scott Mall, who also spoke during the worldnet dialogue, said that technology will play a great role in the security system, which will be applied during the biggest sports event in the world.
"We'll be using ID cards that cannot be counterfeited, that cannot be exchanged. And in the most secure zone, such as the Olympic village, we'll actually be using hand geometry printing where your handprint will have been taken prior to entry into the village, and accredited people will check that to make sure as a final test that you have access to those facilities," he said.
Although the organizers guarantee that the centennial event will be the most glamorous sports event ever, crime could still be haunting delegates and visitors.
Most venues -- including the athletes' village, the broadcasting and media centers and the park which will be the "heart and soul" of the Games -- lie close to high-crime areas.
"Atlanta has a high crime rate. In America, crime and poverty go hand in hand. But in terms of crimes against strangers, there's only a 1.6 percent factor in Atlanta's crime rate. The biggest factor is crime between people who know each other. Sixty-five percent of all homicides occur between people who are related," Jackson said. (yan/amd)