Locking down London is no game

AP

Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble stands in his office in the Interpol headquarters in Lyon, central France. International police agency Interpol is involved in the security of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Fighter jets thunder above the English countryside. Missiles stand ready. And Big Brother is watching like never before.

Not since World War II have Britain and the US teamed up for such a massive security operation on British soil.

Hundreds of American intelligence, security and law enforcement officials are flying across the Atlantic for the Games that begin on July 27.

Some will even be embedded with their British counterparts, sharing critical intelligence and troubleshooting potential risks.

Dozens of Interpol (the international police organisation) officers will also be deployed.

The unique collaboration is rooted in common threats the countries have faced since the September 11 terror attacks on the US, and Britain’s own deadly suicide bombings in 2005.

Interpol employees work in the central control room of the Interpol headquarters in Lyon, central France.

AP

Britain was the US’s closest ally in Afghanistan and Iraq, making it a prime target for Islamic terror groups. And dozens of recent terror plots, including the 2006 plot to blow up nearly a dozen trans-Atlantic airliners, have been hatched within Britain’s sizeable Muslim population, more than 1 million of whom have ties to Pakistan.

Although other Olympics have taken place since 9/11 – Salt Lake City, Athens, Turin, Beijing and Vancouver – London poses a different breed of security challenge.

“I’m confident that there is more than adequate security here for these Games,” Louis Susman, the US Ambassador to the UK, said. “That said, we live in a tumultuous world, whether that be in New York or London.”

Chatter

Intelligence officials said there had been an expected increase in chatter among extremist groups, but there are no specific or credible threats to the London Games.

The terror level is labelled “substantial”, a notch below “severe”, and what it has been for much of the past decade. A substantial threat level indicates that an attack is a strong possibility.

Traffilog Technical Manager Bob Reid talks about the Traffilog remote vehicle logging system at the Transport Research Laboratory in Wokingham, England.

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“There is a perception in some quarters that the terrorist threat to this country has evaporated,” said Jonathan Evans, head of Britain’s domestic spy agency, MI5.

“Bin Laden is dead, al-Qaeda’s senior leadership in Pakistan is under serious pressure and there hasn’t been a major terror attack here for seven years. (But) in back rooms and in cars and on the streets of this country, there is no shortage of individuals talking about wanting to mount terrorist attacks here.”

The potential threats to the London Games are broad and diverse – a lone wolf attacker such as Norway’s Anders Behring Breivik, who confessed to killing 77 people; a possible non-Asian Muslim convert who could slip by security with a European passport; a co-ordinated strike like the September 11 terror attacks, or a debilitating cyber-attack.

Although al-Qaeda has been weakened by targeted US strikes, its affiliates in places like Somalia and Yemen have stepped up their activity and increased their capabilities.

They have even been working on bombs that can go undetected in airport scans.

British security officials fear that dozens of nationals who went to train in Somalia and elsewhere could eventually return.

“Terrorist problems have a long tail,” said Evans. “They very rarely just stop.”

Up to 1 million visitors are expected for the Games, putting added strain on border security agents at airports like London’s Heathrow, which has been criticised for its long lines and lack of staff to screen those arriving from other countries.

On site, about 300 000 people are expected to flow into Olympic Park in east London each day during peak times.

One of the key functions for Interpol will be to speed intelligence data sharing between countries, so that threats can be deterred.

UK officials scan Interpol data 130 million times a year, said Interpol Secretary-General Ronald K Noble at the agency’s Lyon headquarters.

“The truth is, and we know this from Norway, that you can’t identify one ethnic group and say that’s the ethnic group that should only concern us,” Noble said. “But this Olympics – from all that I know and based on all the information that Interpol has – should be a safe Olympics.”

Shared intelligence, better technology and boosted resources have allowed security officials to crack organised plots before they happen, but the possibility of a self-starter extremist who operates below the radar remains a major fear.

In the case of Breivik, there were few warning signals that the self-styled, anti-Muslim fanatic was about to kill 77 people. The same essentially was true for Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian descent who in March killed three paratroopers, a rabbi and three Jewish schoolchildren in south-west France.

Security officials said unless people were already known to authorities, they could go virtually undetected as they planned atrocities.

The overall security numbers are staggering. The Games will be protected by about 12 000 police officers during peak times, and 23 700 security staff – a number that includes 13 500 troops on standby, which is more than the 9 500 British troops in Afghanistan. A no-fly zone will also be established over Olympic venues from July 14 to August 15.

More than 100 000 people have applied for jobs at Olympics venues and vetted for employment history and possible criminal backgrounds.

The more rigorous checks are done by the government for accreditation to get into the Games, according to Ian Horseman Sewell with G4S, a global company providing most of the training and security staff for the Olympics.

Still, Sewell admits London is different from past Games.

“London is a proven terrorist target and it is the first time the summer Olympics have been operated in a post 7/7 environment in a place that isn’t a totalitarian state,” Sewell said, referring to the 2005 suicide bombings in London and the 2008 Beijing Games.

“From a security perspective, London is breaking new ground.”

G4S will also help secure venues outside of the park and protect athletes.

Some specific teams from places like Belarus, Belgium, New Zealand and Vietnam will be training in northern France to keep costs down – a move that prompted a joint Franco-British security exercise earlier this year.

Protecting athletes has been a concern since a terror attack at the 1972 Olympics in Munich killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches.

“Israeli athletes will be staying away from the others in a more secluded area and with more security,” a senior Israeli intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his job. “But a repetition of Munich is considered unlikely because Israel is ready, and because it isn’t the kind of attack Palestinians would want now.”

Technology has also advanced from past games.

Special Israeli surveillance technology has been rolled out for the Olympics across Britain, a country already known for its 4 million closed-circuit television cameras. Even more cameras have been installed at the Olympic Park.

Advanced facial and image recognition software will be used to identify suspects and connect multiple crime scenes.

Cameras will be used to capture suspicious behaviour. And special drones will be used for crowd surveillance, according to a salesman at an Israeli company, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

Bomb

And remember the film Speed, where a bomb would allegedly go off if a bus went slower than 80km/h? Hundreds of public transport vehicles and VIP buses being used in the London games have already been equipped so authorities can tell if a driver is acting erratically – something that might happen in a hijacking.

Authorities will also be able to stop a vehicle remotely or keep it going at a certain speed – technology that could be useful if a terrorist were carrying explosives and threatening to crash a bus full of athletes into a crowded venue.

The British military has already made headlines with the weapons it will have available – surface-to-air missiles, RAF Typhoon combat aircraft and an aircraft carrier docked on the Thames, the river that cuts across London close to several Olympic sites.

Despite the US-UK collaboration, there will still be differences in how the London Olympics is policed. Most of the security personnel will be unarmed – a striking difference to operations in the US.

Adding to security issues, leaders from around the world will visit during the Games. The American delegation will be led by first lady Michelle Obama, while President Barack Obama focuses on his re-election campaign.

“I’ve not heard any American who has said they were concerned about security here,” said Susman, the ambassador.

“London has made an effort to showcase London for the world and I think it’s going to be terrific.” – Sapa-AP