Many Potential Security Threats as Winter Olympics Kick Off

As with any other major international event, the Winter Olympic Games, which begin in Turin on Friday, have been the focus of an expensive and comprehensive security operation involving everyone from street level Italian police officers to global intelligence agencies.

In the week leading up to the opening ceremony, the Italian secret service warned that the state of alert across the country, and specifically in Turin at this time, had been raised to "high risk," a level which is likely to remain until after Italy's general election in April.

Considering the threat of a major terrorist incident at the high profile games, no expense has been spared and no stone unturned in Italy's attempt to secure the Winter Olympics from disruption or attack.

To date, the organizers have spent some 90 million euros ($110.6 million) on safety, a sum that includes the cost of paying an extra 9,000 additional police officers and security staff such as firemen trained to deal with a biological, chemical or nuclear attack. By the time the flags are lowered on Feb. 26, the price could exceed that of the Athens Summer Games which cost a record $1 billion.

Italians backed up by international surveillance

Operatives on the ground will include snipers and armed skiers backed up with information and intelligence on potential threats from the world’s secret services while NATO is providing two AWACS surveillance planes to patrol over northern Italy during the games.

While agencies such as the American FBI and CIA will be feeding intelligence data to the National Information Center for the Olympics, the responsibility on the ground will be that of the Italians. And they won't be taking any chances.

"Of course there will be snipers," Turin's security chief Goffredo Sottile told reporters this week after meeting with FBI Director Robert Müller. "There'll be an entire system. All the special police forces will be activated. The most important aspect is prevention, control of the territory and the security of the athletes and visiting dignitaries.

"The times in which we live are the way they are, which is why there's huge attention," he added. "In previous Olympics a similar deployment of security forces would have been unthinkable."

Heightened tensions

The times have also been getting increasingly tenser in recent days due to Muslim fury over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. The situation and increased threat of disruption has caused security organizers to rethink some their measures.

"Particular attention has been paid to the possible fallout in Italy from the wave of protests taking place in the world and to the latest preventative measures taken in these last days," Italy's Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said in a statement after chairing and emergency session of security officials on Monday.

Pisanu added, however, that there were no signs of an actual threat to the games, but that organizers were nevertheless vigilant.

Italy's Premier Silvio Berlusconi added that his government had spared no effort to provide security.

"We have worked thoroughly for security and I think that no government has ever done what we have," he said.

The anger directed at European nations over the cartoons and Italy's support of the US-led invasion of Iraq has heightened concerns regarding a possible attack in Turin. Italy has repeatedly been mentioned as a potential target for a militant Islamist attack due to its backing of the United States.

US links fuel Islamist and anti-capitalist anger

That support, coupled with the visit of US First Lady Laura Bush to Turin, has everyone on high alert. The presence of the US president's wife is also likely to attract anti-capitalist protesters to the streets of Turin, an added headache to the security operation.

"Since the protests at the World Economic Summit in Genoa in 2001, Italian politicians fear crowds such as these," Stefan Kempiz at the Konrad Adenauer Institute in Rome told DW-WORLD.

Protestors demonstrating against the multinational sponsors of the games, such as Coca Cola, and a high-speed rail development in the Susa Valley have already caused disruptions, targeting the Olympic torch as it traveled around the country.