|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
NATO Aircraft and Ships to Patrol Olympics; Multinational Security Effort Continues in Greece
NATO has pledged surveillance assistance for the Summer Olympics in Greece, officials said Friday, increasing international support for the $800 million security operation (see GSN, Feb. 20). NATO would monitor the games with AWACS surveillance aircraft and participate in naval security, but would not station troops on Greek soil, U.S. Marine Gen. James Jones, NATO’s top commander, told the Washington Post. “I don’t think we’ll have a footprint ashore,” Jones said. About 400 U.S. Special Operations troops last week concluded a 13-day training exercise in Greece, according to Achilles Paparsenos, a spokesman for the Greek Embassy in Washington (see GSN, March 10). Greek officials said the large-scale effort, known as “Hercules Shield 2004,” was “the most elaborate and intensive security exercise” in Greece’s history. Troops enacted and responded to various scenarios, including mock biological attacks. A biological warfare detection battalion from the Czech military, well regarded for its expertise in chemical and biological defense, would be stationed at the games by request of the Greek government, Paparsenos said. U.S. officials said the top CIA counterterrorism official was in Athens for Olympic security meetings last week. FBI director Robert Mueller said last week that he was concerned about security for the Games, which begin in August, and was awaiting results of a counterterrorism exercise to find out “if there are areas that need to be shored up.” An Olympic Security Advisory Group, made up of the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany, Israel and Australia — all countries experienced in counterterrorism — has also been working for months with Greek officials (Thomas Ricks, Washington Post, March 27).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
