The Washington Post reports that Greek officials are conferring with antiterrorism experts from seven nations, its total budget for security may reach $1 billion, and 45,000 full-time uniformed personnel have been assigned to Athens making the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games the most heavily protected Olympic Games.
Athens 2004 security consultant Peter Ryan, who was the lead security officer at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics, said the teamwork and expenditures are not merely resourceful, they are necessary to meet the basic security demands of the Olympics at a particularly perilous time in world history in a region with a unique and daunting set of challenges.
Ryan said, “the cooperation is vital. The intelligence community is really rediscovering itself in terms of international cooperation”.
Greek Minister of Public Order, Michalis Chrysochoidis, said the full allotment of security funding came in response to both the stiff IOC requirements and the recognition after Sept. 11, 2001 that cost cutting could not be tolerated.
Chrysochoidis created the Olympic Security advisory Group, a team of seven nations with experience in handling terrorism and holding big events. The group includes the United Stares, Britain, Spain, France, Germany, Israel and Australia, and has been meeting quarterly in Athens for the past two years.
Chrysochoidis said, “I saw that we needed the international cooperation, because these countries have experience. It was a very positive initiative”.
