ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996 TAG: 9604290103
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
ORGANIZERS OF the Summer Games in Atlanta get a wake-up call.
Friday's arrests in an alleged Georgia bomb plot have turned attention to what is being done to guard against terrorism at the Atlanta Olympics.
Though federal authorities said there was no connection between the arrests of members of a militia group in Crawford County, Ga., and the Summer Games, the arrests so close to Atlanta caused jitters about the Olympics and again put an unwanted spotlight on security planning.
At an Olympic meeting in Atlanta, early reports - later discounted - that the games were targeted by the accused bomb makers quickly became the main topic of discussion.
``As athletes, we expect the competition to be a war in itself. We didn't want to have one literally,'' said Lisa Leslie, a member of the U.S. women's basketball team.
Atlanta Olympic officials said they did not plan to change their security planning because of the plot uncovered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
``It certainly demonstrates the threat is real,'' said Mayer Nudell, an anti-terrorism consultant based in Washington, D.C.
``They would be less than doing their jobs if they weren't concentrating on every potential type of threat.''
The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and the various federal, state and local police agencies preparing for the games haven't told the public much about security plans.
But security has been one of the most intensive areas for the organizers and, it is said, the only one not beholden to severe budget restraints that have marked the preparations for the Atlanta Games. The security force being assembled for the games will outnumber the 11,000 athletes coming to Atlanta.
Security has been paramount at the Olympics ever since an attack by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Summer Games in Munich left 11 Israeli hostages, five Palestinians and one police officer dead.
With the centennial of the modern Olympics, the U.S. site guaranteeing boundless media attention and heightened concern over domestic terrorism, security planning has attracted persistent attention.
Olympic security planners repeatedly have said that one of their key aims was to eliminate any element of surprise that would allow terrorists to strike.
``Whether the games were the target or not, it's better to have something connected with a bombing plot to be found out beforehand,'' Scott Mall, an ACOG spokesman, said of Friday's events.
``For the last five years, we have worked closely with law enforcement officials at every level in every venue city,'' Mall said. ``We applaud what they have done today. We think that's means they are doing their job.''
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