The upcoming Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy (February 10-16, 2006) is not "just" an important and colorful sporting event
Yoram Mizrachi
The upcoming Winter Olympics, in Turin, Italy (February 10-16, 2006) is not "just" an important and colorful sporting demonstration, with the participation of five thousand athletes and attendants, with an expected million spectators and guests, but also a test of the effectiveness of the security mechanisms - the point, the environmental security and the security - The periphery of a great event, which to a large extent symbolizes western culture.
The games will be held in an industrialized urban environment, the very fact that it is a Western European country that participates in a global effort against jihadi terrorism, makes it a "tempting and legitimate target" in the eyes of the various terrorist groups active in recent years around the world. At the head of the terrorist organizations "that come into consideration" are those affiliated with the Wahhabi idea of global Jihad and the control of an Islamic caliphate according to Sharia law.
Turin TURIN is an industrial city located on the banks of the Po River, close to the Alps, with 875 thousand inhabitants, out of more than a million and a half living in the immediate vicinity. The city hosting the Winter Games is located in northwestern Italy, in the PIEMONTE region, not far from the borders of France and Switzerland. The organizers of the games are aware of the security task they have to face and these days, about a month before the "extravaganza" that will mark the opening of the winter event, security experts, at all levels, from traffic police to commando units to combat terrorism, are preparing for every possibility. The unofficial motto, which guides the security forces, is to "prevent in advance and when there is no choice to deal with a one-off incident" among other things, between 9000 and 10000 police officers will be stationed in Turin and about a thousand uniformed security guards will be employed, who together with an increased military presence will provide the "visual security" that those responsible hope will be the deterrent.
The assessment of the security risk related to the games presents a number of problems that not everyone can offer a convenient "problem-solution" equation, all this because of the experience accumulated throughout the war on terror, which teaches that those who plan terrorist attacks try to surprise and present problems that were not foreseen in advance. At the beginning of the list of "security risk assessments" that affects the situation is the numerical demographic factor of the Turin area, as it exists every year and knowing that on the eve of the games and immediately after, one can expect "that all roads will lead to Turin" an industrial city of workers and immigrants, known as one of the most active transportation centers in the boot country . The demographic breakdown shows that 92% are Italians and the rest are immigrants, of which 1% are Muslims of Moroccan or Albanian origin. The Muslim resident group includes a "risk group" which, according to various sources, "is under constant surveillance" which includes wiretapping, covert optical coverage, intelligence gathering through undercover police officers and informants. The Italian Ministry of the Interior refused to confirm a report from an American source about "surveillance of 1 intelligence targets in total" and it is estimated that the actual number, in the entire country, is slightly less than two thousand.
The organizers of the Winter Games emphasize that the host country is a democratic country, whose citizens number about 48 million, plus about a million foreigners and a variable, not small, number of tourists and travelers. Italy's socio-economic structure does not make it "inaccessible to all" but the opposite. In Italy, there is a principle of freedom of movement, which is used all year round, when the number of visitors who come to participate in various events often increases, which more than once burdens the land transportation system temporarily, but disturbingly. For example, Turin attracts pilgrim tourism "thanks" to the piece of fabric preserved in the basilica, known as the "Shroud of Turin" which, according to tradition, was used to bury Jesus and in which a stain remained - the Christian image. A large number of tourists and visitors stand out especially in the spring and summer seasons, as well as a special movement of snow lovers, who do no less than 53 ski resorts with about 1500 kilometers of tracks of all kinds. This winter, against the backdrop of the Turin Games, the number of tourists may exceed, if only for two weeks, the usual annual count, when the numerical estimate of the visitors expected to arrive in the city and its surroundings changes almost hourly. According to the organizers, the average hourly response of ticket buyers is related to the security atmosphere in the world in general and in Western Europe in particular. Along with this, there is no doubt that all 35 seats of the renovated stadium STADIO DELLE ALPI, a sports facility established at the time by the tyrant Benito Mussolini and originally called STADIO COMMUMALE, will be filled and revelers will be attracted to the medal awarding ceremonies (called because of their bagel-Torino shape) in PIAZZA CASTELLO
A special headquarters of the Italian security and intelligence authorities called the "Information Room" which operates in cooperation with the heads of game security, alongside foreign parties, is therefore required to provide in advance, a possible answer to security problems in the following areas:
Organization of games against the background of the need to continue daily life in the city and industrial area, from the activists in Italy, supervision of mass traffic, by all means of transportation, to Turin from it and its surroundings, increased supervision of civil air traffic to the city airport CITTA DI TURINO SANDRO PETRINI.
The security of Italy's airspace in coordination with NATO and special attention to the skies of neighboring countries concentration of crowds at the sites of the main competitions and ceremonies. Personal security. VIP
Security of the competition facilities, at the various sites. Securing residential facilities and assistance in the three "Olympic villages" with 750 "apartments" Increased vigilance in all Italian air ports and border crossings. Establishment and operation of a multinational control system. "Real time" cooperation with foreign intelligence and security bodies.
Despite the fact that on the way to Turin 2006 the world experienced handling mass events under the shadow of a threat and the accumulated experience in handling terrorist attacks against transportation, violent demonstrations and disruption of the course of life or routine, the security guards of Turin face a special reality, in which it is impossible to separate the large event from the general public, as has been done for example in the last three years , with isolated sites being chosen for economic gatherings that "attract demonstrations" for example G8 club gatherings and more. The Italian intelligence apparatus, which operates at different levels, not all of which can be compared with the "fragmentation of intelligence gathering" in the US, or Great Britain and Russia must therefore "deal" not only with millions of visitors who will come to Italy in general, but also with close supervision of "interesting factors" and targets Current intelligence in the communities of foreigners, immigrants and refugees living in the country. This effort includes non-Islamic elements, for example anarchists, extreme left or fascists of all kinds and even the remnants of the Austrian-Tyrolean underground in Bolzano. The writer of these lines heard from an Italian intelligence officer related to the Winter Olympics, "We must try to monitor a nightmare when on the one hand an extreme Islamic danger lurks and on the other there are baldheads and neo-Nazis."
Despite the fact that Italy does not expand reporting regarding the Turin 2006 assessments, it is clear that the Italians are assisted by any body that has access to information related to terrorism. The amount and load of accumulated information is a problem in itself, since the more information that is "collected and piled up" - the more assessment officers and information analysts need to be employed and above all to ensure that "hot" intelligence material does not "get stuck" in the information pipeline and reaches the control and senior command level as quickly as possible.
In the background of winter sports events, said among other things to symbolize the spirit of freedom and human progress, hangs a heavy cloud of global terrorism, threatening all contemporary societies. The threat is tangible and its power should not be ignored, it is a cloud of terror and violence, which plans and carries out attacks specifically on mass sites. Turin 2006 therefore came in the midst of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the continuation of Israeli-Palestinian violence and, above all, the global battle against al-Qaeda and the capture of Jama'a-Islamia. Above all this is the growing hostility of the Islamic-extremist world against the West and moderate Muslim societies. All of these factors, even in a superficial, non-isolated view, make Torino 2006 not only an important sporting event, but a test point for the effectiveness of the democratic system and the determination of the global decision not to surrender to terrorism while on alert and emphasizing "normal" social and community life of which the Olympic Games are one of the prominent symbols.
More about events and preparations related to Torino 2006 can be found
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