By Ali Papademetriou
With the 2012 summer Olympic games kicking off in London in just days, final touches are being made and safety protocol is wrapping up in preparation for any possible security threats.
London’s bureau chief of the New York Times and previous war veteran, John Burns, is working with security at Olympic park and participated in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday saying, “I have to say, having spent time out here at Olympic Park, that it’s a little bit of a disappointment in a certain sense. It’s rather cheerless place. If you see it from the air, as you and I have done, it looks very pleasant, that you can see that it’s a park.”
“On the ground, because of security, it’s become a kind of, well, one of my colleagues said it was a kind of Gitmo experience, meaning Guantanamo. Security is very tight indeed, as you would expect. There’s a lot of wire mesh fencing to channel you around, there are concrete blocks, actually, a kind of environment that I’m very familiar with from the American military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Concluded Burns.
Wednesday, the Boston Globe reported, “British troops dressed in fatigues manned Olympic Park security checkpoints Tuesday, putting their friendliest faces as visitors, volunteers, and the media trickled onto the site.
All went well, but it was a far cry from the first impression London Olympics organizers had intended. The soldiers were called in at the last minute to fill the staffing gap left by the Olympics’ private security contractor, G4S. Last week, the company’s failure forced the government to turn 3,500 British soldiers into security guards for the Games.”
Those attending the summer Olympics could be in for a surprise this weekend. Many guests are probably not prepared to jump into a 17-day event in style of Guantanamo Bay-esque security enforcement that could spark disputation of being like a police state.
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- Olympic Park Feels a Little Like a War Zone (theatlanticcities.com)
- Ticketless Boy Boards Plane From Manchester To Rome; Underscores Lax Security On The Eve Of London Olympics (ibtimes.com)
- London Feels More Like a Military Base Than an Olympic Park (theatlantic.com)
- Will round-the-clock police surveillance be legacy of London Olympics? (mcclatchydc.com)
- Fortress London: UK protects Olympics with biggest security plan since World War II (worldnews.nbcnews.com)
- Will Round-The-Clock Police Surveillance be Legacy of London Olympics? (zen-haven.dk)
- G4S says workforce growing by hundreds each day (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Security jitters on eve of London Olympics (journaltimes.com)
- London Olympics: 5 things to know for Thursday (columbiamissourian.com)
- Security jitters on eve of London Olympics (herald-review.com)
