Greece will try to provide an environment of "absolute security" for the Athens Olympics without taking away from the games' air of celebration, the country's top law enforcement official said on Monday.
Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis also said Greece's NATO allies would help safeguard the nation's airspace and offer intelligence on possible terrorist threats.
CIA Director George Tenet, in an interview published on Monday, described NATO's assistance as an important boost in efforts to guard against terrorism.
"All the partners of NATO have strengths and the more of them that help, the safer the games will be," Tenet was quoted as saying in the Greek newspaper Ta Nea.
Greece has requested NATO assistance for the Games which start Aug. 13, including "protection against a chemical, biological and nuclear incident."
NATO members France, Germany, Britain, Spain and the US are part of a seven-nation advisory group already working with Olympic planners, while police have already begun ramping up security in Athens.
Authorities on Monday said policing has been further increased at the Israeli embassy and other Israel-related sites after the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the militant group Hamas, threatened a dramatic escalation in Middle East violence.
"Our goal is to hold the Olympic Games in an environment of absolute security, an environment where the security measures will not affect the celebratory atmosphere of the Olympics," Voulgarakis told parliament.
He was addressing concerns that Greece's massive security plans could turn Athens into an armed camp. The Athens organizing committee chief, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, once complained she didn't want the city to resemble a "military zone."
Plans to protect the games are costing more than US$800 million, the most in Olympic history and three times higher than Sydney's security budget four years ago.
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS