Security is the aim of the Games
Since 1998, when the state Legislature formed a collaboration of state, federal and local law enforcement agencies known as the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command, those charged with protecting the Games have rehearsed worst-case scenarios during the Olympics. And long before the thought of bringing the Games to Salt Lake City was hatched, the state has received funding and training to deal with chemical or biological attacks.
But given past terrorists' ability to exploit the Olympics for violent purposes, and with the images of Sept. 11 still fresh in many minds, it begs the question — can Salt Lake protect itself when the world comes to visit in five months?
It's a simple question. The answer, however, is more convoluted.
Folks in the security world have a popular theory on terrorism — police have to be right 100 percent of the time but terrorists only have to get it right once.
As of this writing, Olympic public safety planners say there is no known threat to the Games. And while many have blamed the surprise terrorist attacks on an intelligence-gathering failure, Utah officials seem confident they can foil a terrorist plot.
In a nationwide poll, a majority of 1,006 Americans surveyed by Wirthlin Worldwide — 80 percent — believe the Games should not be canceled. And 89 percent say the federal government should "provide considerably more funds to strengthen security at the Olympics." Wirthlin's poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percent
"Our intelligence-gathering is at a peak," Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse said. "We have a very good intelligence network. With the events of Sept. 11, that is even heightened more."
Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Randy Larsen, director of the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, a think tank based in Arlington, Va., says Olympic visitors shouldn't worry.
"You guys are going to be spring-loaded (ready) for terrorism," he said. "Probably it's going to be safer there than to be anywhere else in the United States."
Groups such as the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force formed in May 2000 have spent the past several months following every possible hint that someone might wreak havoc on the Games.
While every available FBI agent in Salt Lake City is working the investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks, investigators are also following Olympic-related cases that may arise, Special Agent Craig Phillippe said.
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