MAJOR SECURITY EFFORT IS PLANNED TO HEAD OFF TERRORISM AT GAMES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200860023-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: April 2, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200860023-0
ARTICLE APPEARED
CN PAGE -
NEW YORK TIMES
2 April 1981
I ? monitor dozens of groups in this Coun-
abma at.are re as
Mator Security Effort Is Planned
t
To Head Off
can
es to use terronsm
? ` at Olympics.
T~,.?.~w..,... vs. i _ _
-
By ROBERT LINDSEY
Special to The New York Time
LOS ANGELES, April 1- The tradi-
tional hardware of Olympic competi-
tion includes the baton, the stopwatch,
the balance beam and 'the starting
block.
For the 1984 Summer Games, it also
includes the following items that have
'been ordered by local police officials
for . the Olympics: six silencer-
equipped submachine guns, 10 infrared
nig5t surveillance sensors for helicop-
ters, 26 high-powered ,rifles, 5 sets of
radio equipment to communicate un-
derwater and one 4-foot-7-inch tall
robot called "Felix" that shoots shot-
gun shells and helps defuse bombs.
The threat of bloodshed has hung
heavily over the Olympics since Pales-
Race to the Games
Getting Ready for the Olympics
Second of three vticlm
tine Liberation Organization terrorists
killed 11 members of the Israeli team
during the 1972 Summer Games in Mu-
nich.
But officials here assert that defend-
ing against terrorists has never been
more difficult than it will be at this
year's Games, when athletes will have
to be transported over freeways to 23
widely scattered sites in more than a
dozen eommunjties in three counties,
each with its dbvn independent police
department. .
A security force of more than 17,000
people is being organized to protect the
10,000 or so athletes expected at the
Summer Games.
Nothing Comparable in History
"In terms of a law enforcement chal-
lenge, there has probably been nothing.
comparable to it in- history," Comdr.
William- Rathburn, Olympic security
coordinator for the Los Angeles PoliceDepartment, says.-"But even -though
it's complicated, and it's difficult, it's
do-able."
-Edgar N. Best, a former Federal Bu-
reau of Investigation agent who is di-
rector of security for the Los Angeles
Olympic Organizing Committee, re-
cently said: "We're pleased with what,
we're doing, but you -can never be sure
you're doing everything; we don't want
to be over confident that we've done
everything there is,to do."
With help from the Central Intelti-
gence Agency and the F.B.I., police
agencies here, some of whose mem-
bers have been selected to receive un-
usual top secret intelligence clearances
from the Federal Government, have
for more than a year been seeking to
The , acco to a security of-
ficial, includes militant groups in this
country such as the Weather Under-
ground and Puerto Rican national- .
ists; terrorist groups in the Middle
East, Central America; and Northern
Ireland, and various. ethnic groups
that officials fear might try to use the
Olympics as a forum to bring atten-
tion to their political grievances, such
as the longstanding feud between
Turks and Armenians and disputes
between Serbo and Croation factions.
Although it is doubtful the officials
would acknowledge it even if they
had, _the security agents say that so
of any specific plans for terrorist
at thee Games.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200860023-0