'Al-Qaeda top Olympic threat'
24/01/2007 20:26  - (SA)  

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London - The al-Qaeda terrorist group is the top security threat to the 2012 London Olympics, the Games' security director said on Wednesday.

Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur listed the terror group ahead of other potential threats such as organised crime, illegal immigration and human trafficking.

Ghaffur - who was named security director of the Olympic security co-ordination agency six months ago - also said all foreign workers at the Olympic Park site will be fingerprinted and have their passports and papers copied for a central Olympic security database.

"I would like to see DNA testing as well, but I don't think we will get away with that," Ghaffur said at an international sports security summit in London.

With 200 000 accredited personnel and 70 000 volunteers expected to be involved in the 2012 Games, registering all those involved into a central database is essential to maintaining security.

"One of the main issues will be technology versus people," Ghaffur said. "An event of this scale means technology plays a bigger part in the look and feel of the games and means surveillance will be a major issue that will likely cause debate."

Counter-terrorism exercises will be performed regularly in the build-up to the Olympics, he said. The cost for Olympic security operations will be presented to the Home Office by the end of next month.

Ghaffur expects 9 000 police to be in uniform for the games, more than the number used to control about 500 000 people at the annual Notting Hill Carnival, London's biggest public event.

"The new Wembley (stadium) and the Emirates Stadium will also provide valuable security lessons for us," he said.

Leonidas A. Evangelidis - chairperson of Athens' centre for security studies - agreed that al-Qaeda had become the biggest threat to the security of the games since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

"With terrorism, single issue terrorist groups have become the No 1 threat," Evangelidis said.

- AP

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