Columnist Dean Juipe: Athens is an inviting target

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2003 | 9:58 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

When the 2004 Summer Olympics were awarded to Athens, there was a romantic quality to it. As the perceived home of the Olympics and the site of their modern revival in 1896, the ancient city in Greece is, in theory, the caretaker of such cuddly values as peace, understanding and friendly competition.

Having the Games there elicits a sense of achievement and euphoria, of man making a commitment to his fellow man, of a neverending bond between races and religions.

Yet a harsher, less delicate reality seems to permeate current discussions of the upcoming Games, scheduled for Aug. 13-29 in an area of the world that is, if not under siege, at least prone to violent outbursts and behavior.

Is it too frivolous to say it will take a miracle for the Olympics not to be interrupted by terrorists next summer?

"It would be miraculous, that's the right word," said Robert Mittleman, a political science major from Michigan State University who expects to be at the Games to see a fighter he hopes to sign to a professional contract. The fighter -- Jason Estrada of Providence, R.I. -- is the reigning Pan American Games super heavyweight champion and is apt to be representing the United States in Greece.

Mittleman says he'll make the trip but will spend a disproportionate amount of time looking over his shoulder.

"Jesus, it's going to be dangerous," he said. "The people in that area of the world just don't like us. They see us as the enemy.

"It was noble to put the Games in Athens, but it's going to be a nightmare. It's only an hour's flight from Lebanon and two hours from Baghdad ... the terrorists can simply take a boat to Greece if that's what they want to do."

Security concerns in and around Athens have been amped up in recent days and in the aftermath of the bombings last week in neighboring Turkey that killed at least 57. The seven-nation Olympic Security Advisory Group has been meeting to discuss and analyze the situation, and the only "given" is that it's too late to move the Olympics to another site.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also sent a team to Greece to study the security ramifications.

Greece is allocating more than $750 million for security for the Games and will utilize some 40,000 police and military personnel. At times, each athlete may feel he has his own security guard.

Yet will that be enough? And isn't the greater concern just as obvious, that a determined terrorist or terroristic group simply cannot be denied?

Whether it was the terrorists at the 1972 Olympics in Munich overtaking the Israeli dormitory or the explosion that shocked those in Atlanta in 1996, it has already been proven that the Games are susceptible to outside interference. In Athens, due to its proximity to Middle East "hot spots," that scary reality will be especially true and it has already led to the National Basketball Association players' union saying it will house its Olympic reps on a cruise ship and away from the Olympic village.

Not that there are any guarantees.

The Olympics are not only a major spectacle, in this day and age they are a mammoth target for the discontented. The Games' very existence invites trouble, no matter their locale.

Heartwarming as it was that Athens got the Games, now that they're almost here the city seems undeniably vulnerable.