Security network includes electronic web, blimp

From wire reports

USA Today 26 July 04

Greek authorities held an Olympic security transport drill early Sunday to test part of a multimillion-dollar security network

before the start of next month's Summer Games.

The three-hour drill, code-named "Olympic Hermes," was held along key roads in the greater Athens area and involved air and ground police units, all forms of public transport and the operation of special Olympic traffic lanes to be used by accredited vehicles — including buses carrying athletes.

Scenarios included management of various traffic accidents on Olympic roads with the cooperation of a sensor-laden blimp.

Saturday, the 200-foot blimp, mounted with dome-shaped sensors, including chemical "sniffers" and ultra-high resolution cameras, flew over Athens for more than three hours. During the Aug. 13-29 Games, the airship is expected to float over the capital for more than 15 hours daily, joining a network of surveillance vans and nine police helicopters.

Sunday's security drill was also a test for the electronic web of more than 1,000 cameras, sensors and other devices tied together over a secure communications network to a command center.

The system cost about $312 million and took up a considerable portion of Athens' record security budget of more than $1.5 billion.

Overall security for the Games is costing three times more than planned. Greece initially was to spend $600 million on security, but that has soared to thwart a possible terrorist attack.

"We have considered every possible scenario," Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis said. "These include very extreme cases — we're talking about World War III, things that exceed our imagination. But we are obliged to think about such things."

The security shield system was developed by Pentagon contractor Science Applications International Corp. Companies in the consortium include Germany's Siemens AG; General Dynamics of Falls Church, Va.; New Jersey-based Honeywell International; and the Israeli company Elbit Systems. Several Greek companies also are participating.

It encompasses everything from iris scanners that check the identities of airport employees to large X-ray machines capable of looking through entire trucks.

There are microphones listening for underwater swimmers in ports, and cameras that can recognize the sound of a gunshot and automatically zoom in on it.

Fed into a security command center, images and audio will stream from more than 1,000 cameras in venues and main streets, police helicopters, spy planes and the blimp.

Added to the surveillance system will be an extensive array of physical barriers, including double perimeter fences around key venues and concrete barriers for car bomb attacks.

NATO AWACS surveillance planes will help maintain a no-fly zone over Athens, while Patriot missiles may be called on to shoot down rogue planes.

Anti-terrorism legislation has been toughened, allowing police greater powers to snoop on cell phone use.