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CNN Live Saturday

U.S. Security Treats Salt Lake City as War Zone

Aired February 16, 2002 - 22:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: The 2002 Olympic Winter Games are about goodwill and of course, promoting world peace. But as CNN's Rusty Dornin tells us, U.S. security teams are tracking Salt Lake City like a war zone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To keep an eye on the skies over the Olympics, sometimes you just have to climb up close. At 10,000 feet, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Brian Strong and Lance Corporal Jake Turman are making sure this mobile mountain radar station stays up and running.

BRIAN STRONG, GUNNERY SGT.: Basically in this area, the FAA has core radio coverage. So they brought us in to bring our radar and give them some additional coverage that goes through the security operations center. And our mission is to keep this radar running 24/7 until the end of the Games.

DORNIN: Last week, the radar picked up a private plane over Park City Olympic venues. The plane was then intercepted by this U.S. Customs helicopter forced to land. A sophisticated mobile radar system normally used in a war zone. Here, five Marines do eight to 24 hour shifts, sleeping and eating in windowless metal containers. Right now, you can see forever from up here, but just wait.

STRONG: This mountain can really fool you, because sometimes at night, we get 100 mile an hour winds. We've had negative 35 windchill. We've two feet of snow drop in six hours.

ROBERT ROE, SGT., GENERATOR MAINTENANCE: We've had some pretty rough wind up here and our shelters kind of rocked a little bit. Otherwise, it's boring.

DORNIN: Today it's NASCAR. They'd love it to be the Olympics, only they can't get it on their dish. Every half hour, they go to the transmitter and check the readings. At night in a freezing, howling wind, a walk cannot only be tricky, but deadly.

(on camera): What about at night? Do you have concerns about people coming out here at night?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot concerns at night are trip hazards. We try to keep people inside the poles. And our second concern is mainly the windchill factor. We try not to keep people out here more than five or 10 minutes, unless they're with somebody else. And then, even if they're with somebody, we try to keep them out here at a minimum.

DORNIN: Safety is not the only reason they want the troops to stay inside the perimeters, inside these poles. If an intruder tries to sneak up on the installation, they'd be able to see his footprints outside in the snow.

(voice-over): So far, no intruders, no threats. For these guys, when things are boring, that's good news for folks down below.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Park City, Utah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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