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Winter Games: Unprecedented Security for Olympics

Aired February 07, 2002 - 20:00   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Get ready for some excitement. The world is getting ready for the next 17 days is to watch the Winter Olympics being hosted right here in America. This is meant to be the greatest peacetime event, but it will surely be linked to the events of September 11th.

But in the meantime, the excitement is building as thousands of athletes and coaches and spectators from around the world are beginning to gather here in this city and in this area. I'm Carol Lin and this is LIVE FROM THE WINTER GAMES.

ANNOUNCER: A torch is passed. A tourist is checked. Welcome to the Winter Games and the deadly serious game of preventing terrorism. From the eyes in the sky to the screens on the ground, we'll look at the unprecedented layers of security.

Plus, the people who are here to compete and have fun, and the people who just might change some of your attitudes.

LIVE FROM THE WINTER GAMES, here's Carol Lin in Park City, Utah.

LIN: We are almost having too much fun to call this work. This has been a tremendous day, the eve before the opening ceremonies tomorrow. We watched the torch pass through here in Park City. It is on its way through the city of Salt Lake, and tomorrow, the surprise guest will light the Olympic cauldron as the Olympic ceremonies take place.

President Bush will be en route to Salt Lake city to join in on the opening ceremonies, and here in Park City, as I said, the torch passed through. Perhaps we have some video of that.

It is a gold and silver mining town. This was a place where 150 years ago, men with hope in their eyes were mining for that precious metal. But this time around, as the Olympic Torch went through, people were saying that it was electrifying. It really jump started their Olympic spirit, and now they're anticipating the downhill skiers, the luge runners, the skeleton races, all will be racing for a different precious metal, this time around. There you see one of the volunteers coming through Main Street, Park City today.

You might say that the Winter Olympic Games are taking place in kind of a state of paradox. Imagine trying to throw the world's largest party in a state where 70 percent of the people here don't drink, don't smoke. We are talking about the Latter Day Saints, the Mormon population here in the state of Utah.

But Utah is undergoing tremendous change and they're taking the opportunity here at the Olympics to try to sell that image, and they're also taking a cue from their own next generation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIN (voice over): Josh Sherman spends a lot of nights hanging out in bars. When he's not taking in the music, he's taking on a mountain of snow. There are no rules in freestyle boarding. That's what this 23-year-old likes. You're Mormon?

JOSH SHERMAN: Yes, LDS born and raised. Don't drink. Don't smoke.

LIN: LDS stands for Latter Day Saints, based on the Bible's name for true believers living during the last days of the world. Josh is a Saint who likes to put himself in a world of sin.

He writes about the alternative music scene for an underground magazine, and hangs out with the likes of rapper Ice Cube, and punk band 311.

SHERMAN: I went to Woodstock '99. That was a good story. I think I was the only person sober at Woodstock '99.

LIN: Josh personifies change in Utah, and Utah desperately is looking to change the world's image of the Mormon state with the Olympics.

The State Tourism Board is spending a lot of money to promote Utah as the natural place to visit after the Olympic Gold is gone. A lot is at stake; think Salt Lake Olympics, many people think scandal. In 1998, Mormon Church leaders, all Salt Lake organizers were indicted for handing out $1 million in bribes to allegedly get the games.

The charges were dropped, but the Justice Department is appealing. Salt Lake filmmaker and author Trent Harris says there's more to the re-imaging than shame chasing redemption.

TRENT HARRIS, UTAH FILMMAKER: Partly it's got to do with the Mormons, I think, trying to change the way they're being perceived in the country.

LIN: It's the only church state in the nation, isn't it?

HARRIS: Yes, I think so, and it surfaces in very odd ways, you know.

LIN: Like how?

HARRIS: Oh, I mean we have towns here where it's a law that you must carry a gun, you know.

LIN: But Utah is trying to come of age. The state that says it's illegal to serve hard liquor in most public places, has cleared the way for 1,300 venues at the Olympics where you can drink.

Some say a more open interpretation of the Book of Mormon may keep tourists coming back, and keep kids returning to the church fold.

SHERMAN: The Prophet has said we kind of don't want you to pierce yourself and tattoo yourself, but -

LIN: Kind of don't want you to.

SHERMAN: They kind of don't want you to, but you can do basically anything you want being LDS. You have your free choice.

LIN: Josh actually chose to leave the church and rebel in high school. Today, he's back and preparing to become a Latter Day Saint missionary, once he finishes writing about the history of snowboarding, the sport where you take flight by bending the rules.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): We could all learn a lot from Josh Sherman. All right, well the IOC is also thinking about bending the rules, or at least some of the traditions of the Winter Olympics. I'm talking about the flag controversy.

It has been settled, and what is going to happen during the opening ceremonies is that an honor guard of, well firefighters and athletes and police officers from New York, they will raise the tattered American flag found at Ground Zero over the Rice-Eccles Stadium for the duration of the games, or at least as long as that tattered flag can withstand the elements out here.

In this case, the American flag will not be considered a political symbol. But there is another flag controversy brewing here at the Olympics, and tonight on "THE POINT," well, "THE POINT" is going to take on this issue in depth and you might be surprised at what that other flag is all about.

In the meantime, we have been taking a look at security behind the scenes. This is an unprecedented effort to secure a Winter Games; almost $400 million is being spent on security. You're looking at a Black Hawk helicopter, which we can see every once in a while when we look up in the skies.

The President of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee actually gave me a behind-the-scenes look at the security command post where some 20 government agencies are going to be coordinating and responding to everything from traffic snarls to terrorism attacks.

Now there, you're looking at an aerial shot, I think of the Salt Lake City area. We've been tracking the Olympic Torch as it's been traveling to the State Capitol Building where it should be arriving some time in the next half hour.

In the meantime, we want to share some Olympic security statistics with you. Believe it or not, some 12,000 security agents are going to be on hand to cover this Winter Olympics. That works out to be four agents protecting every single athlete. The total cost for that alone is $345 million. That is three times as much as was spent on security in Atlanta, which was a far bigger set of games.

In fact, I want to share a personal experience with you. The credential that I'm wearing right now is a typical media credential, and you give your date of birth and your Social Security Number in order to attain these to move around the venues.

Well typically, the security check is done by the local police officers. But in this case, all the journalists, some 9,000 journalists, as well as 18,000 volunteers had to go through a thorough FBI check, and I am told that they have the option of going all the way back through your credit history, your mortgage history.

They can tell what you buy, who you call, where you spend your time, and if anything raises a question in their mind, you will be rejected and you will not be given a credential. I'm told that three percent of the people who applied for credentials were rejected. That's about 900 people, for some reason, they were considered security risks. That's a lot of people.

In the meantime, Rusty Dornin has had the opportunity to check out what security is looking out exactly around the venues. Rusty, I know they've been checking cars. Are they going to start checking people as they go into those sites?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, of course, when people go into the venues, they will be checked. But here, they are checking vehicles at many of the security points around downtown Salt Lake that are near the venues.

Now the National Guard and policemen from around the country are involved in these searches of people who are coming in here. Now no one can get in here unless they have business coming to these venues, and we can show you the lineup of cars right along here.

Now this is going on for 24 hours a day, these vehicles are being checked and people are being asked what they are carrying inside. Metal detectors are used. Now some of the searches only involve maybe a few minutes. Others are pulled aside and are placed under tents away from the view and are checked very thoroughly, and in some cases, the searches start even before the checkpoints.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIEUTENANT COLONEL CRAIG MORGAN, NATIONAL GUARD: Well, before any of those packages are put into the vehicles for delivery, they've been checked at a different location before. So, for example, all of the meats, all of the rations, the food supplies, those are all checked at other locations and sanitized, as we say, before they ever get put into the vehicle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: Now people, of course, will be checked again when they go into the venues through metal detectors, and they can't park anywhere near the Olympic venues. They'll be forced to take shuttle busses. There, of course, will be surveillance cameras everywhere. The security here is unprecedented. For the next two weeks, this will be the safest, perhaps most heavily guarded city on the face of the planet. Carol.

LIN: You bet. We've seen that and experienced that ourselves, Rusty. Rusty Dornin was just referring to some cameras, some 200 hidden security cameras around the 900 square mile venue here around the Winter Olympics.

In the meantime, this entire venue has been designated as what's being called a National Special Security Event. That means that the Winter Olympics commands the same kinds of security precautions as the President's Inauguration.

And for the first time in the Olympics' history, the Secret Service, the men and women assigned to protect the President of the United States, will be responsible for security here at the Winter Olympics.

Coming up, a special guest, the Director of the Secret Service, Brian Stafford, will join us live.

ANNOUNCER: Also ahead, intruder alert. This is not a test. Meet the men with a bird's eye view of the games, and potential troublemakers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Live in Park City, Utah. You are joining the party officially as Little Feat starts to warm up in the background. They're going to be performing for some of the town folk here.

And some of the fires lit there to keep people's hands warm as they celebrate the aftermath of the Olympic Torch, which just passed through this afternoon and is now on its way to the State Capitol Building in the city of Salt Lake, where the opening games are going to take place tomorrow night. We're all looking forward to that.

In the meantime, I want you to appreciate the vastness of this Winter Olympic venue. It is some 900 square miles, and these Olympic events are spread out all around there, at 11 different venues that stretch from Ogden to Salt Lake City.

And in the meantime, in all those hills surrounding those cities, sharpshooters are standing by in watchtowers. You're going to have Secret Service agents and border patrol agents in snowmobiles and on cross-country skis, guarding all of those Olympic venues all throughout that 900 square mile area.

But in the meantime, Kathleen Koch takes a look at how the military is securing the skies. She went on a special mission in a Black Hawk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): They are the enforcers, U.S. Customs Service Black Hawk helicopters, half a dozen patrolling the skies over the Olympic venues.

JIM ELI, PILOT: Nobody is in this airspace except law enforcement, military and EMS aircraft would be allowed in here.

KOCH: Aside from their normal mission, nabbing drug smugglers on the southern U.S. border.

ELI: In the drug interdiction business, we do a covert intercept, where we try not to let the drug smuggler know we're behind him. We let him go in and land, or drop their drugs, and then we swoop in and do an arrest on them. Here it's an overt intercept where we want them to know we're here. We want to get their attention, and we want to divert them away from the Olympic venue sites.

KOCH: Half an hour into the flight, radar picks up a violator, a small twin-engine plane flying over Soldier Hollow, site of the cross- country skiing competition and the Olympic Village. The chase begins.

ELI: Keep your eyes out for him. I don't know where this guy's at.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that him?

ELI: Probably.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There he is in front of us.

ELI: Above or below?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's below us. He's going to come up on the right side.

KOCH: An air traffic controller contacts the rogue pilot on radio, telling him he has violated the Olympic no-fly zone.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: We're going to make sure you know exactly where it's at and how to stay out of it.

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: Well, I'm not exactly sure. I'm not familiar with the area here, but I presume I'm out of it at this time.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: You are out of it now, but you, if you're not familiar, you need to make sure you are familiar because you will be met with some F-16s and possibly get your license taken away.

KOCH: Meeting him this time, the Black Hawk.

ELI: We got the aircraft landing on (UNINTELLIGIBLE) final. We'll come in behind him. Do you have anybody on the ground?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Detain the pilot until Secret Service arrives. ELI: We need to get you to set your aircraft down right there at that location.

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: Right here?

ELI: That's affirmative.

KOCH: Cautious, a customs agent with a submachine gun approaches the plane, questions the pilot. Within 15 minutes, local law enforcement arrive and take custody of the man.

MIKE DEAN, U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE, TACTICAL TEAM MEMBER: He was unaware it was a restricted airspace here around the Olympic venues, bringing an aircraft from Grand Junction, and very apologetic and typical of the kind of people that often make those kinds of mistakes.

KOCH: In less than an hour the incident is over, marking the tenth time a plane has flown into the off-limits airspace over Salt Lake City.

KOCH (on camera): It really illustrates how very hard it could be to keep these smaller aircrafts out of those sites, out of that airspace, and then once they're violating it how tough it can be to stop it and actually get them to the ground.

KOCH (voice over): Pilots say ground and air radar steer them toward even hard to see targets, and the Black Hawk can handle the rest.

ELI: Intimidation is not what we're here for. Sometimes you just have to get people's attention and this aircraft has a great way of doing that.

KOCH: Kathleen Koch, CNN, Salt Lake City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Kathleen also tells us that starting tomorrow, that the airspace will be restricted yet another 45 miles around Salt Lake City, just to be safe.

Joining me right now, however, is the Director of the Secret Service, the man in charge of a huge, a massive security operation here at the Winter Olympics, Brian Stafford.

Mr. Stafford, thank you very much. I know you moved mountains to join us this evening. It's good to see you.

BRIAN STAFFORD, DIRECTOR, SECRET SERVICE: It's good to see you, Carol.

LIN: You had a test of your security operation today. I understand that the police blew up a package that they found in a downtown parking lot. Can you tell us a little bit more about what happened? STAFFORD: Well, Carol, we've had a number of incidents like that and we'll probably continue to experience some false alarms like that throughout this 17 days during the Olympics.

LIN: I've been told by some Olympic sources that there have been threats. Are they credible threats do you think to the Olympic games?

STAFFORD: Carol, there has been nothing specific to the Olympic games, but we've had a number of general threats and, of course, the Olympics would be quite a target, and that's why we're here.

LIN: At this point though, how do you sort out the credible threats from the ones that are not credible, so close to this game?

STAFFORD: Well, we take all threats seriously, and the Secret Service, we prepare for the worst, regardless of the environment, the threat environment and this is no different here with the Winter Olympics.

LIN: Well, do you think that the operation that you have here, covering some 900 square miles, can even compare to what you did at the Super Bowl? I think we can understand how you secure a football stadium, but how do you secure an entire wild mountainous territory?

STAFFORD: Well, it is a challenge. As you mentioned earlier, it is 900 square miles. It's seven counties. There's 15 venues and there's a lot of logistical problems, the weather, the geography, that we didn't experience at the Super Bowl, but we approach these venues the very same way, with the same template.

LIN: Can you confirm for us that you will, indeed, have sharpshooters in these hidden watchtowers up in the hills, that you're going to have agents on snowshoes and skis 24 hours a day guarding these venues?

STAFFORD: Well, we will be. We'll be guarding the venues 24 hours a day. When the activities are over and the athletes go back to their quarters, the security people will remain. So we are here for 24 hours a day and we've been here for a while.

So this will last for about a month for us, and it's a huge effort, and we do bring a lot of things with us. We bring a lot of technology with us, and we bring quite a few tactical units with us.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, Brian Stafford, Director of the Secret Service, making history with the agency. It is the first time that the Secret Service is protecting and securing a Winter Olympics.

All right, we want to share with you a picture now, a live aerial of Salt Lake City. I hope we get to see it, because we're tracking the Olympic Torch, which is going to arrive at that building, the State Capitol Building shortly. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LIN: Coming up LIVE FROM THE WINTER GAMES, we're going to be talking to one of the top Olympic U.S. officials, and he's also a former Olympian. That's just a clue, be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: With me right now is Bill Marolt. He is the President, and I got to get this straight, because I don't want to offend the snowboarders. He's the President of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.

BILL MAROLT, PRESIDENT AND CEO, U.S. SKI AND SNOWBOARD ASSOCIATION: That's right.

LIN: Former Olympian back in 1964, and you've won a few national championships yourself.

MAROLT: Yes.

LIN: This is predicted to be the year of the gold for winter athletes. What's your prediction?

MAROLT: Our goal is to win ten medals. This is a goal that we set after the '98 games in Nagano. We won six medals there. We wanted to be better here at home, so we set a goal of ten medals.

LIN: Do you think that's possible?

MAROLT: I think it's entirely possible. We have a tremendous group of athletes. We have a good mix of age and youth. Our plan has worked the way that we wanted it to. A year and a half ago, we really started to explode with good results. That's continued right up until just this past week. So we're optimistic. We're excited, and we're confident.

LIN: Snowboarding is adding to the excitement, and this year the skeleton is back, after being gone for 50 years. And for those people who don't know what it's about, it's basically face down at 80 miles an hour down a hill with no brakes.

MAROLT: That's exactly right. Your chin is about two inches off the ice and it's quite exciting. It really is exciting. On the snowboard side, we do have a terrific team, especially in freestyle or what we call half pipe, wonderful athletes, and I think that that can be clearly one of the strengths of our team.

LIN: Tell me, as a former Olympian, what is it like to compete in the Olympics where you have one shot every four years? The pressure must be tremendous.

MAROLT: You know, the pressure is tremendous, but what we've done is we've tried to work with our kids, with our youngsters so that we use pressure to our advantage, and rather than make it negative and, you know, tense and tight, we want them to be confident. When they get in the gate, they know that they're prepared and they know that all they have to do is ski to their potential and they're going to be fine.

LIN: So in one word, when you're standing on top of that mountain, and you're about to plunge down at 80 miles an hour for the gold, what's the word that goes through your mind?

MAROLT: Confidence.

LIN: Confidence.

MAROLT: Right.

LIN: Thank you very much, Bill Marolt. My best to the U.S. Alpine Ski Team and Snowboarders.

MAROLT: Thank you very much. Thank you, appreciate it.

LIN: This is going to be an exciting series of games and, you know, when you sit in this old mining town and you think about those wild-eyed miners and all their dreams, and you think about these young athletes coming to town and all their great hopes, especially on the - just months after the September 11th attacks.

We're going to have a series of 80 nations represented by more than 2,500 athletes, and I think what will truly be represented here are not the differences between us, but how much all of us have in common.

I want to thank the Treasure Mountain Inn from the bottom of our hearts for their hospitality in helping us put on this production, and thanks to our crew in Atlanta and Salt Lake City. I'm Carol Lin LIVE FROM THE WINTER GAMES.

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