So it wasn’t a replay of 1972… was it good security ? Unwillingness of terrorists of becoming even more world pariahs and suffering the anger of arabs ? They didn’t need to do anything since so much was made about possible terror attacks ? Or in fact they respected the olympic truce ?
The lack of even a credible terror threat during the games means anyting ? Consequences of having had a peaceful Olympic game ?
Good question. All I can say is, damned if I know. I suppose the Greeks security was better than pre-Olympic predictions.
Either that or perhaps the terrorists were distracted elsewhere, or planning something worse. I doubt they choose not to attack in the spirit of the games, or because Greece is immune or something.
Consequence? No one was hurt or killed. Good enough for me.
-XT
Think the fact that The Games where held in Athens and not in say, London, Rome or New York have anything thing to with it? I do. Add the fact that no high-ranking American political figure from this Adm was able to set foot in Greece and there’s really no reason to make them a target. What possible benefit could they have gotten from doing so?
Other than that, I’m not sure what “consequences” you think might be derived from said fact.
Stay the hell away from Bush’s US? Not exactly news, is it?
Are the olympics actually over ?
Declan
Hmm. Could it be that al Qaeda is losing the war?
Yes, after the longest goodbye the world has ever seen…
(If the Chinese music in the “Salute to Beijing” segment of the closing ceremonies is any indicator of the shape of things to come in 2008, I’m going to be watching the games with the mute on)
Ya think? I don’t. And neither does the bulk of the intelligence community:
uhm…Mother Jones? I respect the mag, don’t get me wrong, I love some of their stuff, but methinks they have an agenda that they take no pains to hide.
I think if Islamofacists had wanted to make a point, they wouldn’t have cared if it was in Greece or Georgia. Our Georgia.
I was delighted that nothing happened in Athens, except for two or three injuries sustained by those brave protestors who kept our Secretary of State away from their closing ceremonies. :rolleyes:
Congrats to the Greeks and all the other security forces for a great Games!
I think al Qaeda can only be successful if the time and place of the potential attack aren’t known ahead of time. They have to come out of nowhere for their plans to work out and not get caught through random chance. Only 9/11 was on a target that could have been foreseen. The US Embassy in Tanzania has a nice ring to it but who even knew it existed before they blew it up? None of their attacks have been on meaningful dates that would merit special caution.
The Olympics just don’t fit their MO. Add in the questionable rationale, and I’m not overly surprised nothing happened.
Bit of a knee-jerk there I’m afraid – for it’s a copy of an article published by syndicated writer and highly-respected terrorism expert, CNN’s own Peter Bergen.
Here’s some additional background on Peter:
So, you see, unless you can offer countering evidence, I have no reason to doubt Mr Bergen’s profesionalism, nor the conclusions reached in his article or the sincerity of his sources.
Unless there were some Olympic-related plots broken up (and if that happened, we haven’t heard about it), this is all pure speculation. I doubt it’s the Olympic truce thing, though. 
The most obvious explanation is that a smart terrorist chooses a time and place that allows his operation the most chances of success. An event that has been identified before as a ‘potential terrorist threat’ and surrounded with massive levels of security is not that time and place. Ditto why no terrorist atacks at the World Cup, the Superbowl and all the other events that have been highlighted well in advance as under threat from a terrorist attack.
If you take the view that the aim of the terrorist is to ‘cause terror’ and to disrupt the lives of his enemy, then they actually have no real need to attack these events, the fact that the hugely expensive security operations already exist show that they are already succeeding.
With regard to the WTC, that was a high profile target, but the method of attacking it relied on points of weakness which made it a viable operation.
It strikes me as being obvious that the primary reason was that al-Qaida is not terribly interested in Greece as a target. While terrorists may be murderous bastards, they are not random murderous bastards, and Greece is not at the top of anyone’s hit list.
al Qaida is also known for reconnoitering an attack site for up to several years prior to launching an attack, gathering extremely detailed information about the target. Given that there were people as recently as eight weeks ago betting that the Greeks would not complete their physical infrastructure, not to mention establishing their security setup, Athens was simply not a good al Qaida style target.
(This may not be the reason no attack was launched, but I suspect it contributed to their decisions.)
Well I doubt anyone will say terrorists were nice enough by leaving Athens alone… more likely it was too high profile and high security for AQ.
Yep. NATO threw it’s entire arsenal at Greece. As lockdowns go, Greece was tighter than a frog’s arsehole.
That being said, intelligence and espionage are funny ball games. I daresay the often is that case that “potential matters” are nipped in the bud without the general public ever knowing about it, so that the people doing the “catching” have the opportunity to NOT show their hands, as it were.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some nasty stuff might have been foiled but we never heard about it for those reasons.
Certainly, however, Beijing will be a safe place to visit. The Chinese have ZERO tolerance for anything which might threaten their status quo. I can’t see too many “potential terrorists” getting any free passes into, or out of, China over the next 4 years.
Maybe there just were never as many terrorists around as some people say there are?
To me it seems more a case of sporadic attempts/success than the ongoing hugely resourced campaign that questions such as ‘why didnt they hit X’ suggest.
Otara
Bull because the potential “terrorists” (“one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”) don’t need to get into/out of China… They might already be there.
China is made up of at least 56 ethnic groups, including some that are Muslims, pissed off at being repressed by the Chineses. Plus Tibet. Plus some people who might like revenge for Tiananmen square. Plus a bunch of religious fanatics tired of the antics of the atheistic government (Falung Gong). Plus possible CIA covert ops to stir some shit up ;).
Not all terrorists are Middle Eastern looking you know… And not all Chineses are Han Chineses. I wouldn’t bet on the 2008 games on being safe.
I dont think so. I think they are busy setting up in Iraq now that the one asshole that kept them out is gone.