|
Security airship guards Athens; Greeks moan about security
I thought I read about this on Rantburg before, but can't find anything in the archives.
Beneath the blue skies of Athens, an odd droning noise this week has prompted many a harried commuter to look up and squint into the sun. Above their heads, cumbersome but quiet enough to creep up unawares, is a 200ft airship - its unspoken motto: "Eat at Zorba's" "You are being watched." In a country where memories of the 1970s military junta are still fresh, and suspicion of authority is common, the airship is not seen as some novelty attraction. While some of the foreign athletes and VIPs heading to Athens for next month's Olympics have voiced concerns about safety precautions, locals are beginning to wonder if security measures have gone too far.
| Feel free to relax security and accept the consequences. Just let us get our atheletes outta town first. |
The list of defence gadgetry is formidable: Patriot missile batteries to shoot down rogue planes, high-speed coastguard vessels to sink terrorist boats, special sensors to detect lorry bombs and, today, a battalion of specialist Czech troops arrives to focus on any possible threat from weapons of mass destruction.
| Which of course don't exist. |
It is not so much the high-tech, high-cost, anti-terrorist systems that have irked locals. Rather it is the surveillance - city-wide, round-the-clock and in pin-sharp detail - that has provoked discontent. Leading the snooping is the airship, brought in as the final link in an observation network that will co-ordinate and direct 70,000 security officers on the ground. In the 13-seat gondola beneath the helium blimp, monitors display images from super-sensitive cameras that can work in pitch darkness. Chemical detectors sweep the air for any signs of gas attack. On the ground, a network of 1,300 fixed cameras keeps a beady eye on street level around potential targets such as Olympic venues and the Greek parliament. Police will even know when swimmers decide to take a dip near the port of Piraeus - where cruise ships will accommodate thousands of VIPs - thanks to an underwater sensing system. Meanwhile, a new law has given the authorities greater powers to tap phone calls.
Posted by: Bulldog 2004-07-30 |
