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'Bin Laden' allowed into Olympics stadium
A tabloid newspaper in Britain claimed yesterday to have exposed major security breaches at the Athens Olympics, after one of its reporters got a job at the main stadium without a thorough security check. So "shambolic" was security that a Sunday Mirror reporter at one point was able to enter the stadium with passes bearing the names "Robert bin Laden" and "Michael Mouse", it said. The paper said its reporter enjoyed virtually free access to the venue right up to Friday's opening ceremonies, and that a security sweep had failed to find three mock bombs that he had planted 10 days ago. "While working undercover, our reporter also discovered (that) many workers were not vetted before getting their jobs, vehicles and bags were allowed onto the site without being searched, (and) bomb detectors and scanners were not working," it said.Greek authorities have promised ultra-tight security for the Olympiad, the first since the September 11 attacks in the US in 2001 carried out by Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. The Sunday Mirror said its reporter got a $18 (BD7) an hour job as a fork lift driver at the main stadium within days of arriving in Athens on July 6. "There was no interview and no references were asked," it said, despite his passport being "crammed with border entry stamps from countries known to harbour Al Qaeda sympathisers such as Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon". It added that during a "security lockdown" on August 5, intended to fully sweep Olympic venues, security agents failed to find three mock bombs which the reporter had placed in a locker, a cardboard box in an area where opening-night performers prepared, and a sandwich box in the main Olympic stadium, it said. On opening night, the Sunday Mirror continued, the reporter entered the stadium without going through metal scanners, which had been put out of order due to power failures. Posted by: tipper 2004-08-16 |
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