The Met Police perform a security exercise along the Thames ahead of the Olympics (Picture: EPA) |
Olympic sites of the past four
decades have been relatively safe with respect to terrorism, according to a new
report by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to
Terrorism (START). In light of the resources and attention devoted to the
possibility of a terrorist attack at the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in
London, START researchers published a background report on the history of
terrorism and the Olympics since 1970.
After analyzing terrorist attacks
that have taken place during the Olympic Games in the host country, researchers
concluded that there is no consistent increase or decrease in the frequency of
terrorist attacks during the Olympics when compared with other time periods in
the same city, which suggests that considerable efforts to reinforce security
are generally effective at mitigating any potential threats.
“The heightened profile of these
events might increase the likelihood of a terrorist attack while the heightened
security and surveillance might decrease the likelihood of an attack,” says
Erin Miller, START researcher and co-author of the background report.
Fighter Planes on standby to defend Olympics from terror |
The background report details the fatal
attacks that occurred in three Olympic host cities: Munich (1972), Atlanta
(1996) and Beijing (2008). These attacks left 16 victims and 6 perpetrators
dead, and more than 100 wounded.
The background report further
examines the patterns of terrorism in 20 Olympic host countries in the year
prior to the start of the games as compared to the time of the games. Of the 15
countries that saw terrorist attacks during these time periods:
- Nine had more attacks during the Olympics than in the prior year.
- Six had fewer attacks during the Olympics than in the prior year.
- Three had fewer fatalities during the Olympics than in the prior year.
- Six had more fatalities during the Olympics than in the prior year.
The background report also reviews
the history of terrorism in London and the United Kingdom. Since 1970, there
have been 380 attacks in London causing more than 175 fatalities and more than
2,200 injuries. Researchers note that these attacks were infrequent with the
most recent of being a series of four coordinated suicide bombings on public
transportation. The attack, claimed by a group calling itself “Secret
Organization of al Qaida in Europe,” killed 56 and wounded more than 700.
START’s Terrorism and the Olympics Background Report can be found on its website at http://www.start.umd.edu/start/publications/br/TerrorismAndOlympics.pdf.
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