Spies give Olympics all clear
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-13 06:16

The world's top spies yesterday gave the Athens Olympics the all-clear - they have picked up no hint of an imminent attack on the eve of the Games.

Security personnel outnumber athletes seven to one at the biggest sporting event on earth. A fifth of the budget has been spent on security at the first Summer Games since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

After years of being lambasted for leaving preparations too late, organizers boasted that Athens had delivered the goods.

But national pride was dented by an embarrassing TV blackout in the middle of the soccer qualifiers.

Vowing "zero tolerance," the government sacked two senior managers at a state broadcaster and pledged that today's high profile opening ceremony - being beamed to billions worldwide - would not be affected.

Greece's Public Order Minister, former commando George Voulgarakis, believes that spending four times what Sydney did on security was a good investment, telling reporters: "We don't have any identification of any threat against Greece."

The latest security reports from the world's leading intelligence agencies show a lack of e-mail or telephone "chatter" among suspects nor any other evidence of a possible strike on the Games, Voulgarakis said.

And Europe's biggest peacetime security operation was given a grateful vote of confidence by Olympic chief Jacques Rogge who said Greece had done "everything humanly possible."

Dozens of world leaders are expected to join 10,500 athletes in time for today evening's opening ceremony. They are protected by a 70,000-strong Greek security force along with troops, ships and aircraft from NATO allies.

Modern Greece told the world on the eve of Athens 2004 that the Olympics will be as spectacular as any Games put on by their ancient forefathers.

With a nation's adrenalin flowing, Athens put the finishing touches to its first Olympics for more than a century and Games supremo Gianna Angelopoulos boasted: "Our people are ready."

"The whole world will discover that modern Greeks have the same ambitions and abilities as the ancients who gave us the Olympic Games," she said as the final countdown began for the six billion euro (US$7.34 billion) extravaganza.

Hollywood spectacular

Today's opening ceremony could be a real Hollywood-style spectacular - Years in the making, boasting a cast of thousands, it has all the showbiz razzmatazz needed to sell Greece to the world in a three-hour epic.

The producers are turning the stadium into a giant sea by flooding the arena. A flaming comet is to shoot into the water and light up the five Olympic rings.

The finale had been kept under wraps but the Greek paper To Ethnos said on Thursday that Olympic 200 metres champion Costas Kenteris would be lighting a giant torch, standing by a blazing olive tree that rises from the shimmering sea.

But many top competitors have spurned the opening ceremony. Joining the interminable parade of athletes could blunt their edge on the eve of the greatest challenge of their lives.

"I can't afford a big night out the day before I compete," said cycling road race champion Jan Ullrich.

The world's two most famous swimmers - American Michael Phelps and Australian Ian Thorpe - will also be conserving energy for their titanic struggles in the pool.

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