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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 10, 2002
Preparing for the World: Homeland Security and Winter Olympics
On February 8th, the Winter Olympics returns to the United States. The world's greatest athletes will test themselves and one another in Salt Lake City, Utah. It will also be a major test of our ability to protect those athletes and an estimated million-plus visitors. And security for these Winter Games will be more thorough, more visible, better planned and better coordinated than any Olympics in history. We will show the world we can safeguard the Olympic ideal without sacrificing our American ideals -- openness, mobility, diversity, and economic opportunity in the process.
About the Winter Olympics
Providing security for the Winter Olympics is a massive undertaking. An average of 70,000-80,000 visitors are expected to arrive in Salt Lake City every day for 17 days. The last Winter Olympics in America took place in the small town of Lake Placid, New York -- pop. 2,700. By contrast, Salt Lake City is a bustling city of 800,000, and the Games will take place over 900 square miles. Security in Lake Placid was served by about 1,000 federal, state and local personnel. In Salt Lake City, that number will total more than 10,000.
More than $300 million in combined federal, state and local funds have been allocated for security for the Winter Olympics. It will go towards making these Games as safe and secure as possible.
Taking the Lead On Security
The United States Secret Service, under the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is the lead agency for designing, planning and implementing security at the Salt Lake City Games.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will also have major security roles.
Security for the Games: A National Effort
Homeland security is a national, not a federal, effort. Our first line of defense in an emergency -- the thousands of "first responders" on hand in Salt Lake City -- are locally based. And the security effort for the Winter Games has been a true partnership, with unprecedented cooperation and coordination between federal, state and local agencies and officials.
Numerous federal agencies are assisting emergency preparedness, response and recovery.
Prepared and Practiced
We are well-prepared for any contingency.
World-class athletes and teams know that preparation requires practice. Our world-class security teams know this as well.
Highly Visible = Highly Secure
Visitors to Salt Lake City have a right not only to be safe, but to feel safe. Much of the security surrounding the Salt Lake City Games will be highly visible, helping to deter potential threats before they happen. A sampling:
CONCLUSION
We can prepare for a safe Winter Olympics. But we cannot make any promises. As Utah Governor Mike Leavitt has correctly said, "Our efforts can only go to minimize, not eliminate, risk."
What we can promise is that America will be better prepared than ever before to detect an attack -- to deter it from happening -- and to protect the public in the extremely unlikely event that one should occur.
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