By John Garces/sports editor
Recently, officials in Beijing reported they had uncovered a terrorist plot to target the Olympic Games when they come to the city later this year.
Not much is known about the plot, other than what is being released to the press courtesy of the Communist nation’s leaders.
In an Associated Press article, Wang Lequan, the top Communist Party official in the far western region of Xinjiang, said materials seized in a Jan. 27 raid in the regional capital, Urumqi, showed the plotters planned “specifically to sabotage the staging of the Beijing Olympics.’’
While stating that the goal of the plot was clear, he did not specify what type of plot it was, though it’s clear this plot strengthens the nation’s claim that extreme measures need to be taken to protect the safety and stability of the first games to be held in the country.
Chinese officials had long pegged anti-terrorism security as the country’s biggest need as they had long ago said terrorism was the biggest threat to the Beijing Olympics.
Most terrorism experts believe the threat for an attack at a Chinese-controlled event is low, because of the Communist regime’s tight social controls, but also warn that China’s counter-terrorism capabilities are weak should a plot to target the games take place.
Despite living in a world where terrorism is deemed a constant threat to world-wide security, the Olympics have thus far seemed to be an afterthought as a legitimate target, especially after surviving a 2002 Winter Games that was hosted on U.S. soil in Salt Lake City mere months after Sept. 11 and dealt with the fear of a potential terrorist attack almost daily.
To think that the biggest sporting spectacle in the world, short of maybe just the Super Bowl, is immune from violence, though, would be foolish.
All anyone has to do is think back to the 1972 Summer Games in Munich, where a Palestinian terrorist group killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team and did irreparable damage to the Olympic spirit in the process.
Whether the Communist regime in charge of China is using the one word in the English language that sends shock waves through the world as a means of taking minds off the real issue remains to be seen.
But, despite how the rest of the world views the ways of the Communist party, Olympic security should never be taken lightly, under any circumstance.
Chinese officials have said they want to use the Olympics to show how far the country has come athletically and to prove that a Communist country can prosper and be a happy place to live.
They could start by showing the rest of the free world how to handle the fear of terrorism.
