SYDNEY, Australia -- Australia showcased its biggest peacetime security operation on Friday, saying it was ready to combat any potential terrorist threat to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Australian defense and police forces launched a monthlong exercise, code-named Golden Flame, to put the finishing touches on security measures for the Games, which begin Sept. 15."If we had to go now, we could," joint task force leader Brigadier Gary Byles said of preparations for any potential threat.
Units including elite Special Air Services commandos, navy divers and a Black Hawk helicopter squadron have been training for 18 months to deal with potential threats ranging from a Munich-style terrorist attack to weapons of mass destruction.
Golden Flame marks the high point of preparations for Games security under the operational code name "Joint Task Force Gold," which will see up to 1,000 personnel from 12 agencies led by the defense force and police.
Police commander Paul McKinnon and Byles launched a training exercise at Sydney city naval base on Friday that involved the response if a bomb were found on one of the many ferries that ply Sydney's world-famous harbor. Ferries will be one of the main ways for people to travel to the Olympics venue.
The Australian Defense Force has identified more than 100 possible venues for terrorist attacks, including hostage taking, during the Games.
However, police and the defense force have found that the risk of any serious threat, including either chemical or biological attacks, was low.
"One of the key objectives of any security activity is to deliver the notion of dread," said McKinnon, head of the Olympic Security Command Center.
"Any overt demonstration of that capability demonstrates the very serious muscle available on ground nationally throughout Australia that can turn to deter any would-be attackers."
In September 1972, gunmen from the radical Palestinian Black September group killed two Israeli athletes and took nine hostages after breaking into their quarters in the Olympic Village in Munich.
Police tried to rescue the athletes but all nine captives died in the shoot-out, along with five Palestinians and a policeman.
"There are no specific threats, but it's just common sense that you need to provide for as many reasonable contingencies as possible," McKinnon told reporters.
Task force leaders said they had worked extensively with Australian and international intelligence agencies in preparing security for the Games.
"We have the whole field of possibilities covered . . . a range of scenarios that test our tactical capabilities with respect to bomb responses and more sophisticated types of threats involving weapons of mass destruction," McKinnon said.