A Terrorists' Guide to the 1984 Olympics

While the 1984 Olympic Games are being touted as Disneyland with sweat by the public-relations staff at the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, it is a safe bet that plans to shatter that showcase of democracy have already been set in motion. The world has come to expect the death of innocents in the pursuit of the principal terrorist goal: publicity. Given the complexities of guarding the 1984 summer games, those plans have an awesome chance of success.

Security for the games is the responsibility of an umbrella group called the Olympic Law Enforcement Coordinating Council. The organizing committee is represented on the council by Edgar Best, a talented, tough ex--special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who has been meeting for nearly two years with local, state and Federal law-enforcement agencies, as well as with political figures--including the President of the United States. But the logistics are tremendously complex. At the Montreal games, only five agencies needed coordination; in Moscow, only two. For the 1984 Olympics, Best and other top personnel are attempting the task of coordinating 60 law-enforcement agencies. Sources within the Los Angeles Police Department indicate that the task is overwhelming.

The Law Enforcement Coordinating Council has set up 27 subcommittees in charge of intelligence, transportation, SWAT, air support, communications, traffic, crowd control and the like. Although Best downplays the dangers of internal dissension, it is a fact that rivalries, jealousies and the idiosyncrasies of individual law-enforcement bureaucracies have crippled police work many times in the past. Those problems could be especially troublesome at the Olympics, where neither Best's council nor the L.A.P.D. has the legal means to force meetings and cooperation with autonomous local agencies--much less with the FBI, the CIA or the Secret Service. "Autonomy is a major problem," a source in the L.A.P.D. told me. "If we can't force cooperation, how are we going to guard Marcos or Castro or Mitterrand or Reagan?"

Cooperation aside, Best doesn't share the feeling--expressed by some front-line cops--that foreign battles will be fought in Los Angeles by terrorists seeking publicity. It is his opinion that the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes caused a backlash that would discredit similar terrorist action now.

"Black September no longer exists because of that," he said.

Over at the L.A.P.D., the spokesman--and the chief of Olympics security for the police department--is Commander Bill Rathburn, whose background in antiterrorist work is nil. He isn't sure what qualified him for the job of Olympics planning. He is sure, however, that no one can guarantee a safe Olympics. He, too, attempts to downplay the coordination problems.

"I was originally uncomfortable with the lack of legislative direction to coordinate security," he said. "Many people in responsible positions were and still are. But I feel now that the recognition of local autonomy is the cornerstone of our effort."

The good news is that there is a reputable (continued on page 182) Terrorists' Guide (continued from page 90) antiterrorist expert working for the L.A.P.D. He is Commander George Morrison, and my source indicated that he is called in to advise law-enforcement agencies all over the country. Rathburn wouldn't let me talk with him, however. It seems that Morrison has drawn departmental rebukes for his outspoken dealings with the press--for telling it like it is, in other words.

As for the FBI, it has generally maintained a low-profile, no-comment posture on its Olympics planning. Director William Webster has indicated, however, that the bureau expects to take a leading role in the event of a terrorist raid. Its response force will include its own SWAT team, as well as the Delta "Blue Light" Team, the United States' answer to the British anti-terrorist Special Air Service and the West German G.S.G.9.

Sources in the L.A.P.D. bridled at the suggestion that the plans that have been developed locally over the past two years will be pre-empted by the bureau. Meanwhile, the FBI's press-relations agent told me, "You're on the right track trying to pin down just who has the responsibility." Then he added, "Lotsa luck."

But even with Morrison's expertise, even with the FBI and the Blue Light Team, this looks like a bad time to be holding an Olympics in the U.S., much less in Los Angeles, where far-flung facilities make security especially tough. I wanted to find out how the other side might be viewing things, so I got together with someone who knows the terrorist mind and method firsthand.

•

"You look like shit," I told John Miller when I picked him up at Los Angeles International Airport. Miller is a brawling professional soldier who trained with the Special Air Service in Great Britain. He was undercover in Belfast against the Irish Republican Army. He kidnaped the Great Train Robbery fugitive, Ronnie Biggs, from Brazil. The international press keeps an eye on this archetypal rogue, who's always in transit and trouble. He had just gotten back from a foray into Angola. A discolored right cheek added authenticity.

"I got hit with a rifle butt," he said. "We were reconnoitering--looking for an opportunity to take some British and American mercenaries out of prison down there. Three big guys jumped up. We put them down and left the guns. Stupid. My mate got shot under here." He poked his thumb at my back. "Had to leave 'im with some friends. He was coughing up blood. Nicked the lung, I think."

We started to fill each other in on Olympics logistics. In 1932, Los Angeles was the first Olympics city to build housing facilities specifically for the games. In modern times, it will be the first not to build new facilities. The University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Southern California will house the majority of the athletes. Never have the games been scheduled at such geographic distances as the 1984 venues, the Olympics word for the playing sites. The 23 venues are spread out beyond the boundaries of the County of Los Angeles, which itself covers an area of more than 4000 square miles. Never has so much space been allocated for media representatives: The entire Los Angeles Convention Center--334,000 square feet of floor area--has been leased. And never has the President of the United States officiated at the opening ceremonies.

"To compound the problems, you're also dealing with a nation of nice guys," Miller said as we sat down to dinner at a restaurant on Sunset Strip. "The U.S. is a paradise for the terrorist. Everyone wants to help here and usually does. Especially to help people with a foreign accent. You can't even look over a fence in Russia. Also, the U.S. is an open target because it's the only country in the world where every piece of necessary military equipment is sold right in the open or nearly so. Give me a few hours and I'll get you an antitank cannon with live shells for your front yard.

"They'll send in a four-man cell to reconnoiter," he continued. "They'll dig away and gather information."

"How hard is it to get that kind of information?" I asked.

"How hard? Tomorrow, I'll show you."

The next day, we went to the Olympic Organizing Committee headquarters at the UCLA campus. I told someone in the press wing that I was writing something. Ten minutes later, I had maps, schedules and information about the venues, as well as detailed geographic and demographic information about the city of Los Angeles. I didn't show any I.D. until later, when I interviewed Best. He was the only careful person I spoke with--the only one who seemed to recognize that effective security starts long before the games themselves. On the way out, Miller lifted an official organizing-committee security badge. He just took the badge from a visitor's clothes. "A ticket," he said.

"And if you could do it----" I started to say.

"That's right. So could they. That's America. This badge would get any terrorist admittance to the inside, at least during the planning stages. I don't think there's another country that's so bloody easy.

"No one can guarantee public safety at the 1984 games," he said. "There is no way Russia, even a post-Brezhnev Russia, is going to want to see it blood-free. Whatever the Soviets' involvement in international terrorism, they'd like to demonstrate that which you ignore on an international scale: that the freedom Americans have is fraught with danger and crime and murder. You may be rich and free, but you have no discipline or order--prized values in the rest of the world. The Soviets would also like to teach the U.S. a lesson for Jimmy Carter's decision to trash the summer games in 1980. It's the only answer to Moscow's broken window on communism. What can L.A. do to protect itself? It can't adequately protect its ordinary citizens from domestic predators."

The city has black and Latin gangs that can't be controlled, plus the cops are going to have their hands full with more ordinary home-grown cons and creeps. Every pimp, whore, grifter, drifter, pickpocket, con man, crackpot, flimflam man, swindler, diddler and panhandler within 500 miles will be in L.A., moving in for the kill.

And then you get to the visitors. Anti-nuke, antiwar, anti-abortion activists; neo-Nazis; Ku Klux Klanners; the Jewish Defense League; fellow-traveler U.S. citizens from 30 countries; Solidarity activists; the Weather Underground; Black Liberation Army; and uncounted splinter organizations--they'll all be moving in for a shot at the gold: headlines.

"What about the backlash after Munich?" I asked Miller. "Black September is gone from the scene, and the P.L.O. has, after all, moved into the political arena. Edgar Best thinks that it'll be calm here, like Moscow, Montreal and Lake Placid."

"Maybe," he said. "But these people are terrorists. That's their business. That's how they live. They all work together. Just because the provisional wing of the I.R.A. gets some parliamentary representation doesn't mean that it won't be out killing horses and kids and heroes, like Mount-batten. Terrorists' egos are tied to destruction, and their employment depends on death.

"You retire them like this." He pointed a finger at my temple. "You take them and kill them as quick as you can. They don't sit around rocking at some old folks' home; they have to fucking die. It's like getting fired."

We visited the two principal Olympic Villages--the student housing areas at the huge Usc and Ucla campuses. While the facilities weren't built for security, Commander Rathburn said that they would be secured and the athletes would be completely isolated. When I mentioned Munich, he had no comment. He knew what I was writing about. "I'd like to keep a lid on this whole thing," he said. "You're playing with dynamite."

Maps of the campuses are readily available. When Miller and I visited Ucla, it was difficult for us to figure out how anyone could control traffic and access to those busy areas. "There are service tunnels all over the place," said Miller. "They'll have to watch those. Christ, here's Boelter Hall. You know what's in there?"

"No," I said.

"A fucking nuclear reactor. It's right in the middle of L.A. One terrorist cell--four men--goes in there, sets time charges in satchel bombs and booby-traps the works and...."

"Holy shit," I said.

"That's a lot of publicity, a little meltdown and fallout," he said. "The athletes are going to have exposure going to and coming from those widespread venues. No Olympics participants have ever had to be trucked so far. It's a nightmare to control, and there will be many targets of opportunity."

The weight-lifting events will be held at Loyola Marymount University. We walked through the gymnasium. "The Israelis will be a number-one target," Miller said. "Weight lifting is one of their sports. It could happen here. A cell could take over or rent one of the little private houses on the road in here and use a couple of hand-launched wire-guided missiles. The bus comes by and--zap!--easy escape. L.A. has a lot of roads."

"What about diversionary tactics?" I asked.

"They're not going to waste bodies with grandstanding," he said. "They'll pick one prime target and a secondary one. Sure, they could drop a bunch of incendiary devices in the hills and forests. They could burn Southern California and distract an entire raft of police and firemen, but that's not likely. No, it would be risking bodies to take bodies."

The Los Angeles Convention Center will hold news representatives from all over the world. Again, we had no trouble gaining access through a back door. Part of the eight-acre facility was being used for an exotic-plant-growers convention. "This could be a real problem," said Miller. He showed me where city garbage trucks drive right up on the main floor. "Load one of those trucks with explosives and that's a lot of news. That's I.R. A.-style stuff. And, probably, this facility is not going to get much protection. The security people are going to have to watch everything."

At the Forum, the basketball venue, we ascertained that security would be provided mostly by the guards used for normal activities. "Those guys are OK for rowdies and drunks," Miller said. "A lot of them are off-duty cops, and they can bust teeth. But against trained terrorists, you need pros. That's a problem."

We visited most of the other venues. Even to an untrained eye, the opportunities for a creative scenario for death loomed clear, from sniping at the yachting events in Long Beach Harbor to automatic fire on massed cyclists on the road at Cal State University in Dominguez Hills to a grenade assault at the equestrian events at Santa Anita Park.

"This is a town of theatrics," Miller said. "Terrorism is high theater with publicity as the prize. Whatever terrorists do, it has to be huge and terrible."

•

When we visited the Coliseum, the site of the opening ceremonies and the track-and-field events, Miller immediately noticed the number of entrances. "There are 90 ways in here. It'll take an army to vet the spectators. At the opening ceremonies, they'll have heads of state, the business-and-industry sponsors...."

"It's an election year; a lot of candidates will be here," I said.

"And President Reagan," he said. "They might try a Sadat-type suicide run, say from the marching athletes...."

We walked into the huge empty arena. No one stopped us. "This would be the prime target," Miller said. "The President will probably land out there on the field by helicopter. Security will have to do a real job here."

We climbed all over, looking for vantage points. It was eerie contemplating destruction. "Maybe they'll just rent a military-type Cobra helicopter and outfit it with fire control," said Miller. "You can rent anything in Hollywood; they use them in films. Then it comes in over the far side there with rockets. Wham!"

"Yecch," I said. "They'd have to be crazy. What an end."

"Not quite," he said. "The terrorists are doing business. Security has to bankrupt them. Unless interagency rivalry disappears, unless intelligence is quick and coordination is ironclad, this could be the last Olympics."

The reconnaissance tour was over and I was driving him to the airport. His cheek was almost healed, and he was leaving to find more trouble. He was always in the thick of it.

"So, where are you going to be on July 28, 1984?" I said.

"Right here in L.A.," Miller said. "Where else?"

"'The U.S. is a paradise for the terrorist. Everyone wants to help here and usually does.'"