US Gears Up for Olympic Security
U.S. gears up for the security challenge of our Olympics
By Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun, July 17, 2009
The 2010 Winter Games are Canada's Olympics, but they'll be taking place just 50 kilometres from the U.S. border.
It should come as no surprise then that American authorities are gearing up to protect their strategic interests and, in the process, taking the concept of Canada-U.S. security cooperation to a new level.
Washington, D.C., started allocating funds in 2005 in preparation for the Games, to deal with a whole bunch of possibilities -- a terrorist incident, an earthquake, a February blizzard or traffic accident that shuts down the I-5 highway.
As for the State of Washington, it appointed a 2010 Olympics task force five years ago.
The most tangible sign of readiness at present is a "2010 Olympics Coordination Center," near Bellingham's airport, 37 kilometres from the B.C. border.
The $4-million retrofitted air hangar, which began operations this week, was funded by the Department of Homeland Security and will be the nerve centre for more than 40 federal, state and local agencies, plotting quick responses in reaction to any Games-related emergency.
The state has been upgrading its customs and border apparatus since 9/11, and will have agents in place to handle the expected increase in February 2010 border flows, reports Mike Milne, of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The American government has spent $500,000 on pre-Olympics training exercises for U.S. emergency workers. While Canadian security officers are staging Exercises Bronze, Silver and Gold in Vancouver, parallel events are being held in Tacoma by Washington state forces.
Homeland Security has financed an upgrade to a mountaintop communications tower to ease communications between first responders and the state's highway patrol.
For the U.S., it's not all about emergency preparedness, of course; there will be money to be made from all the travellers. Whatcom County officials calculate that two-thirds of all visitors to the Games will travel from the U.S.
The majority will use Washington's highway system into B.C. The county shares five border crossings with our province.
But the bigger preoccupation is for security, given that the Olympics are viewed by the U.S. as a "global" event.
Accordingly, authorities on both sides of the line are set to deploy a new level of cooperation that will take advantage of several new binational defence accords and spotlight a trend toward Canada-U.S. interoperability.
With interoperability inevitably comes fretting about respective sovereignty, so it's not surprising both sides are playing down any American security contribution.
"Our role is mainly coordination in case something happens on our side of the border," advises Robert Calkins, a spokesman for the Washington State Patrol.
"Safety and security of the Olympics in Canada is the sole responsibility of Canadian authorities," echoes RCMP Staff-Sgt. Mike Cote of the integrated security unit for the Games.
That said, the binational North American Aerospace Defense Command will "support RCMP-led security operations during the 2010 Games," says Cote. NORAD will mainly be deploying Canadian Forces' CF-18 Hornets.
NORAD is regularly assigned to safeguard continental air space -- and since May of 2006, Canadian and American maritime approaches as well.
Throughout the Games, both the U.S. Coast Guard and RCMP will conduct "integrated marine cross-border law enforcement," says Cote.
This will permit U.S. officers in U.S. vessels to carry out enforcement in Canadian waters, in accordance with an agreement signed two months ago by U.S. Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano and Canada's public safety minister, Peter Van Loan.
The agreement initially targeted waters in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway.
Canadian Rear Admiral Tyrone Pile, naval commander of Pacific forces and head of a joint task force for the 2010 Games, has stated that no American troops will be on Canadian soil.
However, Canada and the U.S., since February of 2008, have had an agreement allowing forces from one nation to support the other during a civil emergency. This kicks in when one country specifically requests assistance.
The U.S. military doesn't allow its soldiers to operate under foreign command, so if their support was requested during the Games, they'd come under tactical control of the Canadian Forces but still be under command of the U.S. military.
The hope is that U.S. security personnel will be able to sit back and just enjoy the Games from their side of the border.