Of course, the counterterrorism forces of nearly every government on the planet are going to be on some form of heightened alert during the Olympics.
Government officials have been quietly stepping up counterterror efforts out of a growing concern that al Qaeda or similar organizations might try to capitalize on the spate of extremely high-profile events in the coming months, sources tell ABC News.
Security experts point to next month’s Olympics as evidence that high profile events attract threats of terrorism, like the one issued this past weekend from a Chinese Muslim minority group that warned of its intent to attack the games.
Anti-terror officials in the U.S. cite this summer and fall’s line up of two major political parties’ conventions, November’s general election and months of transition into a new presidential administration as cause for heightened awareness and action.
While we tend to associate terrorism alerts with Islamic terrorism (for good reason) there’s a significant threat posed by homegrown wackos. Securing the conventions is going to be a huge and difficult job.
