The principal threats to Olympic security range from terrorists to lone attackers,?leading to a security operation that is among the largest yet seen for an Olympics.

For David Livingstone, an associate fellow in international security at the London think-tank Chatham House, it has to be the largest security operation in the world this year, and it needs to be because the threats to the Olympics are varied.

It could be lorry-bombs, improvised explosive devices, or a hijacked airliner. And the attackers could be organized terrotists, through to lone cranks "looking to grandstand on a world stage."

"The Olympics security has to be able to cope with all those," he said. The security system also had to allow the Olympics to keep rolling on. In the event of an attack, the Games would continue, there could be no delays.

"In Britain we are quite good at dealing with this. We have been used to living with organized terrorism since 1969, and we have a public which is quite aware of some of these risks. They know what to look for, there is a cultural instinct about threats,"said Livingstone.

POTENTIAL THREAT

Another leading expert, Nigel Inkster, the director of trans-national risks and political risk at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), agreed that the primary threat was perceived as coming from organizations like Al Qaeda.

"The foremost threat that everyone is concerned about, is from trans-national terrorism, predominantly from Al Qaeda or other related groups but there are other forms of terrorism that could manifest themselves at the Olympics," he said.

Inkster felt that these organizations were not capable enough to attack the Olympics, "At the moment their capacity to do anything outside their home area seem to be non-existent. It is not clear they have the network or organizations to do something in London."

"Apart from this, there is also a risk from individuals motivated by some ideology or some personal grievance or a combination of the two,"he added.

This was a very real threat, and Inkster pointed to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, when a pipe bomb was detonated.

But perhaps it wasn't terror attacks that might be aimed at the Olympics but a wide range of activities that fall short of terrorism, such as protests and demonstrations that might have the effect of disrupting the Games, he said.

EXTENSIVE PLANNING

Inkster said the British government is taking no chances and has deployed its largest ship, a helicopter carrier HMS Ocean in the Thames next to the Olympic park, as well as fast jets and helicopters at airports around London to guard the airspace.

More troops than are fighting the war in Afghanistan have been deployed as part of Olympic security, many of them acting as security guards at the many venues across the country and across London.

In addition, missile batteries have been deployed around the main Olympic site in East London to counter any threat of a hijacked aircraft being sent on a suicide mission to crash into the Olympic Park.

Inkster said, "It is understandable the British government do not wish to take chances. For the relatively brief periods of deployment of these units I think they are happy that the cost-benefit stacks up."

Inkster said there has been extensive planning in government and in the security apparatus looking at the way in which the Games would be secured and this has been a significant element of the Olympic planning process.

The planning for the Games has been complex. "It's a big fat juicy target on the world stage for the bad guys and this means the threat is enhanced. But it is also an event across Britain, it's taken seven years to plan,"said Livingstone.

The involvement of foreign countries in the security of all Olympic Games has now become established, said Inkster, especially since 2004 when trans-national terrorism had become a far greater preoccupation.

There are now well established mechanisms for security and intelligence exchanges between nations, said Livingstone, and visiting heads of states bring their own security with them.

"It's nothing new, there are well-rehearsed protocols for this type of personal protection, integrating it with specialist commands in the Metropolitan Police Service,"said Livingstone.

A total of 1200 troops who had been on standby to bolster security at the Olympic Games have been deployed because of a shortfall in the number of security guards provided by private firm G4S.

Earlier in the month 3,500 troops were drafted in to cover for G4S shortfalls.

The British Home Office told Xinhua that the threat level of terrorist attack is now at 'substantial', the third level in a five-level series, meaning that an attack is a strong possibility.

It was reduced to this level from 'severe', meaning an attack is highly likely, in 2011. Enditem