Beginning today, the largest and most expensive Winter Olympic Games in history will be held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia. In the days leading up to the opening ceremonies, our focus would normally be on high-level competition and high-minded Olympic idealism.
But we simply cannot ignore the directed terrorism that threatens these games and, in fact, the credibility of the entire Olympic Games movement. The International Olympics Committee awarded these games to a city located in one of the most volatile political regions in the world, and now we face the very real possibility of an Olympic-sized catastrophe. As Rep. Michael Grimm, R-Staten Island, recently noted, terrorist attacks could turn the Sochi games into a "nightmare like Benghazi."
Aside from lone-wolf terrorists, organized crime, cyberattacks, violent protests and a virulent Circassian nationalism, the greatest threat to these Olympics comes from Islamic insurgents. Located on the edge of the Caucasus region, Sochi is close to a seething cauldron of separatist-minded Islamic jihadists. Chechen warlord Doku Umarov has repeatedly exhorted his fighters to attack the Olympics, calling them "satanic dances on the bones of our ancestors." Two recent bomb attacks in Volgograd killed 34 people, and two alleged suicide bombers recently posted a video promising a "surprise package" for Olympics visitors.
Currently, a huge hunt is under way for the so-called "Black Widows" believed to be plotting terrorist attacks on the games. Former CIA and State Department official Paul Goble was right a few months ago when he said that these games "are being staged in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and by the wrong people."
Sochi is one of the least secure places in the world. The presence of militarized security forces at the Olympics is nothing new. In the wake of the 1972 Munich Games, where members of the radical Palestinian group Black September kidnapped and killed several Israeli athletes and coaches, and the 1996 pipe-bombing in Atlanta, security at the Olympics has dramatically intensified.
The security budget for the London 2012 Olympics ballooned to more than $1.5 billion. But none of these games, or others in recent decades, took place in an acknowledged terrorist region. The area around Sochi, on the other hand, has long been a hotbed of anti-Russian sentiment. The games have catalyzed opposition across the region, united what were often fractured militant groups, and raised the specter of the regionalization of insurgency.
The IOC should have known better. Now, Sochi has been forced to put into place the most massive and costly security apparatus in Olympics history. Trains will be monitored, passengers scanned, roads blocked, visitors vetted, "passports" allocated, and X-ray and metal detectors employed.
As many as 100,000 law-enforcement officials, including police undercover agents, Interior Ministry troops and Cossack units will turn Sochi into more of an armed camp than a festive international sporting event.
U.S. warships will patrol the Black Sea and planes will be standing by to evacuate U.S. personnel. The security "ring of steel" around Sochi includes anti-aircraft missiles, surveillance drones, attack helicopters and ground- and air-based electronic warfare systems.
Does this sound like the festival of peace and global harmony that the Olympics purport to promote?
The IOC made a rash and foolhardy decision when it plopped these games down on top of a political powderkeg. There is much at stake. National pride and Russian leader Vladimir Putin's reputation are on the line. These are also the first games under the auspices of newly elected IOC President Thomas Bach. Both Putin and Bach are heavily invested in the success of these games, and both have exuded the requisite display of confidence with regard to safety in Sochi.
Several U.S. observers are less sanguine. Maine Sen. Angus King recently stated that he won't attend the games, telling CNN, "I don't think I would send my family."
The truth of the matter is, neither would I.
What were they thinking?