PARIS (AP) \u2014 A year ago, the head of\u00a0the Paris Olympics\u00a0boldly declared that France\u2019s capital would be \u201c\u00a0the safest place in the world\u00a0” when the Games open this Friday. Tony Estanguet\u2019s confident forecast looks less far-fetched now with squadrons of police patrolling Paris\u2019 streets, fighter jets and soldiers primed to scramble, and\u00a0imposing metal-fence security barriers\u00a0erected like an iron curtain on both sides of the River Seine that will star in the opening show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
France\u2019s vast police and military operation is in large part because the July 26-Aug. 11 Games face unprecedented security challenges. The city has repeatedly suffered deadly\u00a0extremist attacks\u00a0and international tensions are high because of the wars in\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0and\u00a0Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rather than build an Olympic park with venues grouped together outside of the city center, like Rio de Janeiro in 2016 or London in 2012, Paris has chosen to host many of the events in the heart of the bustling capital of 2 million inhabitants, with others dotted around suburbs that house millions more. Putting temporary sports arenas in public spaces and the unprecedented choice to stage\u00a0a river-borne opening ceremony\u00a0stretching for kilometers (miles) along\u00a0the Seine,\u00a0makes safeguarding them more complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olympic organizers also have\u00a0cyberattack concerns, while rights campaigners and Games critics are worried about Paris\u2019 use of\u00a0AI-equipped surveillance technology\u00a0and the broad scope and scale of Olympic security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paris, in short, has a lot riding on keeping 10,500 athletes and millions of visitors safe. Here\u2019s how it aims to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Games-time force of up to 45,000 police and gendarmes is also backed up by a 10,000-strong contingent of soldiers that has set up\u00a0the largest military camp in Paris\u00a0since World War II, from which soldiers should be able to reach any of the city\u2019s Olympic venues within 30 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Armed military patrols aboard vehicles and on foot have become common in crowded places in France since gunmen and suicide bombers acting in the names of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group\u00a0repeatedly struck Paris in 2015. They don\u2019t have police powers of arrest but can tackle attackers and restrain them until police arrive. For visitors from countries where armed street patrols aren\u2019t the norm, the sight of soldiers with assault rifles might be jarring, just as it was initially for people in France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the beginning, it was very strange for them to see us and they were always avoiding our presence, making a detour,\u201d said Gen. \u00c9ric Chasboeuf, deputy commander of the counter-terror military force, called Sentinelle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow, it\u2019s in the landscape,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rafale fighter jets, airspace-monitoring\u00a0AWACS surveillance flights,\u00a0Reaper surveillance drones, helicopters that can carry sharpshooters, and equipment to disable drones will police Paris skies, which will be closed during the opening ceremony by a no-fly zone extending for 150 kilometers (93 miles) around the capital. Cameras twinned with artificial intelligence software \u2014 authorized by a law that expands the state\u2019s surveillance powers for the Games \u2014 will flag potential security risks, such as abandoned packages or\u00a0crowd surges,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
France\u00a0is also getting help\u00a0from more than 40 countries that, together, have sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attacks by lone individuals are major concern, a risk driven home most recently to French officials by\u00a0the assassination attempt\u00a0against Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some involved in the Olympic security operation were stunned that the gunman armed with an AR-style rifle got within range of the former U.S. president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo one can guarantee that there won\u2019t be mistakes. There, however, it was quite glaring,\u201d said Gen. Philippe Pourqu\u00e9, who oversaw the construction of a temporary camp in southeast Paris housing 4,500 soldiers from the Sentinelle force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In France, in the last 13 months alone, men acting alone have carried out knife attacks that targeted\u00a0tourists in Paris, and\u00a0children in a park\u00a0in an Alpine town, among others. A man who\u00a0stabbed a teacher\u00a0to death at his former high school in northern France in October had been under surveillance by French security services for suspected Islamic radicalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With long and bitter experience of deadly extremist attacks, France has armed itself with a dense network of police units, intelligence services and investigators who specialize in fighting terrorism, and suspects in terrorism cases can be held longer for questioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hundreds of thousands of\u00a0background checks\u00a0have scrutinized Olympic ticket-holders, workers and others involved in the Games and applicants for passes to enter Paris\u2019 most tightly controlled security zone, along the Seine\u2019s banks. The checks blocked more than 3,900 people from attending, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. He said some were flagged for suspected Islamic radicalization, left- or right-wing political extremism, significant criminal records and other security concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re particularly attentive to Russian and Belorussian citizens,\u201d Darmanin added, although he stopped short of linking exclusions to Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and Belarus\u2019 role as an ally of Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darmanin said 155 people considered to be \u201cvery dangerous\u201d potential terror threats are also being kept away from the opening ceremony and the Games, with police searching their homes for weapons and computers in some cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said intelligence services haven\u2019t identified any proven terror plots against the Games \u201cbut we are being extremely attentive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Campaigners for digital rights worry that Olympic surveillance cameras and AI systems could erode privacy and other freedoms, and zero in on people without fixed homes who spend a lot of time in public spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saccage 2024, a group that has campaigned for months against the Paris Games, took aim at the scope of the Olympic security, describing it as a \u201crepressive arsenal\u201d in a statement to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd this is not a French exception, far from it, but a systematic occurrence in host countries,\u201d it said. \u201cIs it reasonable to offer one month of \u2018festivities\u2019 to the most well-off tourists at the cost of a long-term securitization legacy for all residents of the city and the country?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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