Olympics minister promises ‘safe and secure’ Games

LONDON – London Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson expressed full confidence yesterday that Britain would deliver a ‘safe and secure’ Games this year. Security has been the major issue facing the Olympics after four suicide bombers killed 52 people on three packed underground trains and a bus the day after London was awarded the Games on July 6, 2005.

‘Terrorism is a threat for any major western country,’ Robertson told a news conference in Kew Gardens to mark the 100-day countdown. ‘It is now and it always has been.’At the end of last year we rearranged the security budget precisely to meet that threat. There’s now a much better mix of military, private security guards, volunteers backed by a very considerable military contingent who work very, very closely with the metropolitan police and the security services.’I am absolutely as confident as I possibly can be 100 days out that we will deliver a safe and secure Games.’ Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt would not say whether any Syrian officials would be banned, although he said all European Union and United Kingdom travel bans remained in place.’We are being very careful to make sure who we’ll allow to come to these Games,’ he said. ‘But in the end there will be people who come to these Games whose political views we disagree with.’ – Nampa-Reuters