No "Texas sheriffs", "Rambos" on Games streets - Greece

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By Brian Williams

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece vowed on Thursday no "Texas sheriffs", "Rambos" or foreign troops would patrol its streets during next month's Athens Olympics.

In a new bid to calm a furore about whether foreign guards could be armed during the first summer Games since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Public Order Minister George Voulgarakis said Olympic security was exclusively a Greek responsibility.

The row erupted after a Wednesday New York Times report, denied by both Greece and the United States, that Athens would turn a blind eye to foreign security staff carrying weapons to guard their athletes during the August 13 to 29 event, the world's biggest sporting gathering.

"There will be no foreign army on the streets, no American army, no French army, no nothing," Voulgarakis told a raucous session of parliament.

Greek newspapers gleefully seized on the New York Times report as a sign the country's fiercely guarded independence, won after centuries of occupation by the Ottoman Turks, would be trampled on in the name of the Olympics.

"Greece looks the other way while Texas sheriffs come to town," Ta Nea newspaper said.

"500 Rambos will come for the Games," the Ethnos newspapoer said.

"Gunfight over armed guards," the Eleftherotypia newspaper thundered.

"It is we who are responsible (for Games security), politically and organisationally," Voulgarakis said.

NATO member Greece has set up a seven-nation advisory group to help in security plans and has called on the alliance for assistance in air and sea patrols as well as for a potential nuclear, chemical or biological attack.

"We are responsible for the Games security ... but we do have some shortcomings such as to prepare against a biochemical war. This is what we told NATO and the other nations," Voulgarakis said.

He said Greece's initial decision to have no armed guards inside sports venues stood.

"As a consequence sports teams cannot have (foreign) armed escorts," he said.

Greece has drawn up the most expensive ever Games security plan, costing over 1.0 billion euros ($1.23 billion).

But it has rejected repeated claims from several countries including the United States, Australia and Israel who wanted to use their own security forces for the athletes.

Security arrangements also include a 70-metre "Blimp" designed to bolster surveillance operations across the capital.

The huge Zeppelin airship, dubbed "Big Brother" by the media, became a major source of embarrassment for authorities when it failed to lift off this week due to strong winds.

Voulgarakis said the airship was only a small, additional part of security plans and failure to take off during the windy month of August would not compromise Games security plans.

"This is just an additional mechanism to our central system and its failure to operate does not hamper the system," he said.

Voulgarakis has slammed the previous socialist government that lost elections in March for renting the airship despite its inability to fly when even medium winds are blowing.

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