PARIS — They have the best seats at this summer's Paris Olympics, but they won't be able to enjoy the sport.
Major John and Colonel Dry will be overseeing from the air one of the most challenging and rigorous security operations ever deployed at the Games.
NBC News was invited exclusively on a military police helicopter last week to fly over the vast Palace of Versailles, the former royal residence where equestrian events are currently held, and at La Défense, where seating for swimming competitions is under construction. I rode along on the steep descent into the business district. Then travel along the Seine, the site of the opening ceremony, to the Olympic Stadium, the Stade de France, and the colorful townhouses of the suburban Olympic Village.
This is not a sightseeing tour. These military police will use pioneering surveillance technology to spot threats from the air and will deploy SWAT teams if necessary if the City of Lights is hit by a terrorist attack during the Olympic Games, which begin in July. I will dispatch. 26.
“We're watching, but you can't see us and you can't hear us,” Drai, 49, said. He, like his military police colleagues, was not allowed to give his first name. “Our special cameras and electronics allow us to observe them from up to 4 to 5 kilometers (approximately 2.5 to 3 miles) away.”
In a crisis, it can reach anywhere in Paris within five minutes.
“We're there all day, every day and every night,” said co-pilot John, 40.
France has 45,000 police, military police and army troops deployed across the country. And, according to a Home Office press conference earlier this month, everyone involved in the Games will be subject to background checks – from security and construction workers to event volunteers, with 1 million checks to be issued. –The Interior Ministry said so far 280 background checks have been conducted on about 100,000 checks. A “red flag” that requires further investigation.
(NBC Universal, part of Comcast, the parent company of NBC News, is the world's largest Olympic broadcaster and the International Olympic Committee's biggest source of revenue.)
Security is always a major issue at the Games, which bear the memories of the 1972 Munich massacre and the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Park bombing.
But what makes Paris unique, and particularly challenging from a security perspective, is the ambitious opening ceremony, with 10,500 athletes and a fleet of 90 boats sailing down the Seine. Held outside the stadium for the first time, the event will feature all kinds of mysteries about how to monitor the countless rooftops and residential balconies along the 5.5-mile route, set against the picturesque backdrop of Paris. will emerge.
Tim Bradley, a former FBI special agent who organized security for various events starting with the Super Bowl, said, “There's always a push at the Olympics to do something new and unique at the opening ceremony, and they came up with this.'' I think things are great,” he said. Until former President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1997.
“But from a security perspective,” he said, it “would be a very large undertaking,” and still, “I think it would give us a little bit of pause.”
NBC News spent time with a counter-drone unit last week. The unit's operators dispatched their own drones to search for unmanned aerial offenders, then jam the signals and, if possible, capture the pilots.
The Olympics come at a time of deep unrest. President Emmanuel Macron's government raised its alert to the highest level this week after the terrorist group ISIS-K, which killed 140 people at a Moscow concert hall, said it had attempted an attack on mainland France.
“If they can do it in Moscow, they can probably try it in other capitals,” said François Heisbourg, one of France's leading terrorism experts who has advised successive prime ministers. “ISIS is an equal opportunity terrorist group.”
For Paris, the massacre had painful echoes of November 2015, when militants attacked multiple locations, killing 139 people, most of them at the Bataclan concert hall. Since then, France has been hit by sporadic attacks.
Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet told NBC News in an interview last week that “the decision to bid for the 2024 Games was made immediately after the attacks.” “I think it was important for our country to show that we're not afraid.”
“We will continue to live,” Estinget added. “We will continue to uphold our national values and welcome the world, because we are France.”
Unlike other tournaments such as Rio de Janeiro 2016, it will not be held at a custom-built venue outside the city. Instead, mostly temporary structures sit among the Eiffel Tower and other iconic landmarks. Organizers hope this will not only provide a unique visual spectacle, but also a sustainable blueprint for an event that historically has never been the case.
But welcoming 10 million visitors will require traffic restrictions, metro station closures, a network of checkpoints and permit requirements. Authorities advised residents to refrain from traveling from their homes or even sending or receiving mail during the tournament.
This city-wide turmoil was not without its critics.
“When we hold a global gathering, we always take exceptional safety measures,” Heisbourg said. “There will be a lot of checks and it won't be fun. And like many others here, I will also try not to go to Paris during the Olympics.”
In November, French pollster Odoxa revealed that 44% of Parisians opposed the move, up from 22% two years ago. And 52% said they were considering leaving town altogether.
The same poll found more support in other parts of the country, with 65% of people nationwide saying the Olympics were “a good thing.”
Many hope that this spectacle will give the French capital the perfect stage to showcase its best qualities.
“We want to turn the city of Paris into an Olympic park,” Estinguet said. He said he hoped this would be a “unique moment to celebrate sport and the Olympics in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.”
However, the criticism goes beyond the inconvenience. Civil liberties activists fear the Olympics will turn their cities into a kind of police state.
Helicopter pilot John made a light-hearted reference to it, joking on NBC News, “Big Brother is watching you.”
For many, it's no joke.
They are particularly concerned about plans to use artificial intelligence to alert people to threats such as abandoned items or sudden crowd surges, which would then be investigated by humans.
The crackdown on “aberrant” behavior has the power to “exacerbate the chilling effect on dissent and protest and further intensify discrimination against communities already targeted,” Amnesty International Director-General Agnes said. Callamard said in a statement last year.
The French are famously unafraid of strikes and direct action, and from the “gilets jaunes'' movement to the farmers currently spraying fertilizer on government buildings, organizers are confident the tournament will be influenced by dissent. I know there isn't.
“It's absolutely right and right to protest,” said Enzo, 22, a riot police officer guarding the Olympic torch as it moves from city to city. Enzo, who declined to give his last name due to the risk of reprisal from protesters, said demonstrations would only be restricted if they were illegal or if they went “too far.” Stated.
This debate between security and freedom is by no means new.
Back at the military police base, one of those trying to maintain that balance is Praxus, a four-year-old Belgian shepherd trained as both a detection dog and an attack dog.
“We're going to be in a big event and the competition will be packed,” said Chief Marshall Clement, Praxus' handler. When I asked Praxus if I could watch some sports with him, he replied with a smile. “We don't have time for that because we're completely absorbed in protecting the tournament.”
Keir Simmons and Nancy Ing reported from Paris and Alexander Smith from London.
