The Command Post
Global Recon
« Diplomats: Iran Resumes Nuclear Program | Main | Arabs shock Europeans, refuse to condemn anti-Semitism »
July 27, 2004
Athens to Impose No-Fly Zone at Olympics

AP: Athens to Impose No-Fly Zone at Olympics

Athens will impose a no-fly zone over the city a week before the Aug. 13-29 Olympics and has drawn up contingency plans to shoot down hijacked planes that could be used in a Sept. 11-style attack, a senior Greek air defense official said Tuesday.

"This (no-fly zone) will start on Aug. 7, 8, or 9 — close to the Olympics," Air Force Brig. Gen. Dimitris Mandilis told The Associated Press.

Mandilis is in charge of five air defense sites which include U.S.-made Patriot missiles and have been set up to protect Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki during the games.

He said an exhaustive range of potential threats would be looked within a 90-mile radius of Athens' main Olympic stadium. "The threats we're considering include renegade aircraft, missiles ... gliders, kites, remote-controlled planes, unmanned craft and others."

"Any order to engage and shoot down these (incoming threats) rests with the government and a committee headed by the prime minister.

(Apparently, the kite-eating trees that the Greeks planted to defend against deadly kite-attacks haven't quite reached maturity yet.)

Posted by Laurence Simon at July 27, 2004 06:16 PM | TrackBack
Comments

90 - mile radius no fly zone? And there's only 20 miles from the stadium to the Athens International Airport? Anybody else read the Tom Clancy book where the terrorist gets a KAL 747 and slams into a joint session of congress after declaring an emergency to land at the airport...?

http://www.aia.gr/EN/passenger_information/transportation&parking/images/Airport_map.jpg

Posted by: Mona B. [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 28, 2004 08:40 AM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (Click here should you choose to sign out.)

As you post your comment, please mind our simple comment policy: we welcome all perspectives, but require that comments be both civil and respectful. We also ask that you avoid the extensive use of profanity, racist terms (neither of which we consider civil or respectful), and other boorish language.

We reserve the right to delete any comment, and to prohibit you from commenting on this site, if we feel you have broached this policy. As a courtesy, we will first send you an email noting a violation so you understand the boundaries. This will occur only once, however, and should we ban you from our comment forums we expect that ban to be permanent.

We also will frown upon those who suggest that we ban other individuals for voicing unpopular opinions, should those opinions be voiced in a civil and respectful manner. The point of our comment threads is to provide a forum for spirited though civil and respectful discourse … it is not to provide a forum in which everyone will agree with your point of view.

If you can live by these rules, welcome aboard. If not, then we’re sorry it didn’t work out, and thanks for visiting The Command Post.


Remember me?