US brings memories of Boston to Sochi

[unhappycamper]

http://www.dw.de/us-brings-memories-of-boston-to-sochi/a-17415294

If the 2014 Winter Olympics is a stage, the backdrop is a constant threat of terror. The US is responding aggressively in terms of security. If it steps on Russian toes, experts say, it's for very American reasons.

US brings memories of Boston to Sochi

The announcement that toothpaste tubes might potentially be used for Sochi-related terrorism on flights bound for Russia is just the latest in a string of Winter Olympics threats to which the US has responded forcefully and on its own.

The threats themselves are very real and dangerous, says Gary LaFree, who directs the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). His organization recently studied patterns of terrorism in Olympic host countries prior to and during the Olympic games, using data that went back to 1972. The case is "strong," he says, that no other Olympic games have had security threats as high as this one.

"You probably have more expressed willingness to stage attacks in this case than any other (Olympic event) that I can think of," he told DW. "You actually have people making credible threats."

Generally, terror attacks in Russia have been on the increase since the collapse of the Soviet Union, he says. And though the December 2013 attacks in Volgograd and the threat of "black widow" suicide bombers have carried recent headlines, LaFree's concerns lie in the capacity of its most violent Islamist separatist group, Caucasus Emirate, to carry out attacks on a horrifying scale.