Sydney security chief slated for Athens job
Mike Ryan, head of security at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, will sign a contract appointing him to the same position for the 2004 Athens Olympics on Friday, according to sources. Earlier this month Ryan left his job as commissioner of the New South Wales police force and Athens 2004, the Games organizers, had confirmed he had started negotiations with them about taking up the job. International Olympic Committee officials have publicly expressed their approval of Athens’s security arrangements, for which Greece will spend upwards of $650 million (700 million euros), but are also understood to have been pressing the organizers to hire Ryan. Security equipment provision has become the subject of heated competition among several countries, including the US, UK and Israel. Similarly, their conservative opponents try to use the outcome of the French elections as a lever to bring themselves to power, boasting that their election will be enough to eliminate the political crisis which threatens to sweep all of Europe.
