With the Winter Olympic Games set to begin with the opening ceremony this Friday in Vancouver, British Columbia, U.S. officials are on heightened security alert. A security coordination center is now up and running in Bellingham, Wash., about 20 miles south of the Canadian border.
It will house 70 federal, state and local agencies for the duration of the Games. Agents will be able to share and act on intelligence as well as monitor cameras mounted on aircraft, at border crossings and along the vast land border.
Officials say there has been no specific threat aimed at the Olympics and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is in charge of security in Vancouver, has set the threat level at “low.” But authorities on both sides of the border have their guard up.
Just last week the Director of U.S. Intelligence told Congress he is “certain” Al Qaeda will attempt a terror attack in the U.S. within the next three to six months.
Security planning has been in the works for five years. In addition to the coordination center, Homeland Security has increased assets at the northern border. Customs and Border Protection now has eight aircraft and 10 boats for patrol. The agency has boosted the number of agents at border crossings by 20 percent to handle the increased traffic. They’re expecting 45,000 cars a day to pass from Canada into the U.S., which is comparable to a busy day during the summer. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which went into effect last June, requires that people have a passport, passport card, Nexus card or enhanced driver’s license. Customs officials say they will be able to quickly run names and passport numbers through the nation’s terror watch list.
The land border, a vast 4,000 stretch of largely unguarded territory between the two countries, remains a concern for many. Security has improved since 9/11 as Homeland Security beefed up technology by deploying numerous drones, cameras and motion sensors along the border. But drug and human smuggling continue. Unlike the southern border, much of the area between Canada and the U.S. is open and marked by a three foot high sign in the middle of wilderness.