BOOK DESCRIPTION
This book elucidates the “super-panopticon” scandal at the Athens 2004 Olympics, that is the technological fiasco of the C4I—Command, Control, Coordination, Communication, and Integration—surveillance system, designed by the American SAIC corporation and subcontracted to the German company Siemens AG, which did not work during and long after the Games, despite its multi-million cost. The study also unfolds the additional interrelated scandals, i.e., the Siemens bribes of Greek officials to ensure the C4I contract, and prolonged phone tapping against the Greek government, as well as their serious implications on Greek sovereignty, freedoms and democracy, especially on the budget deficit and the ensuing bankruptcy of Greece. Based on a critical “glocal” analysis, the nature and legacy of this scandal is linked with post-9/11 neoliberal “securitization,” which has transformed the Olympics into security-surveillance and consumption Games with a loss of any true Olympic meaning, and finally thus reviving the discussion for alternative, pure Olympics.
preface
The tenth anniversary of the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games has not been celebrated this August of 2014 here in Greece. The outrageous cost of the Games is now a source of anger for most Greek people, as they suffer and groan under a cruel austerity regime, and they struggle to survive through a five-year enforced depression, record unemployment, and mass poverty.
Greece, one of the smallest countries to ever host the greatest sport extravagance of the Olympics, actually went bankrupt in 2010, while the governments, their party nomenclature, and the Olympics organizing committee all deny accusations of the reckless overspending that took place to stage the Athens 2004 Games, as well as their blatant failure to use any post-Olympic opportunity. In 2012, former International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge stated that the Games “played a part” in fueling the country’s enormous debt. This started to boil over after 2008, forcing Greece to seek two bailouts worth 240 billion euros from the EU and the IMF under a draconian memorandum.
The exorbitant cost of the Athens 2004 Olympics, deemed the most expensive Olympic Games ever at the time, the ‘white elephants,’ which only served the contractors’ interests, resulting in most of the expensive sporting venues being padlocked and abandoned to rot after the Games--this defines the Athens 2004 major scandal, leaving a shameful stigma on the Greek politico-economic elite. Missing the opportunity to capitalize on the Olympic legacy, there was hardly any proper planning for post-Games use of the Olympic infrastructure, having not even secured its maintenance, as is seen in the example of even the elegant and very expensive crown on the Olympic Stadium, which is almost dilapidated.
This is not a book, however, about these major scandals around the Athens 2004 Olympics, which are believed to have cost about 13 to 15 billion euros, the decaying Olympic ‘white elephants,’ and the doping of several top Greek athletes, which all need a separate and thorough study. Instead, this is a book by a political sociologist who for a long time has studied the troubled Athens 2004 Olympic security and surveillance system—a “super-panopticon”--and its post-Games impacts and implications. This scandalous security-surveillance system was enforced in Greece by the International Olympic Committee, the US Embassy, and the so-called “Security-Surveillance Industrial Complex”-- a conjunction of powerful state security agencies with high-tech surveillance industries--that exploited the fear of 9/11 terrorist attacks and the threat of a boycott of the Games. Hence, a dubious C4I system, a “super-panopticon,” i.e., a super panoptic security panacea, was ordered at a mighty cost from the SAIC-Siemens consortium, which was unable to deliver. Although the system was extravagantly expensive, at a cost of around 300 million USD, --and the whole Olympic security cost was close to 1.5 billion USD-- not only did it fail to work during the Games (or after--in fact, it never worked as an integrated system), but it also implied several other related serious scandals, such as bribes to the Greek ruling parties of New Democracy and PASOK, as well as prolonged phone tapping of the Greek government. In fact, this stands as a very serious, multi-faceted Olympic scandal with detrimental implications for the Greek economy, national sovereignty, and civil liberties.
Consequently, by studying this Athens 2004 Olympic “super-panopticon” scandal, we question not only the skyrocketing cost and efficiency of the post-9/11 Olympic security technology, but we also expose, besides the corrupt Greek ruling parties, the interests of the so-called “Security-Surveillance Industrial Complex” and the overall expedient “securitization” of all post-9/11 Olympics, which in the global antiterrorist and neoliberal context undermine the true Olympic spirit and values.
Greece, one of the smallest countries to ever host the greatest sport extravagance of the Olympics, actually went bankrupt in 2010, while the governments, their party nomenclature, and the Olympics organizing committee all deny accusations of the reckless overspending that took place to stage the Athens 2004 Games, as well as their blatant failure to use any post-Olympic opportunity. In 2012, former International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge stated that the Games “played a part” in fueling the country’s enormous debt. This started to boil over after 2008, forcing Greece to seek two bailouts worth 240 billion euros from the EU and the IMF under a draconian memorandum.
The exorbitant cost of the Athens 2004 Olympics, deemed the most expensive Olympic Games ever at the time, the ‘white elephants,’ which only served the contractors’ interests, resulting in most of the expensive sporting venues being padlocked and abandoned to rot after the Games--this defines the Athens 2004 major scandal, leaving a shameful stigma on the Greek politico-economic elite. Missing the opportunity to capitalize on the Olympic legacy, there was hardly any proper planning for post-Games use of the Olympic infrastructure, having not even secured its maintenance, as is seen in the example of even the elegant and very expensive crown on the Olympic Stadium, which is almost dilapidated.
This is not a book, however, about these major scandals around the Athens 2004 Olympics, which are believed to have cost about 13 to 15 billion euros, the decaying Olympic ‘white elephants,’ and the doping of several top Greek athletes, which all need a separate and thorough study. Instead, this is a book by a political sociologist who for a long time has studied the troubled Athens 2004 Olympic security and surveillance system—a “super-panopticon”--and its post-Games impacts and implications. This scandalous security-surveillance system was enforced in Greece by the International Olympic Committee, the US Embassy, and the so-called “Security-Surveillance Industrial Complex”-- a conjunction of powerful state security agencies with high-tech surveillance industries--that exploited the fear of 9/11 terrorist attacks and the threat of a boycott of the Games. Hence, a dubious C4I system, a “super-panopticon,” i.e., a super panoptic security panacea, was ordered at a mighty cost from the SAIC-Siemens consortium, which was unable to deliver. Although the system was extravagantly expensive, at a cost of around 300 million USD, --and the whole Olympic security cost was close to 1.5 billion USD-- not only did it fail to work during the Games (or after--in fact, it never worked as an integrated system), but it also implied several other related serious scandals, such as bribes to the Greek ruling parties of New Democracy and PASOK, as well as prolonged phone tapping of the Greek government. In fact, this stands as a very serious, multi-faceted Olympic scandal with detrimental implications for the Greek economy, national sovereignty, and civil liberties.
Consequently, by studying this Athens 2004 Olympic “super-panopticon” scandal, we question not only the skyrocketing cost and efficiency of the post-9/11 Olympic security technology, but we also expose, besides the corrupt Greek ruling parties, the interests of the so-called “Security-Surveillance Industrial Complex” and the overall expedient “securitization” of all post-9/11 Olympics, which in the global antiterrorist and neoliberal context undermine the true Olympic spirit and values.