13,500 troops on duty at London 2012http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jeVZ57-A34bLUYsEGG4egF3YUIJw?docId=CNG.1c470bf4d55494a482b9a85969cc2d67.441(AFP) – 8 hours ago
LONDON — Britain will have 13,500 troops on duty for the 2012 London Olympics and deploy two navy ships, warplanes and ground-to-air missiles to safeguard the Games, the defence minister announced Thursday.
Philip Hammond said the Olympics were a "once in a generation" event for the country and Britain wanted them to be secure for athletes coming from around the world.
The figure of 13,500 troops is significantly higher than the 7,000 that had been widely expected.
Last week, the government raised the Games' security budget from £282 million to £553 million ($856 million, 660 million euros).
Hammond said 5,000 military personnel would be deployed to support the police and civil authorities.
There will also be a 1,000-strong "unarmed contingency force for deployment in the event of an Olympics-related civil emergency."
A further 1,000 military personnel will provide logistics support with up to 7,500 providing security at venues, mainly at the Olympic park including the main stadium in Stratford, east London.
Helicopter carrier HMS Ocean -- the biggest warship in the Royal Navy, which served this year off the coast of Libya -- will be stationed in the River Thames at Greenwich, southeast London, Hammond said.
An amphibious assault ship, HMS Bulwark, will be stationed in Weymouth Bay off the southern English coast as a control ship. The Olympic sailing events are being held in Weymouth.
Typhoon jets, which were also used over Libya, will be temporarily stationed at a Royal Air Force base in west London while helicopters will operate from HMS Ocean.
'Hey guys, who needs to go into space when we can f*ck this planet just as well'Hammond said there would be "appropriate ground-based air defence capabilities also to support the airspace security effort".
"Next year's Olympic and Paralympic Games are once-in-a-generation events for the UK," he said.
"We want them to be secure, so that all those competing and attending can enjoy the Games for the celebration of sporting achievement and cultural celebration that it is."
Hammond said the military personnel involved were "in addition to the ceremonial role which the armed forces will play during the Olympics, which will showcase our armed forces to the world.
"This defence contribution is on a similar scale to that deployed at other recent Olympic Games and will contribute to ensuring a safe, secure and enjoyable 2012 Olympics."
The minister stressed that British military operations in Afghanistan -- where Britain currently has around 9,500 troops fighting Taliban militants -- and elsewhere would be unaffected by the deployment.
"My priority will remain the troops we have deployed on operations, including in Afghanistan, before, during and after the Olympics."
It's just as I've always said or at least believed. These 'people' are like children in the Primary Play ground, playing War-Games, in efforts to put down those lines in the sand, for future reference ....Now, in days of old, like when I was 6 years-old, I would have suggested, 'Well, just boycott the damned games'. It's like a war, if no-one turns out on the day, the event will be a complete wash-out. Oh, but no! I have come to my senses and realized that what people will want more than ever to do, is prove that 13,500 troops on the streets of London means 'Peace & Security'.
— Well folky folks, you get loads of that in internment camps too, just the kind these idiots will love to slowly and surrepticiously, beneath your ever so slightly dumbed-down senses, too, roll out and in barrel loads shortly thereafter, - every time the Empire needs a Money Bomb.
"You gotta love it", as someone from 'Taken', the Speilberg Cult TV-Series once said, shortly before being shot in the back by his co-conspirator, & lover, from behind the shower curtain.