Napolitano tours new Olympics center in Washington

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano got a tour Monday of a $4 million Olympics Coordination center that in six months should be a bustling hub of counterterrorism and security operations for the 2010 Winter Games in nearby British Columbia.

The tour at the command center in Bellingham, just south of the U.S.-Canadian border, was one of several stops in a jam-packed visit to the state.

Napolitano also visited the border crossing in Blaine, Wash. — the main entry into British Columbia from Washington. Later in the day, she met with federal and state government officials in Seattle to discuss port security and immigration, and visited Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond to talk about cybersecurity.

Napolitano said security of government Web sites is a key and new goal for Homeland Security, and the department has been recruiting staff across the country.

“I like to say in this area, we don’t need to be playing catch up. We need to be leap-frogging,’ she said. “We need to be thinking ahead of what the next line needs to be. This is such rapidly changing threat environment.”

Earlier this month, government Web sites were affected by a widespread cyber attack, shutting down some sites.

Napolitano’s visit, however, focused on border issues and on the Olympic center, a retrofitted building at the Bellingham International Airport.

Its primary room encompasses work stations for 54 people. Banks of flat-screen televisions line the walls, and one on Monday showed a live feed from a Customs and Border Protection helicopter as it flew above the nearby Cherry Point oil refinery and the Peace Arch border crossing.

Up to 40 agencies will be represented at the center, and a primary responsibility will be to ensure that travelers bound for the Olympics move across the border safely and quickly.

That could mean sending out additional snowplows during a storm, directing people to other border crossings if flooding shuts down Interstate 5, or responding quickly to a hazardous material spill on the highway.

Because the games are being held in Vancouver and Whistler, Canadian authorities are responsible for primary security efforts, but officials at the center will be in constant communication with command efforts in British Columbia. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police will also have representatives in Bellingham.

Dozens of law enforcement and emergency response officials will staff the center for a trial run during the World Police and Fire Games, an event expected to draw 12,000 athletes to Vancouver from July 31-Aug. 9.

Naomi Yamamoto, British Columbia’s minister of state for intergovernmental affairs, said Monday she was concerned about any potential backups at the border during the Olympics. She suggested that some travelers could be pre-cleared to cross the border.

Associated Press writer Manuel Valdes in Seattle contributed to this report.