Will Terrorists Stop The Olympics? Should We Even Be Considering That?

Bill Rodgers: Terrorists Won't Stop Olympic Games

Monday, 30 Dec 2013 03:05 PM

By Bill Hoffmann

Share:

A    A   |

   Email Us   |

   Print   |

   Forward Article  |

   Get Link

• inShare

The Winter Olympics will not be stopped by the cowardly terrorists who staged two deadly bombings in Russia this week, former Olympic runner and four-time New York City and Boston Marathon winner Bill Rodgers says.

"I'm confident the American athletes and athletes from around the world are going to go to Sochi. It's going to be a great Olympic games," Rodgers told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.




"You're not going to stop the Olympic Games — not anywhere. I don't believe so."

On Monday, a suicide bomb killed at least 14 people in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, just a day after an explosion at Volgograd's main train station killed 17 people and wounded at least 35.

Russian authorities have declared both bombings to be terrorist attacks.

''[It's] another attempt to get attention for a cause . . . We're taking a look at a small, isolated group of religious extremists," Rodgers said.

"You can't defeat the world, you know? In this sense, it kind of gives the rest of the world an understanding of what we have to do, which is to unite and don't let people stand in your way and stop you.''

Rodgers, 66, who competed in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, believes Russia has expert security forces to prevent terrorism at the Olympics, which will take place in February.

"The Russians stopped the Nazi invasion in World War II and the Russian people are very tough. I raced against the top Russians back in the '70s and '80s," he said.

"The political leaders will take a look at this and they'll come to a solution in the end."

Rodgers, author of "Marathon Man: My 26.2-Mile Journey from Unknown Grad Student to the Top of the Running World," said athletes live by a saying: have no fear.

"It's the way we live and . . . athletes always do their best and try to rise above."

Rodgers says he vehemently disagrees with Brian Stelter of "CNN Newsroom," who suggested on Friday that news outlets may have had an "overreaction" to the Boston Marathon bombings last April that killed three and injured 264.

"I disagree completely. It is political terrorism. It's a worldwide issue because there is this small group of extremists and they travel here and there and they're around the world, to an extent," he said.

"But, overall, the majority of all people are against these extremists so that's why they cannot win."


© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Is Representative King An Islamaphobe? Nope, Just Speakin The Truth!

Rep. King: Russia Blasts Show 'How Dangerous Islamic Terrorists Are'

Monday, 30 Dec 2013 04:51 PM

By Bill Hoffmann

Share:

A    A   |

   Email Us   |

   Print   |

   Forward Article  |

   Get Link

• inShare

The deadly bombings in Russia over the past two days should be a wake-up call to "how evil Islamic terrorists can be," and are deeply troubling for the impending Winter Olympics, U.S. Rep. Peter King says.

"This shows again how dangerous Islamic terrorists are . . . It was a brutal attack, and it shows just how devastating they can be," King, R-N.Y., told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"With all the security that Russia has . . . if they could attack there, you can imagine what they can do here. This really should be a wake-up call to all of us about how deadly, how diabolical, and how evil Islamic terrorists can be and are," he said Monday.

King, chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Terrorism, said Olympic officials must be vigilant in providing security.

"I don't want to be scaring people, but anytime you have active terrorists, you have to be concerned," he said.

"Even with all that security [the Russians are] capable of . . . it's very difficult to stop these attacks unless you are constantly, constantly monitoring."

On Monday, a suicide bomb killed at least 14 people in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, just a day after an explosion at Volgograd's main train station killed 17 people and wounded at least 35. Russian authorities have declared both bombings terrorist attacks. King says the attacks should be a reminder to those who think "al-Qaida is dead or al-Qaida and its affiliates don't have the power they once had." "They are very lethal, and in many ways more dangerous than they were before Sept. 11th." 

King criticized a New York Times report that contends local militias and not al-Qaida were responsible for the attack that left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, in Benghazi, Libya, earlier this year."This story is totally misleading, untrue. First of all, the headline saying al-Qaida was not involved — Ansar al-Sharia [one of the local groups] is affiliated with al-Qaida," he said.

"Al-Qaida realizes how strong we have become. We had weakened them. So, they've metastasized, they've morphed, and the real threat comes from these affiliated groups."

"To say that that is not al-Qaida . . . then all of our people are in trouble, because they're the groups we should be looking at."

He says the story was concocted to help Democrats in the 2016 presidential race, particularly Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state who has been under fire for her handling of the Benghazi attack.

"[They want to take the] issue away from Republicans no matter who the Democratic nominee is. Whether or not it's Hillary Clinton, they want this issue taken away, and it's part of a systematic effort here," he said.

"This story is meaningless and baseless, and by putting that headline on it — I'm disappointed in how much the media went along with it, by the way."




© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.