BERLIN, May 4 (UPI) -- German security officials have traveled the world seeking international cooperation to safeguard next month's FIFA Soccer World Cup. Expect tighter border controls, police from multiple countries and frequent ID checks.
August Hanning is no beginner when it comes to terror. For the past two decades, he has been working in the German intelligence community, first as the country's top agent in East Berlin, then, from 1996 to late last year, as chief of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, or BND. Hanning is now deputy interior minister and in charge of safeguarding this year's World Cup, the world's biggest sports event, to be held from June 9 to July 9 in 12 German cities.
"Sept. 11 really has been the watershed point for securing major sports events," Hanning Wednesday told the foreign press corps in Berlin. "This event is no different. Although we have no direct evidence that terrorists are planning attacks, there is always an abstract terror threat."
Security cooperation is ongoing between Berlin and all nations sending a team to the tournament, Hanning said, including with officials from Iran and Saudi Arabia, who have voiced concern over possible terrorist activities. Tehran fears that dissident groups, such as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, could plan attacks.
"We have the obligation to pursue all hints for threats," Hanning said.
The U.S. and British national teams are maybe at highest risk for Islamist terror, because of their alliance during the U.S.-led Iraq war. Games, training sessions and the housing of these teams will receive special attention.
Hanning said German officials, working on a security concept since 2001, were prepared to provide any team's safety.
The World Cup venues will be bustling with police, soldiers and private security contractors during the tournament.
Tens of thousands of German police officers will be active during the World Cup; roughly 500 officers will come from outside the country.
To monitor fan crowds and spot potential international hooligans, European Union member states will dispatch roughly 300 officers, who will patrol the streets in uniform and arrest people if needed. Great Britain leads the pack with 40 officers, as at least 100,000 British fans are expected to cheer for their team in Germany. Another 200 police are coming from non-EU countries.
"They know their fans much better than we do," Thomas Model, Hamburg's police official in charge of security during the tournament, said recently, adding that by cooperating internationally, the influx of hooligans could be stopped as early as the border.
Germany has established a database of its hooligans, and with all potentially dangerous countries, there is cooperation about activities and movements of unwanted soccer brutes.
Recent media reports have warned of several thousand Polish hooligans flocking to Germany who may cause havoc in Berlin and other venues. Hanning said Polish hooligans are violent at club games, but have not been known to stage mass brawls during international games.
"We don't see them as any more dangerous than hooligans from other countries," he said.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has nevertheless announced he will reintroduce sporadic border controls (they have been abolished with all Schengen countries) before individual games, so expect a bit of delay at the Polish-German border in the days ahead of the countries' face-off in Dortmund.
FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, has contracted Swedish firm Securitas to safeguard the 24 teams' hotels and training grounds. Securitas is an experienced company with some 190,000 employees worldwide; the World Cup nevertheless is "quite a big challenge," one company official recently told United Press International on condition of anonymity.
Hooliganism is one problem, but what has people all over the world protesting is the potential influx of illegal prostitutes, to provide whatever the 1.5 million expected fans may need.
Germany, where prostitution is legal, has about 400,000 registered prostitutes, and there are claims that anywhere between 20,000 and 40,000 women from Eastern Europe may be forced by organized criminal gangs to become sex workers during the event.
"I doubt those numbers are accurate," Hanning said.
"There are differences of opinions elsewhere in the world about prostitution, but it's legal in Germany," he said. "But when it comes to forced prostitution, of course we will take action against that, not only during the World Cup, but at all times."
What gives Hanning the biggest headache is not the ladies of the night, but the roughly 300 public viewing events held all over the country, where fans without a ticket (the overwhelming majority) will be able to watch the games on giant TV screens.
"The public viewing sites pose a lot of security issues," he said. "It's not a closed-off area, it involves a large number of fans, and, unlike in a stadium, you can't separate fans of opposing teams from each other."
The larger of the so-called "Fan Fests" -- Berlin and Hamburg -- will be safeguarded with access controls, video surveillance and a large number of police in the vicinity ready to step in quickly in case of an upsurge in violence.
And if you're one of the few happy people to actually have obtained a ticket for a match, you're probably safer there than anywhere else: Security officials say securing a stadium is one of their 'easiest' tasks.
