Wide area in the skies above Reliant Stadium off-limits to all aircraft
By Steve Mcvicker, The Houston Chronicle
In the 1975 novel Black Sunday, terrorists fly a blimp loaded with explosives into a crowd of 80,000 people attending the Super Bowl at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.
Weather permitting, the roof of Reliant Stadium will be open Sunday for the real-life playing of Super Bowl XXXVIII. There will not, however, be any blimps cruising over Houston’s premier football venue.
Beginning at 11:30 Sunday morning, and continuing for the next 11 hours, a 7-mile radius, an 18,000-foot high no-fly zone around and above Reliant Stadium will by covered by ICE: fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The armed aerial blanket over Reliant Stadium is part of a massive Super Bowl security effort led by the Houston Police Department, and involving at least 25 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies including the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Harris County Sheriff’s Department.
Ninety metal detectors have been installed outside the stadium to screen fans before they are allowed through the chain-link fence that surrounds the facility.
Spectators will also have to clear several other checkpoints before reaching their seats, and they will not be allowed to bring a long list of items, which includes fireworks, camcorders, umbrellas, laser lights, containers, backpacks, noisemakers or bottles into the stadium. The air inside Reliant Stadium will be monitored for biological and chemical hazards during the game.
Trucks carrying hazardous material will be routed away from the area near the stadium before the game by state and federal transportation departments.
At airports around the world, passenger rosters for flights headed to Houston are getting extra scrutiny with a series of checks against lists of known terrorists.
U.S. Coast Guard vessels will cruise past some of the Super Bowl parties scheduled on the region’s waterways. Security at entry points along the Mexico border has been beefed up.
Approximately 5,000 security personnel, including 500 HPD officers, will provide game-day protection at both the stadium and at Super Bowl-related festivities downtown. The cost to the city is estimated to reach $1.6 million.
Coordinating strategy is HPD Executive Assistant Chief Dennis Storemski, who headed security in Houston for the 1990 Economic Summit and 1992 Republican National Convention.
Storemski acknowledges that the Super Bowl is a potentially “attractive target” for terrorists, and says he has had to “prepare for the worst,” while hoping for the best.
He adds that an “intelligence infusion center” has been activated by the FBI in Houston.
“We have no specific intelligence at this time that there is a specific threat,” said Storemski at a media briefing.
But some private-sector security experts question whether the planning is adequate. For example, according to an official with San Diego-based Pexis Corp., founded by a former CIA officer, it is difficult to stop someone intent on violating the no-fly zone.
“They had a no-fly zone in New York, and some guy still managed to get his small plane up by the Statue of Liberty,” said Pexis’ Steve Albrecht, who worked security at last year’s Super Bowl and the 1996 Republican National Convention as a sergeant with the San Diego Police Department. “It sounds good in theory, (but) it’s real hard to enforce.”
Albrecht also said some security officials discount the attractiveness of a Super Bowl-type event as a likely target for terrorists because it is a one-time event with few operational patterns to monitor.
He does not share that view.
“This is the equivalent of the Academy Awards,” he said.
Both consultants noted that the Super Bowl coincides with Eid Ul-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice, one of two mandatory Muslim feast days. Muslims observe the day by ordering a ritual sacrifice of a lamb or goat. They eat one-third of the meat, give one-third to family and friends, and donate one-third to the poor.
Last year, the Islamic Society of Greater Houston donated one ton of meat to the Interfaith Ministries of Houston to feed the homeless.
“This year we’re going to prepare a big meal (for the poor),” said Aziz Siddiqi, Islamic Society president, who added that he does not believe the fact that the Super Bowl and the Muslim holy day both occur Sunday should be viewed as ominous.
“I don’t know where these loony ideas come from,” said Siddiqi. “Only a lunatic would disrupt the game.”