Sydney security upgraded for VIP visits

Sydney's ring of steel around Israeli leader
By CHARLES MIRANDA
March 1, 2005

SYDNEY became one of the safest cities in the world yesterday with one of its biggest ever peacetime deployments of police, on hand to protect two tourists

. http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1260&storyid=2737959

Dozens of officers took to the Harbour, lined the streets and hovered in helicopters as both Princess Mary and visiting Israeli President Moshe Katsav criss-crossed the city to attend their respective engagements.
Mr Katsav arrived at Sydney airport yesterday, greeted by a massive cordon of police and AFP agents to protect his entourage of 30, including 17 Israeli business leaders.
Seats and other "hazards" in the airport terminal were removed and overheard two PolAir helicopters shadowed a lengthy motorcade, including a number of police vehicles.
"We Israelis are accustomed to having security," the president's spokesman Ron Ben-Yishai said yesterday.
"But I can tell you even by Israeli standards the Australian version of defending us is elaborate. The security net around us is tight - they even have frogmen in the water for our Harbour trip."
Mr Ben-Yishai said under the Australian Government policy, the president's own personal security detail was not allowed to bring its weapons.
But he said "they have very big hands" and were not afraid to use them if there was any trouble.
It's the first time in almost 20 years an Israeli head of state has visited Australia and police said intelligence pointed to planned protests from local Palestinians and anti-Jewish and anti-war demonstrators.
"On something like this we don't take any chances," an AFP officer said.
A NSW Police spokeswoman was yesterday unaware of the visit or who Mr Katsav was but said it was policy never to comment on police numbers.
Mr Katsav will meet Premier Bob Carr today before talks with Jewish leaders. Tomorrow he will go to Canberra for talks with Prime Minister John Howard, then Melbourne.
More police will be deployed for Prince Charles's visit. He arrived in Australia last night and will be in Sydney on Friday.