Disaster predicted

Press, 25 July 1984, Page 25

Disaster predicted

NZPA Eugene, Oregon A Califorian academic who predicted the Munich Olympic massacres is now saying there will be violence at the Los Angeles games, which will start this week-end. The Los Angeles Games were capitalist and projected violence, Harry Edwards, professor of sociology at the University of California, has told the Olympic scientific congress in Eugene. “The tension is worse

.than in 1972,” he said. “I know I’m not going. I’m taking my family to the Bahamas.” He said the Soviet Union had a point complaining about Los Angeles security.

“It’s not their only point but it’s relative. Go down and take a look. There’s double barbed wire cyclone fences with dogs inside and cops on every corner. “You can tell it’s not going to be a love festival. The closest thing I’ve seen to it is the Berlin wall. I know if I was a foreign athlete, I’d be dead scared.” The Eugene “RegisterGuard” newspaper said Edwards predicted in a magazine, “Intellectual Digest,” three months before the Munich games in 1972 that

there would be “catastrophic violence” at the games. Eleven Israeli athletes were murdered by Palestinian guerillas. Edwards was the keynote speaker on aggression and violence in sports when the science congress opened here yesterday. Among other speakers is George Papandreou, son of the Greek Prime Minister, Andreas Papandreou. He will be advocating a permanent home in Greece for the Olympics.