Sawt Falasteen - Coventry says 'sad' about ICE, Wasserman 'distractions' before Olympics

The announcement that a branch of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be sent to the Games, albeit in what Washington's ambassador to Rome said was an "advisory" role, has sparked anger in Italy.

The chief of the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, Casey Wasserman, apologised on Saturday after appearing in newly-released files related to the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"I think anything that is distracting from these Games is sad, right?" International Olympic Committee president Coventry said, speaking in a press conference five days ahead of Friday's opening ceremony.

"We've learned over the many years there's always been something that has taken the lead leading up to the Games, whether it has been communities, whether it's been Zika, Covid, there has always been something.

"But what is keeping my faith alive is that when the opening ceremony happens and those athletes start competing, suddenly the world remembers the magic and the spirit that the Games have."

US Ambassador Tilman J. Fertitta said on Wednesday that ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit will not carry out patrols and will have only an "advisory" role.

Operations by ICE and CBP border patrol agents in a number of US cities have triggered large-scale protests, and the recent killings of two demonstrators in Minneapolis have sparked widespread condemnation.

The agents accused of violence in the US are from a different division than that earmarked for the Olympics.

Wasserman apologised in a statement on Saturday after flirty emails from 2003 between him and Epstein's jailed former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell appeared in a fresh cache of files.

Coventry said she had not been in touch with Wasserman over the issue.

H.Nasr--SF-PST