HOT CORNER

What: “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.”

Where: HBO, tonight, 10.

In a segment titled “Greek Drama,” HBO looks at the most-asked question regarding the Athens Olympics: “What about security?”

Greek officials, who say they are spending $1 billion on Olympic security, insist everything will be in place in time for August’s opening ceremony, scheduled for Friday the 13th.

Among the people interviewed by correspondent Bernard Goldberg is Oliver “Buck” Revell, a former high-ranking FBI official who headed the counter-terrorism program for 11 of his 30 years with the bureau. Before retirement, he was involved with security planning for six Olympics.

Revell does not offer encouraging news about Athens as an Olympic site.

“If it had been after 9/11, I truly do not believe that Athens would have been selected,” he says. “Greece has been a difficult problem for us in the West on terrorism. Since at least 1975, they’ve had the worst track record of any of the European countries in dealing with terrorism, both international and domestic.”

Asked by Goldberg if there is a worse place that could have been picked, Revell says, “Baghdad. That’s the only place I can think of right now that would be more difficult to protect than Athens.”

-- Larry Stewart