Story highlights Before Sochi Olympics, predictions of terrorist action were rampant 
 
 Peter Bergen says the Games were unaffected and predictions turned out to be wrong 
 
 He says such forecasts fit into a long history of "sky is falling" warnings 
 
 Bergen: Statements that al Qaeda represents big threat to U.S. now are off base 
 
 "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future" is an aphorism attributed to the great baseball player Yogi Berra. 
 
 But one topic where pundits, politicians and prognosticators of every persuasion don't have any problem about making pessimistic predictions is terrorism. 
 
 The Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, was an Olympic-level example of this. In the lead-up to the Games, the airwaves were filled with glum predictions that Sochi would be the 1972 Munich Olympics on steroids. 
 
 Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox News, "There's a high degree of probability that something will detonate, something will go off. ... But I do think it's probably, most likely going to happen outside the 'ring of steel' at the Olympic Village." 
 
 Similarly, Michael G. Grimm, co-chair of the House Russian Caucus, issued a press release headlined, "Sochi Olympics Cannot Become a Benghazi Nightmare." The New York Republican warned, "We cannot sweep these threats under the rug, like we did with Benghazi or the warnings from Russia on the Tsarnaev brother behind the Boston Marathon bombing. Each time we fail to recognize these threats, we not only risk the lives of innocent Americans, but appear weaker and vulnerable in the eyes of the enemy." 
 
 Bill Rathburn, who directed security for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, in an interview with Yahoo News predicted of Sochi, "It's not a matter of whether there will be some incident, it's just a matter of how bad it's going to be." 
 
 No wonder that two days before the Sochi Olympics, more than half of Americans believed a terrorist attack on the Games was likely, according to a CNN/ORC poll. 
 
 Just Watched Terrorists near Sochi target planes replay More Videos ... Terrorists near Sochi target planes 04:20 PLAY VIDEO 
 
 Just Watched U.S. on alert for terror in Sochi replay More Videos ... U.S. on alert for terror in Sochi 02:24 PLAY VIDEO 
 
 Just Watched Terrorism in Russia and the Olympics replay More Videos ... Terrorism in Russia and the Olympics 04:36 PLAY VIDEO 
 
 Now cue up the swarms of "black widows" descending on Sochi to kill themselves along with many Olympic spectators. 
 
 And then the Games were held and ... nothing happened 
 
 It turned out that the most terrifying image from Sochi was the look of disgust on the face of American figure skater Ashley Wagner when she learned of her lower-than-expected score. 
 
 Sochi is only the most recent example of the hyperventilating hyperbole of the doomsday terrorism prognosticators. Because so many folks were caught flat-footed by 9/11, some seem to overcompensate by keeping up a steady drumbeat of dire terror warnings. 
 
 In November, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, told CNN that al Qaeda "poses a bigger threat to attack inside the U.S. right now than it did before 9/11." 
 
 Rogers' statement defies common sense. 
 
 Before 9/11, al Qaeda had an entire county, Afghanistan, as a safe haven; its training camps there churned out thousands of militants every year; it had access to funding substantial enough so that it could spend several hundred thousand dollars on the 9/11 plot. It was a formidable enemy. 
 
 Now al Qaeda's safe haven is long gone; the group hasn't mounted any successful attack in the States since 9/11 or, for that matter, anywhere in the West since the London transportation system bombings in 2005. 
 
 On 9/11, the United States had never used armed drones in combat. Since then, the CIA has launched 370 drone strikes at suspected militant targets in Pakistan. During President Barack Obama's tenure alone, those drone strikes have killed more than 30 of al Qaeda's leaders in Pakistan. 
 
 Not only that: The United States is a much harder target than it was on 9/11. Then there were 16 people on the U.S. "no fly" list. 
 
 Today there are more than 20,000. In 2001, there were 32 Joint Terrorism Task Force "fusion centers," where multiple law enforcement agencies worked together to chase down leads and build terrorism cases. Now there are 103. 
 
 The U.S. intelligence budget also grew dramatically after 9/11. In 2010, the United States spent more than $80 billion on intelligence collection and other covert activities, much of it directed at terrorist groups -- more than three times what the country spent in 1998. 
 
 At the time of the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Counterterrorism Center and the Transportation Security Administration all didn't exist. All these new post-9/11 institutions make it much harder for terrorists to operate in the United States. 
 
 The gloom and doom about terrorism becomes much worse when the specter of terrorists deploying chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons is added to the mix. 
 
 Graham Allison, the respected political scientist and founding dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, published a book in 2004 titled "Nuclear Terrorism, which garnered considerable attention with its prediction that "on the current path, a nuclear terrorist attack on America in the decade ahead is more likely than not." 
 
 Of course, now we are a decade later, and nothing of the sort has happened. 
 
 Indeed, a striking finding of a database of every jihadist terrorism case in the United States since 9/11 maintained by the New America Foundation is that not one of the more than 200 individuals who were indicted or convicted of a jihadist terrorism crime acquired, manufactured or deployed chemical, biological or radiological weapons, let alone a nuclear device. 
 
 It's relatively easy to say the sky is always falling. Indeed, given the human capacity for evil, bad things are, indeed, going to happen. But when the sky doesn't fall, which is much of the time when it comes to terrorism, the doomsday prognosticators are rarely held to account. In any event, they are too busy warning of the next catastrophe. 
 
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 Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion. ||||| Maxim Shemetov / Reuters file Sochi's Olympic Park is seen in December. 
 
 A catastrophic terrorist strike at the Sochi Winter Olympics would present the United States with a logistically mind-boggling and diplomatically delicate challenge: How to get more than 200 American athletes safely out of Russia. 
 
 U.S. military officials have described plans to use two warships in the Black Sea and planes already on standby in Europe to evacuate Americans if the worst fears of security experts come true. 
 
 But these are the Olympics of President Vladimir Putin, who is spending a reported $50 billion on the games, including a purportedly impenetrable “ring of steel” around the Olympic city, and who sees the games through a prism of national pride. 
 
 Any American rescue operation would depend heavily on his approval, security experts say. And that’s unlikely if not impossible. 
 
 NBC News' Richard Engel reports from inside the difficult-to-reach Coastal Cluster in Sochi. 
 
 “As far as being able to do things without Russian cooperation, it’s basically a nonstarter,” said Andrew Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a former Russia expert in the Clinton White House and an NBC News analyst. 
 
 “This is their territory, their country,” he said. “They get to decide what kind of outside help they need.” 
 
 Fears of Olympic terror have grown in the countdown to the games, which formally open Feb. 7. In the past week, a militant video has promised a “surprise” in Sochi, and Russia has hunted for at least five suspected terrorists who may have designs on an attack. 
 
 On Tuesday, police said they had killed a senior Islamist militant in Russia's North Caucasus as they hunted three Muslim women dubbed “black widows” and other terror suspects ahead of the Winter Olympics. 
 
 So while Putin’s ring of steel may help thwart larger coordinated attacks, experts are warning that lone attackers also pose a significant threat to the Games. 
 
 According to Gordon Woo, terrorism expert at risk management modeling firm RMS, analysis shows that terror plots involving up to 10 operatives have a 5 percent chance of succeeding. 
 
 Ezra Shaw / Getty Images Snowboarder Kelly Clark at a competition earlier this month. 
 
 "Smart terrorists" rein in their ambition and aim for simpler plots with fewer operatives, he said. 
 
 The U.S. Olympic Committee declined to discuss the details of security for the American athletes or what would happen in the event of an evacuation. 
 
 “The safety and security of Team USA is our top priority,” Patrick Sandusky, a USOC spokesman, said in a statement. 
 
 “As is always the case, we are working with the U.S. Department of State, the local organizers and the relevant law enforcement agencies in an effort to ensure that our delegation and other Americans traveling to Sochi are safe,” he said. 
 
 But at least part of the American contingent for Sochi, the skiing and snowboard teams, is paying a private company, Global Rescue, for additional security. 
 
 The company promises communications help, “rally points” for athletes to shelter in place and ways to get them around, or out of, Sochi. Dan Richards, the CEO, said in an interview that Global Rescue has six aircraft that it could “utilize for rapid response.” 
 
 Exactly how that would work — a private security company landing its planes in or around Sochi in the immediate aftermath of an attack — is not clear, and Richards declined to provide details of the company’s plans. 
 
 Global Rescue also offers its services to individuals and companies, and in recent years has helped customers during the Arab Spring, the earthquake in Haiti and the tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan. 
 
 Counterterrorism analyst Michael Leiter says transportation in Russia is vulnerable in the high-threat areas surrounding Sochi. The terrorists who previously launched an attack, he said, have every incentive to do so again. 
 
 “In every major crisis we’ve been involved with, we’ve never had host governments deny us overflight or landing permission,” he said. “The likelihood is that we’ll all work together, the Russians, our government, other friendly government and other private companies.” 
 
 Richards would not say what the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association is paying for the additional protection. The skiers and snowboarders are among the richer American teams. 
 
 The American luge team — 10 athletes and four coaches, plus medical and support staff — will rely on the U.S. Olympic Committee, said Gordy Sheer, the team’s director of marketing and sponsorship. 
 
 “They’re working pretty hard, and we’ve been given a lot of assurances,” he said in a phone interview. “I feel that the USOC is really making it a priority, and obviously the Russians are as well.” 
 
 There are signs of concern among American athletes. Some, including at least two members of the high-profile hockey team, have told their families not to travel to Sochi to cheer them on. 
 
 “I’m actually really concerned about it,” Zach Parise, one of the hockey players, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul. “I know they say they have evacuation stuff for us and all, but you just never know. I guess you have to wonder at what point does someone say it isn’t a good idea for us to go.” 
 
 The biathlon team has bought satellite phones for its coaches and is recommending that traveling families of its 10 athletes purchase medical and evacuation insurance — the same already provided to Olympic athletes by the USOC — should anything go wrong, said Max Cobb, president and CEO of U.S. Biathlon. 
 
 Other American athletes say their minds are on getting ready for competition. 
 
 “I’m not worried about any safety issues in Russia at this point,” said Kelly Clark, a snowboarder competing in her fourth Winter Games. “We’re so focused on our competition and on our sport.” 
 
 U.S. officials say the terror threat is higher than at any previous Olympics. The State Department will have diplomatic security officers in Sochi, though it has declined to say how many, and the FBI will have a presence as well. 
 
 Evan Vucci / AP file President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin last June. 
 
 “The Russian government has the lead here for security,” Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman, told reporters. “Obviously we’ve said we’re happy to assist in any way we can, certainly for American citizens.” 
 
 President Barack Obama spoke with Putin this week about Olympic security, and Russia has raised the possibility of the Americans’ sharing bomb-detecting technology for the games. That would mean having American military personnel on the ground to help. 
 
 But senior defense officials told NBC News on Wednesday that there was little or no chance that the technology could be in place in time. It would take months to train the Russians, and there has been no discussion of using the system in Sochi under total American control, they said. 
 
 And the Olympics take place at a time of frayed U.S.-Russian relations — tested by the Edward Snowden affair and the Boston Marathon bombings — not to mention the long shadow of the Cold War. 
 
 A large-scale attack would trigger almost unimaginable complications, said Weiss, the Russia expert. 
 
 For example: At least 85 countries and 2,500 athletes are taking part in the games. Sochi has a fairly small airport, so who gets to fly out first? And why should the Americans be given priority? 
 
 “Something that looks like the U.S. cavalry riding to rescue Russia or Vladimir Putin from an attack seems — well, it’s just hard to imagine that happening,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s all on Russia.” 
 
 Catherine Chomiak, Courtney Kube, Jim Miklaszewski, Andrea Mitchell and Michele Neubert of NBC News contributed to this report. 
 
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– Hey remember that time, lo those many weeks ago, when most Americans believed a terror attack would hit the Sochi Olympics? You could hardly blame them; there were ominous reports of approaching black widows and evacuation plans as important people predicted doom. But a funny thing happened: Nothing. "It turned out that the most terrifying image from Sochi was the look of disgust" on Ashley Wagner's face, observes CNN security analyst Peter Bergen. It was just the latest example "of hyperventilating hyperbole of the doomsday terrorism prognosticators." In November, GOP Rep. Mike Rogers said al-Qaeda "poses a bigger threat" than before 9/11, a statement Bergen believes "defies common sense." The US has decimated al-Qaeda, while dramatically improving American security and intelligence capabilities. A much-discussed 2004 book argued that "a nuclear attack on America in the decade ahead is more likely than not." Looks like "not" won out. "It's relatively easy to say the sky is always falling," Bergen writes, because when it doesn't, "doomsday prognosticators are rarely held to account. … they are too busy warning of the next catastrophe." Click for his full column.