COMMUNICATING WITH TURKISH OFFICIALS ON IRAQ

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 003475 SIPDIS STATE FOR EB/IFD AND EUR/SE E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/28/2008 TAGS: EAID EFIN PREL IZ TU SUBJECT: COMMUNICATING WITH TURKISH OFFICIALS ON IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION/PERSONNEL REF: A. (A) STATE 123372 ¶B. (B) STATE 130 (U) Classified by DCM Robert Deutsch. Reason: 1.5(b,d). ¶1. (C) Reftels instructed embassies to identify a high-level point of contact in host governments for a virtual e-mail contact group on Iraq reconstruction, and to ask host governments to send resumes to State and ORHA of experts who might be able to support Iraqi ministries. Embassy strongly supports both initiatives, but believes it is important that we be able to follow and, where appropriate, comment on any information and resumes the Turkish Government sends to Washington. ¶2. (C) With the Department's assistance, we resolved this problem vis-a-vis the resumes by asking the GOT to e-mail them to us first, so we can identify possible problems or potential conflicts of interest. We wonder if a similar approach might be possible on the virtual e-mail contact group, so that an Embassy POC could be sure that information is distributed in both directions -- U.S. to GOT and GOT to U.S. -- and could follow up on questions or ideas. We are reluctant to stand in the way of modern communications, but think it is important that Embassy be able to provide context for information Turkish authorities provide to the USG. PEARSON