OCTOBER 15 US-EU COTER TROIKA REVIEWS COMMON GOALS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BRUSSELS 004664

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/19/2014
TAGS: PTER PREL KTFN EUN USEU BRUSSELS
SUBJECT: OCTOBER 15 US-EU COTER TROIKA REVIEWS COMMON GOALS
AND JOINT ACTIONS

REF: A. USEU 4475


B. STATE 221188

C. STATE 218685

Classified By: USEU Poloff Van Reidhead for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: The October 15 U.S.-EU COTER counterterrorism
(CT) Troika focused on EU plans to identify priority
countries for CT assistance. Dutch CT Coordinator and COTER
Chair Ambassador Mollinger reviewed recent visits to Saudia
Arabia, Algeria, Morocco and Indonesia. S/CT Director for
Regional Affairs and U.S. Chairman Hartley welcomed the COTER
initiative, agreed in principle to seek to coordinate CT
assistance programs, but urged that, once the COTER has
identified areas of assistance, coordination take place among
embassies in the capitals concerned. EU officials reviewed
implementation of the EU CT work plan, including efforts to
mainstream CT policy in EU external relations, streamline the
production of threat assessments, harmonize national CT
policies, and implement the March Declaration. The two sides
also reviewed global CT developments, agreed to consider a
second round of joint demarches to encourage countries that
have not already done so to ratify the 12 UN CT conventions
and protocols, discussed the draft Council of Europe CT
conventions, and exchanged views on terrorist recruitment.
The U.S. raised the libyan arms embargo issue and Hizballah.
The Luxembourg representative outlined his government,s
plans for COTER during its spring 2005 EU Presidency.
Delegations agreed in principle to meet early in 2005, with
the exact date to be determined. END SUMMARY.

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EU FOCUSES ON PRIORITY COUNTRIES
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2. (C) Dutch CT Coordinator and COTER Chair Ambassador Ronald
Mollinger noted that the implementation of the EU Action Plan
on terrorism has encouraged the EU to look more "toward
external policies and less toward internal procedures." Two
resulting actions have been the focus on seven priority
countries (Morocco, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia,
Pakistan, Tunisia and Kenya),and greater cooperation between
external and internal affairs (Second and Third "Pillar")
experts within the EU COTER framework. Mollinger said that he
and EU CT Coordinator Gijs de Vries had recently visited
Morocco, and that he (Mollinger) had also visited Saudi
Arabia, Algeria and Indonesia, to discuss EU technical
assistance, intelligence sharing, and political support for
CT cooperation with the EU. He said each of the countries
had welcomed the prospect of greater CT cooperation with the
EU (although Algeria complained that the EU had not helped
more at an earlier stage). The COTER group is trying to
identify three more priority countries to round out their
list at ten and solicited U.s. views.


3. (C) Consistent with Ref C, Hartley welcomed the COTER
initiative, agreed in principle to seek to coordinate CT
assistance programs, but urged that, once the COTER has
identified areas of assistance, coordination take place among
embassies in the capitals concerned. Citing the U.s. G-8
Presidency experience, he said U.S. Embassies in several of
the priority countries identified by the EU were already
working with other donors to coordinate and deconflict CT
assistance programs. Coordination at the embassy level would
take advantage of embassies familiarity with the assistance
already in train, deeper understanding of the local political
context, and an appreciation of the unique challenges in each
country regarding program implementation. He noted a number
of countries in East Asia, South Asia, the Near East and
Africa that would be logical candidates to fill out the EU
top ten list. The EU side agreed that cooperation in the
field is the most effective venue for coordination.

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EU VISITS TO PRIORITY COUNTRIES
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4. (C) Mollinger provided detailed read-outs on his visits to
Morocco, Algeria, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia:

MOROCCO: Morocco had a mixed response to the EU, with few
officials making specific requests. Moroccan officials
viewed AQ as an ideological inspiration and not a direct
threat to Morocco. During the discussion, it emerged that
Morocco had requested EU assistance with border controls even
as the U.S. is moving forward to implement the Terrorist
Interdiction Program (TIP) to assist GOM establishment of a
computerized port-of-entry name check system..

SAUDI ARABIA: The Commission noted that Saudi Arabia's
wealth made the country ineligible for Commission assistance.
EU officials relayed Saudi concerns about the potential
influx of jihadists back into the country once Iraq is
stabilized. Hartley acknoweldged that this could be a
problem, but pointed out that the Saudis were making
important gains in their CT capabilities and that coalition
forces were working hard to ensure that such jihadists would
be apprehended or killed before they have the chance to leave
Iraq.

ALGERIA: Algeria was enthusiastic about receiving technical
assistance from the EU, but also vocal in its grievances
about what it saw as passive EU involvement until now. The
EU reminded us that the Association Agreement with Algeria
contains a terrorism clause, but Algeria has not yet ratified
the agreement.

INDONESIA: Indonesia told the EU visitors "they are fed up
with fact finding missions" and hoped instead for some real
assistance. Hartley noted ongoing USG CT capacity-building
assistance and recent developments, in particular the recent
election of President Yudhoyono, who has given positive
signals on CT cooperation.

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NEW THREAT ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES CENTRALIZE COOPERATION
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5. (C) EU officials related their developing approach to
threat assessments. Instead of drawing on individual member
state intelligence service reports on particular countries
and themes, COTER has asked the EU Situation Centre (SitCen)
to synthesize all available information, including from
Europol, and present coordinated assessments to the COTER
group. The Dutch hope to have eleven foreign intelligence
and internal security services pooling information at SitCen
by the end of December (the number is currently at seven).


6. (SBU) The EU is also working on a peer review process to
identify and universalize best practices in CT policies
throughout the 25 member states. A report on best practices
for CT from this evaluation will be released during the
December JHA European Council meeting. The new member states
will participate in the evaluation venture at a later date.



7. (SBU) EU Counter-terrorism coordinator Gijs de Vries'
Deputy, Patricia Holland, said that the EU is engaging in a
larger effort to "mainstream" CT concerns throughout all EU
policy areas. On terrorism financing, Holland said the EU
would soon release an overview paper on terrorist financing
policies in the EU.

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TERRORISM FINANCE
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8. (SBU) Both the US and the EU noted the productive
discussion on terrorism finance that had taken place on
September 23 and reported on the four key areas for our
future work: (1) a meeting with prosecutors, investigators
and designation authorities to be held before the end of the
year to share experience and best practices; (2) enhanced
US-EU cooperation in FATF especially on non-profits and cash
couriers; (3) continuation of the informal dialogue and (4)
cooperation on CTF technical assistance.

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OTHER ISSUES
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9. (C) The two sides also discussed the following topics:

-- Global Trends: Hartley reviewed global developments,
noting the progress made to date to defeat al-Qaida and
associated terrorist groups but underscoring the continuing
threat. Acknowledging that international efforts to identify
and neutralize AQ cells worldwide had made significant
progress, Dutch Internal Security Service officer Willem van
Sluys said that the EU remained very worried about the
ongoing capabilities and recruitment skills of AQ cells,
especially in Europe. The EU was also concerned that AQ was
evolving into more of an ideology with a declining need for a
base, which added new challenges for CT officials.

-- Joint Demarches: The two sides agreed to consider a
second round of joint demarches, begun under the Italian EU
Presidency, to urge third countries to ratify and implement
the twelve UN CT conventions and protocols. The U.S. side
undertook to propose next steps.

-- Council of Europe Draft CT Convention: USEU DOJ Attache
Mark Richard said he understood a draft comprehensive CT
convention had been tabled at the Council of Europe, despite
a prior understanding that the largely redundant proposal had
been dropped. Troika officials confirmed that the EU did not
have a common position on the draft and that several
prominent EU member states oppose it. The Luxembourg Rep
read a statement from an EU coordination meeting in New York
in which member states agreed that any new convention should
focus on filling existing gaps and should not seek to reframe
existing conventions.

-- Terrorist Recruitment: Hartley described USG concerns
about terrorist recruitment in US prisons and among military
chaplains. Dutch internal security service official van
Sluys said the EU remained concerned about recruitment from
within immigrant communities. While EU member states had
taken aggressive action to halt recruitment in places such as
schools and mosques, more needed to be done to engage Muslim
moderates to provide an alternative to radicalization. He
offered to share an EU Action Plan for combating terrorist
recruitment, which should be finished by December.

-- Libya: Hartley also delivered US concerns (Ref B)
regarding the EU decision to lift its arms embargo on Libya
(details in Ref A).

-- Hizballah: Hartley raised ongoing U.S. concerns regarding
lack of EU consensus on designating Hizballah and
Hamas-linked charities as terrorist organizations. The EU
side indicated that movement on either front was not likely
in the near term.

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LUXEMBOURG PRESIDENCY PRIORITIES
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10. (SBU) Luxembourg Rep Tom Berend highlighted five COTER
priorities for Luxembourg's EU Presidency (January 1-June 30,
2005): enhancing CT assistance to third countries; building
on the Dutch efforts to tackle terrorism finance; preparing
for ministerials; and having productive troikas with third
countries. The fifth priority will be "thematic" but has not
yet been agreed.

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NEXT MEETING
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11. (SBU) The two sides agreed in principle to meet again
early in the new year (date to be determined).

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12. (U) PARTICIPANTS
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U.S. Delegation:
Brent Hartley, S/CT Director for Regional Affairs
Kimber Shearer, EUR/ERA
Mark Richard, Department of Justice Counselor, USEU
Frank Kerber, Narcotics and Law Enforcement Counselor, USEU
Van Reidhead, Political Officer, USEU
Jennifer Underwood, Economic Officer, USEU
Sean Kimball, Intern, USEU

Dutch Presidency Delegation:
Ambassador Ronald Mollinger, MFA (COTER Chair)
Wouter Jurgens, MFA
Nadine van Loon, MFA
Willem van Sluys, Internal Security Service

European Commission:
Lars-Erik Lundin, DG External Relations
Andrew Denison, DG External Relations
Diederick Paalman, DG JHA

Luxembourg:
Robert Rollinger, MFA
Stephane Aumer, MFA
Taru Berend, MFA

Council Secretariat:
Patricia Holland, Advisor to EU CT Coordinator
Margarita Comomala, USA Desk
Allessandra Baldi, USA/CT Desk
Juan de Luis, CT Desk


13. (U) This message has been cleared by S/CT Hartley and
EUR/ERA Shearer.

Schnabel