CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): STATUS OF THE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 THE HAGUE 001697

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AC/CB, NP/CBM, VC/CCB, L/ACV, IO/S
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISP
JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC
COMMERCE FOR BIS (GOLDMAN)
NSC FOR JOECK
WINPAC FOR LIEPMAN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PARM PREL CWC
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): STATUS OF THE
VIS ENHANCEMENT PROJECT

This is CWC-85-04.

--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


1. (U) We discussed the status of the Verification
Information System (VIS) Enhancement Project with a number of
officials in the Technical Secretariat (TS) on the margins of
the June 29-July 2 Executive Council session. The project
remains on schedule, although some TS officials expressed
concerns and questioned the willingness of the contractor to
meet the TS deadlines. Others asserted that the contractor
is dictating the terms and timelines of the effort without
adequate oversight. TS officials also raised concerns
regarding VIS information security, lack of planning for and
funding of VIS implementation, and the absence of any plan to
publicize the effort to ensure the VIS is endorsed by States
Parties. In fact, the Office of Internal Oversight in the TS
has recommended that a qualified outside expert do a project
audit. Ambassador Javits emphasized to Director General
Pfirter and Deputy DG Hawtin that the U.S. places great
importance on the timely completion of a fully functioning
VIS that addresses all the concerns of users in the TS as
well as States Parties. End Summary.

--------------
SECURITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY
--------------


2. (U) Rob Simpson, head of the Office of Confidentiality
and Security (OCS) and a member of the VIS project management
team chaired by the Deputy DG Brian Hawtin, provided his
opinion that the VIS would not be deployed on the Secure
Critical Network (SCN) by December 2004. Thus, the fourth
security audit team (SAT-IV) may not be able to do a full
audit of SCN/VIS before the end of their 2004 mandate.
Simpson stressed adequate security needed to be part of the
development effort, although this element of the VIS project
remains unfunded. Simpson noted that the OCS-requested VIS
requirements have not been provided to the TS, although the
contractor (Sitar, Inc.) charged 80,000 euros for a paper
explaining why it was not going to provide them.


3. (U) SAT-IV review of the VIS before its deployment to the
SCN would be useful, agreed Simpson, citing delegations'
concerns about how the VIS would protect their highly
sensitive information. Simpson has provided the head of
SAT-IV (Harada, Japan) 11 security-related VIS documents
drafted by Information Systems Branch (ISB). Harada is to
disseminate these documents to SAT-IV for their consideration
of VIS security aspects. Simpson also said that ISB
initially had requested a security gap analysis from the
contractor without OCS involvement, and that currently there
is a Memorandum of Understanding between OCS and ISB
regarding the VIS design providing specifications on how
security is to be done.


4. (U) Simpson reported that the target of the initial VIS
project is the Verification Division's Declaration Branch.
Addition of facility inspections to the Relational Database
Management System (RDBMS) reporting will be a follow-on
effort. Simpson relayed that the contractor failed to
provide a cost estimate and timeline to the revised Statement
of Work (SoW) by June 17, delaying negotiation of the
follow-on contract by a month. (Note: this had yet to be
received as of July 6.) There apparently is speculation that
the contractor is balking at the new SoW, and wants the
contract scaled back.


5. (U) The SCN upgrade to Windows 2000, continued Simpson,
would probably take place in early fall 2004 because
Microsoft will no longer support NT4 as of January 1, 2005.
As OCS does not expect the RDBMS to be deployed on the SCN
until late 2004 at the earliest, there is no need to do it
this summer. The upgrade will be completed by the December
1-6 visit of SAT-IV. Simpson noted that SAT-IV would do a
full audit of the SCN at that time, using ISO 17999 to
organize its approach to the audit.

--------------
VERIFICATION DIVISION AND INSPECTORATE
--------------


6. (U) Horst Reeps, Head of the Verification Division, and
Carlos Trentadue, Acting Head of the Inspectorate, both of
whom are on the VIS Project Management Team, expressed
frustration at the current state of the project. Reeps
reported that in the last two months, he and Trentadue have
sent four memoranda to the DDG, protesting that after a year,
they have only paper charts and diagrams while what they need
is a functional VIS. Trentadue added that although the two
groups have provided about 800 person-hours to the effort, as
yet they have seen nothing tangible. Reeps commented that
the entire approach is too erratic, there are too many
intermediate levels of command, and a supervisor desperately
is needed.


7. (U) Reeps and Trentadue reported that after numerous
meetings with the contractor, and equally numerous requests
for a timeline for planning purposes, they have yet to see
anything specific. They need to plan so they can train
relevant staff members on VIS use and find the funds and
support to hire four or five Technical Assistance Contractors
(TACs) with language skills and appropriate security
clearances to manually enter the historical industry
declaration data into the VIS. There currently is no
provision for this effort in the 2005 budget, although the
full implementation of VIS supposedly will take place in
mid-2005.

--------------
INFORMATION SERVICES BRANCH
--------------


8. (U) Greg Linden, Chief of the Information Systems Branch,
presented the status of and the plan for completion of first
phase of the VIS project. He announced that as of July 1 the
contractor has provided the TS four products:
-- the RDBMS (completed and provided to the TS two months
ago);
-- the country maintenance database which will be available
on the OPCW website with a list of States Parties names and
their TS country codes;
-- the chemical verifier database which will be available on
the OPCW website with a standard list of chemical names and
their CAS numbers; and
-- an automated list of declaration handbook formats in
pull-down menu format (the CTFS in TS clothing) which will
also be provided to States Parties via the OPCW website.


9. (U) Linden reported that the VIS project management board
meets about every six weeks, to assess the status of the
project. He admitted that a detailed schedule had yet to be
provided to board members, but that this will be a
requirement of the next contract with Sitar, Inc. When asked
when users would be able to test-drive the system with mock
data, Linden reported that Verification Division users would
have access in the September/October timeframe. Delegations
would be able to check the VIS system in late 2004.


10. (U) When asked whether an off-the-shelf RDBMS might have
been preferable, Linden responded that such products would
not be able to incorporate the various copies of the data
needed by the TS: a digital legacy copy with errors as
provided as well as a "corrected" copy, which would be a
working mirror of information provided by States Parties. In
addition, industrial declaration data builds on declarations
beginning in 1997, and in order to be of value, these
declarations also must be manually entered into the VIS.
This effort will require up to six TAC linguists who can be
cleared to handle classified data.


11. (U) When asked about the status of the TS note
announcing the VIS project, Linden reported there had been an
administrative snafu, but the draft was moving through the
process and should be published in July. We emphasized the
importance of the paper for delegations to build support in
capitols for electronic submissions of industry declarations.

--------------
AMBASSADOR'S DISCUSSIONS WITH THE DEPUTY DG
--------------

12. (U) Ambassador Javits and delegation reps met with DDG
Hawtin on July 2 and relayed concerns about the negative
feedback we had received on the margins of the EC. Javits
inquired about the status of the TS VIS note, and made clear
that disseminating it as soon as possible was a U.S.
priority. The DDG noted the strides made by Linden towards
deployment of a fully operational and functional VIS that
would meet the needs of users within the TS as well as States
Parties. Hawtin asked that the delegation forget the
inadequate efforts made between 1993 and 2002, and should
focus instead on the enormous progress made since Linden
joined the TS. For over a decade no progress had been made,
while over the past year, the TS had received a functional
RDBMS and will have a working VIS prototype by the end of the
summer.


13. (U) The DDG characterized the critics in the TS as
negative influences who did not have suggestions on how to
improve the project. Hawtin noted that a hoax e-mail
originating from someone in OCS had resulted in an inquiry
from OCS, ISB and the Office of Internal Oversight (OIO) into
the VIS project, with the OIO recommending that a qualified
outside expert do a project audit. In response, the DDG
tasked ISB and OCS to provide a written response to the
charges contained in the hoax e-mail, to provide the basis
for a DDG recommendation to DG Pfirter on the need for a
project audit. With regard to the Verification Division's
request for four TACs to manually enter historical industry
declaration data into the RDBMS, Hawtin commented that he did
not include it in the 2005 budget because, being a priority
for the declaration branch, it should come from the funds
available to the division in 2005. Finally, the DDG promised
to look into the draft VIS paper and ensure that it be
published expeditiously.

--------------
AMBASSADOR'S DISCUSSION WITH DG PFIRTER
--------------


14. (U) Ambassador Javits met with the DG on July 2 and
noted the delegation's request that the VIS paper be
published quickly. Javits also expressed U.S. support for
the VIS project and inquired whether funding would be
available to complete the first stage of the VIS effort. The
DG was noncommittal, but confirmed that the project was a TS
priority. The DG also agreed to ensure the VIS paper would
be disseminated shortly.


15. (U) Ito sends.
SOBEL