CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): WEEKLY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 THE HAGUE 002168

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

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): WEEKLY
WRAP-UP FOR 27 AUGUST 2004

This is CWC-97-04.

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2005 BUDGET
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1. (U) The Technical Secretariat has distributed an
information paper (transmitted to AC/CB) providing responses
to questions raised by delegations during the July budget
consultations. Budget co-facilitators Gordon Eckersley
(Australia) and Ian Mundell (Canada) have announced that they
intend to resume budget consultations on September 7, hold
three days of consultations that week, and inquire about the
possibility of continuing budget discussions for two days
during the week of September 13. Although industry
consultations have been scheduled for that week, Eckersley
and Mundell will inquire whether industry consultations could
be compressed into three days to leave more time for
discussion of the budget. The facilitators also emphasized
that they would be open to follow-on questions from
delegations for immediate transmission to the TS prior to the
September 7 resumption of budget talks. In an August 26
discussion, Eckersley highlighted the fact that he and
Mundell plan to discuss the TS proposal to convert all of the
security guards to fixed term contracts.


2. (U) Del also met with Rick Martin, Head of the TS Budget
and Finance Branch (BFB),on August 26. Martin said that at
this point he personally has not had a lot of inquiries from
delegations about RBB-specific issues, such as performance
indicators (although that could be because the budget
consultations might be the preferred forum for raising those
kind of matters). He anticipates many more questions from
delegations in the coming weeks about staff costs and, in
particular, salary increase calculations. He made clear he
was open to a discussion on current practices for determining
salary increases.


3. (U) Finally, an informal sounding of delegates' views of
the DG's proposed 4.8% budget increase for 2005, at a German
reception on August 26, indicated that most delegations
continue to wait for instructions from capitals on the budget
increase. None of the delegates queried had yet adopted a
firm position on the proposed increase.

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STATUS OF RABTA CONVERSION REQUEST
--------------


4. (U) On August 27, the Libyan delegation presented the
conversion request for the former CW production facility at
Rabta, to the Technical Secretariat (TS). As the delegation
had been informed beforehand, the version delivered to the TS
incorporated all the changes to the text provided to the
Libyans by Washington via the delegation. Delegation has
requested a copy of the updated electronic version of the
documents, as presented to the TS on Friday, and anticipates
receiving it on or about August 31.


5. (U) Delegation has been informed by the TS that its
initial evaluation of the documents revealed certain
organizational and textual errors, which it intends to notify
the Libyan delegation of on or about September 1. The TS
intends to continue its evaluation of the document with an
eye to further refining it. Delegation has notified the TS
that Del anticipate having our next set of inputs to the
Libyans by NLT September 3, and that Del believe all other
parties, including the TS, must do likewise to ensure the
paper can be updated and "finalized" by September 10, in time
for the upcoming EC session. Delegation notes that while the
substantive OPCW office responsible for evaluating this
document is fully sensitize to this timeline, historically
the Policy Making Organs office has been responsible for
delaying the distribution of such documents. Delegation
therefore intends to monitor this process closely to ensure
the document does become hung up "at the editors."


6. (SBU) Delegation believes that finalization and
distribution of the Director-General's paper evaluating the
Libyans' proposed technical change is imminent. Delegation
has worked closely with the TS Legal Advisor to facilitate
evaluation of the document by Washington and the
incorporation of U.S. comments and suggestions in the
document. Having just received and evaluated the most recent
copy of the document, delegation is satisfied that all
Washington comments have been incorporated, though minor
editing mistakes will be identified to the TS for final
correction.


7. (U) Delegation is in the process of determining
availability of Italian, British, and Libyan experts to
attend a set of meetings in The Hague the week of September
20, to scrub the Libyan documents a final time and to produce
fodder for a Corrigendum, if one is needed. UK has indicated
it supports the initiative and Del will determine Libya and
Italy's status in the next 24 hours.

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MARQUARDT RECORDS REVIEW
--------------


8. (U) Delegation has been informally told by the TS that the
review of destruction records at the Washington POE for the
facility at Marquardt went extremely well. No indications of
problems were indicated in their preliminary internal
reporting. Delegation believes this will remain the case, as
the TS viewed this largely as a "fig leaf" by which we could
finally remove this issue from our list of outstanding
problems.

--------------
PBA FIRS
--------------


9. (U) Per guidance, delegation delivered the relevant
talking points to the TS regarding unacceptable changes being
made by the TS to the Final Inspection Reports for Pine Bluff
Arsenal production facility destruction inspections.
Immediate if informal feedback from the TS is that they will
likely cease and desist pushing on the subject of enumerating
ranges of quantities of items of equipment designated by the
U.S. as "various."

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AMCIT REPRESENTATION AT THE OPCW
--------------


10. (U) Del continues to be actively engaged with personnel
in the Human Resources office regarding Amcit representation
in the OPCW, an issue which Ambassador Javits has raised with
the Director-General. In early August, Del met with HR
director Eva Murray and others from the TS Human Resources
and Recruitment offices to discuss both hiring practices
within the TS and the status of Amcit applications.


11. (U) During those discussions, HR reviewed the hiring
process, noting that the process typically involved
applications received by TS, from which "short lists" of
qualified candidates drawn up for proposal to a review board.
The review board is comprised of representatives from the
office holding the open slot, the incumbent (if available),
staff rep from human resources and a representative from the
DG's office. HR noted how the factor of "geographic
distribution" is part of the consideration of filling posts
and that this delays the hiring process and has an impact on
the applicant pool.


12. (U) HR staff noted that U.S. representation at the OPCW
might be aided by U.S. proposal of "national candidates," a
practice common with other States Parties. To obtain a
better picture of the overall status of Amcit applications,
we were provided an opportunity to review submitted
applications for open positions. From this review, Del
requested copies of Amcit applications for review by
Washington. Del also requested breakdowns of percentage
representation of SP staff at the OPCW, with specifics
regarding senior management slots vs. general slots.
Finally, Del have spoken with several TS Amcit staff who have
experienced the hiring practices at the OPCW, in particular,
two Amcit staff in the legal office were not hired despite
having very impressive resumes and qualifications.

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IT ISSUES - VIS
--------------


13. (U) Greg Linden, Chief/Information Services Branch
(ISB),presented a status report on the Verification
Information System Enhancement Project (VIS) to the
Director-General and Deputy DG on August 18 (faxed and sent
by DHL back to AC/CB). A wide range of views among the VIS
Project Management Board members (DDG, Chief/Verification
Division, Acting Chief/Inspectorate, Chief/Office of
Confidentiality and Security, and Chief/ISB) led the DG to

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decide to put the VIS contract temporarily on hold while the
Project Management Board takes stock of the situation and
decides the best way forward.


14. (U) As a significant element of this effort, the DG
recommended that the OPCW accept the U.S. offer of a
cost-free IT expert and contracting officer who will play a
key role in the project assessment effort. (Note: the DG's
letter accepting that offer was FAXed to Washington on August

20. Delegation has received Washington's reply and a letter
from Ambassador Javits to the DG will be delivered on
September 1.) Although the U.S. Voluntary Contribution of
$570,000 has been expended, funding for the follow-on VIS
project should be available from the current TS FY04 budget.


15. (U) Linden reported that, in his view, VIS has suffered
from lack of full-time TS personnel, disagreements among
Project Management Board members, and the contractor's
inability to cope with the expanding scope of the contract.
Linden intends to redress these issues by assigning three or
four ISB staff to VIS full-time. The U.S. offer to provide a
cost-free Project Manager/Contracting Officer is greatly
appreciated and will significantly enhance the VIS effort.
Linden questioned whether Sitar, Inc., can handle the VIS as
now envisaged and is open to involvement of other companies
if needed. Finally, Linden characterized the DDG as a good
manager with no previous experience in IT development
efforts, which has contributed to the infighting.

-------------- --
IT ISSUES - IPB REQUEST FOR COST-FREE IT EXPERT
-------------- --


16. (U) The TS Implementation Support Branch (IPB) provided
the delegation its proposal for a cost-free U.S. IT expert
(faxed back to AC/CB). IPB is proposing to house an IT
expert for a full year (2005) to work on three tasks: update
and put on-line InfoPack number 1, develop and update an
interactive on-line and CD-ROM based version of InfoPack
number 2, and populate the newly developed National
Implementation Profiles database. Del noted the importance
the U.S. places on SPs' national implementation effort and
that commencing this important implementation support effort
in January could have a negative impact on SPs' efforts to
implement by CSP-10. Del asked whether some of the work
could start earlier, say around CSP-9. Sergei Kisselev of
IPB said that yes, perhaps some work could start in November.
(Note: Chief/IPB told us that the same request also had been
made to a number of other delegations. When told that the
proposed work program did not seem to require someone
full-time for a year, she
replied that more tasks would be considered and assigned over
time).


17. (U) Del asked whether Chief/ISB Greg Linden was aware
of the proposal and if so, whether he supported the
initiative. Kisselev said that no, ICB had yet to advise
Linden of the effort, but that the IT expert would work
closely with ISB. Because the OPCW website is maintained by
Peter Kaiser, Chief/Office of Public Affairs, the expert
actually would need to work closely with the OPA personnel
who designed and now maintain the website. Del asked both
Kaiser and Linden whether they were aware of the ICB's
request and both replied they were not aware of that request
to the U.S. Furthermore, Linden noted that, per an ICB
request, ISB developed a beta version of the National
Authorities chat room that is now being tested in Public
Affairs. Linden's concern is not ICB's request for
programming, it is the availability of knowledgeable ICB
moderators to ensure acceptable content and to make sure
questions posted to the site are answered quickly.


18. (U) To ensure that all affected TS offices fully
support the ICB request to the U.S., Del are arranging a
meeting with representatives of those offices the week of
September 6. In separate discussions, we will also make the
point that similar official TS requests should be made by
senior TS officials who can ensure that any such request is
made only after being fully vetted within the TS.

--------------
OCPF SITE SELECTION
--------------


19. (U) Facilitator Johan Verboom (Netherlands) held an
informal discussion with U.S. Del rep, Arya Sandeep/India,
and Theo Juurlink/TS on August 26, proposing that the next
consultation, to be held sometime during the industry
intersessional (exact date TBD),begin the process of
breaking down the Swiss/U.S. methodology into its three
components and allowing delegations to debate each element
individually. To start off, Juurlink will present the TS
proposal for distribution of its information points, breaking
down the A14 methodology into its component factors and
introduce several possible new factors (late/incomplete
declarations, site relevance -- high:batch &
multi-purpose/intermediate:in the middle/low:dedicated and
continuous process, etc). Juurlink intends to incorporate
delegations recommendations into an auditable,
nondiscriminatory, and repeatable TS methodology. If time
allows, the facilitator will initiate debate on the first
element in the Swiss/U.S. paper -- probability proportional
to size of the SPs' OCPF industry. Sandeep noted that India
prefers the current practice of equally weighting SPs, and
that India could not support the Swiss/U.S. alternative.


20. (U) The facilitator proposes beginning debate in
mid-October on the third piece -- SPs' nomination points.
Verboom plans to keep the discussion limited to the Indian,
Swiss, TS, and U.S. delegations. Sandeep noted Delhi's
concern regarding potential for politicization and collusion,
and proposed (on a personal basis) that instead, SPs could
nominate a class of facilities against which the TS could
spread their points. This could mimic the A14 factors,
making it easier for the TS to process. Sandeep also noted
India's dislike of equal weights for each of the three
factors. Del replied that other suggestions are welcome.

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TS TRANSFER MONITORING

SIPDIS
--------------


21. (U) Del continues working with Radoslav Deyanov of the
TS Declarations Branch to support TS efforts to publish a

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comprehensive paper on transfers monitoring. Del understands
the paper is in the DG's office for review and is unchanged
from the redline version provided to AC/CB in mid-August.
Once the DG has signed off on release of the paper, Deyanov
plans to approach select delegations with the text to solicit
feedback. Deyanov anticipates DG release of paper by late
Sept 3.

--------------
LATE SUBMISSIONS OF ART. VI DECLARATIONS
--------------


22. (U) Del continues coordination with Leo Espinoza,
Sandor Laza and Carlos Trentadue of the Declarations Branch
to complete a paper on late submissions of Art. VI
declarations in preparation for industry consultations in
November. Anticipated facilitator (Williams, U.S.) has a
paper in draft form and is awaiting additional information
from the TS regarding late submissions impact on the
selection process to identify operational concerns to spur SP
interest. Options for consideration proposed in the paper
include recommending unclassified TS reporting on SPs and
relevant plant site numbers prior to EC sessions, reporting
directly to the EC instead of during destruction informals,
increasing the chances for selection of plant sites submitted
late and emphasizing the need for nil/null declarations as
affirmative responses to complete status picture.


23. (U) While the proposed mechanism for resolution will
depend upon SP input during consultations, options include
standard draft decision language, EC report language or,
following the lead of transfer discrepancies, requesting the
TS to issue a paper/guidelines concerning TS actions for SPs

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to consider. Once data is received from the declarations
branch, the draft paper will be provided to AC/CB for review
targeted for the end of next week, then to WEOG for
coordination and bilateral discussions in mid-Sept. Based
upon discussions with WEOG countries, by early Oct., the
target is to distribute the facilitator's paper to State
Parties for consideration well in advance of November
consultations. This should provide sufficient time for
States Parties to consider the subject and consult with the
facilitator prior to consultations so that a quick resolution
recommending TS action can be sought prior to the November
round of consultations.


24. (U) Ito sends.
RUSSEL