DHS U/S BEARDSWORTH MEETS WITH SPANISH OFFICIALS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MADRID 002792

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPARTMENT PASS TO EUR/WE
EUR/ERA FOR CHASE AND SAARNIO

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER EAIR SP EUN
SUBJECT: DHS U/S BEARDSWORTH MEETS WITH SPANISH OFFICIALS
ABOUT PASSENGER NAME RECORDS

REF: BRUSSELS 2775


1. (SBU) Summary. DHS Acting Under Secretary for Border and
Transportation Security visited Madrid July 19 to brief
Spanish Ministry of Interior and MFA officials on DHS
discussions with EU interlocutors regarding the value of
Passenger Name Record (PNR) data as a tool for enhancing
border security. U/S Beardsworth requested Spain's support
in EU councils in the runup to the September U.S.-EU joint
PNR review. While Deputy Interior Minister Antonio Camacho
expressed concern regarding privacy rights and questioned the
relevance of PNR data to preventing terrorist attacks, both
Camacho and MFA Director General for International Terrorism
Issues and Disarmament Angel Losada indicated their support
for USG efforts to increase U.S.-EU security cooperation
through the sharing of PNR data. PNR will be a topic for
discussion during the first meeting of the DHS-Spanish
Ministry of Interior Working Group in late September in
Washington. End Summary.


2. (SBU) At both the Ministry of Interior and the MFA, U/S
Beardsworth stressed the potential of PNR data to help U.S.
and European authorities strengthen border security and deny
terrorists freedom of movement. He explained how PNR data
detects relationships between passengers and acts as an
important forensic tool in the wake of terrorist attacks.
U/S Beardsworth showed how DHS used PNR to identify travel
agencies that use false documents to facilitate travel by
malafide passengers and how PNR had contributed to the Lodi,
California terrorism investigation. He also briefed GOS
officials on his meetings in Brussels (reftel) and Berlin and
on the upcoming U.S.-EU joint PNR review in September. U/S
Beardsworth reviewed the USG's experience with the Advance
Passenger Information System (APIS) and the subset U.S. No
Fly list, noting that DHS had avoided flight diversions in
all but a very few cases. He said the international
community should work towards limiting the ability of
terrorists to move freely across borders, just as we had
cooperated to restrict their access to the international
financial system.

//INTERIOR MINISTRY VOICES PRIVACY CONCERNS//


3. (SBU) Deputy Interior Minister Camacho expressed
appreciation for the briefing and said he was familiar with
PNR as a result of numerous discussions on the subject with
EU counterparts. Camacho said that one issue that seemed to
undermine the value of PNR was that many of the perpetrators
of recent attacks (September 11, the March 11, 2004 Madrid
train bombings, and the July 7 attacks in London) were
unknown and their names would not have emerged from any
database. Camacho argued that while some argued that
democracies would have to "modify" themselves to counter new
security threats, Spain believed it was important that
existing privacy provisions remain intact. He said that one
of the terrorists' objectives was to force democratic
societies to clamp down on their citizens and that Spain
rejected any such approach. In the case of the London
attacks, said Camacho, the bombers came from within the UK's
borders, diminishing the value of preventive programs such as
PNR.


4. (SBU) U/S Beardsworth said that privacy protection was
just as important an issue in the U.S. as it was in the EU
and that controls on the use of PNR data were intended to
address sensibilities on both sides of the Atlantic. He
reviewed the tight procedures surrounding use of PNR data to
meet privacy concerns and the fact that PNR data regarding
ordinary citizens did not flow to the intelligence community.
These safeguards include filters and audit functions to
ensure that data is protected and not accessible by
individuals who would not have a direct need for the
information. Also, PNR does not allow the user to look
beyond the surface of the information provided for a
particular traveler; more detailed reviews required the same
court authority as would apply to any law enforcement
investigation.


5. (SBU) Regarding the relevance of PNR as a tool for
detecting impending attacks, U/S Beardsworth explained that
PNR data may have proved very useful in helping detect
patterns and associations that could have drawn the attention
of law enforcement officials to the attackers in the cases
cited by Camacho. In the London attacks, for example,
several of the suicide bombers had traveled to Pakistan and
PNR data related to their visits may have been helpful to
police. U/S Beardsworth said that under UK laws, authorities
could only look at case-specific data related to a single
individual; PNR would allow them to obtain a much broader
range of indicators and associations. U/S Beardsworth
discussed how the PNR system was reconfigured on July 7
following the London bombings to help search for individuals
who may had some relation to the attacks.


6. (SBU) Camacho said that the GOS agreed with the USG in
"nearly all respects" regarding the struggle against
terrorism and specifically on the use of PNR data. He asked
U/S Beardsworth whether DHS had a specific request for Spain
on PNR. U/S Beardsworth said that he had included Spain,
Germany, and France on his agenda because of their high level
of counter-terrorism cooperation with the USG. The USG hoped
that Spain would be an advocate in EU councils for closer
U.S.-EU collaboration on PNR. Camacho said that Spain would
be helpful and suggested that PNR be a topic for further
discussion during the September meeting of the DHS-Ministry
of Interior Working Group in Washington.


7. (SBU) Deputy Interior Minister Camacho was accompanied by
chief of staff Victoria Sanchez Sanchez, Director General for
Infrastructure and Secure Materials (Schengen) Julio Martinez
Merono, Senior Diplomatic Adviser Ambassador Arturo Avello,
Senior Terrorism Adviser Juan Hidalgo, International Affairs
Adviser Jose Ignacio Lopez Chicheri, and PNR adviser Luis
Aparicio.

//MFA UNDERSTANDS THE ISSUE//


8. (SBU) U/S Beardsworth met separately with newly-named MFA
Director General for International Terrorism Issues and
Disarmament Angel Losada, who was accompanied by Deputy
Director General for European Justice and Interior Issues
Felix Fernandez-Shaw and Losada's adviser on international
counterterrorism cooperation Carmen Bujan Freire. Losada
indicated a general understanding of PNR, but requested
specific details as to its value as a deterrent for
international travel by terrorist suspects. U/S Beardsworth
cited the KLM/Mexico case where, regardless of the purported
intentions of the travelers, the USG made clear that it was
monitoring movements by suspected extremists and was prepared
to deny them access to U.S. airspace.


9. (SBU) On U.S.-EU PNR cooperation, U/S Beardsworth
discussed his meetings in Brussels with members of the
European Parliament Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee (reftel)
and his assessment that he had made progress in explaining
privacy protection guidelines associated with PNR.
Fernandez-Shaw said he was well aware of the LIBE Committee's
concerns and assured U/S Beardsworth that the GOS understands
that PNR does not violate any data protection guidelines. He
lamented that U.S.-EU discussions on PNR were being mixed up
with an internal EU debate regarding personal data and
privacy protections. Fernandez-Shaw agreed with the need to
clarify the details of PNR in order to respond to the LIBE
Committee. Freire emphasized this point as well, saying that
governments had to explain to NGOs and to their publics that
they had established firm parameters regarding the use of
personal data. She suggested that the London bombings may
help crystallize public opinion in favor of increased
security measures.


10. (U) U/S Beardsworth was accompanied by Policy Advisor
Dennis Sequeira of the DHS Office International Affairs,
Policy Advisor Erik Shoberg of the DHS Office of Customs and
Border Protection, TSA Liaison Jill Drury of USEU, and Staff
Assistant David von Damm.
AGUIRRE