LEBANON: UNIIIC ATTEMPTING TO COMPLETE WORK BY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIRUT 000281 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC FOR ABRAMS/DORAN/MARCHESE/HARDING E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/21/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER LE SY SUBJECT: LEBANON: UNIIIC ATTEMPTING TO COMPLETE WORK BY JUNE Classified By: Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman. Reason: Section 1.4 (b) . SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) In a 2/20 meeting, Peter Nicholson, chief investigator for UNIIIC, informed emboff that Commissioner Brammertz has instructed his staff to accelerate their pace in an effort to complete the investigation by the June 15 mandate expiration. Although Brammertz believes it is now likely that the UN Security Council will extend the current mandate, he wants to finish the investigation before he is scheduled to leave in June. While the ever-conservative Brammertz has been telling his UN chain-of-command that the investigation is "80 percent complete," Nicholson believes they are much further along than that. He acknowledged there are several "very difficult" witnesses still to be interviewed or re-interviewed, but Nicholson, as well as his senior investigator, Rosemary Nidiry, were cautiously optimistic that the major components of the case are approaching completion. Additional technical requests were made to the U.S. and these have been transmitted to Washington. Nidiry will be in Washington next week for interviews and consultations with U.S. agencies. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) Emboff met with Peter Nicholson, chief investigator, and Rosemary Nidiry, senior investigator, at the visibly busy UNIIIC headquarters in Monteverde, east of Beirut, on February 20. Nicholson is scheduled to return to his position at the International Criminal Court in early March, while Nidiry will leave her position with the Commission by early April. Emboff was introduced to Nicholson's replacement, Glenn Rowley, who is expected to remain with the Commission if an extension is granted past June 15. Nidiry's replacement has not yet been named. ACCELERATED PACE -------------- ¶3. (C) Following a discussion of requests to meet with several U.S. agencies regarding technical assistance, Peter Nicholson stated that the investigation is "proceeding quite well" along two fronts: actual interviews and evidence analysis, and the conversion of a significant quantity of evidence and findings into a highly structured data base for eventual use by a Special Tribunal, should it be established. Both Nicholson and Nidiry referred several times to �00A;Commissioner Brammertz' recent acceleration of the investigation. Nicholson, in particular, noted that Brammertz is committed to trying to wrap up the "core investigation" by June 15. Two challenges must be overcome: the valuable time spent preparing and defending UNIIIC's March 21 interim report to the Security Council, and more importantly, arranging and completing an unidentified series of critical interviews (and re-interviews) that are necessary to fill the last remaining gaps in the case. Nicholson said he could not be sure whether they would finish by June, but the entire staff is making every effort to do so. ¶4. (C) That said, Nicholson said that Brammertz will ask the UN for an extension of UNIIIC's mandate past June, if only because it has become increasingly doubtful that the Special Tribunal will be sufficiently established early enough to both receive the significant amount of evidence/findings, and to complete any facets of the investigation that may remain outstanding. Nicholson emphasized that it was essential that there be no "void" between the closing of the investigation and a fully functional Special Tribunal. He implied that custody of the evidentiary material and its preparation for prosecution was too sensitive to be "warehoused" for an indefinite period of time and under indeterminate custodianship. ¶5. (C) Commenting on his imminent departure from the Commission, Nicholson said he was confident that his replacement was "top caliber" and would remain with the Commission past the current June 15 deadline if requested. He said that all employment contracts were now being written with that option in mind, but he also ruefully noted that dealing with the UN Secretariat's human resources bureaucracy remained a tedious affair. With regard to Brammertz himself, Nicholson said it remained an "open question" whether the UNIIIC Commissioner would remain past June, as there were several "difficult issues" still in play. It was clear that Nicholson hoped that Brammertz, if he desired, would be given BEIRUT 00000281 002 OF 002 the chance to close the gap and deliver UNIIIC's results to an up-and-running Tribunal. But for the present, Brammertz was continuing to drive the pace as if he would depart in four months. ¶6. (C) Although Nicholson avoided specifics, it was evident that the March 21 interim report would be quite pedestrian, while the primary goal of the entire Commission staff was now the June 15 final report. Nicholson did say that those objectives may change depending on what the Security Council decides, but for now, they were running on a 120 day countdown. ¶7. (C) Nidiry explained that she hoped that as many items of technical assistance as the Commission requested last October would be made available, either on her trip to Washington next week, or as soon after as possible. She implied that if the technical assistance were not soon made available, there may not be sufficient time to incorporate it into the Commission's final findings. Nidiry, who will probably be making her last visit to Washington before she leaves the Commission in April, said she would be extremely flexible if Washington wanted her to remain for additional or unscheduled consultations. (Note: Nidiry also stated she would be hand-carrying storage devices that would contain imagery taken from CCTV cameras near the scene of the late November assassination of Minister of Industry Pierre Gemayel that required enhancement. A list of additional imagery requests was also given to emboff. This list has been forwarded to Washington. End note.) FELTMAN