AMBASSADOR CLOUD MEETS WITH NEW CHIEF OF SPECIAL

UNCLAS VILNIUS 000789

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

TALLINN FOR LEGATT

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ASEC PGOV PREL PINR LH
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR CLOUD MEETS WITH NEW CHIEF OF SPECIAL
INVESTIGATIONS SERVICE



1. (U) Summary. On October 24 Ambassador met with newly
commissioned Director of Special Investigations Service (STT)
Zymantas Pacevicius (pat-SEV-i-chuss) to discuss the
challenge of fighting corruption in Lithuania and his desire
for further training opportunities. End Summary.


2. (U) Pacevicius stressed that STT would like to continue
to receive U.S. training and equipment so its analysts and
technical personnel can keep up with the suspects they
investigate. He said this is most important because STT is
not good at training young analysts, and criminals in
Lithuania have been good at adjusting to surveillance
technology that STT utilizes.


3. (SBU) Pacevicius also mentioned his desire to have one or
more of the STT technical staff travel to the United States
to train with the FBI on technical surveillance. (Note: The
idea of an exchange or TDY assignment has long been a topic
of interest for STT, as mentioned times in the past by former
Director Povilas Malakauskas. Previous requests of this
nature were for observation of ongoing FBI public corruption
investigations. Operational security and sensitivity of such
investigations have previously prevented such an exchange.)


4. (U) The Ambassador expressed his interest in the progress
of STT in working with the Lithuanian government to develop
good ethical habits to avoid corrupt practices. Pacevicius
said collaborative relations have been very good on this, but
discussion regarding funding of political parties in
Lithuania has been a heated topic. He elaborated that STT as
yet is not certain to what extent it would be involved in
decisions regarding party funding, as there is the potential
for STT to become involved in the politics - a clear conflict
to the STT mission.


5. (SBU) While Pacevicius was not overly critical of the
role that Lithuanian prosecutors and the judiciary have
played in major corruption cases, he did say that the
Lithuanian media's role is extraordinary, ranging from
ineptitude to complicity in high-profile cases. He agreed
that in a democratic state the media must play a positive
role in exposing and fighting corruption. The
"commissioning" of stories was discussed, and Pacevicius
mentioned that it is not always so clear and obvious that the
buying of stories is taking place, due to the fact that for
advertisements and paid "promotional" articles only coded
notification in small print at the end of articles is
required by law.


6. (U) Bio Note: Pacevicius began his law enforcement career
in the early 1990's, and served in key positions in the
Criminal Police during the period of widespread violent crime
in the mid-1990's. He was promoted to Chief Inspector of the
Extraordinary Crime Investigation Bureau of the Lithuanian
Criminal Police in 1995, and later served as Commissar of the
Violent Crime Investigation Division at the Organized Crime
Investigation Service. He began working for STT in 1997 as
chief of the operational activities subunit. In 1999, he
became deputy Director of the service.
CLOUD