EXBS: TURKEY ADVISORS MONTHLY REPORT- (JULY 2008)

UNCLAS ANKARA 001441

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NP/ECC- YWONG, ACHURCH, BGOLDEN
DEPT FOR EUR/ACE- DSILLIMAN, BHUNT, PMALIK
DOE/NNSA- TPERRY, LPARKER, EDESCHLER
CBP/INA- BWATTS, BPICKETT
DOC FOR DCREED

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETTC KNNP KSTC MNUC PARM PREL TU
SUBJECT: EXBS: TURKEY ADVISORS MONTHLY REPORT- (JULY 2008)

Sensitive But Unclassified. Please handle appropriately.


1. (SBU) Summary: EXBS Advisor and Coordinator visited
Kapikule and
Ipsala Border Ports of Entry to review Customs Inspection and
Enforcement
operations and assess Turkish border security capabilities.
MFA confirms
Turkish interagency participation in a joint EXBS
Nonproliferation
Seminar at MFA headquarters Sept 17 & 18, 2008. New Customs
Enforcement
Deputy General agrees to visit to U.S. for Senior
Professional Exchanges.
End Summary.


2. (SBU) Completed Actions for the Reporting Period:


A. Meetings During Recent Reporting Period by EXBS Advisor
and Coordinator:

1) (SBU) July 1-7 - EXBS Advisor was on emergency leave.

2) (SBU) July 11 - EXBS Advisor met with MFA Department Head
for
Nonproliferation and Disarmament Elif Ulgen to discuss
details for the
proposed EXBS Nonproliferation Seminar to take place mid
September 2008
and review general findings of the EXBS team's visit to the
western
borders with Bulgaria and Greece. We reviewed the proposed
agenda for
the EXBS seminar, which included both US and GOT
presentations. Ulgen
noted that while MFA would provide several presentations, she
could not
promise other agency presentations, as they where more
interested in
hearing about EXBS programs and about what our implementing
agencies
can offer. MFA would host the conference at the ministry and
will
provide all logistics on-site, to include AV, computer
support,
refreshments for breaks, and possibly lunches for US
participants
and non-fasting GOT participants. Ulgen will seek out
interagency
input for dates and agenda items.

(SBU) Advisor provided Ulgen with a generally favorable
overview
of the border visits of the week before. She requested a
report
of findings so that GOT could gain an "outsiders,"
prospective
of their borders. In regard to Advisor's request to plan
additional
border visits in the near term, she noted that they would
prefer to
have their interagency group visit the border locations
first, to
evaluate each border prior to another visit by EXBS, which
will most
likely occur in October/November time frame. Advisor noted
the need
to visit more border locations before the fall since weather
restricts
access to many of them, which could delay planning efforts
for near term
activities, but Ulgen was firm in stating that future visits
would
need to wait until GOT interagency group visits are
completed.

3) (SBU) July 15-18 - EXBS Advisor and Coordinator visited
the two major
land border gates between Turkey and the European Union on
July 16th and
17th. At each location, both Customs and Custom Enforcement
directors
and regional officials provided a comprehensive brief of
their capacities
and provided us with open access to their border inspection
operations.

(SBU) On July 16th, EXBS Team visited the Kapikule Border
Gate (Port of
Entry) with Bulgaria. Kapikule is Turkey's busiest vehicular
border
gate, with daily traffic ranging from 2000 to 6000 passenger
vehicles and
between 200 to 600 commercial trucks, depending on the
season. The entire
border gate area is under renovation, creating a challenging
situation for
both inbound and outbound vehicles to navigate and Customs to
track
vehicular traffic. Both inbound and outbound lanes have
older Ludlum
Gamma Radiation Portal monitors installed on the western side
of the
border gate, but only the inbound monitor works. We did a
brief visit
to the Bulgarian Border Gate and confirmed that Bulgaria does
have the
newer Ludlum Gamma/Neutron Portal Radiation Monitors, but
could not confirm
their status. During the summer months, Custom officials
noted that the line
of vehicle can extend for miles on the Bulgarian side due to
thousands of
Turkish guest workers returning for holiday from Germany.
Kapikule is a
vehicle, rail, and passenger crossing.

(SBU) On July 17th, EXBS team visited the Ipsala Border Gate
with Greece.
The border gate area is about 50% the size of Kapikule, with
daily traffic
ranging between 200-600 passenger vehicles and 60-120
commercial trucks.
This border gate is only three plus years old and is very
organized in its
operations facilities and traveler amenities. There are no
radiation
detection portal monitors at this border gate. We briefly
visited the Greek
border gate adjoining Ipsala, a substantially smaller gate
than Ipsala, and
confirmed that there are no portal monitors there either.
Ipsala is a
vehicle and passenger border crossing.

(SBU) General observations of EXBS team at each border gate:

(SBU) There are 75 Customs Inspectors and 75 Enforcement
Officers (44 are
undercover smuggling, intelligence & narcotics officers) at
Kapikule. At
Ipsala there are 33 Customs inspectors and 44 Enforcement
officers (7 are
undercover smuggling, intelligence and narcotics). The
numbers of
officers at both border gates are substantially lower than
needed for the
volume of traffic at each border gate, and most of their
training is by OJT
by the senior customs officers, with no formal training.

(SBU) While Ipsala is better equipped for vehicle inspections
due to newer
inspection bay and an extensive amount of mechanical tools,
both gates have
minimal inspection and detection equipment for routine
searches. Customs
Inspectors and Enforcement Officers have no personal
inspection tools
(screw drivers, flashlights, pliers, density testers, sample
picks, or
radiation pagers) to aid them with searches. There where no
CT-30
Contraband Inspection kits at either location. At both
locations,
vehicle/truck x-ray units where in use (one in each direction
at Kapikule,
only one for the inbound lane at Ipsala). Each unit can x-ray
120
trucks/cars per day, and are heavily used by their well
trained operators.
This is the main tool that Customs Enforcement uses in the
detection of
drugs and other contraband.

(SBU) Customs and Customs Enforcement officers do an
excellent job with
ongoing risk analyst to determine high-risk targets,
including extensive
vehicle plate recognition systems, behavioral observations,
weighing of
all commercial trucks, manifest reviews and entry/comparison
of driver,
vehicle, and cargo data into a central database, and visual
inspection
of vehicles and cargo at both border gates. Unfortunately,
from a
nonproliferation perspective, most inspectors and enforcement
officials
are not familiar with Export Control requirements for
Dual-use items or
licensing requirements, leaving both border gates at risk for
proliferation
concerns, including the lack of effective portal radiation
monitors.

(SBU) For both inbound and outbound traffic, the Turkish
National Police
is the first station to perform Passport Control for all
persons entering
and departing Turkey. Passports are scanned and verified for
authenticity
and data is into a networked central data base. Vehicles
then transit to
the Customs station for vehicle registration and proceed to
the Customs
Enforcement inspection area (an open parking lot in Kapikule)
and all
vehicle occupants are required to exit the vehicle and open
all luggage.
The luggage and vehicle are inspected by a Customs
Enforcement officer.
Once this search is completed, the vehicle moves to the final
station
and their documents are verified to ensure they have been
stamped by each
inspection station, and then it is allowed to depart the
Customs border gate.

(SBU) Commercial vehicles use the same process, but are
weighed upon entry
and processed with a higher degree of Risk Analysis.
Inspections focus on
compliance of revenue requirements for commercial goods and
narcotic and
synthetic drug smuggling. Both Kapikule and Ipsala use rail
based x-ray
scanning units and operators have extensive experience at
operating these
systems and detecting anomalies in the images. Both border
gates have had
numerous seizures of heroin, synthetic drugs and undeclared
goods.

(SBU) Our initial recommendations is for the EXBS program to
offer the
following to the GOT:

-- An assortment of personal inspection tools (Gerber tools,
flashlights,
K10 Buster Density testers, etc.) for Customs Enforcement
officers
at each location;
-- basic International Border Interdiction, Targeting and
Risk Management,
and Dual-Use/Commodity Identification Training at each border
location;
-- assistance to Turkish Customs with the development of a
Customs
Enforcement Academy for new officers and specialized
training; and
-- Radiation Detection equipment at each location to include
new
Dual-channel Portal Radiation Detection Monitors (6 Kapikule
(4 vehicle
& 2 rail),2 Ipsala),Radiation Detection Pagers (75
Kapikule, 25 Ipsala),
and 4 Ridds/Hand-held detectors at each location.

4) (U) July 22 - Met w/Undersecretariat of Customs,
Enforcement Head of
Department Ender Gurleyik. Reviewed initial finding of
Kapikule/Ipsala
border visits and discussed various training and equipment
requirements for
the future. Gurleyik was glad that we where able to visit
the border and
is eager to get our recommendations on what they can do to
improve their
enforcement activities.

5) (U) July 23 - EXBS Advisor attended a PISCES
demonstration, presented
by ISN/WMDT. ISN is seeking to provide Turkey with a
complete PISCES
hardware/software package of computers, servers, passport
readers,
fingerprint readers, and associated training this FY. ISN
provided a
comprehensive demonstration for GOT to include MFA, TNP, and
airport
personnel.

6) (U) July 23 - EXBS Advisor met again with MFA,s Ulgen to
review
interagency input into the EXBS Seminar agenda. As expected,
Ulgen noted
that the interagency does not want to provide any
presentations at this
seminar. Advisor noted the value of both US and GOT
participation in
this seminar to ensure a more complete EXBS program. Advisor
and Ulgen
reviewed existing details for the proposed EXBS
Nonproliferation Seminar
and confirmed the dates of September 17th -18th for this
event, which
will be held at conference facility at the MFA. EXBS Team
toured the
seminar site, met with facilities engineer, and confirmed
that the
facilities are fully capable of supporting the seminar.

7) (U) July 25 - Met w/TNP Criminal Police Laboratory Bomb
Disposal
Unit Head of Section, Cengiz Ozdem and his new Deputy Kanbi
Apaydin
to review hand-held training materials and radiation
detection equipment
which was shipped to TNP by DOE/SLD. All equipment is in
place for the
August 18-29 SLD Hand-held training program. Apaydin will
become the new
section head for the Bomb Disposal Training Academy and Ozem
has been
promoted to oversee the TNP's Forensics facilities that are
being collocated
with the Bomb Disposal Academy, as well as management of all
bomb disposal
units throughout Turkey.

8) (U) July 31 - Anthony Godfrey reported to Post as the new
Counselor
Officer for Political-Military Affairs, replacing Carl
Siebentritt as overall
supervisor of EXBS Advisor at Post.

9) (U) July 31 - Met w/Undersecretariat of Customs' newly
appointed Director
General for Customs Enforcement Nest Erkoc. We discussed
the recent
border visits to western turkey and his desire to have EXBS
and DEA teams
from Embassy participate inQnt visits to Customs border
posts in the
future. During this visit, we discussed the possibility of
having Erkoc
and some of his senior advisors visit the US to meet his
counterparts,
including his request to visit DEA headquarters while in
Washington.
While in the United States, we discussed the possibility of
his delegation
also visiting FLETC and other DHS/CBP training academies, as
well as
Charleston Seaport, a Texas Port of Entry, and a rural
section of the
US/Mexico border that uses remote sensors. Erkoc noted that
Turkey is
working to restructure their border management system and he
believes
that Customs will be a major stakeholder in this
restructuring.

(U) Action Request: Advisor supports a senior Customs
delegation visit
to US and GOT believes that late October through late
November is an ideal
time for this visit. Request ECC and DHS/CBP advise on
funding scheduling
availability for this visit. If approved, Customs External
Affairs will
also participate in this visit at a senior level.


B. (U) Training Conducted During this Reporting Period: -
None this period.


C. (U) Equipment Delivered During this Reporting Period:
None this period.


D. (U) Imminent Training or Equipment Status Update: DOE/SLD
will provide
Radiation Detection training for TNP's Bomb Disposal Academy
from August
18th - 29th, 2008. EXBS will send two Turkish Officials to
UGA Export Control
Academy August 11 - 22, 2008.


E. (U) Significant Developments in Export Controls,
Nonproliferation, or
Related Border Security: MFA has provided a draft copy of the
proposed
additions to Turkey's Export Control Laws currently with
Parliament. EXBS
is having this document translated and will provide an
English copy to
relevant agencies by mid August.


3. (U) Future Activities: Embassy Ankara will co-host with
Turkish MFA
the EXBS Nonproliferation Symposium in Ankara on 17 - 18
September, 2008.
Both U.S. and Turkish interagency that worQth EXBS
Nonproliferation
initiatives will be participating in the seminar.


4. (U) Red Flag Issues: None.


5. (U) Contact information for EXBS Program Ankara is:
Robert Cieslinski, EXBS
Advisor, Email: CieslinskiRL@state.gov, Office (90) (312)
457-7210, Cell (90)
(533) 716-4808 and Erhan Mert, EXBS Coordinator, Email:
MertE2@state.gov, Office
(90)312 457-7059, Cell (90) (533) 264-8407. EXBS Program
Office Fax (90) (312)
468-4775.

Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey

SILLIMAN