Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08KUWAIT768
2008-07-08 06:49:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Kuwait
Cable title:  

U.S. SPEAKER DR. JEFFREY ADDICOTT'S PROGRAM IN KUWAIT;

Tags:  SCUL KPAO KIRC OIIP XF KU 
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VZCZCXRO1539
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHKU #0768/01 1900649
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 080649Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1815
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 000768 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/PPD (DAVID BENZE),NEA/ARP (BJACKSON),NEA/PPD,
IIP/NEA/SCA (BRENDA BUTLER),NEA/PI, R (ADNAN KIFAYAT)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SCUL KPAO KIRC OIIP XF KU
SUBJECT: U.S. SPEAKER DR. JEFFREY ADDICOTT'S PROGRAM IN KUWAIT;
EXPERT ON TERRORISM LAW

Summary
-------

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 000768

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/PPD (DAVID BENZE),NEA/ARP (BJACKSON),NEA/PPD,
IIP/NEA/SCA (BRENDA BUTLER),NEA/PI, R (ADNAN KIFAYAT)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SCUL KPAO KIRC OIIP XF KU
SUBJECT: U.S. SPEAKER DR. JEFFREY ADDICOTT'S PROGRAM IN KUWAIT;
EXPERT ON TERRORISM LAW

Summary
--------------


1. Dr. Jeffrey Addicott, Professor and Chairman of the Center for
Terrorism Law, St. Mary's University, St. Antonio, Texas, visited
Kuwait as a U.S. Speaker, June 22-24, 2008 and spoke to audiences
comprised of youth, faculty members, lawyers and legislators about
the new field of terrorism law in the post-9/11 era as well as other
international terrorism issues such as cyber attacks. A highlight
of his program was his presentation at the Kuwait Lawyers'
Association with practicing lawyers and legal experts. Dr. Addicott
also met with legal counselors at the Ministry of Justice's Kuwait
Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies, and lectured students and
faculty members at Kuwait University and the American University of
Kuwait. He also met with Kuwaiti intellectuals, women lawyers, and
human rights and women's political rights activists in private
evening intellectual salons (diwaniya-s). This program exceeded our
expectations and left our contacts primed for more interactions on
this delicate subject. It also provided us with new ideas for
counter-terrorism programs in the new fiscal year. End summary.

//Jeffrey Addicott//


2. Post invited Dr. Jeffrey Addicott, an internationally recognized
authority on national security law, former Senior Legal Advisor to
the United States Army's Special Forces, and Director of the Center
for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law, San
Antonio, Texas, to discuss the developing field of terrorism law
with Kuwaiti lawyers, professors of law, and advisors to the Kuwaiti
National Assembly.

//Lecture at Kuwait Lawyers' Association//


3. Mr. Labeed Abdal, a lawyer and a former International Visitor
program participant, organized a major event of Dr. Addicott's
program at the Kuwait Lawyers' Association. His presentation, which
lasted for about two hours, was attended by about forty Kuwaiti
lawyers and legal counselors. Addicott stressed that a fundamental
obligation of any state is to protect its citizens from threats to
person and property but also spoke about civil liberties in the U.S.
He went into detail about "The Law of War" and how it came to be

applied to detainees after 9/11, the historical justification for
it, and how modern terrorism law is moving in the direction of a
compromise solution that blends society's need for security with
guarantees for individuals' fundamental rights. The group seemed
responsive to Dr. Addicott's ideas and expressed interest in having
him return later in the year to provide more information on human
rights issues.

//Discussions at Diwaniya of a Major Rights Activist//


4. Dr. Jeffrey Addicott also met privately with a group of about
twenty intellectuals at the diwaniya (intellectual salon) of Mr.
Amer Al-Tameemi, a leading economist, human rights activist, and
former President of the Kuwait Economic Society. The gathering was
serendipitously also attended by former NEA Assistant Secretary
Richard Murphy, who had been visiting Kuwait. Addicott spoke on
"American Perspectives in the International War on Terrorism" and
covered many of the points mentioned above but with more emphasis on
human rights issues. The discussions were very detailed and
covered: defining terrorism, the use of war powers, civil liberty
concerns, Congressional powers, Executive powers, cooperative law
enforcement, military support to law enforcement, Department of
Defense responsibilities, Department of Homeland Security, criminal
prosecutions of terrorists, various criminal statutes, domestic
surveillance, information security, infrastructure assurance, habeas
corpus matters, cyber-offenses, investigations of terrorism, and
public access to government proceedings.

//Meeting at Kuwait Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies//


5. Dr. Addicott's meeting with Mr. Jamal Al-Shamri, Director General
of the Ministry of Justice's Kuwait Institute for Judicial and Legal
Studies, and his deputies was especially useful for the follow-on
ideas in counter-terrorism programming that it generated. Addicott
discussed the same range of legal issues as mentioned above but paid
particular attention to cyber-terrorism. Apropos of this, he
discussed his recent co-sponsorship of a three-day conference in
Cairo on cyber-terror, mentioning that Egypt had provided
opportunities for international cooperation in developing legal and
policy frameworks. Mr. Al-Shamri subsequently asked Dr. Addicott to
draft a proposal for a similar workshop in Kuwait to be held at the
end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009 and requested that a speaker
from the FBI be invited to participate.

//Two University Lectures//


6. Dr. Addicott gave two public lectures; one to about forty
political science students taking a summer course on international

KUWAIT 00000768 002 OF 002


security issues taught by prolific foreign affairs commentator and
Political Science professor at Kuwait University, Dr. Abdullah
Al-Shayji; and another presentation to forty-five students and
faculty members, including the President of the University, at the
American Corner library of the American University of Kuwait (AUK).
The majority of the students' and faculty members' questions
centered on the status of the Guantanamo detainees, the legality of
the facility as a holding center, and particularly the fate of the
Kuwaiti prisoners still being held there.

//Media Coverage//


7. The Kuwaiti Lawyers' Association invited a reporter from Al-Watan
English daily newspaper to cover Addicott's presentation. The media
unit of Embassy Public Affairs Section arranged a live interview for
Dr. Addicott on a program oriented towards youth with independent
television station Al-Watan, and an exclusive in-depth interview
with the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Qabas. This interview
published the questions and answers in their entirety and occupied
about half a page in the newspaper.

//Audience Reached//


8. In all, we estimate that about 180 Kuwaitis were reached through
direct personal contact and of these about 65 were women. Through
the media, we estimate that another 10,000 Kuwaitis were exposed to
Dr. Addicott's views.

//Results//


9. We feel that most participants were satisfied that they at least
now had some understanding of the complicated arguments associated
with the legal basis and the rationale for many USG detainee
actions, including: the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the
additional due process provisions mandated by the Supreme Court in
the 2004 and 2008 decisions, the lawful right of the U.S. to detain
"illegal enemy combatants" in time of war, and the need for
increased intelligence to break up terror cells. For those Kuwaitis
less inclined towards legal matters, we feel that Dr. Addicott left
them at least with an appreciation for the difficult accommodations
the United States has had to make in order to reconcile the tension
between society's need for security and the Constitutional right of
individuals to due process. This program provided room for Kuwaitis
to understand that this tension is not just America's problem, but
also their own.

//Evaluation//


10. Dr. Addicott's program more than exceeded our expectations. Not
only was it well-attended at a time when most Kuwaitis leave the
country to escape the heat, but we were also able to attract a
critical mass of the right people to participate. In Kuwait,
attitudes towards the detainee issue had become hardened in recent
years and shrouded with an air of foreboding and mystery. The
highly publicized involvement of a Kuwaiti national in a recent
suicide bombing in Iraq, however, had genuinely become the buzz of
the diwaniya circuits and this may have opened minds to the
possibility that the United States might just have been justified in
keeping some terrorism suspects off the streets, even though the
grounds for doing so had been unclear. The speaker helped us to
take advantage of this opening, effectively demonstrated his
expertise on his subject, and was able to anticipate the questions
his interlocutors raised here and address them thoroughly. We
highly recommend him to other posts.

//MSP Goal Targeted//


11. This program supported Mission Kuwait's 2008 MSP goal #1:
"Ensure that Kuwait acts as a full partner in U.S. regional security
efforts;" and goal #2: "Kuwait identifies, deters, apprehends, and
prosecutes terrorists and terrorist facilitators."

Jones