ALBANIA: ASSESSMENT OF NATO READINESS

C O N F I D E N T I A L TIRANA 000056 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/23/2018 TAGS: NATO PREL PINR AL SUBJECT: ALBANIA: ASSESSMENT OF NATO READINESS REF: A) 07 STATE 170091 B) 07 TIRANA 1090 C) 07 TIRANA 0050 D) 07 TIRANA 724 E) 07 TIRANA 755 F) 07 TIRANA 997 G) 07 TIRANA 1011 H) 07 TIRANA 1033 I) 07 TIRANA 1067 J) 07 TIRANA 1069 K) TIRANA 14 L) 07 TIRANA 1003 M) 07 TIRANA 1035 N) TIRANA 23 O) 07 TIRANA 858 P) 07 TIRANA 870 Q) 07 TIRANA 1083 R) 07 TIRANA 463 Classified By: DCM S.A. CRISTINA REASONS 1.4 (B),(D) ¶1. (U) The following headings track those in Ref A: All Intel Topics -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Please see Ref B for an overview of Albania's intelligence services. ¶3. (C) Successive democratic Albanian governments, both Democratic Party (DP) and Socialist Party (SP) led, have worked to clean intelligence services of those tainted by former connections with the Sigurimi or high-level communist apparatchiks. To the extent this was a problem in Albania's intelligence services, it no longer is from the USG perspective, as reported Ref B. Relations With Regional Players -------------- ¶4. (SBU) The Government and Opposition strongly support Kosovo's independence as proposed in the Ahtisaari plan and have used close relationships with Kosovar political leaders to urge moderation and cooperation with international leadership through the Contact Group and the UN. Albanian leaders have expressed concern that unrest and violence in Kosovo could reflect badly on Albania, possibly hurting Albania's chances for NATO and EU membership. (Refs C, D, E, F, and G.) ¶5. (C) The GOA is very concerned that Macedonia's problems with Greece could torpedo Albania's chances for a NATO invitation. President Topi, PM Berisha, as well as Foreign Minister Basha and DefMin Mediu have urged their Macedonian counterparts to make greater efforts to win Greek support (Ref H). ¶6. (C) While the GOA is not predicting violence in Kosovo or Macedonia in the aftermath of a coordinated declaration of independence, it has held preliminary deliberations on contingency planning in the event of a problem. This planning is not far advanced. ¶7. (C) From the GOA perspective, relations with Macedonia and Croatia are good, although GOA interlocutors have expressed occasional frustration with what they perceive as Croatia's unwillingness to meet its two A3 partners halfway. Albania �00A;has found the A3 mechanism useful for coordinating NATO accession efforts. Judicial Reform -------------- ¶8. (SBU) A new Prosecutor General, Ina Rama, a judge on the Court of Appeals for Serious Crimes since 2005, was appointed in November (Refs J, L). The opposition has publicly declared that becoming a NATO member is important for the country and they will work with the government to bring about necessary reforms (Refs I, K). The Judicial Committee is on track to complete a review of initial reforms by the time Parliament reconvenes on January 21. It appears the reforms will address NATO's recommendations for an independent and transparent judiciary. Electoral Reform -------------- ¶9. (SBU) The GOA is on track to complete its new automated civil registry by summer 2008 (Ref M). The second technical element of electoral reform is the issuance of biometric identity cards and passports. Response for the request for proposal issued in November was overwhelming, with 47 companies expressing interest. As a result, the bid response deadline was pushed back to February 28 to give the government's expert consultants time to answer bidder questions (Ref N). The GOA is projecting it will begin issuing biometric documents in December 2008. Concerning reform of the electoral system itself, a bipartisan Parliamentary commission is evaluating various proposals. Corruption -------------- ¶10. (C) An early success of the newly established Joint Investigative Unit (JIU) was the September arrest of three high-level Ministry of Transport officials, including a Deputy Minister (Ref O). The three are still in jail while the case is being investigated. While many low-level officials have been arrested for corruption, these were the highest level arrests since 2002 and signal that the fight against corruption may be gaining in strength and professionalism. The JIU, established with significant Embassy support, fosters better cooperation among crime-fighting institutions, including prosecution, investigators and intelligence. (Ref R) Also in September, in an unrelated action, Minister of Foreign Affairs Basha was accused by former Prosecutor General Sollaku of abuse of office in connection with the Bechtel Durres-Kukes Highway award when Basha was Minister of Transportation (Ref P). Since Members of Parliament enjoy immunity from prosecution, Parliament had to vote to lift Basha's immunity (Ref Q). The case is under investigation. In 2005 cases were opened against two other ministers in former PM Fatos Nano's cabinet - former Minister of Interior Igli Toska and former Minister of Finance Anastas Angjeli. Those cases are still under investigation. ¶11. (C) Albania's Law on Civil Services was passed in 1998 to protect employees from political purges. However, every government since then has found ways to circumvent it, leading to massive personnel turnovers following a change in government. Many of the recent firings and re-hirings, especially in the Albanian State Police, have lacked transparency. Trafficking -------------- ¶12. (C) The GOA's National Coordinator For Anti-Trafficking is a Deputy Minister of Interior. She is in charge of coordinating the government's anti-trafficking efforts. The GOA had developed a National Action Plan for 2005 - 2007 which laid out goals and how it would meet them. It has consistently worked toward these goals, but has sometimes fallen short of reaching them. The Plan highlights the National Referral Mechanism, which is a measure to use all the government's resources (anti-trafficking and customs police, NGOs, and social workers) to identify victims and refer them for appropriate services. The GOA has worked to bring government players together on this and needs to continue to work toward better coordination. In 2005 Albania signed an agreement with Greece to improve anti-trafficking coordination. Albania has ratified it; Greece has not. Albania is working with Kosovo and Macedonia on similar agreements. There are criminal penalties for trafficking, which are enforced. Please see post's 2007 Trafficking In Persons Report for further information. Handling Classified Material -------------- ¶13. (C) According to the January 17 Albania MAP SPC(R) report: Begin text. Progress has been made in all security disciplines despite limited budgetary resources available to the National Security Authority (NSA). With a projected increase in the work load in terms of a rise in both the number of classified documents to handle but also vetting requirements, the provision of additional resources would be necessary. Subsequent to the adoption of the legislative amendments to the Law on Classified Information (No. 8457) by Parliament the two remaining draft changes to the Normative Acts will ensure the completion of an all-encompassing legislative framework harmonized with NATO standards. In the personnel security field, the identification of positions requiring NATO clearances throughout the Ministries is a significant achievement but the organization of a national program for security education, training and briefings for cleared individuals remains a priority issue. A number of shortcomings identified in relation to background checks were successfully addressed. In particular, issues dealing with shortcomings such as lack of interviews have been corrected and checks into time spent abroad continue to be developed appropriately. The issue of security rules and regulations for personnel posted abroad will be addressed by the NSA in the near future in order to support the personnel security vetting program. The registry system meets NATO security standards with a Central Registry overseeing the application of NATO security standards. A total of 10 sub registries are now in operation. All sub registries function under the authority of the Central Registry, which trains and certifies all SR staff. The Central Registry also inspects all sub-registries on a six month basis and receives regular document musters every month. In addition, regular sweeps are also being conducted at the Central and sub registries. However, a discrepancy was identified in the flow of information from the Albanian mission in Brussels to the intended recipients in Tirana. The situation is now being corrected. A destruction policy for obsolete classified information will be implemented once the respective Normative Act is approved. The establishment of the auxiliary INFOSEC sub-structure continues. As per parliamentary approval of the Law on Classified Information, the relevant sub-structures (namely the National Communications Security Authority, the National Distribution Authority and the National Accreditation Authority) are now formally identified. Regarding the secure transmission of NATO/PfP classified information between the Albanian Mission in Brussels and Tirana, PEM-HEART software has been procured, which permits the secure transmission of information up to the level of NATO/PfP RESTRICTED. A number of initiatives are now underway, to include the security accreditation of networks in various ministries processing and storing NATO classified information. The NSA has certified the networks of the MoD, General Headquarters of the Armed Forces and the ShiSH, for NATO information up to and including the Confidential level. Physical security standards applied continue to be in line with NATO's standards. Certain improvements were implemented in some sub registries. It was recommended to continue the physical security upgrades at the Council of Ministers sub-registry by moving the latter to a separate room. End text. WITHERS