GUANTANAMO: S/E FRIED AND EU COUNTERPARTS DISCUSS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BRUSSELS 000743

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/29/2019
TAGS: PREL PTER EUM
SUBJECT: GUANTANAMO: S/E FRIED AND EU COUNTERPARTS DISCUSS
JOINT POSITION ON DETAINEES

REF: BRUSSELS 681

Classified By: USEU POL M-C Chris Davis for reasons 1.4 (b) (d)


1. (C/NF) Summary: Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure
(S/GC) Daniel Fried met with EU counterparts on May 19 in
Brussels. EU officials expressed optimism that wording of
the U.S.-EU joint statement on resettlement of Guantanamo
detainees in EU member states will be agreed to in time for
approval by the June 18 European Council (in conjunction
with the EU internal position on the same). They believed
that
its roll-out would help calm the political debate in the
United
States and n the EU on the closing of the detention center
and
according security concerns. Therecent return to France of
former
detainee Boumedienne, according to the EU interlocutors, was
not
seen as in discord with EU planning, but rather done in
anticipation
of reaching the internal position. Acknowledging the
political difficulties, EU interlocutors nonetheless said
the U.S. needed to take primary responsibility for closing
Guantanamo by receiving detainees itself; however, they are
willing to work towards language to satisfy both U.S. and
EU concerns on that issue.


2. (C/NF) The Political and Security Committee will
discuss the language of the U.S.-EU joint statement.
Separately, EU interlocutors mentioned that they will soon
transmit a letter to AG Holder and SecDef Gates spelling
out eight EU principles on detention policy. The
revitalization of the military tribunals, troubling to the
Europeans, was explained as necessary for cases which
cannot be adjudicated in Article III courts. Discussing
the details of the EU draft of the joint statement, S/E
Fried said specific wording on U.S. responsibility to
accept detainees and on the degree of information sharing
will need to be studied in Washington, then discussed via
DVC on May 27. End Summary

Barroso Cabinet: Joint EU-U.S. Position on Track,
Information Sharing to Follow
-------------- --------------


3. (C/NF) To discuss the "enabling environment"
permitting some EU member states to accept Guantanamo
detainees, S/E Daniel Fried, L/PM Stephen Pomper, S/GC
Michael Williams, and USEU Pol M-C met May 19 in Brussels
with Commission President Barroso's Cabinet Director Joao
Vale de Almeida, European Commission Justice, Freedom and
Security Director General Jonathan Faull and his assistant
Telmo Baltazar, and External Relations unit chief Luigi
Soreca. S/E Fried said a joint U.S.-EU position by June
could potentially influence positively the domestic U.S.
debate on detainees, adding that the U.S. draft had full
interagency clearances. Almeida responded that Commission
President Barroso is very supportive of closing Guantanamo
and that Almeida's deadline for a joint U.S.-EU position is
June 15. Faull said the deadline would be met, despite
some loose ends in the Czech EU presidency, and that even
Sweden wants the internal position and joint statement
in place before its EU presidency begins July 1. The U.S.
and EU texts were already quite similar, Faull added, and
the follow-on meeting (see below, paras 7-16) could delve
into the wording.


4. (C/NF) Luigi Soreca said the mechanism for the
exchange of information within the EU regarding specific
detainees was close to being finalized. S/E Fried noted
that the USG's objective is for individual EU member states
to receive substantially the same information as U.S.
decision-makers used in making their decisions on the
detainees, and that receiving countries could then request
further information and clarification through intelligence
channels as needed. From his own reading of some of the
files prepared by the Guantanamo task force, S/E Fried said
a complete picture of the each detainee emerges and that
member states should find these files useful and adequate.
A key objective, said Faull, is to arm Interior Ministers
with enough information on detainees so that they can tell
skeptical legislatures, "We have received full disclosure."
He said the Austrian Interior Minister had been difficult
on intelligence sharing, but Austria has accepted the
principle of an EU umbrella, aided by the precedent case of

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the Palestinians and the Church of the Nativity. Almeida
added that Barroso would see the Austrian chancellor the
following week, and S/E Fried expressed his willingness to
go to Vienna as well. As for reported difficulties with
Germany, Faull said he had confidence that Interior
Minister Schauble would ultimately decline to block the EU
internal position, despite his reservations.


5. (C/NF) On the transfer to France the previous week of
Guantanamo detainee Boumedienne, Faull said France was
"anticipating, not obstructing" the formulation of a
U.S.-EU joint position. Soreca said France had informed
COREPER prior to the transfer, adding that the Boumedienne
case "confirms" the EU framework approach.


6. (C/NF) Moving towards one of the more pressing
concerns, Jonathan Faull said the EU wanted a "credible
answer" to what the U.S. is doing itself to accept
detainees, which, he added, could affect the drafting of
the joint statement. Acknowledging S/E Fried's
characterization of the current debate in the United
States, Faull said the European public would be slow to
believe that President Obama could already have a political
problem with this issue. Nonetheless, Faull said, that
the EU would work with the US to find suitable language for
the joint statement. Almeida concluded, "We are happy with
the way things are moving."

Details Discussed with Counter-Terrorism Coordinator
-------------- --------------


7. (SBU) Immediately after meeting with the Cabinet of
European Commission President Barroso, S/E Fried and the
delegation, joined by USEU Justice Counselor M.L.Warren,
met with EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de
Kerchove and his staff Tim Jones and Christiane Hoehn, and
the Czech Presidency Permanent Representation First
Secretary Juraj Fogada. Jonathan Faull, Telmo Baltazar and
Luigi Soreca also joined.


8. (C/NF) De Kerchove began by conceding that the EU
still needed to persuade one remaining Member State
(meaning Germany) to agree to the proposed U.S.-EU joint
statement in part because of that State's concerns that a
joint statement would compel member states to receive
detainees. De Kerchove said the language of the proposed
statement would calm member states' fears that the
statement would be a vehicle for the EU somehow to oblige
them to accept detainees. S/E Fried noted that after his
recent private consultations in Germany about possible
Guantanamo resettlements, the Germans had immediately made
the talks public, beginning a painful public debate on the
issue All agreed that the German reaction was for the most
part a function of internal politics and upcoming election
maneuvering.


9. (C) De Kerchove said the May 19 Political and Security
Council would discuss (i) the overall roadmap for reaching
the EU internal position, (ii) the proposed U.S.-EU joint
statement, (iii) the EU draft letter to AG Holder and
SecDef Gates outlining the eight principles the EU saw as
fundamental to the U.S.'s ongoing review in the Detention
Policy Task Force, and (iv) the intention to launch a
process later in the autumn to deepen the U.S.-EU legal and
policy dialogue in the security area, the so-called
"Bellinger Dialogue." De Kerchove and Faull noted that
although they might be able to gain the agreement of
COREPER at an earlier date, the joint statement would have
a June 14th deadline for decision to allow for a
ministerial blessing at the EU Council's General Affairs
meeting on June 19. They noted the expected and ongoing
"tussle" between Foreign Ministers, who tended to be more
receptive, with Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, who
tended to be more reticent about accepting detainees for
resettlement.


10. (C) De Kerchove remarked that President Obama's
recent announcement that the USG would revive military
commissions posed additional difficulties on the EU side.
The timing of the announcement was explained as necessary
because of the expiration of the 120-day stay of some of
the detainee cases in the military commissions. S/E Fried
said that the military commissions would be significantly
reformed in order to provide additional due process
safeguards that might be even further expanded as the
Administration worked with Congress. S/E Fried noted that
for those detainees determined as prosecution candidates,

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the USG will use its Article III (federal) courts where
feasible, but that for certain cases military commissions
may be appropriate, and the USG wishes to preserve that
option.


11. (SBU) Dr. Hoehn of the De Kerchove's office explained
what had been done in the EU's redraft of the latest U.S.
version of the proposed joint statement. In a number of
places it was close to and in some cases exactly the text
the USG had provided. The EU text was divided into two
parts: (1) the closing of Guantanamo, and (2) US-EU
counterterrorism and other cooperation beyond that effort.
The information sharing provisions in the Guantanamo-
related part of the text were were redrafted in line with
the Council's conclusions on how the information exchange
mechanism would work. De Kerchove said that it was also
important to highlight that Guantanamo is first a U.S.
problem and to note the U.S.'s responsibility to accept
some of the detainees for resettlement on U.S. soil - both
concepts that were reflected in the EU draft. Faull
agreed, adding the EU was helping, but did not have the
responsibility of solving this problem.


13. (C/NF) De Kerchove stressed that the two major sticking
points to obtaining support from Germany and the Czech EU
Presidency are (i) acknowledging that Guantanamo closure
is first a U.S. problem requiring U.S. solutions, including
acceptance by the USG of at least some detainees for
resettlement in its own territory; and (ii) the
availability and amount of information a non-receiving
Member State would have access to when another Member State
receives detainees for resettlement.


14. (C) Other concerns raised by S/E Fried and others
from the U.S. delegation included statements referencing
detainees as "cleared for release," which was not a
categorization necessarily used by the USG; that the USG
would give "consideration to paying compensation to the
detainees," which is not something the USG would agree to
as formulated; and the statement that it is the
responsibility of the United States to accept detainees
into its own territory. S/E Fried highlighted the last
statement and a bullet from the EU Council summary of
conclusions regarding the amount of, and extent to which
information would be shared as serious issues that needed
further discussion in Washington.


15. (C/NF) The discussion proceeded to the roll-out of
the joint statement - its timing and who would issue it.
S/E Fried said that the USG was looking toward June for the
announcement once the EU internal position was concluded,
but would have to consult with Washington as to the
question of who might issue it. De Kerchove and Faull
said it should be issued at a very high-level to accord the
appropriate political weight to the document for both U.S.
and European publics. The EU has also not decided who will
issue the Joint Statement on its behalf; however, de
Kerchove raised the possibility of the current Czech Prime
Minister, Commission President Barroso, and Commission
Vice-President Barrot.


16. (C) Both sides agreed that the next discussion on the
joint statement would be by DVC on Wednesday, May 27, 2009.
The objective for both sides is to have a completed text;
i.e., through the necessary reviews by both of our systems,
by the end of May - beginning of June.


17. (U) This message has been cleared by Special Envoy
Fried.


.