AMBASSADOR RICE MEETS WITH CTED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000667 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: CT PARM PREF PREL SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR RICE MEETS WITH CTED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MIKE SMITH ¶1. (U) The UN's Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate's (CTED) Executive Director, Mike Smith, met with Ambassador Rice on July 7. Ambassador Rice thanked Smith for the positive impact he has had as Executive Director. Smith provided an overview of CTED's work and shared some recent initiatives. He also asked for U.S. support in the area of human rights and counter-terrorism. As an example, he said there is an expectation that CTED, when assessing states' implementation of resolution 1373, will also look at whether states respect human rights norms in the process. In response to his request for U.S. support on human rights, Ambassador Rice said Smith could count on U.S. support in this area, assuming what he meant by "human rights" in this context was civil liberties and rule of law. ¶2. (U) Smith conveyed that CTED has initiated plans for a three day workshop in Bangladesh in early November for police officers and prosecutors on effectively countering terrorism. He also shared that CTED has proposed to hold a judicial workshop for legislators of the National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan in Islamabad in the fall. The objective of this meeting, he said, is to provide Pakistan support in its effort to improve the legislative framework of its anti-money laundering regime by offering parliamentary drafters and other stake holders access to the relevant expertise required to complete their tasks. ¶3. (U) In response to Ambassador Rice's question as to how many countries CTED plans to visit this year, Smith said that CTED will visit more than twenty. In the previous year, Smith said CTED visited only eight countries. Now, he said CTED conducts more focused visits taking less time and some visits have been regional visits where a number of countries are visited during one trip. Smith mentioned that the only region in the world that has not embraced CTED is Latin America. Although Argentina agreed to a visit while it was on the Security Council, Smith said Costa Rica, Uruguay and Brazil have declined a visit from CTED. RICE