Greek Intelligence Dir. Bikas on Proposed Reorganization

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/25
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER GR
SUBJECT: Greek Intelligence Dir. Bikas on Proposed Reorganization

REF: Athens045; Athens059; Athens057; 09Athens1643

CLASSIFIED BY: Daniel V. SPeckhard, Ambassador, State, EXEC; REASON:
1.4(B),(C),(D)


1. (C/NF) SUMMARY: During a one-hour meeting on February 8,
EYP Director General Bikas told Ambassador Speckhard that he
accepted the ambassador's proposal for regular dialogue between the
embassy and the leadership of EYP and the HNP on counterterrorism.
Bikas commented briefly on the challenges that he faces in
transforming EYP to make it more relevant and productive,
particularly in how it allocates resources to analysis and
technical collection. END SUMMARY.


2. (C/NF) On February 8, 2010, the ambassador met for an hour
with the director general of the Greek National Intelligence
Service (EUP),Ambassador Konstantinos Bikas, in the latter's
office at the headquarters of the Ministry of Citizen Protection
(MCP). This was the final in a series of four meetings by the
ambassador to hear from senior Greek officials about the ongoing
reorganization of Greece's security, intelligence, and law
enforcement agencies under the umbrella of the MCP, which was
formed in October 2009. The ambassador's meeting with the
commandant of the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG) on January 20 was
reported in Ref A. His meeting with Hellenic National Police (HNP)
chief Eleftherios Oikonomou on January 21 was reported in Ref B.
His meeting on January 22 with Minister of Citizen Protection
Michalis Chrysochoidis was reported in Ref C. This was not the
ambassador's first meeting with Bikas, who had attended the
ambassador's introductory call on Chrysochoidis on November 12,
2009 (Ref D). However, this was his first private extended
conversation with Bikas, who was appointed in October 2009. The
ambassador was accompanied by the RAS chief, while Bikas was
unaccompanied.


3. (C/NF) Bikas greeted the ambassador warmly and ushered him
into his office. After an exchange of pleasantries, ambassador
queried Bikas on how he was faring in reorganizing EYP, adding
that on January 22 he had seen Chrysochoidis, who had been harshly
critical of EYP and had announced that it would be thoroughly
restructured. The ambassador pointed out that Chrysochoidis had
urged him to meet with Bikas to learn of the plans for himself.


4. (C/NF) Bikas acknowledged that Chrysochoidis had briefed him
on his meeting with the ambassador. He said that Chrysochoidis
accepted the ambassador's proposal for a local counterterrorist
working group involving EYP, HNP, and the embassy. He promised to
speak with Police Chief Oikonomou in the near future and then to
contact the embassy to arrange a meeting for them with the RAS
chief and the Legatt. Bikas commented that he enjoyed very good
chemistry with Oikonomou. They recently made trips to Rome and
Paris together as part of a determined effort to foster HNP-EYP
interagency cooperation.


5. (C/NF) Bikas said that his main goal was to increase EYP's
productivity and relevance, but that this was a tall order in a
heavily unionized agency, especially one in which most employees
belonged to PASOK. He had identified units that should be
abolished however, it was proving difficult to find positions
elsewhere in the government for the staff. He was critical of the
large number of military officers serving in EYP for tours of five
years and more. It was understandable that it was attractive for
them to work in EYP, since their pay was much higher and their
benefits greater while on detail. However, they often did not
bring any needed intelligence skills. Bikas said that he wanted to
bring military officers to EYP selectively for three-year tours.
He also criticized EYP's analytical department, saying that years
ago EYP had made the decision to adopt the model of CIA and the
British SIS in terms of analytical resources. While that model
might be appropriate for intelligence services working for
policymakers with global concerns, it was inappropriate for senior
Greek decision makers, whose diplomatic and security questions
focused on a handful of key regional issues. As a result, EYP
needed to draw back its thinly spread analytical resources, which
were not producing analysis of any use to already well- informed

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policymakers, and concentrate them on key areas in which they could
bring something new in the way of information and perspectives.
BIkas added that he also was carefully reviewing all of EYP's
technical collection programs and capabilities.


4. (C/NF) The ambassador asked if Bikas was preparing a draft law
on reorganizing EYP, as Chrysochoidis had indicated. Bikas said
that draft legislation was not yet in the works, since he was still
studying his agency. He remarked that on February 9 he and
Chrysochoidis were scheduled to speak at the parliament on EYP,
with special focus on the Vodafone scandal. (Comment: This was a
reference to a phone-tapping scandal that embroiled EYP and the
former Ministry o f Public Order in the aftermath of the 2004
Summer Olympic Games.) To prepare, he was studying statistics on
EYP's size, budget, technical resources, etc. In other words, he
was still learning about EYP and so was not ready yet to advocate
publicly formal changes.


5. (C/NF) Bikas briefly sketched out EYP's efforts against
terrorism. On the one hand, it was trying to become the lead
agency in Greece for driving operations against domestic terrorism,
both from the right and from the left. On the other hand, it was
continuing to deploy resources against the growing threat of
transnational terrorists using Greece as a base or a transit point.
Bikas said that here too EYP was in the middle of programmatic
restructuring to increase interagency cooperation and to eliminate
previous ineffective approaches. He added that one of the reasons
that he and Oikonomou had visited France and Italy was to learn how
the internal security services were dealing with both problems.
Bikas highlighted the way in which the French had developed both
operational and intellectual approaches to domestic unrest, for
example using temporary barriers to channel demonstrators away from
potential flashpoints, thus allowing them to have their public say
but also keeping the lid of outbreaks of violence. Bikas touched
briefly on the need for reforms in Greece's anti-terrorist laws
,noting instances in which courts had thwarted counterterrorist
efforts by freeing detained suspects (e.g., accepting defense
argument that fingerprints on movable items in anarchists'
safehouses were not admissible as evidence of participation in the
group's activities).


6. (C/NF) The meeting ended with the ambassador's expression of
the U.S. side's readiness to assist EYP and the HNP in their
counterterrorist efforts and of his appreciation that both Bikas
and Oikonomou had accepted his proposal for increased
communications between the embassy and the leadership of the MCP's
key anti-crime and counterterrorist agencies.


7. (C/NF) COMMENT: While the new Director General came off as
smooth, intellectual and engaging, unlike the Minister of Citizen
Protection he did not project a sense of urgency or a "strong
command" approach to his mission. Although the GoG has instituted
some new initiatives, such as the new emphasis on counterterrorism,
the sense we had was that those were under the direction of the new
Minister, and the Director General was still learning the ropes in
his relatively quiet office.
SPECKHARD