CITIZEN PROTECTION MINISTER UPBEAT ON REORGANIZATION, COOPERATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 000057



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E.O. 12958: DECL: 2035/01/29

TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PTER, KTIP, SNAR, PINR, SMIG, KCOR, KCRM, KHLS, GR

SUBJECT: Citizen Protection Minister Upbeat on Reorganization,

Cooperation



CLASSIFIED BY: Daniel V. Speckhard, Ambassador, State, EXEC; REASON:

1.4(B),(C),(D)



1. (C) SUMMARY: During a 45-minute meeting on January 22 Greek

Minister of Citizen Protection Chrysochoidis provided the

ambassador with a status report of his ambitious plan to reorganize

and energize all of Greece's civilian security agencies. The

Hellenic Coast Guard will be renamed and reorganized by April along

the model of the U.S. Coast Guard to focus on maritime border and

port security. The Greek National Intelligence Service will be

completely overhauled via a draft law that is being drawn up.

Within the Hellenic National Police a new agency will be created

and staffed with 100 new hires to work on cyber crime and organized

crime. The police know the identities of most of the members of

Greece's domestic terrorist groups, but lack the evidence to arrest

and prosecute them. Chrysochoidis embraced the ambassador's

proposal to create a local working group on counterterrorism

between the embassy and the ministry and welcomed training from the

U.S. side for all of the ministry's agencies as they underwent

far-reaching reform. END SUMMARY.



2. (C) On January 22 Ambassador Speckhard met for 45 minutes

with the Greek Minister of Citizen Protection, Michalis

Chrysochoidis. This was the third in a series of 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 Ministry of Citizen

Protection (MCP),which was formed after the election of the

center-left Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) government in

October 2009. This meeting was intended to obtain a status report

on the ambitious plan that Chrysochoidis discussed with the

ambassador at their previous meeting on November 12, 2009 (Ref A).

The meeting was held in Chrysochoidis' office in the headquarters

of the MCP. The ambassador was accompanied by the DCM, the RAS

chief, Legatt, and the ICE chief, while Chrysochoidis was

unaccompanied.



3. (C) Chrysochoidis began the meeting by noting that he had just

returned from Toledo, Spain, where he had been with the Secretary

of Homeland Security on 21 January. He said that the two main

issues that he had taken away from the conference were the

challenges for EU countries of internally coordinating authorities

and sharing intelligence and of cooperating effectively with the

United States in counterterrorist initiatives. He remarked that it

was pointless for each country to amass large amounts of

information and intelligence but not to share that body of data to

produce results.



4. (C) The ambassador said that in the two previous days he had

held meetings with the commandant of the Hellenic Coast Guard (Ref

B) and the chief of the Hellenic National Police (HNP) (Ref C) and

had noted their focus on creating an atmosphere of interagency

cooperation. He asked Chrysochoidis for an update on how his

reorganization under the MCP was proceeding and how successfully

were agencies cooperating inside of the MCP. The ambassador

informed Chrysochoidis that he had proposed to HNP Chief Ikonomou

the creation of a local MCP-Embassy working group on

counterterrorism, so that the U.S. side could best reinforce and

support the Greek side's efforts.



5. (C) Regarding the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG),Chrysochoidis

said that his goal was to organize its functions around its natural

missions, namely protection of Greece's maritime borders and ports.

At the end of January he will propose a bill in the parliament to

create a new Coast Guard, whose changed role will be reflected in

its new name. Currently its name in Greek means Harbor Corps

(limeniko soma),but henceforth its name in Greek really will mean

Coast Guard (aktofylaki). It will be modeled very closely on the

U.S. Coast Guard and oriented to fighting crime and protecting

Greece's maritime borders. Chrysochoidis predicted that the new

HCG would be up and running by April.



6. (C/NF) Chrysochoidis severely criticized the state of EYP,

Greece's domestic security and intelligence service. He said

bluntly, "EYP is nothing." It does not serve its mission of

protecting Greece and in fact is dangerous to national security

because of its many shortcomings, not the least of which is a

unionize d labor force. As a result, Chrysochoidis declared, he

intends to "collapse and rebuild it" via a draft law that is in the

process of being drawn up.



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7. (C) As for the HNP, he repeated his many public comments that

Greece's police force is not up to task of safeguarding society.

As a result, he is restructuring it and trying to instill in it a

new attitude toward its duties. Part of that drives includes

creation of a new agency to fight cyber crime, organized crime,

etc. Vacancy notices already have gone out for 100 new positions

to be filled by economists, computer specialists, etc., who will

bring new, modern skills to the HNP. These 100 new hires will be

merged with other officers and located in a new building, so that a

fresh modern agency can be built. Chrysochoidis announced that

this plan would be rolled out by the end of February, so that it

can begin work in March.



8. (SBU) Chrysochoidis said of the Firefighting Service, which

now falls under the MCP, that it has enjoyed good cooperation with

U.S. counterparts but that he was open to all suggestions about

increasing collaboration and training.



9. (C/NF) On domestic terrorism, Chrysochoidis said that the

police know the identities of almost all the members of the current

terrorist-anarchist groups, but they lack the evidentiary basis for

arresting and imprisoning them. He cited the recent example of a

bombing on Syngrou Avenue, saying that the police know who carried

it out but do not have the concrete evidence to move against them.

He said that the great challenge for the police is collecting the

information necessary to prosecute terrorists. He repeated earlier

claims (Ref C) that there are links between some domestic terrorist

groups and the Middle East, including Iran. Chrysochoidis

expressed optimism that if his newly invigorated counterterrorist

teams at EYP and HNP did their work well, especially their

technical collection operations, they would succeed in wrapping up

all of the main terrorist groups in the first half of 2010.



10. (C/NF) Chrysochoidis expressed full support for the

ambassador's proposal for a local counterterrorist working group

consisting of HNP, EYP, and HCG on the Greek side and FBI, DEA-ICE,

and RAS on the American side. He said that he would call the

embassy in the near future to get the idea started. He stated

forcefully that he wanted outstanding cooperation with the United

States and that the MCP did not want to have any secrets from the

American side when it came to work against terrorists. He welcomed

training across the MCP's agencies as each underwent fundamental

reform.



11. (SBU) Chrysochoidis had just started to respond to the

ambassador's question about Greek work against human trafficking,

especially child labor and the sex industry, when he received a

call that summoned him to the prime minister's office. As he was

getting ready to leave, he did say that Greece was taking active

steps to deal with the problems associated with illegal

immigration, including passage of a law on citizenship that would

grant legal status to many immigrants. In addition, Greek

authorities were trying to end the demand for smuggling rings by

closing the exit points to Europe, including the ports of Patra and

Igoumenitsa. Greece also wanted to draw a line in the eastern

Aegean, but needed the support of Turkey.

Speckhard