Leahy Vetting - Fouad Elmi Waiss

S E C R E T DJIBOUTI 000117 SIPDIS NOFORN DEPT FOR AF/E, AF/RSA, DRL/BA, INR/AA E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/01/31 TAGS: PINS PHUM DJ SUBJECT: Leahy Vetting - Fouad Elmi Waiss REF: 10 STATE 2117; 09 DJIBOUTI 1532 IIR 7 725 015307 DTG 232308Z JUL 07 CLASSIFIED BY: James Swan, Ambassador; REASON: 1.4(A),(B),(C),(D) ¶1. (C/NF) Summary and Action Request: Post has thoroughly examined derogatory material reported Ref C concerning MAJ Fouad Elmi Waiss, Djiboutian Liaison Officer to CJTF-HOA, and finds nothing to substantiate allegations of his involvement in extra-judicial killing. Post recommends that Fouad remain eligible for future USG military training opportunities and not/not be excluded under Leahy vetting provisions. End summary and action request. ¶2. (SBU) Post appreciates information provided by Department (Ref A) in response to Leahy vetting request (Ref B) submitted for the ACOTA Training Strategy Conference (TSC) held January 11-14. Upon further research, it was determined that TSC participants are not typically subject to Leahy vetting as the TSC is a planning consultation and does not constitute training. Consequently, all proposed participants took part in this planning conference. ¶3. (C/NF) Post nonetheless carefully reviewed derogatory information provided by the Department regarding one of the TSC participants: MAJ Fouad Elmi Waiss. Specifically, there are two sentences in a DOD IIR dating from 2007 (Ref C) that asserts that in 2005 or 2006 MAJ Fouad volunteered that he had engaged in an act of extra-judicial killing at an unspecified date and location. The specific sentences are: "He justified that his unit had shot and killed all the fighting aged males in a village in Djibouti because his men had been fired upon. He mentioned nothing more of this matter." ¶4. (C/NF) Post takes this allegation very seriously and believes it must be resolved in view of the extensive current and projected future USG engagement with MAJ Fouad. He is currently the Djiboutian Liaison Officer (LNO) to Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) and therefore the host government's senior representative at Camp Lemonnier, the only U.S. military base in Africa. MAJ Fouad is also the GODJ Chief of Logistics, i.e., involved in many USG military cooperation activities. As a graduate of the U.S. Command and General Staff College, he has already benefited from substantial advanced USG military training. ¶5. (S/NF) It is post's view that the single-source two-sentence charge of extra-judicial killing (ref C) is insufficient to warrant exclusion of this Djiboutian officer from future USG military training programs. The charge is contained in a highly biased recounting of subjective observations (Ref C) by a source with whom the reporting officer had "insufficient contact to establish veracity" and who is "no longer available for re-contact." The source makes no attempt to conceal his personal dislike for MAJ Fouad. Post's DNI representative indicates that such biased reporting, riddled with ad hominem attacks on MAJ Fouad, would not be viewed as credible in the professional intelligence community. Post's thorough review of its own records, including of annual human rights reports, reveals no information to corroborate the unconvincing account that MAJ Fouad personally volunteered that he had participated in extra-judicial killing, or that any such incident took place. Moreover, his colleagues and supervisors at CJTF-HOA, who work closely with him as the Djiboutian LNO, report no such admissions or other revelations that would confirm the Ref C account. ¶6. (C/NF) Action request: On this basis, post recommends that the Department conclude that this allegation has been examined thoroughly and found unsubstantiated, and hence does not constitute grounds for exclusion of MAJ Fouad from USG-supported programs under Leahy provisions. End action request. SWAN