Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
10MADRID190
2010-02-19 14:17:00
SECRET//NOFORN
Embassy Madrid
Cable title:  

DHS SEC. NAPOLITANO ADDRESSES EU'S JHA MINISTERS

Tags:  EUN SP PREL PINS PTER PINR KHLS KCIP KCRM 
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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 05 MADRID 000190 

NOFORN
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/WE (STACIE ZERDECKI, ALEX MCKNIGHT),
EUR/ERA (ALESSANDRO NARDI),L/LEI (KEN PROPP),S/CT (PAUL
SCHULTZ) AND A/GIS/IPS/PRV CHARLENE THOMAS,
FOR USEU (MARY LEE WARREN, JACIE BEDNARZ, LORELEI SNYDER)
PASS TO DHS (MARK KOUMANS, MIKE SCARDAVILLE, JOHN KROPF)
PASS TO DOJ (TOM BURROWS)
PASS TO TREASURY (JULIA YOO, CARLTON GREENE)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2030
TAGS: EUN SP PREL PINS PTER PINR KHLS KCIP KCRM
PGOV

SUBJECT: DHS SEC. NAPOLITANO ADDRESSES EU'S JHA MINISTERS
ON AVIATION SECURITY

REF: A. SECSTATE 8403

B. MADRID 49

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Arnold A. Chacon for reasons 1.4 (b) a
nd (d)

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 05 MADRID 000190

NOFORN
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/WE (STACIE ZERDECKI, ALEX MCKNIGHT),
EUR/ERA (ALESSANDRO NARDI),L/LEI (KEN PROPP),S/CT (PAUL
SCHULTZ) AND A/GIS/IPS/PRV CHARLENE THOMAS,
FOR USEU (MARY LEE WARREN, JACIE BEDNARZ, LORELEI SNYDER)
PASS TO DHS (MARK KOUMANS, MIKE SCARDAVILLE, JOHN KROPF)
PASS TO DOJ (TOM BURROWS)
PASS TO TREASURY (JULIA YOO, CARLTON GREENE)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2030
TAGS: EUN SP PREL PINS PTER PINR KHLS KCIP KCRM
PGOV

SUBJECT: DHS SEC. NAPOLITANO ADDRESSES EU'S JHA MINISTERS
ON AVIATION SECURITY

REF: A. SECSTATE 8403

B. MADRID 49

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Arnold A. Chacon for reasons 1.4 (b) a
nd (d)


1. (SBU) Summary. Secretary Napolitano met with European
Union (EU) Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) ministers January
21-22 in Toledo, Spain, and achieved trans-Atlantic consensus
to improve aviation security. Her attendance at the plenary
meeting led to the issuance of a U.S.-EU Joint Declaration on
Aviation Security that outlines several actions for the two
sides to take (available at
www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr 1264119013710.shtm). Secretary
Napolitano also held ten bilateral discussions, during which
she discussed bilateral issues and underscored her core
Aviation Security message.


2. (SBU) Summary Continued. Following the thwarted terrorist
attack over Detroit on December 25, 2009, Spanish Interior
Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, acting on behalf of the
rotating EU Presidency, invited Secretary Napolitano to
attend this ministerial. He recognized that the event could
serve as a useful platform for having the EU address current
terrorist threats and the need for the U.S. and EU to work
together more closely on aviation security. In addition to
the ministers of the 27 EU Member States, also attending were
outgoing European Commission Vice President Jacques Barrot,
EU Counterterrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, Chairman
of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and
Home Affairs Committee Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, plus

representatives of the three non-EU Member States of the
Schengen Zone (Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland),
representatives of the three candidate countries for EU
membership (Croatia, Macedonia, and Turkey),and the leaders
of Europol and Frontex. DHS delegation is listed in para 20.
End Summary.

Bilateral with Spain - Rubalcaba


3. (C) Host Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Rubalcaba, in
an early, brief meeting with Secretary Napolitano and U.S.
Ambassador to Spain Alan D. Solomont, warned that European
media attention had centered on the lack of EU consensus on
whole body image (WBI) scanning machines. To avoid diverting
attention away from DHS objectives, he suggested avoiding the
issue.

Plenary Session


4. (SBU) Rubalcaba asserted that the attempted Christmas Day
attack compelled him to invite Secretary Napolitano to the
meeting because there was nothing more important to discuss.
He added that aircraft remain a "priority target" for
al-Qaida (AQ) and that the plot demonstrated the need to
perfect cooperation and the exchange of and analysis of
information. He said he wanted to use the Secretary's
presence to send a message to the world regarding the
political unity and firm will of the U.S. and EU to work
together.


5. (SBU) In her address to the plenary, Secretary Napolitano
emphasized that terrorism is a global threat that requires a
multinational response and that access to one airport can
endanger the entire international airport system. Secretary
Napolitano reviewed the facts of the Detroit case, shared
lessons learned from the subsequent Presidential Review,
described the recent international travel of the DHS Deputy
Secretary, and outlined four areas of focus: 1) information
collection and analysis; 2) information sharing and
collaboration in passenger vetting; 3) international security
standards, including coordination of international assistance
to help all countries achieve those standards; and 4)
development and deployment of next generation aviation
security technologies.


6. (C) Barrot praised the "new spirit of cooperation" in
transatlantic relations and suggested international terrorism
can only be defeated if the U.S. and the EU work together.
To this end, he indicated the two sides will collaborate to
build the CT capacity of third-countries most at-risk of
terrorism. Barrot cautioned that if aviation security were
increased, then the EU will need to build public support for
these additional measures and will need to reassure its
citizens on how data is collected and that their privacy is
respected. He also urged the U.S. to provide details on the
December 25 lessons learned, including "what information was
used and what was not used, so we can improve" capabilities.


7. (C) De Kerchove stated that the Detroit plot confirms that
civil aviation remains a key target of international
terrorists. He called for not just increased information
sharing, but increased analysis to connect the dots of all
this information. He concurred with Rubalcaba that the
Christmas incident broke new ground in that an AQ regional
franchise had attempted an attack outside its own region and
also agreed that terrorists were trying to use new operatives
about whom the West had little information. De Kerchove
emphasized the importance of countering the radicalization
and recruitment of terrorists (particularly returnees from
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia) and suggested that - due
to a variety of events in the past several months - the USG
is seeing that the threat of terrorism does not just come
from outside U.S. borders. He voiced his support for the use
of biometrics and EU collection and analysis of Passenger
Name Records (PNR),encouraged the EU to speed up its study
on the use of WBI, and urged a quick mandate for negotiations
on a U.S.-EU information sharing and data protection
agreement.


8. (C) Lopez Aguilar welcomed DHS readiness to work closely
with the EU and recalled Secretary Napolitano's November,
2009 visit to the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels. He
stressed the need for the United States to protect privacy
and civil liberties and to provide judicial redress as a part
of its data sharing with the EU. He underscored the EU's
commitment to the free movement of persons and highlighted
the EP's role - under the new Lisbon Treaty - in bilateral
agreements negotiated between the EU and the United States.


9. (C) Ministers of many of the 33 European countries also
addressed the plenary, most in support of increased
cooperation with the United States, as the Secretary
outlined. A primary subject of conversation, however, became
the consensus toward establishment of an EU PNR collection
and analysis capability. UK officials later confirmed that
they, Spain, France, and others had cooperated before the
plenary to achieve consensus on the idea. Denmark, Estonia,
France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia,
and the UK all spoke in favor. None opposed outright,
although Belgium (and Slovenia, to a lesser degree) sounded
notes of caution.

Bilateral with Spain - Caamano


10. (C) Justice Minister Francisco Caamano stressed that
finding the balance between protecting civil liberties and
increased aviation security is key. He identified three
priorities - SWIFT, PNR and the U.S.-EU agreement on
information exchange - and stated that the common denominator
for the successful resolution of all three issues is "full
protection" of citizens' data. Caamano said he will testify
before the EP the week of January 25 to defend the temporary
SWIFT agreement and ask for a renewal. On PNR, he identified
Germany, the Netherlands and "some Nordic countries" as
having "high standards" on data protection. Caamano said
that Spain is doing everything in its power during its EU
Presidency to seek a mandate as quickly as possible for the
European Commission to begin negotiations with U.S. on
exchanging information.

Bilateral with Germany - de Maiziere


11. (S/NF) Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere was
enthusiastic about U.S. "multilateralism" as evidenced by the
Secretary's attendance at the ministerial and her intention
to hold additional aviation security meetings with
counterparts in other parts of the world. He was familiar
with recent threat information that noted the possibility of
terrorists using children,s articles to introduce bombs into
airplanes. He was not familiar, however, with proposed U.S.
efforts in response to enable TSA to use explosive detection
equipment on U.S.-bound flights. De Maiziere expressed
concern about travelers who transit the EU, particularly
those en route to the United States. He said the EU did not
screen them and so was dependent on the efficacy of screening
carried out in dozens of countries. "They can enter the EU,
meet with people, buy things in airports, do other things,
and leave" without an EU official ever interacting with them,
he lamented. De Maiziere said he also considered electronic
boarding passes to be security vulnerabilities.

Bilateral with Germany - Leutheuser-Schnarrenberger


12. (C) Privacy advocate and new Justice Minister Sabine
Leutheuser-Schnarrenberger opened the meeting by referring to
the German debate about "naked scanners" (i.e., WBI). She
said she and de Maiziere did not always agree and that human
dignity had to be protected. Sounding skeptical, she said
the United States seemed to always want more data but she was
"not sure you get the security you want; we cannot have total
security." Turning to the bilateral ("Prm-like") Agreement
to Prevent and Combat Serious Crime (PCSC),she warned that
"it won't be ratified" and said she and de Maiziere would
shortly send (another) letter to Secretary Napolitano and
Attorney General Holder, now asking for a definition of
"serious crime." DAS Koumans urged such discussion take
place during negotiation of the implementation text, but she
refused. Secretary Napolitano stressed that the differences
between us were too small to prevent cooperation, underlined
the two sides could not go backwards, offered to provide
information on redress, and pledged to send to Berlin DHS
Chief Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan, who had met
previous Justice Minister Zypries.
Bilateral with the United Kingdom (UK)

13. (S/NF) Home Secretary Alan Johnson hailed Secretary
Napolitano's coming to Toledo and her intervention in
plenary. He said the UK would soon increase its use of WBI
as "part of the solution" and that the following day (Friday,
January 22) the UK might raise its security threat level to
"severe," the second-highest rung. He reviewed his decision
the previous week (week of January 11, 2010) to cancel
non-stop flights from Sana'a, Yemen, to London/Heathrow and
said the flights would not resume without UK officials
pre-vetting travelers in Sana'a. He offered to share the
information UK officials learn in Sana'a. Secretary
Napolitano responded that the USG had discussed terrorist
travel information sharing with Yemen and that the United
States and the UK should cooperate as they both sought to
address security challenges in Yemen. Turning to the
Christmas day attempted attack, Secretary Napolitano asked
hypothetically whether the UK would have provided the USG
with alleged perpetrator Abdulmutallab,s data if the UK had
refused his visa on counterterrorism grounds. Johnson
replied "No, but we should." He also said there was
information the USG should have told the UK and the USG
should have watchlisted Abdulmutallab. Secretary Napolitano
urged the two sides collaborate on sharing visa revocation
data.

Bilateral with France


14. (S/NF) Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said al-Qaida in
the Arabian Peninsula represented a "big threat" but he
claimed that EU and French law constrain the PCSC bilateral
information sharing Secretary Napolitano sought. He asked
for the derogatory data on the two "No Fly" passengers that
had necessitated the 2009 diversion of two Air France
Paris-Mexico City flights. He noted that France had no
information to suggest the two individuals had ties to
terrorism. He commented that he had traveled through U.S.
airports and he had concluded that U.S. citizens were more
adept at security measures - such as taking off their shoes -
than EU citizens, who complained about such procedures. He
called WBI "not a silver bullet" and called for more French
airport liaison officers in Africa as well as "Profilers" to
detected suspicious passengers.

Bilateral with Switzerland


15. (SBU) Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf claimed
Switzerland would require two years before PCSC bilateral
information sharing could begin due to internal Swiss legal
procedures. Secretary Napolitano urged greater speed. DHS
Under Secretary Beers asked for Swiss agreement to U.S.
initiatives in ICAO, including for greater transparency and
the coordination of international assistance.

Bilateral with the Netherlands


16. (C/NF) Justice Minister Ernst Hirsh Ballin said the
privacy issue is central to the resolution of U.S.-EU issues
such as SWIFT and PNR. Secretary Napolitano described the
EU's false notions, popularized in the media, of centralized
U.S. databases. Hirsh Ballin called for greater efforts to
prevent terrorism by combating radicalization. Turning to
the Christmas day attempted attack, he hailed U.S.-Dutch
cooperation but said "we may not agree with you on whether or
not the device would have exploded" and asked whether U.S.
agencies have any additional information concerning what the
alleged perpetrator did (e.g., with whom he may have met) at
Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Secretary Napolitano said the
investigation is ongoing.

Bilateral with Sweden


17. (C/NF) Justice Minister Beatrice Ask lamented the
upcoming elections in Sweden and said the party coalition
made it hard to achieve PCSC bilateral information sharing.
She said Sweden would "do what we can." Secretary Napolitano
asked whether Sweden could begin with an informal agreement
before a subsequent ratification and asserted that the
information sharing under the PCSC was not invasive of
privacy. Ask replied that the privacy issue necessitated the
formality of Parliamentary ratification and commented that a
global security solution would include ships and trains.
Secretary Napolitano responded that al-Qaida focused on
aircraft.

Bilateral with Denmark


18. (C/NF) Secretary Napolitano told Justice Minister Brian
Mikkelsen that it was time for Denmark to agree to U.S.
Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) on U.S. flag flights to and from
Denmark. He replied he agreed and he had spoken that morning
(January 22) with Transport Minister Lars Barfoed, who had
met the previous day with U.S. Ambassador Fulton. Fulton had
provided Barfoed with documents and answers to Barfoed's
questions, so Mikkelsen said he was optimistic, but the
decision was Barfoed's. Mikkelsen emphasized that guns are
sensitive subject in Denmark. Secretary Napolitano warned
that Denmark could not continue to be the only EU country not
permitting FAMs. Mikkelsen said he had recently agreed to
the extradition of a Danish citizen to the United States, a
decision which had generated much negative publicity. On an
optimistic note, he said the bilateral PCSC would be ratified
within a month.

Next Steps


19. (SBU) DAS Koumans met January 22 in Madrid with de
Kerchove as well as EU Commission and Spanish interlocutors
to discuss implementation of the Joint U.S.-EU Declaration.
The meeting planned concrete actions to achieve before the
U.S.-EU Ministerial Troika to be held in Madrid April 8-9.
The group agreed to meet again in March in Brussels.


20. (U) DHS Delegation:

Secretary Napolitano Chief of Staff Noah Kroloff
Under Secretary and Senior Counselor Rand Beers
Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Sean Smith
Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Mark
Koumans TSA Chief of Staff Art Macias
DHS Liaison to the Spanish Interior Ministry Lisa Lopez


21. (U) The DHS Delegation has cleared this cable.
CHACON