VZCZCXRO1539
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHKU #0768/01 1900649
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 080649Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1815
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 000768 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/PPD (DAVID BENZE), NEA/ARP (BJACKSON), NEA/PPD, 
IIP/NEA/SCA (BRENDA BUTLER), NEA/PI, R (ADNAN KIFAYAT) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SCUL KPAO KIRC OIIP XF KU
SUBJECT: U.S. SPEAKER DR. JEFFREY ADDICOTT'S PROGRAM IN KUWAIT; 
EXPERT ON TERRORISM LAW 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. Dr. Jeffrey Addicott, Professor and Chairman of the Center for 
Terrorism Law, St. Mary's University, St. Antonio, Texas, visited 
Kuwait as a U.S. Speaker, June 22-24, 2008 and spoke to audiences 
comprised of youth, faculty members, lawyers and legislators about 
the new field of terrorism law in the post-9/11 era as well as other 
international terrorism issues such as cyber attacks.  A highlight 
of his program was his presentation at the Kuwait Lawyers' 
Association with practicing lawyers and legal experts.  Dr. Addicott 
also met with legal counselors at the Ministry of Justice's Kuwait 
Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies, and lectured students and 
faculty members at Kuwait University and the American University of 
Kuwait.  He also met with Kuwaiti intellectuals, women lawyers, and 
human rights and women's political rights activists in private 
evening intellectual salons (diwaniya-s).  This program exceeded our 
expectations and left our contacts primed for more interactions on 
this delicate subject.  It also provided us with new ideas for 
counter-terrorism programs in the new fiscal year.  End summary. 
 
//Jeffrey Addicott// 
 
¶2. Post invited Dr. Jeffrey Addicott, an internationally recognized 
authority on national security law, former Senior Legal Advisor to 
the United States Army's Special Forces, and Director of the Center 
for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law, San 
Antonio, Texas, to discuss the developing field of terrorism law 
with Kuwaiti lawyers, professors of law, and advisors to the Kuwaiti 
National Assembly. 
 
//Lecture at Kuwait Lawyers' Association// 
 
¶3. Mr. Labeed Abdal, a lawyer and a former International Visitor 
program participant, organized a major event of Dr. Addicott's 
program at the Kuwait Lawyers' Association.  His presentation, which 
lasted for about two hours, was attended by about forty Kuwaiti 
lawyers and legal counselors.  Addicott stressed that a fundamental 
obligation of any state is to protect its citizens from threats to 
person and property but also spoke about civil liberties in the U.S. 
 He went into detail about "The Law of War" and how it came to be 
applied to detainees after 9/11, the historical justification for 
it, and how modern terrorism law is moving in the direction of a 
compromise solution that blends society's need for security with 
guarantees for individuals' fundamental rights.  The group seemed 
responsive to Dr. Addicott's ideas and expressed interest in having 
him return later in the year to provide more information on human 
rights issues. 
 
//Discussions at Diwaniya of a Major Rights Activist// 
 
¶4. Dr. Jeffrey Addicott also met privately with a group of about 
twenty intellectuals at the diwaniya (intellectual salon) of Mr. 
Amer Al-Tameemi, a leading economist, human rights activist, and 
former President of the Kuwait Economic Society.  The gathering was 
serendipitously also attended by former NEA Assistant Secretary 
Richard Murphy, who had been visiting Kuwait.  Addicott spoke on 
"American Perspectives in the International War on Terrorism" and 
covered many of the points mentioned above but with more emphasis on 
human rights issues.  The discussions were very detailed and 
covered: defining terrorism, the use of war powers, civil liberty 
concerns, Congressional powers, Executive powers, cooperative law 
enforcement, military support to law enforcement, Department of 
Defense responsibilities, Department of Homeland Security, criminal 
prosecutions of terrorists, various criminal statutes, domestic 
surveillance, information security, infrastructure assurance, habeas 
corpus matters, cyber-offenses, investigations of terrorism, and 
public access to government proceedings. 
 
//Meeting at Kuwait Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies// 
 
¶5. Dr. Addicott's meeting with Mr. Jamal Al-Shamri, Director General 
of the Ministry of Justice's Kuwait Institute for Judicial and Legal 
Studies, and his deputies was especially useful for the follow-on 
ideas in counter-terrorism programming that it generated.  Addicott 
discussed the same range of legal issues as mentioned above but paid 
particular attention to cyber-terrorism.  Apropos of this, he 
discussed his recent co-sponsorship of a three-day conference in 
Cairo on cyber-terror, mentioning that Egypt had provided 
opportunities for international cooperation in developing legal and 
policy frameworks.  Mr. Al-Shamri subsequently asked Dr. Addicott to 
draft a proposal for a similar workshop in Kuwait to be held at the 
end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009 and requested that a speaker 
from the FBI be invited to participate. 
 
//Two University Lectures// 
 
¶6. Dr. Addicott gave two public lectures; one to about forty 
political science students taking a summer course on international 
 
KUWAIT 00000768  002 OF 002 
 
 
security issues taught by prolific foreign affairs commentator and 
Political Science professor at Kuwait University, Dr. Abdullah 
Al-Shayji; and another presentation to forty-five students and 
faculty members, including the President of the University, at the 
American Corner library of the American University of Kuwait (AUK). 
The majority of the students' and faculty members' questions 
centered on the status of the Guantanamo detainees, the legality of 
the facility as a holding center, and particularly the fate of the 
Kuwaiti prisoners still being held there. 
 
//Media Coverage// 
 
¶7. The Kuwaiti Lawyers' Association invited a reporter from Al-Watan 
English daily newspaper to cover Addicott's presentation.  The media 
unit of Embassy Public Affairs Section arranged a live interview for 
Dr. Addicott on a program oriented towards youth with independent 
television station Al-Watan, and an exclusive in-depth interview 
with the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Qabas.  This interview 
published the questions and answers in their entirety and occupied 
about half a page in the newspaper. 
 
//Audience Reached// 
 
¶8.  In all, we estimate that about 180 Kuwaitis were reached through 
direct personal contact and of these about 65 were women.  Through 
the media, we estimate that another 10,000 Kuwaitis were exposed to 
Dr. Addicott's views. 
 
//Results// 
 
¶9. We feel that most participants were satisfied that they at least 
now had some understanding of the complicated arguments associated 
with the legal basis and the rationale for many USG detainee 
actions, including: the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the 
additional due process provisions mandated by the Supreme Court in 
the 2004 and 2008 decisions, the lawful right of the U.S. to detain 
"illegal enemy combatants" in time of war, and the need for 
increased intelligence to break up terror cells.  For those Kuwaitis 
less inclined towards legal matters, we feel that Dr. Addicott left 
them at least with an appreciation for the difficult accommodations 
the United States has had to make in order to reconcile the tension 
between society's need for security and the Constitutional right of 
individuals to due process.  This program provided room for Kuwaitis 
to understand that this tension is not just America's problem, but 
also their own. 
 
//Evaluation// 
 
¶10. Dr. Addicott's program more than exceeded our expectations.  Not 
only was it well-attended at a time when most Kuwaitis leave the 
country to escape the heat, but we were also able to attract a 
critical mass of the right people to participate.  In Kuwait, 
attitudes towards the detainee issue had become hardened in recent 
years and shrouded with an air of foreboding and mystery.  The 
highly publicized involvement of a Kuwaiti national in a recent 
suicide bombing in Iraq, however, had genuinely become the buzz of 
the diwaniya circuits and this may have opened minds to the 
possibility that the United States might just have been justified in 
keeping some terrorism suspects off the streets, even though the 
grounds for doing so had been unclear.  The speaker helped us to 
take advantage of this opening, effectively demonstrated his 
expertise on his subject, and was able to anticipate the questions 
his interlocutors raised here and address them thoroughly.  We 
highly recommend him to other posts. 
 
//MSP Goal Targeted// 
 
¶11. This program supported Mission Kuwait's 2008 MSP goal #1: 
"Ensure that Kuwait acts as a full partner in U.S. regional security 
efforts;" and goal #2: "Kuwait identifies, deters, apprehends, and 
prosecutes terrorists and terrorist facilitators." 
 
Jones