This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 000623 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2014 
TAGS: BR MARR MCAP MOPS PINR PREL PTER SNAR POL MIL
SUBJECT: BRAZIL: CJCS MEETING WITH INSTITUTIONAL SECURITY 
MINISTER FELIX, 10 MARCH 2004 
 
Classified By: DENNIS HEARNE, POLITICAL COUNSELOR. REASONS: 1.5 
(B)(D) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY. Brazil's senior security and intelligence 
official, Institutional Security Minister Jorge Felix, told 
visiting CJCS Myers on 10 March in Brasilia that 
narcotrafficking poses a grave threat to Brazilian national 
security.  The threat is manifest in international 
arms-for-drugs trafficking involving Brazilian organized 
crime gangs, in the spread of corruption in Brazilian 
institutions, and in widespread violence against the public. 
Felix expressed concern that narcotraffickers might place 
innocent civilians on their aircraft, for use as human 
shields against lethal force interdictions, and said such 
issues made the decision to implement the shootdown law a 
difficult one that the President must make.  Nonetheless, he 
reiterated the position that the GOB considers 
narcotrafficking to be a threat to national security.  On 
terrorism, Felix said Brazilian authorities have found "no 
evidence" of operational terrorist activities in Brazil, but 
said that the potential "bears watching."  End summary. 
 
¶2. (U) CJCS General Richard Myers, accompanied by Charge, ORA 
Chief, DATT and JCS staff met with Minister Felix and senior 
officials of the Institutional Security Cabinet (Portuguese 
acronym GSI) at the Planalto Palace (Presidential offices) on 
10 March 2004.  The GSI is an interagency organization within 
the Presidency that functions, in roughly equivalent USG 
terms, as a combination NSC, ONDCP, DCI and general crisis 
management center.  A cabinet-level officer and general in 
the Brazilian army, Felix is in charge of the GSI and serves 
as the President's senior security and intelligence advisor. 
 
SHOOTDOWN 
 
¶3. (S) General Myers asked Minister Felix whether 
narcotrafficking represents a grave threat to Brazil's 
national security.  Felix responded that narcotrafficking 
does pose a major threat to Brazilian national security on 
both a "wholesale" and "retail" level.  Elaborating, Felix 
said that the "wholesale" threat is seen in the growth of 
international drugs for weapons trafficking between Brazilian 
criminal organizations and Colombian groups, and also in the 
spread of narcotics-related corruption through Brazilian 
institutions.  On the "retail" level, the dramatic level of 
hard drug use within Brazil is harming the population, in 
terms of health and exposure to increased criminal violence. 
 
¶4. (S) General Myers then asked Felix whether he was 
comfortable that implementing a shootdown law in Brazil would 
be a positive development.  Felix replied that he has some 
concerns that narcotraffickers "will not play by the same 
rules as we do," and may react to shootdown measures by 
placing innocent women and children on narcotrafficking 
aircraft, for use as human shields against the use of lethal 
force in interdiction operations.  Such concerns make the 
GOB's decision to implement a difficult one that, Felix said, 
will have to be made by President Lula da Silva. However, 
Felix reiterated the position that narcotrafficking 
constitutes a grave threat to Brazilian national and public 
security. 
 
TERRORISM 
 
¶5. (C) Turning to the issue of terrorism, Felix said that in 
the years before the September 11 attacks the GOB had 
routinely declared that Brazil was free of terrorist 
activities.  Now, he said the GOB's position is that it has 
so far "found no evidence" of operational terrorist 
activities in Brazil.  He clearly stressed the concept of 
"evidence" -- as opposed to saying no such activity exists -- 
asking his interpreter to repeat this phrase with emphasis to 
the USG interlocutors.  The potential for increased terrorist 
activity in Brazil "bears watching," Felix added. 
 
¶6. (S) Felix affirmed that operational cooperation between 
GOB and USG intelligence and security agencies is excellent. 
The tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay is a 
"complex area" where various types of money laundering, 
counterfeiting and other clandestine activities overlap one 
another, Felix said. There is clearly potential for Islamic 
terrorist fund-raising within this shadowy mix, Felix said, 
but the GOB also must be careful to not tarnish unfairly the 
image of the more than eight million law-abiding Brazilians 
of Arab descent. 
 
¶7. (U) General Myers did not have the opportunity to clear 
this message. 
 
HRINAK