VZCZCXYZ0005
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMD #0287/01 0340753
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 030753Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY MADRID
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8812

UNCLAS MADRID 000287 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL SP
SUBJECT: SPAIN: CODEL KING DISCUSSES BILATERAL 
COUNTERTERRORISM COOPERATION 
 
¶1. Summary. A Congressional delegation headed by 
Representative Peter King (R-NY) met with Vice President 
Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, Deputy Foreign Minister 
Bernardino Leon, Deputy Minister of Interior Antonio Camacho, 
and opposition Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy to discuss 
U.S.-Spain cooperation in the War on Terror.  King and other 
members of the delegation praised Spain's comprehensive 
response to terrorist attacks in its territory and its strong 
record in disrupting terrorist networks, including recent 
sweeps against groups sending suicide bombers to Iraq. 
Spanish interlocutors stressed Spain's active engagement in 
international efforts to counter the threat of terrorism, 
including through strong cooperation with the USG.  Deputy 
Interior Minister Camacho said veteran terrorists returning 
from action in Iraq are a major concern for Spain and other 
EU countries.  Vice President de la Vega and Camacho 
discussed the importance of improving coordination among 
Spanish security agencies to ensure a smooth flow of 
terrorism-related intelligence.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. The Congressional delegation that visited Madrid January 
12-13 was comprised of: 
 
-- Representative Peter King (R-NY) 
-- Representative Donna Christensen (D-VI) 
-- Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL) 
-- Representative William Pascrell (D-NJ) 
-- Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX) 
 
//MEETING WITH DEPUTY FM LEON// 
 
¶3. Deputy Foreign Minister Bernardino Leon said that Spain 
has always had excellent cooperation with the U.S. on 
terrorism issues, and pointed out that given Spain,s long 
history with domestic terrorism, the Spanish take both 
domestic and international terrorism very seriously. He said 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) recently established a 
Terrorism Directorate as a focal point for dealing with 
foreign policy on terrorism and the GOS is participating in 
numerous international initiatives to counter terrorists. 
Many such initiatives were proposed by the U.S., such as the 
Financial Action Task Force, the Container Security 
Initiative, and the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). 
Spain would like to see PSI extended to North Africa, to 
Latin America, and to Sub-Saharan Africa, regions that need 
international support in the fight against terror. 
 
¶4. Leon pointed out that Foreign Minister Moratinos was in 
Vienna for an IAEA meeting on Iran. He stressed that Spain 
had worked closely with the EU-3 on this issue, given Spain's 
historically close ties to Iran, and that the GOS had 
expressed its concerns to the Iranians and supported taking 
Iran to the UNSC in February. 
 
¶5. The Deputy FM said that one of Spain,s most important 
foreign policy goals was the passage of the UN Comprehensive 
Convention on International Terrorism, and that the Spanish 
appreciated U.S. leadership in the UN on this issue. He also 
called the delegation,s attention to the Code of Conduct on 
Terrorism passed by the EU-25 plus ten Mediterranean 
countries at the 10th Anniversary meeting of the 
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Barcelona Process) last 
November. The delegation expressed interest in seeing a copy 
of this document, which Leon had delivered later in the day. 
 
¶6. Leon stressed that Spain,s counterterrorism strategy was 
a global one, focused on both intelligence and law 
enforcement cooperation and on institution building in the 
developing world. He outlined the new GOS strategies for 
Africa and Asia, which focus on helping the weaker states of 
these continents to develop laws and institutions to prevent 
terrorists from using them as a recruiting and training 
ground, and to bring those countries into compliance with 
international law. 
 
¶7. Leon also discussed President Rodriguez Zapatero,s 
Alliance of Civilizations initiative (also a 
counternterterrorism initiative in Spain,s view) describing 
it as intended to create an international environment in 
which terrorists do not have any means of legitimizing their 
actions with publics in the developing world. 
 
//MEETING WITH DEPUTY INTERIOR MINISTER CAMACHO// 
 
¶8. Camacho, accompanied by Manuel Valverde, head of Spain's 
National Antiterrorism Coordination Center (CNCA), and other 
top officials, told the Congressional delegation that the 
U.S. and Spain were working very well together in the fight 
against terrorism and that both sides always looked for ways 
to improve cooperation even further.  Congressman King noted 
that both the U.S. and Spain were victims of major terrorist 
attacks and that there was a strong bipartisan interest in 
the U.S. in working with Spain to meet this common enemy. 
 
King congratulated Camacho on Spain's arrest of 20 Islamist 
extremists earlier in the week on charges of recruiting 
suicide bombers to fight in Iraq (reftel).  He said the 
delegation had been in Italy prior to visiting Spain and that 
Italian officials were pleased that Spanish police had 
tracked down the cell responsible for sending the suicide 
bomber who had killed Italian soldiers in Nassirya in a 2003 
attack. 
 
¶9. Camacho reviewed examples of USG-Spanish collaboration 
against terrorism, including the newly-established channel 
between the CNCA and the U.S. National Counterterrorism 
Center.  He said international cooperation would have to be 
increased to meet the threat posed by fighters returning from 
Iraq.  Congressman Rogers discussed the role of the U.S. 9/11 
Commission and asked how Spain had organized its response to 
the Madrid train bombings and emerging Islamist threats. 
Camacho said that upon coming into office, the Zapatero 
government had seen the dire need to improve inter-agency 
cooperation so that at least one unit would have all 
available data on any given threat.  He said Spain's 
institutional review of the train bombings had not been as 
comprehensive as the 9/11 Commission, but that one result was 
the creation of the CNCA under Valverde's leadership. 
 
¶10. Congressman Pascrell asked how Spain was adapting from 
the historical threat posed by ETA to the global threat 
represented by the groups that orchestrated the Madrid train 
bombings.  Valverde said that ETA was a difficult target, but 
at least it had an internal structure that could be attacked 
and weakened.  By contrast, the new extremists are unified by 
radical Islamist ideology and do not respond to a centralized 
structure, making them far more difficult to counter. 
Valverde said that the key in Spain's view was to focus on 
improving intelligence capabilities in order to be able to 
disrupt terrorist networks before they acted. 
 
¶11. Represenative Christensen asked how Spain was conducting 
outreach to its Muslim communities.  Camacho explained that 
the Interior Ministry did not have a direct role in such 
programs, but that security officials were careful to 
establish good working relations with Muslim leaders and to 
emphasize that the authorities made a clear distinction 
between Islamist terrorists and the broader Muslim community. 
 Representative McCall asked whether increased North African 
immigration to Spain was being addressed through new 
immigration policies.  Camacho noted that the existence of 
Spanish enclaves Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa were 
definitely a factor in Spain's counterterrorism posture, 
though here too Spanish authorities were careful to 
distinguish between illegal immigrants seeking a better life 
and extremist elements using migrant flows to cover their 
activities.  He said Spain enjoyed good cooperation with 
Algeria and Morocco in countering both terrorism and illegal 
immigration. 
 
//MEETING WITH SPANISH TERRORISM EXPERTS// 
 
¶12. The Representatives had lunch with noted Spanish 
counterterrorism experts, including both government officials 
and academic figures.  National Police Commissioner for 
Information (the police intelligence service) Telesforo Rubio 
discussed the efforts of the National Police to increase 
their knowledge of radical Islamist groups operating in 
Spain.  On Spanish policy regarding privacy rights, Carmen 
Bujan, MFA Sub Director General for Terrorism Issues, said 
Spain prided itself on having achieved a balance between 
safeguarding civil liberties and confronting terrorist 
threats.  She said legislation originally intended to help in 
the fight against ETA served equally against newer threats. 
CNCA Director Valverde noted that under Spain's legal system 
terrorism did not have a special category, but was instead 
treated as an organized crime phenomenon, greatly broadening 
the range of legal instruments that could be deployed against 
suspected extremists.  Turning to Spanish views on U.S. 
management of the War on Terror, MFA Sub Director General for 
North America Manuel de la Camara said the debate surrounding 
the use of Guantanamo as a detention center, among other 
revelations, had significantly undermined Spanish public 
support for the U.S. approach. 
 
//MEETING WITH PP LEADER RAJOY// 
 
¶13. Popular Party (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy and PP 
International Relations Coordinator Jorge Moragas sketched 
out the PP,s position on terrorism and the measures 
undertaken by the Aznar government between 1996-2004. They 
expressed dismay at the current government,s tactics in 
dealing with domestic ETA terrorism, but acknowledged that it 
was working hard to counter the threat of international 
terrorism.  Moragas dismissed Zapatero,s Alliance of 
Civilizations as an attempt to justify terrorism. Chairman 
King thanked Rajoy for his party,s close cooperation with 
 
the USG while in government, and expressed the delegation,s 
appreciation for the chance to hear from the opposition 
party. He noted that the U.S. has a responsibility to work 
with the democratically elected government currently in 
power, and that the U.S. was pleased with the cooperation the 
current GOS had provided on terrorism issues. 
 
//MEETING WITH VICE PRESIDENT// 
 
¶14. Vice President Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega cited 
Spain's "unfortunate" long experience with terrorism as the 
basis of its international activism on the issue.  She said 
Spain's formula for confronting terrorisms was a combination 
of demonstrating firm will through effective law enforcement 
and working with the international community to promote a 
common approach to a common threat.  De la Vega said the 
Zapatero government was focused on improving internal 
coordination among its security services.  Representative 
Pascrell noted the Vice President's professional history as a 
judicial offial and asked whether she saw a need to change 
any laws to confront terrorism.  De la Vega said Spain 
possessed solid legal structures, but needed to upgrade the 
technological infrastructure of both the judiciary and 
security services to improve the collection and sharing of 
terrorism-related information.  She said that since the 
terrorists had access to real-time communications, 
governments should enjoy the same capabilities.  Vice 
President de la Vega underscored the Spanish government's 
commitment to work with the USG to ensure continued close 
cooperation to combat terrorism. 
 
¶15. CODEL King cleared this cable. 
AGUIRRE