VZCZCXYZ0004
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTI #0056/01 0221507
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 221507Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY TIRANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6583
INFO RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L TIRANA 000056 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/23/2018 
TAGS: NATO PREL PINR AL
SUBJECT: ALBANIA:  ASSESSMENT OF NATO READINESS 
 
REF: A) 07 STATE 170091 B) 07 TIRANA 1090 C) 07 
     TIRANA 0050 D) 07 TIRANA 724 E) 07 TIRANA 
     755 F) 07 TIRANA 997 G) 07 TIRANA 1011 H) 
     07 TIRANA 1033 I) 07 TIRANA 1067 J) 07 
     TIRANA 1069 K) TIRANA 14 L) 07 TIRANA 1003 
     M) 07 TIRANA 1035 N) TIRANA 23 O) 07 TIRANA 
     858 P) 07 TIRANA 870 Q) 07 TIRANA 1083 R) 
     07 TIRANA 463 
 
Classified By: DCM S.A. CRISTINA REASONS 1.4 (B), (D) 
 
 ¶1. (U) The following headings track those in Ref A: 
 
All Intel Topics 
---------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Please see Ref B for an overview of Albania's 
intelligence services. 
 
¶3. (C) Successive democratic Albanian governments, both 
Democratic Party (DP) and Socialist Party (SP) led, have 
worked to clean intelligence services of those tainted by 
former connections with the Sigurimi or high-level communist 
apparatchiks.  To the extent this was a problem in Albania's 
intelligence services, it no longer is from the USG 
perspective, as reported Ref B. 
 
Relations With Regional Players 
------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Government and Opposition strongly support 
Kosovo's independence as proposed in the Ahtisaari plan and 
have used close relationships with Kosovar political leaders 
to urge moderation and cooperation with international 
leadership through the Contact Group and the UN.  Albanian 
leaders have expressed concern that unrest and violence in 
Kosovo could reflect badly on Albania, possibly hurting 
Albania's chances for NATO and EU membership.  (Refs C, D, E, 
F, and G.) 
 
¶5. (C) The GOA is very concerned that Macedonia's problems 
with Greece could torpedo Albania's chances for a NATO 
invitation.  President Topi, PM Berisha, as well as Foreign 
Minister Basha and DefMin Mediu have urged their Macedonian 
counterparts to make greater efforts to win Greek support 
(Ref H). 
 
¶6. (C) While the GOA is not predicting violence in Kosovo or 
Macedonia in the aftermath of a coordinated declaration of 
independence, it has held preliminary deliberations on 
contingency planning in the event of a problem.  This 
planning is not far advanced. 
 
¶7. (C) From the GOA perspective, relations with Macedonia and 
Croatia are good, although GOA interlocutors have expressed 
occasional frustration with what they perceive as Croatia's 
unwillingness to meet its two A3 partners halfway.  Albania 
has found the A3 mechanism useful for coordinating NATO 
accession efforts. 
 
Judicial Reform 
--------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) A new Prosecutor General, Ina Rama, a judge on the 
Court of Appeals for Serious Crimes since 2005, was appointed 
in November (Refs J, L).  The opposition has publicly 
declared that becoming a NATO member is important for the 
country and they will work with the government to bring about 
necessary reforms (Refs I, K).  The Judicial Committee is on 
track to complete a review of initial reforms by the time 
Parliament reconvenes on January 21.  It appears the reforms 
will address NATO's recommendations for an independent and 
transparent judiciary. 
 
Electoral Reform 
---------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) The GOA is on track to complete its new automated 
civil registry by summer 2008 (Ref M).  The second technical 
element of electoral reform is the issuance of biometric 
identity cards and passports.  Response for the request for 
proposal issued in November was overwhelming, with 47 
companies expressing interest.  As a result, the bid response 
deadline was pushed back to February 28 to give the 
government's expert consultants time to answer bidder 
questions (Ref N).  The GOA is projecting it will begin 
issuing biometric documents in December 2008.  Concerning 
reform of the electoral system itself, a bipartisan 
Parliamentary commission is evaluating various proposals. 
 
Corruption 
---------- 
¶10. (C) An early success of the newly established Joint 
Investigative Unit (JIU) was the September arrest of three 
high-level Ministry of Transport officials, including a 
Deputy Minister (Ref O).  The three are still in jail while 
the case is being investigated.  While many low-level 
officials have been arrested for corruption, these were the 
highest level arrests since 2002 and signal that the fight 
against corruption may be gaining in strength and 
professionalism.  The JIU, established with significant 
Embassy support, fosters better cooperation among 
crime-fighting institutions, including prosecution, 
investigators and intelligence. (Ref R)  Also in September, 
in an unrelated action, Minister of Foreign Affairs Basha was 
accused by former Prosecutor General Sollaku of abuse of 
office in connection with the Bechtel Durres-Kukes Highway 
award when Basha was Minister of Transportation (Ref P). 
Since Members of Parliament enjoy immunity from prosecution, 
Parliament had to vote to lift Basha's immunity (Ref Q).  The 
case is under investigation.  In 2005 cases were opened 
against two other ministers in former PM Fatos Nano's cabinet 
- former Minister of Interior Igli Toska and former Minister 
of Finance Anastas Angjeli.  Those cases are still under 
investigation. 
 
¶11. (C) Albania's Law on Civil Services was passed in 1998 to 
protect employees from political purges.  However, every 
government since then has found ways to circumvent it, 
leading to massive personnel turnovers following a change in 
government.  Many of the recent firings and re-hirings, 
especially in the Albanian State Police, have lacked 
transparency. 
 
Trafficking 
----------- 
 
¶12. (C) The GOA's National Coordinator For Anti-Trafficking 
is a Deputy Minister of Interior.  She is in charge of 
coordinating the government's anti-trafficking efforts.  The 
GOA had developed a National Action Plan for 2005 - 2007 
which laid out goals and how it would meet them.  It has 
consistently worked toward these goals, but has sometimes 
fallen short of reaching them.  The Plan highlights the 
National Referral Mechanism, which is a measure to use all 
the government's resources (anti-trafficking and customs 
police, NGOs, and social workers) to identify victims and 
refer them for appropriate services.  The GOA has worked to 
bring government players together on this and needs to 
continue to work toward better coordination.  In 2005 Albania 
signed an agreement with Greece to improve anti-trafficking 
coordination.  Albania has ratified it; Greece has not. 
Albania is working with Kosovo and Macedonia on similar 
agreements.  There are criminal penalties for trafficking, 
which are enforced.  Please see post's 2007 Trafficking In 
Persons Report for further information. 
 
Handling Classified Material 
---------------------------- 
 
¶13. (C) According to the January 17 Albania MAP SPC(R) report: 
 
Begin text. 
 
Progress has been made in all security disciplines despite 
limited budgetary resources available to the National 
Security Authority (NSA).  With a projected increase in the 
work load in terms of a rise in both the number of classified 
documents to handle but also vetting requirements, the 
provision of additional resources would be necessary. 
Subsequent to the adoption of the legislative amendments to 
the Law on Classified Information (No. 8457) by Parliament 
the two remaining draft changes to the Normative Acts will 
ensure the completion of an all-encompassing legislative 
framework harmonized with NATO standards. 
 
In the personnel security field, the identification of 
positions requiring NATO clearances throughout the Ministries 
is a significant achievement but the organization of a 
national program for security education, training and 
briefings for cleared individuals remains a priority issue. 
A number of shortcomings identified in relation to background 
checks were successfully addressed.  In particular, issues 
dealing with shortcomings such as lack of interviews have 
been corrected and checks into time spent abroad continue to 
be developed appropriately.  The issue of security rules and 
regulations for personnel posted abroad will be addressed by 
the NSA in the near future in order to support the personnel 
security vetting program. 
 
The registry system meets NATO security standards with a 
Central Registry overseeing the application of NATO security 
standards.  A total of 10 sub registries are now in 
operation. All sub registries function under the authority of 
the Central Registry, which trains and certifies all SR 
staff.  The Central Registry also inspects all sub-registries 
on a six month basis and receives regular document musters 
every month.  In addition, regular sweeps are also being 
conducted at the Central and sub registries. However, a 
discrepancy was identified in the flow of information from 
the Albanian mission in Brussels to the intended recipients 
in Tirana.  The situation is now being corrected.  A 
destruction policy for obsolete classified information will 
be implemented once the respective Normative Act is approved. 
 
The establishment of the auxiliary INFOSEC sub-structure 
continues.  As per parliamentary approval of the Law on 
Classified Information, the relevant sub-structures (namely 
the National Communications Security Authority, the National 
Distribution Authority and the National Accreditation 
Authority) are now formally identified.  Regarding the secure 
transmission of NATO/PfP classified information between the 
Albanian Mission in Brussels and Tirana, PEM-HEART software 
has been procured, which permits the secure transmission of 
information up to the level of NATO/PfP RESTRICTED.  A number 
of initiatives are now underway, to include the security 
accreditation of networks in various ministries processing 
and storing NATO classified information.  The NSA has 
certified the networks of the MoD, General Headquarters of 
the Armed Forces and the ShiSH, for NATO information up to 
and including the Confidential level. 
 
Physical security standards applied continue to be in line 
with NATO's standards.  Certain improvements were implemented 
in some sub registries.  It was recommended to continue the 
physical security upgrades at the Council of Ministers 
sub-registry by moving the latter to a separate room. 
 
End text. 
WITHERS