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OO RUEHBC RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHFL RUEHKUK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHNP RUEHROV
DE RUEHNC #0194/01 0781214
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O 191214Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY NICOSIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9721
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 NICOSIA 000194 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/17/2019 
TAGS: PTER PREL EAID ASEC GR TU CY
SUBJECT: EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGIONAL STRATEGIC 
INITIATIVE (RSI) CHIEFS OF MISSION MEETING, FEBRUARY 24, 
2009 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Frank C. Urbancic for reasons 1.4 (b) and 
(d) 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (C) Meeting in Nicosia February 24, U.S. Ambassadors and 
interagency representatives covering the Eastern 
Mediterranean RSI region discussed ways to strengthen 
counterterrorism efforts in an environment characterized by 
new migration waves from the Middle East to Europe, the 
aftermath of the Israeli operation in Gaza, best practices 
developed to date for countering violent extremism, and the 
potential for new developments in the Israeli-Palestinian 
peace process and the international community's relationship 
to Syria.  Participants agreed on the desirability of 
bundling regional projects--including current proposals for 
U.S. law enforcement training in a 
number of Eastern Med countries--in order both to 
maximize the return on our investment and to build a 
stronger regional base for combating transnational 
threats.  Participants also discussed the most effective ways 
to reach populations at risk of radicalization as well as 
other audiences, with an emphasis on thinking through 
messaging strategies in advance of potential changes in the 
international context.  End Summary. 
 
The Migration Challenge in the Region 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (C) The meeting, hosted by Ambassador Urbancic and Embassy 
Nicosia, was attended by U.S. Embassies Athens, Sofia, 
Ankara, Beirut, Amman, Tel Aviv, Cairo, the Consulate General 
in Jerusalem, interagency representatives from State (S/CT, 
DS, and INR), Justice, DHS, Treasury, USAID, the National 
Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and DOD COCOMs (SOCOM, 
CENTCOM, and EUCOM), as well as UK FCO Counterterrorism 
Director Robert Chatterton Dixon.  Embassy Damascus was 
unable to attend.  S/CT Coordinator Dailey launched the 
discussion by noting the importance of thinking regionally or 
sub-regionally to identify problems and possible solutions. 
Several Ambassadors quickly provided an example: the 
cross-cutting problem of illegal migration.  Ambassador 
Speckhard (Greece) stressed the importance of a multinational 
solution, incorporating all countries on the migration route 
in an effort to manage flows and identify terrorists.  He 
noted that Greece had been particularly hard hit, with over 
140,000 illegal migrants in 2008, many of whom came from 
conflict zones in the Middle East and transited Turkey before 
entering Greece. He called for creating a searchable 
biometric database of known terrorists that could be put in 
the hands of borderofficials, stressing that the EU should be 
more active of support of EU front line states. 
 
¶3. (C) Ambassador Urbancic (Cyprus) added that Cyprus 
shared the same migration problems.  He said that although 
the numbers were lower, the risk was exacerbated by the lack 
of border enforcement against illegal aliens who enter Cyprus 
in the areas administered by Turkish Cypriots and then cross 
the Green Line, the UN- patrolled buffer zone, into the 
Republic of Cyprus and the EU.  Noting that half of the 
people who take the ferry from Syria to Turkish 
Cypriot-administered northern Cyprus do not go back -- not to 
mention those who arrive in the north on small boats -- 
Urbancic warned that this "back door" to Europe was almost 
totally open.  Embassy Sofia DCM Karagiannis said Bulgaria 
was increasingly facing illegal migration challenges as well, 
and that while the country had not received funding from the 
EU to address migration, it had imported EU requirements that 
made enforcement more difficult. 
 
 
Building Capacity of Law Enforcement 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶4. (S) Ambassador Dailey announced that he expected 
larger budgets for a number of counterterrorism programs, 
including Anti-Terrorism Assistance (ATA), countering 
terrorist finance, TIP-PISCES, and RSI.  The PISCES increase 
would expand the software program to supplement the current 
name-based records with biometric information.  A number of 
participants stressed the importance of biometric information 
to make any database effective.  Dailey noted that S/CT would 
soon be traveling to Jordan in connection with a conference 
on this subject, and said he would be in touch with other 
Eastern Med posts about the possibility of expanding the 
PISCES program geographically.  DOD participants described 
ongoing efforts to make PISCES compatible with other 
intelligence-derived bio databases, and expressed hope that 
this would open the door to law enforcement doing real-time 
 
NICOSIA 00000194  002 OF 003 
 
 
checks of suspect individuals against this data in the field. 
 DHS DAS Warrick described the Passenger Name Record (PNR) 
and related initiatives to identify air travelers, and U.S. 
efforts with the EU and Turkey to improve cooperation. 
 
¶5. (C) A number of Eastern Med embassies have recently 
submitted overlapping requests for law enforcement 
training, much of it with DS/ATA.  Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, 
Jordan, and Lebanon, among others, share problems related to 
illegal migration and/or limited local capacity. Ambassador 
Speckhard noted that Greece faces the threat of both 
transnational terrorist networks who could make use of the 
migration waves and an increasingly violent home-grown 
terrorist presence.  Both categories are anti-American and 
they could potentially cooperate with each other.  Those 
posts with current ATA programs spoke favorably of their 
effectiveness, and ConGen Jerusalem added that it hoped to 
expand the programs beyond the Palestinian Authority's 
Presidential Guard.  Ambassador Sison (Lebanon) said there is 
political will in Lebanon to tackle certain Sunni extremist 
groups, as has been recently demonstrated, even if there is 
none for taking on Hizballah or certain Palestinian 
rejectionist groups.  She also cited section 1207 and INL 
funding for community policing of the Nahr al-Bared 
Palestinian refugee camp once it re-opens as an example of 
feasible ways to conduct counterterrorism and countering 
violent extremism (CVE) training in Lebanon.  Amman DCM 
Mandel noted the extensive regional law enforcement training 
taking place in Jordan, and the Jordanians' active approach 
and willingness to expand training in a number of 
counterterrorism areas. 
 
¶6. (C) Ambassador Dailey pointed to the Nicosia, ATA-funded 
law enforcement training proposal as an example of 
effectively drawing together multiple countries in the 
region, and all participants agreed on the value of bundling 
such proposals into regional or sub-regional packages. 
Ambassador Speckhard noted that posts may be able to develop 
a strategy for framing training programs when presenting them 
to host governments, in order to help senior leadership 
understand the goals of the programs and undertake 
institutional reforms to make the training stick.  DS/ATA 
Deputy Director Tibbetts welcomed the idea.  DOJ OPDAT 
Director Berman briefed on plans for a model two-year program 
to bring together a group of officials from Eastern 
Mediterranean countries for counter-terrorism training and 
exercises. 
 
Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (S) S/CT Strategic Communications Officer Goldman 
briefed the group on best practices and current programs for 
CVE, including addressing the grievances terrorists exploit. 
Several Embassies and ConGen Jerusalem expressed interest in 
expanded CVE work. USAID's Cairo-based OMEP Director Barth 
stressed the importance of understanding "routes to terror," 
including alienation, and how to deal with them by reaching 
out to youth and facilitating social networks.  S/CT 
officials cited the new women's organization Sisters Against 
Violent Extremism 
(SAVE) as a promising example.  RADM Tillotson (CENTCOM) 
offered a preview of the conclusions of the Joint Strategic 
Assessment Team (JSAT), noting that they would have a strong 
focus on CVE -- including understanding causes and 
synchronizing efforts -- as well as strengthening partner 
nations' counterterrorism laws and capacity building. 
Tillotson also stressed the importance of interagency 
cooperation in measuring the success of CVE efforts, while 
NCTC Admiral Maguire said work was ongoing within the 
Administration on CVE and messaging for dealing with 
different environments.  Ambassador Dailey asked participants 
to think through potential messaging strategies in the event 
the situation in the Middle East shifted, including if there 
was progress on the peace process or a change in U.S. 
relations with Syria. 
 
Prospects in the Middle East 
---------------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) Middle Eastern posts briefed on the situation 
following the Israeli operation in Gaza, with Tel Aviv 
PolCouns Sievers saying the two options in Gaza were the 
Egyptian-negotiated cease-fire, including stopping the 
smuggling of weapons and re-opening of the border crossing 
with Egypt, or Israel returning to Gaza to destroy the Hamas 
regime.  A consensus of participants believed that Hamas had 
lost popularity in Gaza, but it was unclear what alternatives 
existed because no one would want to rule Gaza, including 
Fatah, if the scenario made it look like the Israelis had 
 
NICOSIA 00000194  003 OF 003 
 
 
installed Fatah in power, according to the ConGen Jerusalem 
representative.  Ambassador Sison said that Hizballah 
remained strong in Lebanon, and was viewed as the 
"resistance" rather than a terrorist organization by more 
than just the country's one-third Shia 
population.  Sison noted that key Lebanese leaders are 
interested in overturning the past precedent of not 
policing Palestinian refugee camps and in shutting down the 
existing armed Palestinian military bases in Lebanon (the 
latter being suspected conduits for smuggling to Hizballah). 
These moves would be in U.S. interests as well -- and the 
re-opening of Nahr al-Bared could be a step in that 
direction.  Several participants stressed the role of Iran as 
primary financial backer of Hizballah and other extremist 
groups, although Sison noted that Iran's "train-the-trainer" 
efforts had significantly improved Hizballah's capacity to 
administer its own affairs. 
 
 
Kongra Gel (PKK) 
---------------- 
 
¶9. (S) Ambassador Dailey told participants that S/CT Deputy 
Coordinator Schlicher would soon travel to key capitals to 
share declassified information about PKK financial networks. 
Ankara PolCouns O'Grady said this would be welcomed by 
Turkey, which is concerned that European capitals are turning 
a blind eye to the PKK's funding and criminal acts.  O'Grady 
reviewed the elements of Turkey's approach to the Kurdish 
region, and said upcoming local elections would be an 
indication of how well the ruling party's efforts have 
succeeded there. 
 
Next Steps 
---------- 
 
¶10. (S) Participants agreed on the following steps coming out 
of the meeting: 
 
-- Move ahead with bundling regional law enforcement 
training proposals, especially those already submitted by 
several posts.  Consider options for a DS/ATA assessment 
team, likely to visit Cyprus in the summer, to also conduct 
an assessment in Greece on the same trip.  Look for 
opportunities to do multi-country training sessions. 
Embassies will negotiate with host countries on receptiveness. 
 
-- Coordination between S/CT, Embassy Athens and other 
relevant posts about options for expanding the PISCES progam. 
 
-- Look for further opportunities for CVE efforts, 
including putting the SAVE organization in contact with Greek 
Foreign Ministry organizers of a planned women against 
terrorism conference. 
 
-- Ensure strong interagency participation in an upcoming 
June 3-5 conference in Istanbul on sharing best practices for 
preventing terrorist travel in the region.  Participants will 
include Eastern Med countries, the EU, and others, with input 
to be sought from posts. 
 
-- Engage with EU counterparts on the PKK, including during 
the upcoming Schlicher trip. 
 
-- Continue to work on turning the multi-country DOJ program 
into a reality, dealing with country arrangements, site, and 
other issues. 
 
-- Synchronize CENTCOM JSAT assessment with priorities of 
National Intelligence Program (NIP). 
 
-- Resolve outstanding DS security issues related to VIP 
visits to the region, including possible DS re-engagement in 
Gaza. 
 
-- Engage the Government of Turkey to encourage their 
acceptance of an Advanced Passenger Information/Passenger 
Name Record system. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Athens volunteered to host the next RSI meeting. 
Ambassador Dailey proposed including a short time early in 
the next RSI meeting for separate smaller-group discussions 
focused on the northern and southern halves of the Eastern 
Med region. 
 
 
¶12. (U) This cable has been cleared by S/CT Ambassador Dailey. 
 
Urbancic