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DE RUEHC #9999 0862126
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R 272107Z MAR 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUEHSW/AMEMBASSY BERN 0000
INFO RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC 0000
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHINGTON DC 0000
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC 0000
RUEPINS/HQ BICE INTEL WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS STATE 029999 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
BERN FOR RICHARD RORVIG 
POL/E 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETTC KOMC OTRA PARM PREL SZ
SUBJECT: BLUE LANTERN: DISCUSSIONS WITH EMBASSY AND SWISS 
OFFICIALS FEBRUARY 23-24 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Senior Compliance Specialist Judd Stitziel 
from the Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls 
Compliance (PM/DTCC) met February 23-24 in Bern with Embassy 
and Swiss officials to discuss implementation of the Blue 
Lantern end-use monitoring program and related U.S. export 
control issues in Switzerland.  End-use monitoring in 
Switzerland presents some unique challenges, as Swiss 
authorities do not allow USG officials to make inquiries 
directly with private companies.  Instead, Embassy officials 
must submit requests for information to the State Secretariat 
for Economic Affairs (SECO), which conducts the checks and 
responds back to the Embassy.  Despite some concern about the 
Department's consequent ability to obtain comprehensive and 
unvarnished information about private Swiss entities, Swiss 
authorities generally are expeditious, cooperative, and 
reliable.  During the visit, Swiss officials demonstrated a 
good deal of interest and desire to cooperate through the 
program.  The visit appears to have met the objectives of 
improving understanding of the Blue Lantern end-use 
monitoring program and USG defense trade laws and 
regulations.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) Administered by PM/DTCC, Blue Lantern is a global 
program designed to verify the end-use, end-users, and 
disposition of commercially exported defense articles, 
technology, and services.  This visit to Switzerland was part 
of PM/DTCC's ongoing efforts to improve the program's 
effectiveness through outreach visits with posts, host 
governments, and industry. 
 
EMBASSY EXPORT CONTROL TEAM: 
SWISS COOPERATIVE BUT NOT ALWAYS OPEN 
 
¶3. (U) Stitziel met with Embassy export control team members 
and Charge d'Affaires a.i. Leigh G. Carter to brief the Blue 
Lantern program and to discuss issues specific to 
Switzerland.  Participants included Richard Rorvig, Counselor 
for Political and Economic Affairs and Blue Lantern POC; COL 
Dorothea Cyper-Erickson, Defense and Army Attache; Michael 
McCool, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Attache; John 
Walker, Assistant Legal Attache; Donald Businger, Commercial 
Counselor; Christopher Buck, POL/E Officer; and Sylvie 
Wanzenried, POL/E FSN.  Stitziel also met with Col. Godfred 
Demandante, Jr., Air Attache, and Ruth Millard, Security 
Assistance Coordinator, in Stuttgart, Germany, on February 25. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Stitziel briefed the mission, objectives, and 
results of Blue Lantern, both globally and in Switzerland. 
Since 2004, PM/DDTC has received 2,063 applications for 
commercial defense exports to Switzerland worth $956 million 
dollars; during that time, PM/DDTC has approved over 1,706 
licenses worth $803 million and 273 agreements worth $861 
million.  Since 2004, a dozen Blue Lantern checks have been 
conducted, evenly split between pre-license checks and 
post-shipment verifications, on applications and licenses 
that listed end-users in Switzerland.  Of these 12 cases, 
only one was closed "unfavorable," meaning that the facts 
determined by the check were not consistent with the 
information listed on the application or license. 
Switzerland's "unfavorable" rate of eight percent is 
significantly lower than the global average during the last 
several years, which has ranged between 16 and 23 percent. 
Embassy Bern's average response times of 48 days for 
pre-license checks and 59 days for post-shipment checks are 
within the normal range globally.  While the POL/E section is 
responsible for coordinating Blue Lantern checks in 
Switzerland, Stitziel encouraged post to draw on the full 
range of country team resources, including ICE, DAO, LEGATT, 
and Foreign Commercial Service (FCS), when appropriate. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Discussion focused on the Government of 
Switzerland's prohibition against USG officials directly 
contacting private Swiss companies and individuals concerning 
end-use checks, as the GOS would consider such 
"investigations" a violation of Swiss law.  The United 
Kingdom is the only other country that imposes similar 
restrictions on Blue Lantern checks.  According to the 
standard procedure in Switzerland, Embassy Bern conveys all 
Blue Lantern requests to the State Secretariat for Economic 
Affairs (SECO), which in turn conducts its own inquiries and 
responds back to the Embassy.  Export control team members 
commented on the conflicts of interest and ambiguity inherent 
in this arrangement.  The GOS takes an essentially defensive 
posture toward end-use checks.  It is genuinely interested in 
preventing illicit arms trafficking in Switzerland, but also 
wishes to avoid embarrassing public disclosures about the 
involvement of Swiss entities in undesirable or illegal 
activities abroad.  SECO generally is very cooperative and 
responsive and provides prompt, detailed answers to explicit 
questions.  However, emboffs noted that Swiss officials are 
not always completely open and candid and have a tendency to 
provide legalistic and technically correct, but occasionally 
incomplete, responses.  One cannot assume the same level of 
due diligence that would be exercised by emboffs, as Swiss 
authorities are unlikely to self-report or to go out of their 
way to discover and divulge derogatory information on Swiss 
entities, unless the GOS sees a potential for potentially 
adverse or embarrassing future consequences.  Additional 
complications and opaqueness are caused by Switzerland's 
extremely federalist structure:  federal authorities like 
SECO usually rely on local authorities in the cantons to 
conduct and report the results of end-use checks on private 
Swiss entities. 
 
SWISS OFFICIALS SUPPORT BLUE LANTERN, EAGER TO COLLABORATE, 
BUT SWISS LAW PROHIBITS DIRECT USG CONTACT WITH PRIVATE SWISS 
ENTITIES 
 
¶6. (U) Thanks to the modest size of Switzerland's federal 
government, during his visit, Stitziel was able to meet with 
all of the senior Swiss officials involved in defense trade 
and export control issues.  At SECO, the Swiss agency most 
important to the functioning of the Blue Lantern program in 
Switzerland, Stitziel met with Erwin Bollinger, Head of 
Bilateral Economic Relations, Export Control Policy; Rolf 
Stalder, Head of Export Control Policy; Simon Pluess, Head of 
Export Controls for War Materiel; Juergen Boehler, Head of 
Export Controls for Industrial Products and Special Military 
Goods; and two export control action officers.  Already 
familiar with many aspects of U.S. export control laws, the 
SECO officials were very interested in the Blue Lantern 
program and posed several detailed and informed questions 
about U.S. laws and regulations.  They seemed astonished to 
learn that Switzerland was one of only two countries 
worldwide that do not allow USG officials to directly contact 
local private companies concerning Blue Lantern inquiries. 
Despite Stitziel's explanation that Blue Lantern is not a law 
enforcement investigation but rather a confidence-building 
exercise, the officials reiterated the GOS's long-standing 
position that such checks would violate Swiss law (which 
prohibits investigations on Swiss territory by foreign 
agents) and infringe on Swiss sovereignty.  At the same time, 
the SECO officials were quick to express their eagerness to 
continue to strengthen our bilateral defense trade by 
conducting Blue Lantern checks on behalf of the USG.  The 
officials also provided an overview of Switzerland's export 
control regulations and bureaucracy.  Consisting of 15 
employees, SECO's export control division issued 
approximately 500 licenses worth 720 million Swiss francs 
last year. 
 
¶7. (U) Stitziel next met with officials from the Federal 
Department of Foreign Affairs' Center for International 
Security Policy, including Andreas Friedrich, Head, and 
Bernhard Gasser, Desk Officer.  SECO staffs export license 
application to this MFA office, which has veto power over 
applications and pays special attention to proposed exports 
to "critical countries" where human rights and regional 
stability are of concern. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Turning to intelligence and law enforcement aspects 
of export controls, Stitziel met with officials from the 
Federal Department of Defense's Service for Analysis and 
Prevention (DAP), Switzerland's domestic intelligence agency 
for counter-proliferation, counter-terrorism, and 
counter-intelligence.  Participants included Marks 
Kellenberger, Head of Counter-Proliferation; Elvis Cikotic, 
Chief, War Materiel Division; Patrick Fournier, Chief, 
Special Military Goods Division; and Claudine Waespe, Liaison 
Officer.  SECO staffs Blue Lantern inquiries that it receives 
from Embassy Bern to DAP, which maintains a database of 
intelligence on Swiss firms and provides input on all 
non-papers.  DAP officials were eager to learn about Blue 
Lantern and to cooperate and collaborate with Embassy Bern 
and PM/DTCC.  While DAP knows large Swiss companies very 
well, it is not as familiar with smaller firms and can only 
contact them through local canton authorities.  DAP is also 
responsible for end-use monitoring of sensitive exports. 
However, it currently conducts only post-shipment checks, 
which are initiated in Bern by a sole action officer who 
tasks relevant Swiss embassies to obtain end-users' 
signatures confirming order and delivery. 
 
¶9. (U) Stitziel's final meeting was at Armasuisse, the MOD's 
procurement agency and a respondent to several past Blue 
Lantern inquiries.  Participants included Christian Meier, 
Head, Transportation and Customs; Serge Guignard, Head, 
International Relations; Peter Emch, Head, Legal & 
International Affairs; and Alexander Hubler, Attorney, Legal 
& International Affairs.  While the Armasuisse officials were 
not familiar with the name "Blue Lantern" and the program's 
global mission, they personally had responded to past 
requests for end-use/end-user confirmation and demonstrated 
significant knowledge of U.S. defense trade control laws and 
regulations.  The officials expressed gratitude for the 
briefing and direct contact with PM/DTCC, which will allow 
them to more quickly and efficiently resolve future license 
application issues. 
 
¶10. (U) PM/DTCC would like to express its gratitude to 
Embassy Bern and especially to Richard Rorvig and Diane 
O'Guerin for their exemplary work in helping to arrange and 
execute this visit. 
CLINTON