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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 05 MADRID 000190 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/WE (STACIE ZERDECKI, ALEX MCKNIGHT), 
EUR/ERA (ALESSANDRO NARDI), L/LEI (KEN PROPP), S/CT (PAUL 
SCHULTZ) AND A/GIS/IPS/PRV CHARLENE THOMAS, 
FOR USEU (MARY LEE WARREN, JACIE BEDNARZ, LORELEI SNYDER) 
PASS TO DHS (MARK KOUMANS, MIKE SCARDAVILLE, JOHN KROPF) 
PASS TO DOJ (TOM BURROWS) 
PASS TO TREASURY (JULIA YOO, CARLTON GREENE) 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2030 
TAGS: EUN SP PREL PINS PTER PINR KHLS KCIP KCRM
PGOV 
 
SUBJECT: DHS SEC. NAPOLITANO ADDRESSES EU'S JHA MINISTERS 
ON AVIATION SECURITY 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 8403 
     ¶B. MADRID 49 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Arnold A. Chacon for reasons 1.4 (b) a 
nd (d) 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  Secretary Napolitano met with European 
Union (EU) Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) ministers January 
21-22 in Toledo, Spain, and achieved trans-Atlantic consensus 
to improve aviation security.  Her attendance at the plenary 
meeting led to the issuance of a U.S.-EU Joint Declaration on 
Aviation Security that outlines several actions for the two 
sides to take (available at 
www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr 1264119013710.shtm).  Secretary 
Napolitano also held ten bilateral discussions, during which 
she discussed bilateral issues and underscored her core 
Aviation Security message. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Summary Continued.  Following the thwarted terrorist 
attack over Detroit on December 25, 2009, Spanish Interior 
Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, acting on behalf of the 
rotating EU Presidency, invited Secretary Napolitano to 
attend this ministerial.  He recognized that the event could 
serve as a useful platform for having the EU address current 
terrorist threats and the need for the U.S. and EU to work 
together more closely on aviation security.  In addition to 
the ministers of the 27 EU Member States, also attending were 
outgoing European Commission Vice President Jacques Barrot, 
EU Counterterrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, Chairman 
of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and 
Home Affairs Committee Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, plus 
representatives of the three non-EU Member States of the 
Schengen Zone (Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland), 
representatives of the three candidate countries for EU 
membership (Croatia, Macedonia, and Turkey), and the leaders 
of Europol and Frontex.  DHS delegation is listed in para 20. 
 End Summary. 
 
Bilateral with Spain - Rubalcaba 
 
¶3. (C) Host Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Rubalcaba, in 
an early, brief meeting with Secretary Napolitano and U.S. 
Ambassador to Spain Alan D. Solomont, warned that European 
media attention had centered on the lack of EU consensus on 
whole body image (WBI) scanning machines.  To avoid diverting 
attention away from DHS objectives, he suggested avoiding the 
issue. 
 
Plenary Session 
 
¶4. (SBU) Rubalcaba asserted that the attempted Christmas Day 
attack compelled him to invite Secretary Napolitano to the 
meeting because there was nothing more important to discuss. 
He added that aircraft remain a "priority target" for 
al-Qaida (AQ) and that the plot demonstrated the need to 
perfect cooperation and the exchange of and analysis of 
information.  He said he wanted to use the Secretary's 
presence to send a message to the world regarding the 
political unity and firm will of the U.S. and EU to work 
together. 
 
¶5. (SBU) In her address to the plenary, Secretary Napolitano 
emphasized that terrorism is a global threat that requires a 
multinational response and that access to one airport can 
endanger the entire international airport system.  Secretary 
Napolitano reviewed the facts of the Detroit case, shared 
lessons learned from the subsequent Presidential Review, 
described the recent international travel of the DHS Deputy 
Secretary, and outlined four areas of focus: 1) information 
collection and analysis; 2) information sharing and 
collaboration in passenger vetting; 3) international security 
standards, including coordination of international assistance 
to help all countries achieve those standards; and 4) 
development and deployment of next generation aviation 
security technologies. 
 
¶6. (C) Barrot praised the "new spirit of cooperation" in 
transatlantic relations and suggested international terrorism 
can only be defeated if the U.S. and the EU work together. 
To this end, he indicated the two sides will collaborate to 
build the CT capacity of third-countries most at-risk of 
terrorism.  Barrot cautioned that if aviation security were 
increased, then the EU will need to build public support for 
these additional measures and will need to reassure its 
citizens on how data is collected and that their privacy is 
respected.   He also urged the U.S. to provide details on the 
December 25 lessons learned, including "what information was 
used and what was not used, so we can improve" capabilities. 
 
¶7. (C) De Kerchove stated that the Detroit plot confirms that 
civil aviation remains a key target of international 
terrorists.  He called for not just increased information 
sharing, but increased analysis to connect the dots of all 
this information.  He concurred with Rubalcaba that the 
Christmas incident broke new ground in that an AQ regional 
franchise had attempted an attack outside its own region and 
also agreed that terrorists were trying to use new operatives 
about whom the West had little information.  De Kerchove 
emphasized the importance of countering the radicalization 
and recruitment of terrorists (particularly returnees from 
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia) and suggested that - due 
to a variety of events in the past several months - the USG 
is seeing that the threat of terrorism does not just come 
from outside U.S. borders.  He voiced his support for the use 
of biometrics and EU collection and analysis of Passenger 
Name Records (PNR), encouraged the EU to speed up its study 
on the use of WBI, and urged a quick mandate for negotiations 
on a U.S.-EU information sharing and data protection 
agreement. 
 
¶8. (C) Lopez Aguilar welcomed DHS readiness to work closely 
with the EU and recalled Secretary Napolitano's November, 
2009 visit to the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels.  He 
stressed the need for the United States to protect privacy 
and civil liberties and to provide judicial redress as a part 
of its data sharing with the EU.  He underscored the EU's 
commitment to the free movement of persons and highlighted 
the EP's role - under the new Lisbon Treaty - in bilateral 
agreements negotiated between the EU and the United States. 
 
¶9. (C) Ministers of many of the 33 European countries also 
addressed the plenary, most in support of increased 
cooperation with the United States, as the Secretary 
outlined.  A primary subject of conversation, however, became 
the consensus toward establishment of an EU PNR collection 
and analysis capability.  UK officials later confirmed that 
they, Spain, France, and others had cooperated before the 
plenary to achieve consensus on the idea.  Denmark, Estonia, 
France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, 
and the UK all spoke in favor.  None opposed outright, 
although Belgium (and Slovenia, to a lesser degree) sounded 
notes of caution. 
 
Bilateral with Spain - Caamano 
 
¶10. (C) Justice Minister Francisco Caamano stressed that 
finding the balance between protecting civil liberties and 
increased aviation security is key.  He identified three 
priorities - SWIFT, PNR and the U.S.-EU agreement on 
information exchange - and stated that the common denominator 
for the successful resolution of all three issues is "full 
protection" of citizens' data.  Caamano said he will testify 
before the EP the week of January 25 to defend the temporary 
SWIFT agreement and ask for a renewal.  On PNR, he identified 
Germany, the Netherlands and "some Nordic countries" as 
having "high standards" on data protection.  Caamano said 
that Spain is doing everything in its power during its EU 
Presidency to seek a mandate as quickly as possible for the 
European Commission to begin negotiations with U.S. on 
exchanging information. 
 
Bilateral with Germany - de Maiziere 
 
¶11. (S/NF) Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere was 
enthusiastic about U.S. "multilateralism" as evidenced by the 
Secretary's attendance at the ministerial and her intention 
to hold additional aviation security meetings with 
counterparts in other parts of the world.  He was familiar 
with recent threat information that noted the possibility of 
terrorists using children,s articles to introduce bombs into 
airplanes.  He was not familiar, however, with proposed U.S. 
efforts in response to enable TSA to use explosive detection 
equipment on U.S.-bound flights.  De Maiziere expressed 
concern about travelers who transit the EU, particularly 
those en route to the United States.  He said the EU did not 
screen them and so was dependent on the efficacy of screening 
carried out in dozens of countries.  "They can enter the EU, 
meet with people, buy things in airports, do other things, 
and leave" without an EU official ever interacting with them, 
he lamented.  De Maiziere said he also considered electronic 
boarding passes to be security vulnerabilities. 
 
Bilateral with Germany - Leutheuser-Schnarrenberger 
 
¶12. (C) Privacy advocate and new Justice Minister Sabine 
Leutheuser-Schnarrenberger opened the meeting by referring to 
the German debate about "naked scanners" (i.e., WBI).  She 
said she and de Maiziere did not always agree and that human 
dignity had to be protected.  Sounding skeptical, she said 
the United States seemed to always want more data but she was 
"not sure you get the security you want; we cannot have total 
security."  Turning to the bilateral ("Prm-like") Agreement 
to Prevent and Combat Serious Crime (PCSC), she warned that 
"it won't be ratified" and said she and de Maiziere would 
shortly send (another) letter to Secretary Napolitano and 
Attorney General Holder, now asking for a definition of 
"serious crime."  DAS Koumans urged such discussion take 
place during negotiation of the implementation text, but she 
refused.  Secretary Napolitano stressed that the differences 
between us were too small to prevent cooperation, underlined 
the two sides could not go backwards, offered to provide 
information on redress, and pledged to send to Berlin DHS 
Chief Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan, who had met 
previous Justice Minister Zypries. 
Bilateral with the United Kingdom (UK) 
¶13. (S/NF) Home Secretary Alan Johnson hailed Secretary 
Napolitano's coming to Toledo and her intervention in 
plenary.  He said the UK would soon increase its use of WBI 
as "part of the solution" and that the following day (Friday, 
January 22) the UK might raise its security threat level to 
"severe," the second-highest rung.  He reviewed his decision 
the previous week (week of January 11, 2010) to cancel 
non-stop flights from Sana'a, Yemen, to London/Heathrow and 
said the flights would not resume without UK officials 
pre-vetting travelers in Sana'a.  He offered to share the 
information UK officials learn in Sana'a.  Secretary 
Napolitano responded that the USG had discussed terrorist 
travel information sharing with Yemen and that the United 
States and the UK should cooperate as they both sought to 
address security challenges in Yemen.  Turning to the 
Christmas day attempted attack, Secretary Napolitano asked 
hypothetically whether the UK would have provided the USG 
with alleged perpetrator Abdulmutallab,s data if the UK had 
refused his visa on counterterrorism grounds.  Johnson 
replied "No, but we should."  He also said there was 
information the USG should have told the UK and the USG 
should have watchlisted Abdulmutallab.  Secretary Napolitano 
urged the two sides collaborate on sharing visa revocation 
data. 
 
Bilateral with France 
 
¶14. (S/NF) Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said al-Qaida in 
the Arabian Peninsula represented a "big threat" but he 
claimed that EU and French law constrain the PCSC bilateral 
information sharing Secretary Napolitano sought.  He asked 
for the derogatory data on the two "No Fly" passengers that 
had necessitated the 2009 diversion of two Air France 
Paris-Mexico City flights.  He noted that France had no 
information to suggest the two individuals had ties to 
terrorism.  He commented that he had traveled through U.S. 
airports and he had concluded that U.S. citizens were more 
adept at security measures - such as taking off their shoes - 
than EU citizens, who complained about such procedures.  He 
called WBI "not a silver bullet" and called for more French 
airport liaison officers in Africa as well as "Profilers" to 
detected suspicious passengers. 
 
Bilateral with Switzerland 
 
¶15. (SBU) Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf claimed 
Switzerland would require two years before PCSC bilateral 
information sharing could begin due to internal Swiss legal 
procedures.  Secretary Napolitano urged greater speed.  DHS 
Under Secretary Beers asked for Swiss agreement to U.S. 
initiatives in ICAO, including for greater transparency and 
the coordination of international assistance. 
 
Bilateral with the Netherlands 
 
¶16. (C/NF) Justice Minister Ernst Hirsh Ballin said the 
privacy issue is central to the resolution of U.S.-EU issues 
such as SWIFT and PNR.  Secretary Napolitano described the 
EU's false notions, popularized in the media, of centralized 
U.S. databases.  Hirsh Ballin called for greater efforts to 
prevent terrorism by combating radicalization.  Turning to 
the Christmas day attempted attack, he hailed U.S.-Dutch 
cooperation but said "we may not agree with you on whether or 
not the device would have exploded" and asked whether U.S. 
agencies have any additional information concerning what the 
alleged perpetrator did (e.g., with whom he may have met) at 
Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.  Secretary Napolitano said the 
investigation is ongoing. 
 
Bilateral with Sweden 
 
¶17. (C/NF) Justice Minister Beatrice Ask lamented the 
upcoming elections in Sweden and said the party coalition 
made it hard to achieve PCSC bilateral information sharing. 
She said Sweden would "do what we can."  Secretary Napolitano 
asked whether Sweden could begin with an informal agreement 
before a subsequent ratification and asserted that the 
information sharing under the PCSC was not invasive of 
privacy.  Ask replied that the privacy issue necessitated the 
formality of Parliamentary ratification and commented that a 
global security solution would include ships and trains. 
Secretary Napolitano responded that al-Qaida focused on 
aircraft. 
 
Bilateral with Denmark 
 
¶18. (C/NF) Secretary Napolitano told Justice Minister Brian 
Mikkelsen that it was time for Denmark to agree to U.S. 
Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) on U.S. flag flights to and from 
Denmark.  He replied he agreed and he had spoken that morning 
(January 22) with Transport Minister Lars Barfoed, who had 
met the previous day with U.S. Ambassador Fulton.  Fulton had 
provided Barfoed with documents and answers to Barfoed's 
questions, so Mikkelsen said he was optimistic, but the 
decision was Barfoed's.  Mikkelsen emphasized that guns are 
sensitive subject in Denmark.  Secretary Napolitano warned 
that Denmark could not continue to be the only EU country not 
permitting FAMs.  Mikkelsen said he had recently agreed to 
the extradition of a Danish citizen to the United States, a 
decision which had generated much negative publicity.   On an 
optimistic note, he said the bilateral PCSC would be ratified 
within a month. 
 
Next Steps 
 
¶19. (SBU) DAS Koumans met January 22 in Madrid with de 
Kerchove as well as EU Commission and Spanish interlocutors 
to discuss implementation of the Joint U.S.-EU Declaration. 
The meeting planned concrete actions to achieve before the 
U.S.-EU Ministerial Troika to be held in Madrid April 8-9. 
The group agreed to meet again in March in Brussels. 
 
¶20. (U) DHS Delegation: 
 
Secretary Napolitano Chief of Staff Noah Kroloff 
Under Secretary and Senior Counselor Rand Beers 
Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Sean Smith 
Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Mark 
Koumans TSA Chief of Staff Art Macias 
DHS Liaison to the Spanish Interior Ministry Lisa Lopez 
 
¶21. (U) The DHS Delegation has cleared this cable. 
CHACON