US embassy cable - 03THEHAGUE2854

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 002854 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AC/CB, NP/CBM, VC/CCB, L/ACV, IO/S 
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISC 
JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC 
COMMERCE FOR BIS (GOLDMAN) 
NSC FOR CHUPA 
WINPAC FOR LIEPMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PARM, PREL, CWC 
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): CTFS AND GREG 
LINDEN 
 
This is CWC-120-03. 
 
Action request in para 3. 
 
1.  On November 10, U.S. Delegation to the OPCW 
representatives Pete Ito and Betsy Sanders met with Greg 
Linden, Chief of Information Systems Branch (C/ISB) of the 
OPCW Technical Secretariat (TS) to discuss TS plans for data 
automation (two reports, FAXed back to AC/CB) and the 
upcoming Security Audit-IV.  Linden expressed appreciation 
for the U.S. efforts on the English and foreign language 
versions of the CTFS, and provided testing reports done by 
two software developers (faxed to AC/CB).  Linden asked that 
work not begin on the Arabic or Chinese versions until the 
assessment of the CTFS is complete.  He estimated that he 
would have a more definitive answer on these latter two 
versions by early to mid-December 2003. 
 
2.  Linden also provided ISB's testing report on the CTFS 
tool releases 0.5.1 and 0.5.24, which presents the views of 
two software developers (faxed to AC/CB).  Basic concerns 
were expressed on inconsistencies of data across forms, 
inoperability of certain buttons, inflexibility of the date 
field (U.S. format only), and inability of exiting certain 
forms without filling in data fields.  Linden reported that 
the U.S. developers promised to provide the source codes, but 
ISB had not received the foreign language source codes and 
had received some but not all of the source code of the 
English version.  Action Request:  Del requests that the 
source codes for English and foreign language versions of the 
CTFS be provided for passage to Linden to better enable ISB 
decisions regarding how best to include the CTFS in its 
Verification Information System (VIS) Components Architecture. 
 
3.  Linden also provided a report entitled "User Requirements 
Document Reflecting Declaration Branch Needs for the Enhanced 
VIS."  This document presents ISB plans to better support 
Declaration Branch requirements.  Linden noted that this was 
the first time that the software developers met with the 
eventual software users to determine what reports were needed 
and what core capabilities were required by the users.  On 
this basis, ISB developed a target IT architecture.  Linden 
provided a schematic of the current IT system structure, a 
schematic of the target IT system, and a schematic depicting 
the VIS Architecture.   Both the target system and the VIS 
include the CFTS as a key component. 
 
4.  Finally, Linden briefly discussed the upcoming security 
audit and its timing.  ISB is changing the TS IT operating 
system in the early December 2003 timeframe, and requested 
that the audit begin in early to mid-January 2004.  Linden 
noted that if the audit began in December, the auditors would 
then have a picture of how things were, not how things will 
be.  By delaying until January, the auditors will be able to 
assess how well the TS did during the migration from one 
system to the other as well as the functionality of the new 
system.  Linden added that he welcomed the audit and looked 
forward to seeing the results of the fourth security audit 
team (SAT-IV). 
 
5.  Javits sends. 
RUSSEL