US embassy cable - 04ANKARA865

UNCLAS ANKARA 000865 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT FOR NP/NDF - RSMITH AND BBAKER 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETTC, PARM, TU 
SUBJECT:  Tracker Demonstration for GOT 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY. 
 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  On February 11, a US team presented a 
demonstration of the Tracker system to about fifteen Turkish 
export control officials.  The officials expressed interest 
in evaluating Tracker for possible use, but said they would 
need to discuss the matter internally before replying 
formally through the US Embassy in Ankara. END SUMMARY. 
 
 
2. (SBU) A Turkish delegation led by Ali Riza Oktay, head of 
department in the Exports General Directorate of the Foreign 
Trade Undersecretariat, attended the October 2003 Tracker 
Workshop in Oxford, England.  Oktay indicated at the time 
that he would be preparing a report on the Workshop and 
would recommend that his government further explore the 
possibility of using Tracker as its export licensing system. 
Follow-on contacts by Econoff led to an invitation to a US 
team to demonstrate Tracker to a broader group of Turkish 
export control officials. 
 
 
3. (U) A three-person U.S. team visited Ankara February 11- 
12 to provide the demonstration.  It included Raymond Smith, 
Senior Negotiator, NP/NDF, and Russ Bailey and John Parker, 
FGM, Inc.  Foreign Trade hosted the three-hour 
demonstration, which was attended by officials from the 
Undersecretariats of Foreign Trade and Customs, as well as 
the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and National Defense. 
Econoff also attended the demonstration and took part in the 
discussions. 
 
 
4. (U) Smith introduced the demonstration by giving an 
overview of the Tracker program and how it fit into the 
mission of the NDF and of U.S. efforts to limit the spread 
of WMD.  Bailey demonstrated many of the features of the 
system that can make it an effective tool for careful 
analysis of questionable trade transactions.  He then 
demonstrated its efficiency by processing a simple export 
license application from initial data entry to printing of 
the export license in less than ten minutes. 
 
 
5. (SBU) Responding to a question on IT security, the US 
team said that Tracker was compatible with a variety of 
security applications, ranging from encryption to closed 
networks.  The decision on the type of security necessary in 
each country had deliberately been left to the countries 
themselves.  A Ministry of Defense official asked about 
Tracker's capability to create reports from the information 
in its database.  Bailey demonstrated this capability. 
 
 
6. (SBU) In response to a question from the Turkish 
delegation, Smith discussed next steps in implementing 
Tracker.  He said that there would need to be a signed 
document, usually an MOU, between the two governments laying 
out the objectives of the program and their individual 
undertakings. Noting that the U.S. and Turkish Governments 
had been negotiating a broader MOU on export control and 
border security issues for more than a year, Smith said the 
Tracker program could be covered through an implementing 
document under this umbrella MOU, when completed.  He 
pointed out that this document would not obligate the 
Turkish government to adopt the Tracker system; rather, the 
Turkish government would undertake to conduct a thorough 
evaluation of the system and adopt the system if the 
evaluation were positive.  Following signature of the 
document, the US would send a team to Ankara to make a 
detailed analysis of the Turkish export licensing process so 
as to develop an effective implementation plan.  In response 
to a question on how long this would take, Smith said that 
the lengthiest part of the process was normally the 
receiving government's review of the MOU or implementing 
document, which often took six to twelve months. He added 
that following signature of the Tracker MOU, he would expect 
to have an evaluation team in Ankara within three months and 
installation of and training on the system within six 
months. 
 
 
7. (SBU) In discussions among themselves around the table, 
the Turkish officials agreed to meet further to discuss 
whether and how to move ahead.  They discussed placement of 
the Tracker server, a problem in that the Ministry of 
Defense and the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat had 
responsibilities for entirely different sets of commodities. 
Oktay asked Smith in an aside whether two servers and two 
networks could be set up to handle the dual-use, munitions 
dichotomy.  Smith said that this could be considered. 
 
 
8.  (U) The demonstration ended with agreement that, 
following internal discussions, the Turkish government would 
respond through the Embassy.  Edelman