US embassy cable - 04THEHAGUE1201

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 THE HAGUE 001201 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2014 
TAGS: PTER, PGOV, PINR, NL 
SUBJECT: A BIG JOB AHEAD FOR NEW DUTCH COUNTERTERRORIST 
COORDINATOR 
 
REF: THE HAGUE 1167 
 
Classified By: ANDREW MANN, HEAD OF GLOBAL ISSUES. 
REASONS: 1.5 (b & d). 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY:  A highly respected bureaucrat, Tjibbe 
Joustra, recently assigned to the new Dutch position of 
counterterrorism (CT) coordinator, is remarkably candid about 
the flaws he sees in the Dutch CT efforts (e.g., lack of 
inter-agency coordination; lack of action).  He has a broad 
mandate to review existing procedures/operations and make 
recommendations for improvements.  Although focused on 
internal coordination and reform, he is  open to working with 
the U.S. and welcomes our offers of assistance.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (SBU) DCM and Global Issues officer met May 11 with Mr. 
Joustra, newly named CT coordinator for the Netherlands 
(April 27 - reftel). Admitting he was new to CT and law 
enforcement issues, Joustra pointed out his 14 years of 
experience in crisis management as Secretary General of the 
Agriculture Ministry, handling mad cow scares, avian flu 
epidemics and fallout from the Chernobyl explosion.  He also 
stressed his management experience in a subsequent assignment 
consolidating the government's six social security programs 
into one (30 billion Euros).  He said security concerns were 
not an abstraction for him, but something he had been 
personally involved with for many years in his working life. 
It was important to protect society's infrastructure and that 
was why he was anxious to take up these new responsibilities. 
 
3. (C) Joustra said he immediately noticed systematic 
problems from the fact CT policy and implementation in the 
Netherlands were shared by the Ministers of Justice (Donner) 
and Interior (Remkes).  As a bureaucrat, he recognizes this 
is a very difficult situation which hampers results.  There 
is little coordination between the Ministers, their 
Secretaries General and Directors General.  He said he 
 
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reports first to Minister Donner, who was actively engaged, 
and then consults with Remkes, who appears much less 
interested.  Joustra chairs the Joint Committee on 
Counterterrorism, a moribund inter-agency coordinating group, 
which he expects to meet monthly in the future.  He also 
staffs the Council of Ministers, chaired by the Prime 
Minister, in discussions on CT issues. 
 
4. (SBU) Joustra said his mandate is to: 
 
- try to coordinate the CT activities of service and policy 
agencies and Ministries in a better way; 
 
- evaluate the whole Dutch CT system - policy and 
decision-making and implementation - and draft a new system 
which is more efficient and transparent; 
 
- increase public awareness of the threat and risk of 
terrorism (he said the government had "hardly any plans on 
how the public should react to a CT crisis"); 
 
- look at existing and planned CT legislation, determine 
whose lead is supposed to be followed (national vs. 
provincial vs. municipal), and what additional measures are 
needed; 
 
- coordinate with international CT efforts (he downplayed the 
importance of this aspect of his job) 
 
He has deliberately kept his staff small (2 assistants and a 
secretary), preferring not to build a rival bureaucracy but 
 
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to rely instead upon the government officials who are 
currently tasked with CT responsibilities.  His tenure runs 
through the end of the year. 
 
5. (C) Two recent incidents brought home to Joustra the need 
for his work.  Donner, Remkes, their Secretaries General and 
senior CT officials and Joustra met jointly with AIVD, the 
intelligence service, for the first time last week.  Joustra 
noted immediately the jurisdictional problems in getting 
information checked and shared between AIVD and the 
Ministries and among the Ministries themselves.  When AIVD 
said the security situation in the Netherlands had 
deteriorated somewhat recently, Joustra asked "what do we do" 
and no one knew what measures the government should to take. 
Joustra also said he asked his staff to compile a list of all 
of the CT schemes the government had announced and what had 
been done to implement them.  The list of schemes ran more 
than 40 pages, while only three pages  of them were marked 
with action taken.  Joustra said the system has to become 
simpler and more effective. 
 
6. (C) The DCM thanked Joustra for taking the time to meet 
with him so soon after his appointment.  Joustra noted the 
DCM was the first foreign visitor he had received.  The DCM 
offered Joustra whatever assistance the U.S. could provide, 
from information sharing to exchange of best practices to 
bringing in experts to setting up meetings, to facilitate his 
job.  Joustra said he would like to continue reviewing the 
situation first, but promised to meet again within 3-4 weeks 
to renew the discussion.  The DCM noted U.S. frustration with 
the compartmentalization of CT efforts within the Dutch 
government with the lack of information sharing between 
offices.  He also said the Dutch failed to see the link 
between criminal activity and terrorism - illicit money 
transfers, fraudulent documents, etc., and suggested the 
Dutch needed to look more broadly at the issue/threat of 
terrorism.  DCM also described U.S. concerns about 
cross-border mobility facilitators/"breeding grounds" in the 
Netherlands. 
 
7. (C) Joustra acknowledged DCM's description of Dutch 
stovepiping.  He also expressed interest in the American 
color-coded warning system, asking about its strengths and 
weaknesses.  He recognized the need to made a real conversion 
from a "threat-specific" response system to risk management. 
 
8. (C) COMMENT: Joustra clearly has a big job ahead of him. 
Unlike many Dutch officials, he did not hide behind the need 
for "consensus," in the hour plus meeting.  He noted the need 
to bring the appropriate people together to solve a problem 
and zeroed in on the need to ACT on CT information. Justice 
Minister Donner may have found the right person, a skilled 
bureaucrat experienced in crisis management and 
organizations, to take a fresh look at Dutch CT efforts and 
suggest reform.  We are also encouraged by his openness to 
the U.S.  He claimed he did not want to author just another 
blue ribbon panel report.  Nonetheless, engineering real, 
effective change in the Dutch CT policies and system is a 
formidable task.  END COMMENT. 
 
9. (SBU) Biographic Information: 
 
Tjibbe Herman Jan Joustra 
 
DPOB: February 6, 1951 in Hengelo, Gelderland Province, the 
Netherlands 
 
Married 
 
Fluent in English 
 
Studied law at Groningen University (his thesis was on 
American antitrust law), graduating in 1975 
 
1975-2001 Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries 
 
- Director of Legal and Managerial Affairs/Deputy Secretary 
General (1983-1987) 
- Secretary General (1987-2001) (the senior most bureaucrat 
in a Ministry - his SG colleagues speak very highly of 
him)(USDA notes that he did not come up through the Ministry 
on the policy, trade or international affairs side of the 
house) 
 
2002-2004 Organization for the Implementation of Workers' 
Insurance (UWV) (responsible for merging the government's six 
social security/pension schemes into one, with more than 30 
billion Euros in assets; he resigned in a dispute with the 
Social Affairs Minister who criticized the costs of Joustra's 
office renovations) 
 
l2004 Chair of the Joint Committee on 
Counterterrorism/National CT Coordinator 
SOBEL