US embassy cable - 05MADRID1010

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MADRID 001010 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DOJ FOR TED ULLYOT AND BRUCE SWARTZ 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/16/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PTER, SP 
SUBJECT: ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES MEETINGS WITH SPANISH 
COUNTERPARTS 
 
REF: MADRID 983 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Bob Manzanares; reasons 1.4 (B) and (D 
). 
 
1. (C) Summary.  Attorney General Alberto Gonzales held 
bilateral meetings with Minister of Interior Jose Antonio 
Alonso and Minister of Justice Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar on 
the margins of his March 10-11 visit to Spain to represent 
the USG at the commemoration honoring the victims of the 
March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings.  Attorney General 
Gonzales extended invitations to both ministers to visit 
Washington for meetings with him and other USG law 
enforcement, judicial, and security agencies; both accepted 
and said they would follow up with proposed dates.  The 
discussion with Interior Minister Alonso focused on 
counterterrorism cooperation and meeting participants 
identified specific new projects on which to collaborate.  At 
the Ministry of Justice, the Attorney General and Minister 
Aguilar discussed Spain's efforts to combat terrorism and 
organized crime.  Aguilar invited Attorney General Gonzales 
to attend a June 2006 conference of Latin American Ministers 
of Justice in the Canary Islands.  Following the meeting, the 
two sides released a joint statement announcing the formation 
of a working group to study ways to improve counterterrorism 
cooperation (see para 9).  The atmosphere in both meetings 
was warm and friendly, laying the groundwork for productive 
meetings in Washington for the two ministers.  End Summary. 
 
//MINISTER OF INTERIOR// 
 
2. (C) Attorney General Gonzales, accompanied by Charge, AG 
Chief of Staff Ted Ullyot, and Deputy Assistant Attorney 
General Bruce Swartz met with Minister of Interior Alonso on 
March 10 following the conclusion of the Madrid Summit on 
Democracy, Terrorism, and Security.  Alonso was accompanied 
by Deputy Minister of the Interior Antonio Camacho (DCI 
equivalent), Senior Adviser on Terrorism Fernando Reinares, 
and Foreign Policy Adviser Arturo Avello.  Attorney General 
Gonzales began by thanking Alonso for Spain's close 
cooperation on counter-terrorism investigations and invited 
Alonso to Washington for meetings with USG counterparts. 
Alonso thanked the Attorney General for the invitation and 
said his staff would follow up with the Embassy to set a 
date. 
 
3. (C) In a side discussion with Deputy Minister Camacho, 
Swartz suggested that it could be useful to strengthen 
bilateral cooperation against terrorism and organized crime 
by working on specific projects to build up contacts between 
Spanish and USG law enforcement officials.  Swartz ventured 
two possibile projects: 
 
A) Meetings between counterterrorism experts from each side 
working on the March 11 Madrid train bombings case to share 
information that may help close remaining investigative gaps. 
 On the USG side, participants would include agents from the 
FBI's New York Field Office. 
 
B) Meetings between experts from each side working on 
identity theft cases perpetrated by Russian organized crime 
groups.  U.S. Secret Service, FBI, and prosecutors could 
represent the USG on this issue. 
 
Camacho responded enthusiastically to Swartz's proposal. 
 
//MINISTRY OF JUSTICE// 
 
4. (C) Attorney General Gonzales met with Minister of Justice 
Aguilar on March 11, accompanied by Charge, Ullyot, Swartz, 
and Acting Legat Lou Arguello.  Aguilar's team included 
Deputy Minister of Justice Luis Lopez Guerra, Elvira Tejeda 
of the Spanish Attorney General's office, and other senior 
advisers.  Attorney General Gonzales invited Aguilar to visit 
Washington and Aguilar accepted the invitation.  Minister 
Aguilar invited the Attorney General to attend the June 2006 
Conference of Latin American Ministers of Justice, which 
Spain will host in the Canary Islands.  Attorney General 
Gonzales said he hoped he would be able to attend, but did 
not commit to the event. 
 
5. (C) Attorney General Gonzales discussed the Patriot Act 
and asked Aguilar whether he felt Spain had sufficient laws 
in place to confront terrorism.  Aguilar said he was 
confident that Spain's current law were strong enough, 
pointing out that many had been put in place during the 
government's decades-long struggle to subdue ETA terrorism. 
He noted the considerable international debate regarding USG 
counter-terrorism policy since the September 11 attacks and 
said that it was not Spain's place to "interfere" with USG 
policy unless there was a specific Spanish interest.  Aguilar 
cited the case of the Spanish-national Guantanamo detainee 
Hamed Abd al Rahman Ahmed, returned to Spain in February 
2004, as one such case.  Attorney General Gonzales said that 
the USG had no interest in unnecessarily detaining foreign 
nationals at Guantanamo, but wanted assurances that receiving 
countries could prevent transferred individuals from 
participating in future terrorist activities.  He said that 
the President had determined to act boldly against terrorism, 
but accepted the U.S. courts' authority to set the limits of 
the USG's response. 
 
6. (C) Aguilar reflected on the difficulty of managing his 
broad portfolio, which includes, for example, oversight of 
the government's relations with religious organizations, 
supervision of immigration policies and procedures, and 
ensuring compliance by Spanish entities with equal 
opportunity laws for women.  He discussed the ongoing 
sea-change in Spain's demographic and religious landscape, 
with much of the change being driven by a massive influx of 
immigrants from Morocco, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin 
America. 
 
7. (C) On bilateral judicial cooperation, the respresentative 
from the Spanish Attorney General's office expressed hope 
that Spain and the USG could build on the December 2004 
signing of the bilateral protocol to the U.S.-EU Mutual Legal 
Assistance (MLAT) and Extradition treaties to streamline the 
procedures for MLAT requests and work together on terrorism 
finance issues.  The Attorney General said he looked forward 
to making progress with Spain on both matters and the USG 
participants repeated the suggestions in para 3 for joint 
action on the March 11 investigation and on identity theft by 
Russian organized crime groups. 
 
//COMMENT// 
 
8. (C) The visits to Washington of Ministers Alonso and 
Aguilar will represent an excellent opportunity to deepen our 
counter-terrorism cooperation with the GOS, as well as to 
discuss related issues such as border security, passport 
security, and judicial cooperation.  Also, Minister of 
Interior Alonso is a trusted personal friend of President 
Zapatero and it would be useful to impress upon him the USG's 
broader objectives/concerns with respect to U.S.-Spain 
relations.  We will work with both ministers to arrange 
travel dates and will follow up with recommended meetings in 
Washington for each. 
 
//TEXT OF JOINT AG-MOJ STATEMENT// 
 
9. (U)Begin Text: 
 
JOINT STATEMENT BY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO 
GONZALES AND SPANISH JUSTICE MINISTER JUAN FERNANDO LOPEZ 
AGUILAR REGARDING THE CREATION OF AN EXPERT WORKING GROUP 
DEDICATED TO COOPERATING MORE CLOSELY ON COUNTER-TERRORISM 
INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS 
 
March 11, 2005 
 
The horrific events here in Madrid one year ago today and 
those of September 11th in the United States demonstrate that 
terrorism presents a serious threat to both our great 
nations, and the rest of the world.  Combating this threat is 
a common interest we all share.  The United States of America 
and the Kingdom of Spain realize that truly effective 
international cooperation is absolutely vital to combating 
this threat.  While the current level of cooperation between 
our two countries in combating terrorism is excellent, we 
recognize that we must always strive to improve in this area. 
 
Consequently, on this important day, the United States 
Attorney General and the Spanish Minister of Justice along 
with the Spanish Attorney General wish to announce the 
creation of an expert working group, including both Spanish 
and U.S. terrorism prosecutors and experts in international 
cooperation, dedicated to finding ways to cooperate even more 
closely in counter-terrorism criminal investigations and 
prosecutions.  The group will meet regularly to exchange 
experiences and methods for conducting such criminal 
investigations and seek ways to improve cooperation in 
combating international terrorism. 
 
End Text. 
MANZANARES