US embassy cable - 05MADRID2792

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MADRID 002792 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT PASS TO EUR/WE 
EUR/ERA FOR CHASE AND SAARNIO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER, EAIR, SP, EUN, Counterterrorism 
SUBJECT: DHS U/S BEARDSWORTH MEETS WITH SPANISH OFFICIALS 
ABOUT PASSENGER NAME RECORDS 
 
REF: BRUSSELS 2775 
 
1. (SBU) Summary.  DHS Acting Under Secretary for Border and 
Transportation Security visited Madrid July 19 to brief 
Spanish Ministry of Interior and MFA officials on DHS 
discussions with EU interlocutors regarding the value of 
Passenger Name Record (PNR) data as a tool for enhancing 
border security.  U/S Beardsworth requested Spain's support 
in EU councils in the runup to the September U.S.-EU joint 
PNR review.  While Deputy Interior Minister Antonio Camacho 
expressed concern regarding privacy rights and questioned the 
relevance of PNR data to preventing terrorist attacks, both 
Camacho and MFA Director General for International Terrorism 
Issues and Disarmament Angel Losada indicated their support 
for USG efforts to increase U.S.-EU security cooperation 
through the sharing of PNR data.  PNR will be a topic for 
discussion during the first meeting of the DHS-Spanish 
Ministry of Interior Working Group in late September in 
Washington.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) At both the Ministry of Interior and the MFA, U/S 
Beardsworth stressed the potential of PNR data to help U.S. 
and European authorities strengthen border security and deny 
terrorists freedom of movement.  He explained how PNR data 
detects relationships between passengers and acts as an 
important forensic tool in the wake of terrorist attacks. 
U/S Beardsworth showed how DHS used PNR to identify travel 
agencies that use false documents to facilitate travel by 
malafide passengers and how PNR had contributed to the Lodi, 
California terrorism investigation.   He also briefed GOS 
officials on his meetings in Brussels (reftel) and Berlin and 
on the upcoming U.S.-EU joint PNR review in September.  U/S 
Beardsworth reviewed the USG's experience with the Advance 
Passenger Information System (APIS) and the subset U.S. No 
Fly list, noting that DHS had avoided flight diversions in 
all but a very few cases.  He said the international 
community should work towards limiting the ability of 
terrorists to move freely across borders, just as we had 
cooperated to restrict their access to the international 
financial system. 
 
//INTERIOR MINISTRY VOICES PRIVACY CONCERNS// 
 
3. (SBU) Deputy Interior Minister Camacho expressed 
appreciation for the briefing and said he was familiar with 
PNR as a result of numerous discussions on the subject with 
EU counterparts.  Camacho said that one issue that seemed to 
undermine the value of PNR was that many of the perpetrators 
of recent attacks (September 11, the March 11, 2004 Madrid 
train bombings, and the July 7 attacks in London) were 
unknown and their names would not have emerged from any 
database.  Camacho argued that while some argued that 
democracies would have to "modify" themselves to counter new 
security threats, Spain believed it was important that 
existing privacy provisions remain intact.  He said that one 
of the terrorists' objectives was to force democratic 
societies to clamp down on their citizens and that Spain 
rejected any such approach.  In the case of the London 
attacks, said Camacho, the bombers came from within the UK's 
borders, diminishing the value of preventive programs such as 
PNR. 
 
4. (SBU) U/S Beardsworth said that privacy protection was 
just as important an issue in the U.S. as it was in the EU 
and that controls on the use of PNR data were intended to 
address sensibilities on both sides of the Atlantic.   He 
reviewed the tight procedures surrounding use of PNR data to 
meet privacy concerns and the fact that PNR data regarding 
ordinary citizens did not flow to the intelligence community. 
 These safeguards include filters and audit functions to 
ensure that data is protected and not accessible by 
individuals who would not have a direct need for the 
information.  Also, PNR does not allow the user to look 
beyond the surface of the information provided for a 
particular traveler; more detailed reviews required the same 
court authority as would apply to any law enforcement 
investigation. 
 
5. (SBU) Regarding the relevance of PNR as a tool for 
detecting impending attacks, U/S Beardsworth explained that 
PNR data may have proved very useful in helping detect 
patterns and associations that could have drawn the attention 
of law enforcement officials to the attackers in the cases 
cited by Camacho.  In the London attacks, for example, 
several of the suicide bombers had traveled to Pakistan and 
PNR data related to their visits may have been helpful to 
police.  U/S Beardsworth said that under UK laws, authorities 
could only look at case-specific data related to a single 
individual; PNR would allow them to obtain a much broader 
range of indicators and associations.  U/S Beardsworth 
discussed how the PNR system was reconfigured on July 7 
following the London bombings to help search for individuals 
who may had some relation to the attacks. 
 
6. (SBU) Camacho said that the GOS agreed with the USG in 
"nearly all respects" regarding the struggle against 
terrorism and specifically on the use of PNR data.  He asked 
U/S Beardsworth whether DHS had a specific request for Spain 
on PNR.  U/S Beardsworth said that he had included Spain, 
Germany, and France on his agenda because of their high level 
of counter-terrorism cooperation with the USG.  The USG hoped 
that Spain would be an advocate in EU councils for closer 
U.S.-EU collaboration on PNR.  Camacho said that Spain would 
be helpful and suggested that PNR be a topic for further 
discussion during the September meeting of the DHS-Ministry 
of Interior Working Group in Washington. 
 
7. (SBU) Deputy Interior Minister Camacho was accompanied by 
chief of staff Victoria Sanchez Sanchez, Director General for 
Infrastructure and Secure Materials (Schengen) Julio Martinez 
Merono, Senior Diplomatic Adviser Ambassador Arturo Avello, 
Senior Terrorism Adviser Juan Hidalgo, International Affairs 
Adviser Jose Ignacio Lopez Chicheri, and PNR adviser Luis 
Aparicio. 
 
//MFA UNDERSTANDS THE ISSUE// 
 
8. (SBU) U/S Beardsworth met separately with newly-named MFA 
Director General for International Terrorism Issues and 
Disarmament Angel Losada, who was accompanied by Deputy 
Director General for European Justice and Interior Issues 
Felix Fernandez-Shaw and Losada's adviser on international 
counterterrorism cooperation Carmen Bujan Freire.  Losada 
indicated a general understanding of PNR, but requested 
specific details as to its value as a deterrent for 
international travel by terrorist suspects.  U/S Beardsworth 
cited the KLM/Mexico case where, regardless of the purported 
intentions of the travelers, the USG made clear that it was 
monitoring movements by suspected extremists and was prepared 
to deny them access to U.S. airspace. 
 
9. (SBU) On U.S.-EU PNR cooperation, U/S Beardsworth 
discussed his meetings in Brussels with members of the 
European Parliament Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee (reftel) 
and his assessment that he had made progress in explaining 
privacy protection guidelines associated with PNR. 
Fernandez-Shaw said he was well aware of the LIBE Committee's 
concerns and assured U/S Beardsworth that the GOS understands 
that PNR does not violate any data protection guidelines.  He 
lamented that U.S.-EU discussions on PNR were being mixed up 
with an internal EU debate regarding personal data and 
privacy protections.  Fernandez-Shaw agreed with the need to 
clarify the details of PNR in order to respond to the LIBE 
Committee.  Freire emphasized this point as well, saying that 
governments had to explain to NGOs and to their publics that 
they had established firm parameters regarding the use of 
personal data.  She suggested that the London bombings may 
help crystallize public opinion in favor of increased 
security measures. 
 
10. (U) U/S Beardsworth was accompanied by Policy Advisor 
Dennis Sequeira of the DHS Office International Affairs, 
Policy Advisor Erik Shoberg of the DHS Office of Customs and 
Border Protection, TSA Liaison Jill Drury of USEU, and Staff 
Assistant David von Damm. 
AGUIRRE