Cablegate: Canada Follow-Up Response to G8 Cash Courier

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PP RUEHGA RUEHHA RUEHQU RUEHVC
DE RUEHOT #0339 0662139
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 062139Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7467
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1099
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0918
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 2198
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0990
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 3347
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS 0627

UNCLAS OTTAWA 000339

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR S/CT (RANGASWAMY AND ANDERSON)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: CA KCRM KJUS OTRA PTER SNAR
SUBJECT: CANADA FOLLOW-UP RESPONSE TO G8 CASH COURIER
INITIATIVE

REF: A. OTTAWA 315

B. STATE 18273

Sensitive but unclassified

1.(sbu) in a follow-up response to ref b nonpaper on the G8
Cash Courier Initiative, Mark Moher, Senior Coordinator for
International Crime and Terrorism at the Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade, emailed Econcouns on
March 5. Text of the message follows below:

2. (sbu) Begin text of message:

"As I noted to you, it is Canada's intention to assist the
United States in finding workable solutions to facilitate
U.S. desire to advance the issue of cash couriers. This was
demonstrated by the Canadian Delegation in the 2007 Roma/Lyon
meetings in Berlin and again in February 2008 in Tokyo. Most
recently we also played a constructive role in negotiations
of the annual declaration for the OAS Inter-American
Committee Against Terrorism, where U.S. also sought to
include reference to cash-couriers.

"That being said, there seem to be several junctures where
our experts and analysts find some difficulties in
reconciling their findings and experiences with some U.S.
assertions. For example, in the recent OAS/CICTE declaration,
the U.S. had proposed language which referred to an
"increasing use of bulk cash smuggling and illicit cash
couriers to finance terrorist activities." Our experts find
it difficult to endorse statements such as these without
having the benefit of extensive analysis or ready access to
evidence which would support the same. In a similar vein,
this makes it difficult for us to endorse without
qualification the contention outlined in the draft G8 Threat
Assessment that 'an increasing number of terrorist groups are
likely to make more frequent use of cash couriers.'

"As I indicated, Canada remains supportive of U.S. efforts.
We would benefit in this respect from any evidence U.S.
authorities could share with our experts on this issue.
Moreover, we could be more helpful to your efforts provided
we had a better understanding of U.S. objectives (i.e. policy
objectives; programme objectives; focus of international
action; etc.) Finally, we wish to see the FATF as primarily
engaged in these matters. With our resources, we can only
make focussed contributions and the FATF remains our priority
mechanism in this field."

End message text.

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