THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 16 AUGUST 1976

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0006466740
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: August 16, 1976

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The President's Daily Brief
August 16, 1976
2
Top Secret
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2016/07/05 : CIA-RDP79T00024A000200010013-1
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Exempt from general
declassification schedule of EQ 11652
exemption category 5B(
declassified only on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
August 16, 1976
Table of Contents
Lebanon: The Christians have launched efforts to retake Pales-
tinian positions in the mountains east of Beirut and to
tighten the siege of Tripoli. The newly arrived Iraqi con-
tingent is moving to consolidate control of the Sidon-Beirut
highway. (Page 1)
Egypt-Syria: An exchange of denunciations over the weekend has
opened a new chapter in Egyptian-Syrian political warfare.
(Page 3)
Egypt-Libya: Egyptian officials assume Libya was behind the
bombing of a passenger train in Alexandria on Saturday.
(Page 4)
Notes: Angola; USSR-Cuba (Page 6)
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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MEDITE,RRANEAN
SZA
BEI H VT
LEBA
?Sannin
utey
Ayeturah
N w heavy fig
JA
DAMASCUS
YRIA
Gola
Heigh
CL,..68 6-78
MILES 20
0 KILOMETERS 20
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
LEBANON: Christian
forces announced yes-
terday that the bat-
tle to retake Pales-
tinian positions in
the mountains east of
Beirut had begun.
Both Christian and Pal-
estinian sources report
that heavy fighting has
been under way in or
near three towns in the
mountains since Friday
night.
IChrls-
tians began an infantry
and artillery attack
Saturday night on two
towns east of Tripoli,
apparently in a renewed
attempt to tighten the
siege of Palestinian
and leftist positions
in the port city.
A Christian offensive so soon after
the fall of Tall Zatar could en-
courage reprisals against Christian
communities even by less radical
Palestinians disinclined to retal-
iate for the Tall Zatar defeat.
Both Christian and Palestinian of-
ficials have indicated that the
Palestinians agreed late last
to evacuate positions in the moe:1'
tains east of the capital and were
negotiating the terms of a with-
drawal with Phalan es Part offi-
cials.
The Christians seem undeterred by
the prospect of reprisals. In a
broadcast that heralded the offen-
sive in the mountains, the Chris-
tian radio declared on Saturday
that the last Palestinian strong-
hold there could be easily overrun
and suggested that a Christian move
northward to Tripoli could allow
the Christians to "draw new geo-
graphical lines for Lebanon."
50X1
Palestinian and leftist spokesmen
are interpreting the latest Chris-
tian moves as aimed at partitioning
Lebanon. Phalanges Party leader
Pierre Jumayyil reinforced their
suspicions with a statement Friday
advocating a decentralized system
of separately administered Chris-
tian and Muslim areas.
--continued
1
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
Christian sources say
that the 2,100 Iraqi
militiamen who they al-
lege arrived in Lebanon
on Thursday have now
moved north to consol-
idate control of the
highway to Beirut.
Jumayyil proposed talks on his
federation scheme between Christian
and Muslim leaders, apparently di-
recting his appeal to traditional
Muslim leaders in an effort to ex-
clude leftist leader Kamal Jumblatt.
Jumblatt asserted on Saturday that
the loss of Tall Zatar had closed
all doors to negotiations, and he
called for a war of attrition
against the Christians and Syrians.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, apparently
fearing renewed bloodshed as a re-
sult of reprisals for the Tall Za-
tar defeat, have called for an Arab
summit to discuss the Lebanon sit-
uation. In carefully worded state-
ments that avoided placing blame or
taking sides, both urged that some
sort of concord among the Arabs is
essential lest the "deep hatred
and desire for revenge" now prev-
alent grow more intense.
The Iraqis are said to be building
fortifications along a stretch of
the road about half way to Beirut.
We are still unable to confirm the
size of the Iraqi contingent, 50X1
Syria's Interior Ministry announced
on Friday new restrictions on travel
between Lebanon and Syria, appar-
ently as a precaution against the
infiltration of Palestinian and
Iraqi saboteurs. Damascus has ex-
perienced a series of bombings in
recent weeks, and the Syrians prob-
ably fear further reprisals as a
result of the fall of Tall Zatar.
--continued
2
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
EGYPT-SYRIA: An ex-
change of denunciations
that began over the
weekend constitutes,
particularly in Egypt's
case, a new declaration
of political warfare.
In an official statement issued
Friday night, Egypt denounced Syria
and the Lebanese Christians as
traitors who have disgraced them-
selves by cooperating with Israel
to crush the Palestinians. The
statement predicted that the Syr-
ian leadership will fall along
with the Tall Zatar refugee camp
in Beirut. It warned "all these
traitors who call themselves Arabs
that the battle to purge them from
honorable Arab ranks has begun."
Although Egypt's statement seemed
to give official sanction to re-
cent hints in the Cairo press that
the Syrian regime should be top-
pled, there is little that the
Egyptians can do directly to bring
the Asad government down. They
could, however, step up their al-
ready considerable effort to rearm
Palestinian and leftist forces in
Lebanon.
Syria responded on Saturday with
an equally scornful but less threat-
ening official statement that re-
hashed old Syrian charges of Egyp-
tian cooperation with Israel and
for the first time publicly accused
Egypt of supplying arms to Pales-
tinian forces in Lebanon. Charging
that Cairo has consistently refused
to arm the Palestinians for opera-
tions against Israel, the state-
ment derided the Egyptians and
President Sadat for arming them
now and inciting them "to die in
the wrong place." The Syrian
statement appealed for support from
the Egyptian people but stopped
short of directly threating Sadat.
--continued
3
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
Damascus challenged
Egypt either to open
its borders for feda-
yeen action against
Israel or to send troops
to southern Lebanon to
stand with Syrian troops
against possible Israeli
intervention there.
EGYPT-LIBYA: Egyptian
officials are assuming
that Libya was behind
the bombing of a pas-
senger train in Alex-
andria on Saturday, al-
though they have no
firm evidence and have
apprehended no suspects.
The Syrians undoubtedly know that
Egypt is unlikely to risk a con-
flict with Israel by taking either
action; Syria has itself carefully
avoided such provocations. The
challenge clearly is designed to
embarrass the Egyptians by point-
ing up the insincerity of Egypt's
current support for the Palestin-
ians, and to turn Egypt's charges
of Syrian-Israeli collusion around
by accusing the Egyptians of the
same perfidy.
The pledge in Cairo's statement
that Egypt would stand "with all
its capabilities" by the side of
the Palestinians could indicate an
intention at least to reconsider
the possibility of sending Egyp-
tian troops to fight with the Pal-
estinians and leftists. This pos-
sibility reportedly was considered
and rejected last month. The
Egyptians are already assisting
in the transport of Iraqi militia-
men to Lebanon.
The bombing--probably the worst
terrorist incident in Egypt in
years--killed eight and injured
50.
Authorities have announced that
the explosives used were similar
to those used in previous inci-
dents known to have been Libyan-
inspired. The Egyptians are cer-
tain to use the bombing as further
evidence for their contention that
Libyan President Qadhafi poses a
threat to Egypt and the Arab world,
whether or not they obtain good
evidence of a Libyan connection.
--continued
4
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One Cairo newspaper has already
asserted that the incident provides
further proof that "indulgence" is
no longer possible with Qadhafi,
and President Sadat warned repeat-
edly in an interview published 50X1
just before the bombing that Qad-
hafi "will not escape from my hands
this time."
The Egyptians' frequent warnings
to Libya over the past few weeks 50X1
and the publicity given in recent
days to Egypt's "defensive" mili-
tary concentrations on the Libyan
border are probably also designed
in part to reassure the Egyptian
people that the government can pro-
vide adequate security against sab-
otage. The US embassy in Cairo re-
ports that many Egyptians are ap-
prehensive about frequenting pub-
lic places.
Libya's official news agency, re-
ferring to what it called Sadat's
recurrent attacks of "mental ill-
ness," yesterday urged all Arab
states to be wary of dealing with
Sadat because his behavior on all
issues has been irresponsible and
erratic. Although the Libyans are
unlikely to gain much sympathy for
their own position from other Arz60xi
states, their efforts to undermine
Sadat by highlighting his erratic
behavior may strike a responsive
chord among some Arab leaders/
--continued
5
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
The Angolan government
has Holden Roberto's
National Front on the
defensive, although the
guerrillas have made
several raids on gov-
ernment posts and fa-
cilities this month.
50X1
Two Soviet destroyers
will arrive in Cuba
late today or early
tomorrow, the first
visit by Soviet war-
ships in over a year.
NOTES
The National Front is handicapped
by reduced support from Zaire's
President Mobutu, who has stated
publicly that he is no longer as-
sisting the Front and that it no
longer has troops in Zaire. For
the past three months Mobutu and
other senior Zairian officials re-
portedly have refused to meet wi"
50X1
Holden Roberto.
Contrary to Mobutu's claim,)
/about 1,500 armed
guerrillas remain in Zaire(
Cuban specialists are assisting
the government's counterinsurgency
forces,)
The effectiveness
of government forces has not im-
proved, however, and the Cubans
reportedly are aware that a major
Cuban troop reduction could seri-
ously weaken the government.
Such visits normally occur about
twice a year. Moscow may earlier
have postponed sending ships to
Cuba in order to avoid attracting
additional US and international
attention to Soviet and Cuban in-
volvement in Angola.
The two destroyers en route to
Cuba served as escort ships for
the aircraft carrier Kiev on its
voyage through the Mediterranean
to the Northern Fleet area, part-
ing company with the Kiev west of
Ireland.
6
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