CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1953/12/17

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03003762
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: July 15, 2019
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2019
• Publication Date: December 17, 1953

0 Ai
a; 1
## -I pproved for Release: 2019/07/10
�
5(c)
/3 5(c)
3.5(c)
V./
17 December 1953
Copy No.
84
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
pocumEmr NO
NO CHANGE IN CLASS.
DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS 8 a
1:7:YT REVIEW DATE: CO2 9
AU 7H: WI 70-2
QATE: e6/2ar9 REVIEWER
Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
7Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762 3.5(c)
�.)Ls\_IVL. A.
SUMMARY
GENERAL
I. Beria and associates to stand trial (page 3).
2. Peiping presents aide-memoire to Pakistan on American "bases"
(page 4).
3. Satellites participating in North Korean reconstruction (page 4) .
4. USSR may seek German participation at proposed Berlin meeting
(page 5).
SOVIET UNION
5.
FAR EAST
6. Communists reportedly still holding 6, 000 South Korean prisoners
(page 6).
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
7. Iraq's chief of staff wants informal military talks with Iran (page 6).
2
3.3(h)(2)
3.5(c)
17 Dec 53
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
3.5(c)
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
Newe'� A. .d AS A. %L., A.
3.5(c)
GENERAL
Beria and associates to stand trial:
The sudden announcement that the case of
L. P. Beria and six of his close associates will be subject to the
hearing of a special session of the Soviet Supreme Court appears at
present to be a liquidation of Beria's followers in the secret police
rather than the opening gun in a general purge.
In the five months since Beria's arrest was
announced, the Soviet leaders have been quietly erasing his influence
from the MVD and the Caucasian Republics by various personnel
shifts. None of the six officials indicted as Beria's accomplices were
party leaders but all were directly connected with him through their
positions in the USSR's police organization and many had past associa-
tions with him in the Georgian Republic.
The announcement set no specific date for
the hearing, nor was there any indication whether it would be staged
publicly or held in camera. Both techniques were used during the
1930 purges.
The decision of the present Soviet "collective"
leadership to bring the case against Beria to a head at this time indi-
cates a belief that it is in firm control of the internal situation.
While the accusation formally connects Berta
with British intelligence efforts immediately following the Revolution,
this appears more as part of a necessary historical association than
as an indication that the USSR is launching a serious anti-Western
propaganda campaign.
-o -
17 Dec 53
3.5(c)
TOP SECRET
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
3.5(c)
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
3.5(c)
Peiping presents aide-memoire to Pakistan on American "bases":
Chinese Communist premier Chou En-lai
about 8 December presented to the Pakistani
ambassador an aide-memoire requesting con-
firmation of Peiping's belief that Pakistan
would�neither grant bases to the United States nor a ssneiatp ifcalf
3.3(h)(2)
a Midd e Eastern defense pact.
Chou stated that Peiping was concerned because of Pakistan's
proximity to the Chinese frontier and argued that Asians "must rely on
each other,"
3.3(h)(2)
Comment: Peiping's communication followed
a Soviet protest of 30 November and Chinese broadcasts denouncing the
American-Pakistani talks as a threat to the USSR, Communist China,
and Southeast Asia. Chou's appeal for Asians to "rely op each other"
illustrates the Chinese role in Sib-Soviet joint efforts to exploit Asian
"neutralist" sentiment.
Pakistan has been much less susceptible to
Peiping's maneuvers than have other Asian governments recognizing the�
regime.
Satellites participating in North Korean reconstruction:
Comment: North Korea concluded assist-
ance pacts with Rumania and Bulgaria in October and November.
Czechoslovakia and East Germany have also announced that they would
assist in North Korean economic rehabilitation.
- 4 -
3.3(h)(2)
TOP SECRET
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
17 Dec 53
3.5(c)
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
I J.
3.5(c)
The USSR and Communist China have
both signed pacts calling for material and technical assistance to
North Korea. Numerous reports indicate that large numbers of
Chinese construction workers have entered North Korea already.
USSR may seek German participation at proposed Berlin meeting:
The 16 December statement by Walter
Ulbricht, acting East German premier; welcoming Western accept-
ance of a Berlin conference, indicates East German anticipation
that the USSR will agree to the meeting.
Ulbricht% remarks suggest continued
Soviet insistence that a united Germany could follow an independent
foreign policy but could never be incorporated in a Western military
pact. The speech further indicates that the USSR may urge that East
and West German representatives be invited to the Berlin conference.
Another East German spokesman has proposed that a mixed German
commission prepare a program for the meeting.
the East
German government is preparing studies to show that the principles
of democratization laid down at Potsdam have been followed in East
Germany. Such studies would defend the East German claim to repre-
sentation at Berlin and support the Soviet desire for all-German elec-
tions without four-power supervision.
SOVIET UNION
- 5 -
3.3(h)(2)
3.5(c)
TOP SECRET
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
17 Dec 53
3.5(c)
'Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
J. LJ
3.5(c)
FAR EAST
6. Communists reportedly still holding 6,000 South Korean prisoners:
Two escapees from North Korean army
service,
claimed on 15 December that
6,000 South Korean troops are still being held in Communist labor
battalions in North Korea. They said that on about 22 September
1,000 captives demonstrated in Pyongyang demanding repatriation
and that other smaller riots have occurred from time to time.
The escapees also claimed that they were
forced into slave labor near Pyongyang and compelled to dig tunnels
for gasoline and ammunition storage and to repair roads, buildings,
and bridges.
Comment: This is the first evidence of
the magnitude of North Korean violation of the prisoner provisions
of the truce agreement, which provide that all prisoners be repatriated
or delivered to neutral custody.
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
7. Iraq's chief of staff wants informal military talks with Iran:
Iraq's chief of the general staff has informed 3.3(h)(2)
an American official that he believes the time
has arrived for informal Iraqi-Iranian military
talks in order to make plans for delaying any
Otetattaithrected through the two countries in an attempt to outflank
Turkey.
3.3(h)(2)
_ 6 _
Tor SECRET
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
17 Dec 53
3.5(c)
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
A ILI j.LiiiVJ A
3.5(c)
Comment: A principal deterrent to
collaboration between Iraq and Iran disappeared with the removal
of Mossadeq, but neither country will be able to build up an effective
defense without American military assistance. Iran may delay such
talks until it has assurances of receiving American support. It is
not likely, however, that any mutual defense agreement between Iran
and its neighbors would be possible until at least the oil dispute has
been settled and a Majlis is elected which is capable of carrying out
an effective domestic program.
7
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C03003762
17 Dec 53 3.5(c)