WEEKLY REPORT PREPARED EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE SENIOR INTERDEPARTMENTAL GROUP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00826A001600010020-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 2006
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: January 23, 1967
• Content Type: IR

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Secret
DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence Report
Weekly Report
Prepared Exclusively for the
Senior Interdepartmental Group
Secret
44
23 January 1967
No. 0394/67
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Secret
WARNING
This document contains information affecting the national
defene of the United States, within the meaning of Title
18, sections 793 and 794, of the US Code, as amended.
Its transmission or revelation of its contents to or re-
ceipt'Iby an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
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EXCLUDED FROM AUTOMATIC
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DECLASSIFICATION
Secret
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Page
1. Pre-election Tensions in Nicaragua
and El Salvador . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Israel-Syria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Thailand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Cambodia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
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1. PRE-ELECTION TENSIONS IN NICARAGUA AND EL SALVADOR
Violence has already marred the campaign for the
5 February elections in Nicaragua. Disquiet may also
be expected in El Salvador until the 5 March elections
there are over.
Nicaragua's uneasy political calm was broken on
22 January following a large opposition rally in
Managua. Several are dead and scores wounded as a
result of shooting which began after national guards-
men tried to disperse milling mobs with fire hoses.
What effect this outbreak will have on the elections
is not known at this time.
El Salvador, on the other hand, has had free elec-
tions since the present government came to power in
1961 and hopes to maintain this record. Many Salva-
dorans are apprehensive, however, realizing that demo-
cratic procedures are not deep rooted and that there
are still those who see force as the only means of
change. Only last week tension increased when plans
for a right-wing military coup became known.
23 January 1967
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The forthcoming meeting of Israel and Syria on
their border dispute offers some slight hope for a
reduction of tension, but the session will not
touch on the critical issue of Syrian-supported
sabotage missions into Israel.
Although Israeli Prime Minister Eshkol says
his government has refrained from immediate retalia-
tion for these continuing forays because it wants
to exhaust political and diplomatic resources in
an effort to maintain peace, it was Israel which
insisted that it would only discuss cultivation in
the demilitarized zone (see map) at the upcoming
meeting, which probably will convene on 25 January.
Israel is trying to avoid a debate on the more
basic issue of its disputed claim to sovereignty
over the zone. The impasse over that claim--which
is not recognized by either the UN or the US--has
virtually paralyzed the UN armistice commission
since 1951 and has been "the main origin and cause
of tension and incidents" along the border, accord-
ing to a UN report of early January.
Despite warnings last week by Israeli Foreign
Minister Eban that the meeting, if it were to
succeed, could not take place against a background
of "shots and explosions," an Israeli Army announce-
ment on 20 January stated that another mine had been
discovered near the border on a road which had been
swept by a mine detection patrol only the previous
day. An official organ of the ruling Baath Party
in Damascus had earlier stated that Syrians could
not be compelled to "act as guards for the Israel
border" by preventing strikes by Palestinian infil-
trators.
In the absence of any sign that the sabotage
incidents will cease, the danger of Israeli retalia-
tion against Syria will remain acute, particularly
should these cause additional
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The Thai Communist Party (TCP) has evidently
been playing an active role in organizing and di-
recting the subversive movement in northeast Thai-
land.
There is some indication that the TCP may be
moving toward a closer public association with the
various Thai subversive fronts. The clandestine
Voice of the Thai People radio carried a TCP com-
muniqu6 for the first time on 7 January. The party
made specific reference to the Peking-based Thai
Patriotic Front, although it did not indicate an
association with it.
Communist activity in the northeast has been
highlighted in recent weeks by attacks on isolated
bridges and roads, in what appears to be a new ef-
fort to restrict the mobility of government troops.
At least two small-scale ambushes and numerous skir-
mishes have also been reported, but the majority of
these were the result of government initiatives.
The bulk of the Communist terrorist activity con-
tinues to be assassinations, forced propaganda meet-
ings, and minor harassments of government outposts.
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The government of Prime Minister Lon Nol is tak-
ing an increasingly active role in the day-to-day
conduct of Cambodian affairs.
The government's desire to assume greater re-
sponsibility in part reflects the personalities and
broad experience of Lon Nol and the cabinet. It may
also be symptomatic of a general reluctance on the
part of the Phnom Penh elite to be bound by Sihanouk's
leftist policies, with which they have long been un-
sympathetic, and to pay unquestioning obedience to
some of the excesses of Sihanouk's autocratic rule.
Sihanouk is now in France on an oft-postponed
rest cure. His abrupt departure on 6 January has
prompted rumors in Phnom Penh that he may have left
under duress, but these appear to be without founda-
tion. Before his departure, Sihanouk indicated a
shuffle in cabinet posts might occur following his
return, although he has stated that the ton Nol gov-
ernment would continue on until at least the end
of 1967.
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