LETTER OF INFORMATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2013
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: April 21, 1967
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-ROP83-00586R000300260009-4
Nor
S-E-C-R-E-T
21 April 1967
Y2MORANDUM FOR: Staff Personnel
SUBJECT: Letter of Information
GENERAL
1. FBIS Reorganization: A reorganization of the Foreign Broadcast
Information Service to integrate broadcast monitoring with publications
exploitation under common direction has been approved by higher authority
and will take effect 1 May 1967. The new structure provides two major
components to be headed by the Chief of Operations and the Chief of Production.
The designations "Editorial Division" and "Foreign Documents Division" will
no longer be employed.
The area of responsibility of the Chief of Operations will include
the Wire Services Staff (formerly the Wire Services Branch), the Field
Operations Staff, and foreign and domestic field bureaus. The Chief of
Production will be responsible for five divisions: the Propaganda Analysis
Division (formerly Radio Propaganda Division), the Publications Division
(including area branches of the former Editorial Division), the USSR Division,
Asia Division, and Europe, Africa, Latin America Division (the last three
composed of former FDD area branches).
Reference facilities will be located in the Publications Division
which will also be responsible for contractual translations within the
United States. The change in name for RPD does not imply a chance of mission.
The Liaison and Requirements Officer will be assigned to the Executive Staff.
The Administrative Staff will be enlarged. The administrative message
address form, "(Director)/(Officer)," will continue to be used by field bureaus.
(SECRET)
2. London Press Exploitation: The Chief, London Bureau, was in
Headquarters 17-21 April for consultations in connection with the establishment
of an overseas press exploitation unit in the London area, (SECRET)
3. Coverage of Greek Coup.: FBIS scored a 19-minute beat over the
Associated Press and a 20-minute beat over Reuters in reporting the coup
d'etat by Greek military elements on 21 April. At 0440 GMT the Athens "Army
Radio" announced that it had "taken control" of the country. The item, in the
form of an FYI, was filed by Mediterranean Bureau at 0446 GMT, reached
Headquarters at 0450, and was run on the Wire Service at 0451 GMT. The A.P.
report came at 0510 GMT. (FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
Group I
Excluded from automatic down-
S-E-C-R-E-T grading and declassification
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approvedfor Release 2013/08/21 : CIA--RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 21 April 1967
4. Cyprus Situation: Two of the Marines assigned to the FBIS guard
contingent were wounded, one seriously and one superficially, on 26 March
by rifle fire near the Turkish village of Kourou Monastir, 17 miles southeast
of Kyrenia. The Marines were wounded when the car they were driving was hit
by two bullets while they were attempting to turn around on a narrow road.
The rotation of the Turkish troop contingent took place without
incident on 1 April after the usual spate of threats and counterthreats by
the Turkish and Cypriot governments. The arrest of two Cypriots for complicity
in a Soviet espionage network and the subsequent expulsion by the Cyprus
Government of Soviet Embassy and Aeroflot officials resulted in a renewal of
attacks in the leftist press against American "espionage" radio stations on
the island. (SECRET)
5. African Bureau Situation: The political situation in Nigeria has
remained tenuous. In response to an FBIS request, the State Department has
approved Accra as a contingency site for the African Bureau should it no
longer be able to operate in Kaduna. (SECRET)
Communications from Kaduna continued to be a concern. With the advent
of the rainy season, tapes frequently had to be hand-carried to the Kaduna
Post and Telegraph from the bureau, and on occasion sent by air express to the
American Embassy in Lagos. (CONFIDENTIAL)
6. Bangkok Bureau: All
been completed. On 24 March,
the American Embassy, Saigon,
and lateral consumers, became
building projects at the Bangkok Bureau have
the bureau's full-duplex, allocated circuit to
from which material will be relayed to Washington
operational.
Two of the five monitors being transferred to Bangkok from the
Saigon Bureau arrived on PCS 17 April, with Headquarters receiving the first
editorial copy filed by the new bureau on 19 April. The initial item was a
message from Cambodia's Prince Sihanouk to Ho Chi Minh, broadcast by the
Phnom Penh radio. Bangkok assumed responsibility for regular Cambodian
coverage 24 April.
The Bangkok Bureau's first locally-hired monitor, a Thai-Lao lin ist,
entered on duty 22 March for training. Okinawa teletype supervisor
F-----H isited the bureau on TDY in mid-A ril for the training of three locally-
recruited teletypists. A second editor, completing the U.S. Staff, 50X1
has been authorized to proceed to Bangko TOM eaaquarters. (CONFIDENTIAL)
50X1
50X1
- 2 -
S-E-C-R-E-T
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 21 April 1967
7. Communist China Coverage: The Okinawa Bureau's Chinese cruising
monitor spent the second week of April at the Hokkaido Bureau surveying the
potential for improving coverage of North China regional stations during the
seasonal deterioration at Okinawa. By mid-April three of four new Chinese
monitors at the Okinawa Bureau had reported for training. (FOR OFFICIAL USE
ONLY)
-Foreign Dbcutents Division received ibrethen 500 issues of Chinese
Communist newspapers in March and the first two weeks of April. This.tottil
included 240 Of the provincial press, 197 of the Red Guard press, and 10
the metropolitan newspapers. China operations focused on the Red Guard press,
with 200 pages of summaries and highlights published in the daily FPIR-Far
East plus 400 pages in nine unclassified reports. (SECRET)
On 4 April the Wire Service began carrying a daily roundup of
dispatches from Japanese correspondents in Communist China which appear in
the Japanese press. The roundup, filed by the Tokyo Bureau, is receiving Wire
dissemination at the request of higher authority.
The Tokyo Bureau is being supplied with. an Ampex two-inch videotape
recorder which has been in standby status at the Key West Bureau. The
equipment, expected to be in service by July, will be used in monitoring
Tokyo television which carries extensive material on China.
The State Department has been asked to hire a second teletypist at
the Consulate General in Hong Kong to assist in the transmission of material
monitored by the BBC unit. The additional operator should serve to reduce
the excessive workload of the present teletypist and insure continuity of
communications through weekends and holidays. (CONFIDENTIAL)
Headquarters began supplying the secretary of the Organization's
"China Task Force" with material for a newsletter designed for Communist
China research and collection officers. (SECRET)
8.FacaSandStSents: At White House request, two reaction reports
on the Punta del Este conference were prepared. An initial report on world
reaction was carried on the FBIS Wire 18 April, with a second report, comprising
solely Latin American reaction, published as a Special Memorandum on 21 April.
At FDD request, the State Department had advised all Latin American posts to
expedite newspaper shipments for the period 12-21 April. The accelerated
receipt of the publications enabled FDD to contribute an extensive amount of
press materials to the reaction report.
- 3 -
S-E-C-R-E-a
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
I .
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 :CIA-R-DP83-00586R000300260009-4
Ns,
S-E-C-R-E-T
'OBJECT: Letter of Informations 21 April 1967
On 3 April several changes in the Editorial Division's Daily Report
format were put into effect. There were new outside covers, new inside
covers bearing a modified "warning" for the area books, a new "note" for the
"white book," and a new "contents" page for the "white book." The Daily Report
of 19 April was the largest on record, with a total of 286 pages for area
books, 74 for the "white book," and 16 for tables of contents, totaling 376
pages. A 30-page supplement to the Asia and Pacific Daily Report 14 April
contained the text of a speech by North Vietnam Defense Minister Vo Nguyen Giap,
as broadcast by the Hanoi radio, on the role of the militia in North Vietnam.
The Editorial Division initiated flew procedure in preparing a
supplement on the East German SED Party Congress. Speeches of secondary
importance taken from the press and not meriting wirefiling were typed
directly on mats at the German Bureau after being edited there. (CONFIDENTIAL)
9. Vietnam Special Services: The Director of the State Department Bureau
of Intelligence and Research expressed appreciation for a study of Hanoi
claims of civilian casualties from U.S. air strikes prepared by RPD in mid-Many:
and requested that reports be provided ona.monthly basis. The first follow-up
report was issued as a Special Memorandum on 11 April. Background on Mosccw
propaganda references to shipment of military equipment to the DRV by sea was
given to the State Department, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and OCI.
The queries were prompted by Moscow's reaction to U.S. press reports of a
background briefing on transit of aid to the DRV by a high-level State
Department official. (CONFIDENTIAL)
The Saigon Bureau began sending FDD issues of the Hanoi army daily
Quan Doi Nhan Dan, reducing the receipt time in Headquarters by as much as
seven days. Steps were also taken to speed the forwarding of material
translated from the North Vietnamese press to Saigon for support of the
American Mission. (SECRET)
10. RPD Special Reports: Propaganda analysis special reports traced
references to the six supraprovincial party bureaus in CPR propaganda since
the beginning of the year (CD.274) and provided the customary analysis of
the CPSU May Day slogans (0.275). (CONFIDENTIAL)
11. Exploitation of Publications: Following
Africa exploitation responsibilities between Asia
Latin America Branch of FDD, the latter component
Mauritania, Ethiopia, and the Spanish territories
The readjustment was made in time to provide full
Africa" problem prior to the plebiscite in French
USE ONLY)
- 4 -
S-E7C-R-E-T
a reexamination of North
Branch and the Europe, Africa,
assumed coverage of
of North and Northwest Africa.
coverage of the "Horn of
Somaliland. (FOR OFFICIAL
I Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 :CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
S-E-C-R-E-T
SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 21 April 1967
A serial report on the organization, activities, and personnel of
East European academics of sciences, requested by several Organization
components and issued by our domestic contractual facility, has been launched.
This will fill a gap in providing press coverage of Sino-Soviet scientific
developments. (CONFIDENTIAL)
Recent significant reports from press sources included descriptions
of photographs of the SAGGER anti-tank weapon from a Czech publication,
published in the FPIR - Eastern Europe. Considerable interest has been shown
in the contractual translation of "Revolution Within the Revolution?," by
the guerrilla warfare theorist Debray, with 225 copies requested by consumers
over the normal distribution. (CONFIDENTIAL)
12. Smola]. Services: Copies of the Latin America Daily Report and the
Latin America Foreign Press Information Report were supplied to the U.S.
Secret Service from 20 March to 14 April in connection with the President's
trip to Punta del Este. The publications were used to brief Secret Service
agents on developments related to the conference and provide background
material on the area. The Secret Service asked that FBIS provide a similar
service whenever the President is touring abroad.
The East Coast Bureau, in response to an Organization request,
wirefiled to Punta del Este the Spanish text of a Prensa Latina item on a
Dominican leftist organization's expressed support for the Bolivian guerrilla
movement. East Coast, Panama, and Key West bureaus continued to supply an
interested component tapes of anti-Bolivian Government material broadcast
by Havana Radio.
In response to a State Department request, Headquarters began
forwarding a copy of the Saigon-Cholon press review, produced by the Saigon
Bureau, to the Republic of Vietnam Embassy in Washington. Copies of an
article and speech by North Vietnam's Defense Minister Giap as published in
the Daily Report were sent to U.S. Army Headquarters, Pacific, in response
to a request from Gen. Phillip Davidson relayed by the Okinawa Bureau.
A list of all statements attributed to American prisoners of war
was compiled at the request of an Organization component. Headquarters will
keep an updated list of all FBIS-monitored statements attributed to POW's.
The London Bureau, at the request of the State Department, processed
and filed to the American Embassy in Tripoli a Moscow commentary on Soviet-
Libyan relations. London, in collaboration with the Austrian Bureau, also
supplied the American Embassy in Nicosia, at Ambassador Belcher's request, an
article in Pravda on Cyprus which was being publicized in the island's
communist press. (SECRET)
- 5 -
S -E -C -R -E-T
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 :CIA-IDP83-00586R000300260009-4
Nay
S-E-C-R-E-T
SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 21 April 1967
13. Lateral Services: The American Embassy in Teheran requested that .
the Mediterranean Bureau wirefile all processed items from Radio Peyk-e Iran,
a clandestine radio broadcasting in Persian, and airmail program summaries
to the embassy. On 10 March the London Bureau began supplying the Presentation
Division of the Fleet Operations Control Center, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe,
with the FBIS Bulletin and the Soviet/East European Roundup.
The German Bureau has conducted a survey of recipients of the Bureau-
published "Weekly Report on the East German Press." Of 63 replies received,
54 consumers evaluated the Report about equally as being either "Of considerablz:
value" or "Of value." (SECRET)
The Naval Oceanographic Office at Suitland, Md., was added to the
list of consumers directly receiving the FBIS Shipping and Fishing Briefs.
The Oceanographic Office said the briefs provided "unique information of a
technical nature unavailable from any other source." (FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
14. Visits and Briefin
s: The DDI visited the Saigon Bureau on 14 March,
OSI, visited the Key West Bureau on 30 March. (SECRET) 50X1
Maj. Gen. Marvin C. Denler, USAF, scheduled to take over as senior
member of the U.N. Command in Korea on 1 May, was briefed at Headquarters on
FBIS coverage of North Korea, lateral services to his command, and FBIS
analysis functions. On 30 March, Dr. Bruce Billings, Vice President of
Taborator Operations, Aerospace Corporation and member of the USAF Scientific
Advisory Board, and visited the 50X1
Hokkaido Bureau. Lt. Barry M. Weinman, briefing officer of the Fleet
Operations Center, USNAVEUR, visited the London Bureau 16 March to survey
materials available for briefing Adm. J. S. Thach, CINCUSNAVEUR. (CONFIDENTIAL)
50X1
50X1
(UNCLASSIFIED)
The Chief, Saigon Bureau visited the Bangkok Bureau 21-26 March in
connection with administrative arrangements for the transfer of five monitors
from Saigon to Bangkok. The Chief, Hokkaido Bureau, was in Tokyo 19 April
for a review of architectural and engineering plans for the new Hokkaido
station, On 22 March, the Chief, Key West Bureau, visited in Miami Mr. Henry
Taylor, U.S. State Department coordinator on Cuban affairs, who praised the
bureau's efforts and found in particular that telephone alerts on important
developments were of "immense value." (FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
- 6 -
S-E-C-R-E-T
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approvedfor Release 2013/08/21 :CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
New
S-E-C-R-E-T
SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 21 April 1967
Chief, Southeast
European Satellites Section, FDD,
Satellites Section, FDD, attended a
for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
(FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
50X1
50X1
and
Mid-East European
meeting
in Washington
of the American Association
30 March-1 April.
Monitor
and technician of the Austrian
50X1
Bureau,
and senior
Russian monitor for the BBC Monitoring
50X1
Service,
States.
visited briefly at Headquarters
(UNCLASSIFIED)
during personal visits to the United
'
15.
ADP Plan: A five-year
plan on ADP (automatic data processing)
applications for FBIS was forwarded to higher authority. The plan envisages
four projects: a Daily Report pre-editing system, a Daily Report post-editing
and mat production system, communications analysis for management purposes,
and production of the "Broadcasting Stations of the World" publication.
(SECRET)
FIELD OPERATIONS AND ENGINEERING
16. Broadcasting Developments: On 20 April, Radio Moscow began
announcing the spring and summer schedules which indicated a doubling of
broadcast time for both Cambodian and Lao. A new clandestine operation from
North Korean transmitters, "Radio South Korea Liberation," was first
intercepted by FBIS on 31 March. The station broadcasts material critical
of the government of the Republic of Korea during two one-hour programs daily
for South Korean listeners. The Okinawa Bureau is covering. (FOR OFFICIAL
USE ONLY)
17. USSR TV Construction: MOS has made available more than 800 reports
on USSR microwave and television construction for an Organization project.
Bureaus are requested to flag such items, "Copy to MOS," (SECRET)
18. FDD Support of MOS: FDD has arranged to provide MOS every six months
with the published radio and television schedules of all Latin American
countries. (FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
19. Bangkok Bureau Communications: The Bangkok Bureau on 24 March
became a tributary of the American Embassy in Saigon and was assigned the
routing indicator RUNSEMS. To facilitate relay of material for Bangkok by the
American Embassy, Saigon, the indicator BK should be inserted on the UNCLAS
line of messages. The common-user indicator for Amembassy, Bangkok, RUMTBK,
should be used only when FBIS communications to Saigon and Bangkok are Out,
and then only for high precedence traffic inasmuch as there are no electrical
communications between Amembassy Bangkok and the Bangkok Bureau. (FOR
OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
- 7 -
S-E-C-R-E-T
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 :CIA-R-DP83-00586R000300260009-4
vow
S-E-C-R-E-T
SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 21 April 1967
20, Field Bureau Construction: The main construction contract for the
Caribbean Bureau is now 57.2 percent completed. The contractor continues to
be behind schedule. Two large shipments of electronic parts and equipment
from Headquarters have arrived at the site. Prefabrication work by FBIS
personnel has started in the auxiliary building shop. The Caribbean Bureau
access road has been redesigned to eliminate possible flooding. (UNCLASSIFIED)
ADMINISTRATION
21. Gamma Globulin for Puerto Rico. The Office of Medical Services has
determined that gamma globulin is not required for assignment to Puerto Rico.
However, this immunization will be administered at Headquarters to those
employees who request it. (ADMIN--INTERNAL USE ONLY)
22. Staff Dependents Born Overseas. Employees are reminded, when
returning to the United States from an overseas assignment, to apply for a
Certificate of Citizenship for children born during that assignment. Forms
should be requested from Headquarters Administrative Staff. (ADMIN--INTERNAL
USE ONLY)
23. Pen and Ink Changes
Account of:
(Employee's Name)
c/o American Storage Company
1910 - 47th Avenue, N.E.
Beaver HeiRhts Maryland
24. Regulatory Issuances. The following regulatory issuances were
disseminated: (SECRET)------
? 8 -
S-E-C-R-E-T
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
50X1
50X1
50X1
50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 :CIA-RbP83-00586R000300260009-4
Nue
S-E-C-R-E-T
SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 21 April 1967
50X1
25.
Honor Awards,
were presentee
50X1
with Certificates
of Merit
witn Distinction on 6 April for voluntarily
accepting physical danger to assure continuity of broadcast monitoring and
establishing emergency communications during the 15-17 January 1966 military
coup in
Nigeria. (CONFIDENTIAL)
26.
Training. Chief, USSR Branch, FDD, attended a
50X1
two-week
seminar (3-14 April), Skills and Goals of Management, conducted by
the Civil
Service Commission
its Executive Seminar Center, Kings Point,
New York.
Deputy Chief, Engineering Staff, is attending
50X1
a two-week
seminar (17-26 April),
Effects of Technological Development, which
is also being held at the Executive Seminar Center, Kings Point, New York.
(ADMIN--INTERNAL USE
ONLY). '
.
On 21 March,
Asia Branch, FDD, returned from advanced
50X1
Chinese training at FSI
Tai-chung.
(SECRET)
PERSONNEL
22.
New Employees
Assignment
Analyst, Bloc Internal Affairs Br., RPD
50X1
Editor, USSR/EE Branch, Editorial Division
Chief, Support Branch, Administrative Staff
Editor, Far East Branch, Editorial Division
- 9 -
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-R-DP83-00586R000300260009-4
S-E-C-R-E-T
SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 21 April 1967
28. Etta.
From
To
50X1
Editor
Editor
Editorial Division
East Coast Bureau
Cruising Monitor
Okinawa Bureau
Info Specialist, MOS,
Field Operations Staff
Publications Supv.
Foreign"Documents Div.
Adm Assistant, B&F Br.,
Administrative Staff '
Editor
Editor
Editorial Division
East Coast Bureau
Adm Clerk
Secretary
Okinawa Bureau
Administrative Staff
Editor
Editor
Editorial Division
East Coast Bureau
29.
Resignations
From
30. TDY in Headquarters
Librarian, Editorial Division
Transcriptionist, Foreign Documents Division
Teletypist, West Coast Bureau
Secretary, Foreign Documents Division
Driver, Caribbean Bureau
Clerk Typist, Foreign Documents Division
Chief, London Bu
return to Loncon Bureau.
Director
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
- 10 -
S-E-C-R-E-T
I Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260009-4
50X1
50X1
50X1