MONTHLY REPORT--GULF BUREAU-FEBRUARY 1983

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86-00040R000100200011-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 31, 2008
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: March 2, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2008/03/31 : CIA-RDP86-00040R000100200011-1
MGF 003-83
2 March 1983
MEMORANDUM FOR Director, FBIS
THROUGH Chief, Operations Group
SUBJECT Monthly Report--Gulf Bureau-February 1983
After a hiatus of over 2 years we began receivin Tehran?,:,
television pro,ramming once again. A mid-day Arabic transmission
and an early evening hersian transmission have now been added
to regular coverage. Audio is generally good, but the video
quality varies widely from day to day, seemingly being very
sensitive to fluctuations in local weather conditions. We are
hopeful that with the onset of warmer, and more stable weather
our reception will improve even further.
We lost coverage of Tehran television in September 1980
with the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war when Tehran's booster
station in Abadan was put out of commission in the initial
Iraqi attacks on Iran.
II. OPERATIONS
A. Editorial/Monitorial
1. Our coverage of the early morning Tehran Persian casts
bore unexpected fruit on 7 February when Tehran announced the
start of the latest Iranian offensive against Iraq. This initial
report triggered a heavy flow of traffic combining to produce
the bureau's heaviest daily file ever--over 29,000 words.
Coincidentally, this all occurred on the first day of a
planned, and prolonged, outage of our regular communications
circuit through the embassy. However, our altroute circuit
through the Navy's local Administrative Support Unit provided
excellent service. The bureau received a pat on the back from
the Wire for its prompt reporting.
2. As noted earlier, we are again covering Tehran Persian
and Arabic television programming. However, reception of both
audio and video seems to be adversely affected by the late winter
wind and rain storms in the Gulf region. We expect reception
to improve as weather conditions stabilize with the coming of
summer. From our limited coverage so far it does not appear that
television will provide much material unique from radio programming.
However, as reception improves we should be able to provide worth-
while video footage on the Iran-Iraq war and on public appearances
by Khomeyni and other leading Iranian officials.
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 Approved For Release 2008/03/31: CIA-RDP86-00040R000100200011-1
1. On 7 February we lost our regular communications circuit
through the embassy for a period of 6-8 weeks for a planned
communications equipment upgrade. Since we had sufficient advance
warning of the outage we were able to establish effective communi-
cations through our altroute circuit via the Navy's local Adminis-
trative Support Unit and through our own telex hookup. We hand
carry pre-cut tapes to ASU several times daily, retrieving incoming
copy at the same time. While not ideal, things are working satis-
factorily. Hopefully by the end of March we'll. be back to normal.
1. Our latest Farsi/Dari/Urdu monitor-trainee arrived late
in the month and is settling in very nicely. He has had extensive
experience in Persian/English translation work, working for many
years in Tehran translating Persian newspaper items into English
for publication in Tehran's English-language papers. We expect
him to be totally operational in a very short time.
2. A son was born on 6 February to Arabic monitor STAT
and wife. Pleading that there is no Arabic e uivalent, STAT
___]declined bureau suggestions that he name his son
also didn't think much of FEEBUS He chose AYMAN
STAT
eau Chief
Approved For Release 2008/03/31 : CIA-RDP86-00040R000100200011-1