MONTHLY REPORT--JORDAN BUREAU--JANUARY 1983

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86-00040R000100220011-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 19, 2008
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: February 8, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2008/03/19: CIA-RDP86-00040R000100220011-9
8 February 1983
MJN 8303
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
THROUGH: Chief, Operations Group
SUBJECT: Monthly Report--Jordan Bureau--January 1983
An electrical fire on the evening of 19 January in the main
breaker panel in the basement of the apartment building housing
Deputy Chief and two other American families, as well STAT
as a number of Jordanians, forced an evacuation of the building
and senior STAT
and caused some inconvenience, but no injuries .F_
editor were enjoying drinks together when they STAT
observed that the atmosphere seemed unusually hazy for that point
in the evening (neither had finished their first yet). Looking
into the hall at about the same time as all the neighbors, they
found it wasn't what they were drinking after all; the stairwell
was filling quickly with acrid smoke from burning insulation. Of
course, there was no panic among these hardy veterans of countless
fire drills from their kindergarten years onward, so everyone
headed for the exit in an orderly fashion. Several of the residents
then went to the basement parking area and put oUt the flames long
before the local fire brigade arrived on the scene, about a half
hour later. There was no damage to the apartments, but the
incident left the building without power or telephones for several
days. So the homeless tenants, along with their stocks of frozen
food, were taken in by friends in the community for a few days
while the wiring was being repaired. for the FBIS "victim,"
did her waiting accompanying on a tour of the pharaonic STAT
monuments of sunny Upper Egypt.
Monitorial/Editorial
1. At FCS' request Jordan Bureau sampled Baghdad Corner of
Arab Egypt 11-17 January. Our sampling showed basically no change
in the programming or the contents of the programs since our last
sampling in July 1982. The commentaries still deal mainly with
the repercussions of the Camp David accords and normalization of
relations between Egypt and Israel. There was no direct criticism
of Egyptian President Husni Mubarak nor any commentaries on Iraqi-
Egyptian relations.
u PF fin,. .,?~;~ 11^
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Page Two
MJN 8303
2. At the request of USINT/Baghdad, Jordan Bureau began texting
the Iraqi Ba'th party congress report which was published in the
newspaper ATH-THAWRAH. After completing the first two chapters, a
total of 40 takes, we terminated processing since the material
was very basic and largely of a historical nature. The remainder
of the very lengthy report will be processed and published by JPRS.
3. Following repeated requests in the latter half of this
month from Nicosia Bureau for backstopping Cairo MENA, the Bureau
began printing Cairo MENA in Arabic daily from 1800 GMT until COB
as of 3 February.
III. ADMINISTRATION
A. Personnel
1. The Bureau received about 120 responses to its late
December newspaper ad for an Arabic monitor, and 12 of the applicants
were selected for testing during January. Of these, only three
scored well on the test. A decision on hiring will be made within
the next few weeks, bringing the Bureau's monitoring staff back to
full T/O.
2. Monitor trained
was promoted to monitor,
FSN 8, effective 9 January. On
Samir Al-Athem received a PSI.
same date, teletype operator
B. Building and Grounds
Renovation of the Bureau's former teletype workshop area and
its conversion into office space for the deputy chief was completed
at the end of the month. The project, which has been awaiting the
GSO c_arnenter's attention since September, provides Deputy Chief
a small private office near the operations area. Up
till now-,--the deputy chief has.shared the Bureau chief's office on
the ground floor, an area too isolated from day-to-day operations.
At the same time, the carpenter installed a sliding window between-
the slot editor's desk and the teletype room to alleviate the noise
at the editor's desk.
STAT
STAT
STAT
L~ I o,A'- nZ? 1I~li u4dd",: VlJ,)3
Approved For Release 2008/03/19: CIA-RDP86-00040R000100220011-9 1
 Approved For Release 2008/03/19: CIA-RDP86-00040R000100220011-9
Page Two
MJN 8303
2. At the request of USINT/Baghdad, Jordan Bureau began texting
the Iraqi Ba'th party congress report which was published in the
newspaper ATH-THAWRAH. After completing the first two chapters, a
total of 40 takes, we terminated processing since the material
was very basic and largely of a historical nature. The remainder
of the very lengthy report will be processed and published by JPRS.
3. Following repeated requests in the latter half of this
month from Nicosia Bureau for backstopping Cairo MENA, the Bureau
began printing Cairo MENA in Arabic daily from 1800 GMT until COB
as of 3 February.
III. ADMINISTRATION
A. Personnel
1. The Bureau received about 120 responses to its late
December newspaper ad for an Arabic monitor, and 12 of the applicants
were selected for testing during January. Of these, only three
scored well on the test. A decision on hiring will be made within
the next few weeks, bringing the Bureau's monitoring staff back to
full T/O.
2. Monitor trained
was promoted to monitor,
FSN 8, effective 9 January. On
Samir Al-Athem received a PSI.
same date, teletype operator
B. Building and Grounds
Renovation of the Bureau's former teletype workshop area and
its conversion into office space for the deputy chief was completed
at the end of the month. The project, which has been awaiting the
GSO c_arnenter's attention since September, provides Deputy Chief
a small private office near the operations area. Up
till now-,--the deputy chief has.shared the Bureau chief's office on
the ground floor, an area too isolated from day-to-day operations.
At the same time, the carpenter installed a sliding window between-
the slot editor's desk and the teletype room to alleviate the noise
at the editor's desk.
STAT
STAT
STAT
L~ I o,A'- nZ? 1I~li u4dd",: VlJ,)3
Approved For Release 2008/03/19: CIA-RDP86-00040R000100220011-9 1