MONTHLY REPORT--NICOSIA BUREAU--JANUARY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP94-00798R000200200032-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 29, 2012
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: February 5, 1987
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/29: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200200032-8
2 C
MNC-7002
5 February 1987
MEMORANDUM FORa Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
THROUGH s Chief, Operations Group
SUBJECT 1 Monthly Report -- Nicosia Bureau,-- January
I. GENERAL
A. Work continues apace at the new bureau site. Mild weather for
most of the month has enabled the Contractor to resume work on
water-proofing the roof. This should be completed by mid-February at
which time we hope to begin work installing our rooftop antennas and
associated cabling. As finishing work progresses within the building we
will begin the task of pulling cables, installing telephone lines, and so
forth to the extent we are not in the way of the Contractor's work. The
Contractor has started closing the last portion of the
which had been left open as an equipment access. Entrance erimo the etee watl,
e
now be by the main entrance which should be completed by mid-February. will
The landscape architect is now on site drilling the borehole to provide
water for our green areas. Please see January's weekly filed by our Headquarters engineer for more detail on constructioneports
progress.
B. Eric Bowman, general manager of the BBC Monitoring Service,
visited the bureau 26-30 January. The four-day visit offered a
opportunity to discuss Bureau/BBL" coordination and bureau su
pt good
requirements. Mr. Bowman was most laudatory of the bureau's psu rt of t BBC coverage needs, noting at the beginning and conclusion of ourobusiness
discussions that there were no major problems in the Bureau/BBC
relationship. A separate report on Mr. Bowman's visit has been cabled to
headquarters.
C. Nicosia was the site of three minor bomb incidents in early
January, while a fourth incident occurred in Larnaca. On 3 JanaurY
found a "time bomb" near a kiosk in Nicosia's busy Ipiros Square. Theolice
English-language newspaper CYPRUS MAIL reported the next day that the
detonator went off, but failed to ignite the attached explosives. The
result was merely a loud bang. On 7 January, a municipal employee
contacted police to report a suspicious device found in a garden near
Nicosia's City Hall. 0 AGON, a local pro-government paper, later reported
that while there was a detonator, no explosives were attached.
On the evening of 8 January, bureau personnel alerted the Embassy's
Marine guards to intensive police activity outside our building on
Makarios Avenue. After contacting the police, the Marines advised that a
suspected bomb had been found in front of a travel agency just down the
street, and that the police intended to detonate it under controlled
conditions. Later, upon receipt of a Radio Monte Carlo report filed by
Jordan Bureau to the effect that a "large explosion" had taken place near
the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia and that "no information about casualties" was
available, the bureau telephoned the Wire to assure them that both the
Embassy and we were quite safe. Subsequent reports on the incident carried
by Nicosia radio were filed. Both the Embassy and the Wire expressed
appreciation for the alerts.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/29: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200200032-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/29: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200200032-8
Finally, a small quantity of dynamite placed in a drainpipe in the
city of Larnaca exploded on 10 Januar
tanks of an adJacent apartment buildin' causing minor damage to the water
I SIMERINI
reported later that a note was found near~theDpipepwarning apofer "new
explosions, with casualties," unless Amin Sulaymin Za'rur, who is serving
a 7-year prison sentence for r
released within a week. Possessing weapons and explosives, was g
Though there have been no direct claims of responsibility for these
four incidents, the independent paper 0 FILELEVTHEROS reports that
are "fully convinced" that the Islamic organization "the Party of God" "ice
(Hizballah) is responsible.
D. Late in January, the bureau installed BACH Version 2.1 for
computerized generation of message headers, replacing its earlier the
"homebrewed" PC header generation system, which had been in place for
about a year. The bureau makes extensive use of its four IBM PC's and XT's
for other purposes, as well. They are used to generate nearly all bureau
reports to Headquarters, bureau correspondence, bureau memoranda and s
notices, and various personnel work schedules; and to maintain the
bureau's SOP, inventories and accountable
lateral services system, and local cabinet andediplomaticslists,bamon 9
p
other things.
u s
II. OPERATIONS
A. Monitorial/Editorial
1. The bureau remained open around the clock on the night of 25-26
January to monitor the Phalangist-affiliated Voice of Lebanon (VOL) radio,
in view of the fact that the Oppressed on Earth Organization had twice
contacted this station earlier in the day to claim responsibility for a,
kidnapping four Beirut University College
profssorsree of whom
American, and to threaten that one of the fourewould,behkilled unlesare
Muhammad 'Ali Hamadah, suspected hijacker of a TWA airliner being held in
t
FRG' were released by midnight. The radio reported no further contact
from the group during the night. The bureau also kept a round-the-clock
open watch on VOL, the only 24-hour Beirut station monitored, for the
subsequent 2 days (an Arabic monitor on duty with editor and teletypist on
call), seeking Possible new reportage on the foreign hostages in Lebanon
and the whereabouts of Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite, working to
secure their release.
Given conflicting reports about the
Waite
since he left his hotel in West Beirut on 20oJanuaryktonApimeet ng with of the
kidnappers of foreigners being held in Lebanon, and the threats levele
d
a group calling itself the Islamic Jihad Organization for the Liberationby
of Palestine that it would "execute" the four
professors it claims to have
abducted if its demands are not met or if the United Statesrundertakes
military action against Lebanon, the bureau has liberally filed all
available information from Lebanese media on the hostage issue. any
2. Having been alerted b
on an iteaien given b y AFP and Beirut Domestic Service reports
Libyan AL-i1AL-'ARABI, a Beirut publication ?noteonMregular coveeladge, t to
bureau undertook to secure the 26 January pr, he
contained the interview, and filed it onthelfollowinghdayae which
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/29: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200200032-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/29: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200200032-8
3. The bureau assumed coverage responsibility for the 1815-1845 GMT
newscast broadcast by Tripoli Voice of Greater Arab Homeland (VOGAH) at
the outset of the month, given the BBC's reception difficulties. We have
also responded to repeated ad hoc requests from LD/BBC this month for
assistance in covering other casts from both VOGAH and Tripoli Domestic
Service by initiating backstop recording procedures for two nightly
Tripoli newscasts until BBC reception stabilizes.
4. Athens radio interrupted its transmission for 4 hours on 15
January in support of a work stoppage declared by the Greek General
Confederation of Labor.
5. The bureau extended its operating hours on 27 Janaury to
complete processing and filing of Egyptian President Husni Mubarak's
address to the ICU summit in Kuwait.
B. Lateral Services
1. The text of Egyptian President Mubarak's 27 January address at
the ICU summit in Kuwait and that of the 28 January address by Lebanese
President Amin al-Jumayyil, taken from a Beirut publication not on regular
coverage, were filed to the U.S. Embassy in Beirut at the Embassy's
request, over the minimize in effect.
2. Bureau personnel alerted Embassy officers to a report in the 15
January edition of the local paper ALITHIA, a rightwing publication not on
regular coverage, alleging that a group of 15 "Arabs" were en route to
Cyprus with plans to attack "mainly Syrian" targets, including the Syrian
Airlines office across the street from the bureau. Appropriate Embassy
officers, including the DCM, were also kept abreast of critical
developments in the hostage issue and Terry Waite's mission in Lebanon, at
their request.
3. On 23 January, the bureau alerted Embassy officers to a brief
report in 0 FILELEVTHEROS noting that anti-nuclear, protesters intended to
march to the Embassy to deliver a resolution following a rally that
afternoon. The officers expressed their appreciation of the warning,
noting that it was the first indication they had received of the planned
march.
III. Administration
A. Personnel
1. arrived PCS on 4 January to replace editor
in the DRD. who departed Nicosia on 18 January to take up new duties
B. Visitors
1. Mr. Eric Bowman, general manager of the BBC Monitoring Service,
visited the bureau 26-30 January for familiarization and discussion of
bureau-BBC coordination.
Ni's si a Bureau
ATTACHMENT# Production Report
STAT
STAT
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/29: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200200032-8