MONTHLY REPORT -- PANAMA BUREAU -- MAY 1988

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-01355R000400120007-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2013
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: June 3, 1988
• Content Type: MEMO

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ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT: (Optional) SORtItitoris.
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Monthly Report -- Panama Bureau i 0 tr 1.18
FROM:
Chief, Operations Group
EXTENSION
NO.
DATE
May 1988
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
DATE
OFFICER'S
INITIALS
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
to wh . Draw a line across column after each comment.)
RECEIVED
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2 1 JUN
1988
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Exec. Reg.
FORM 610 USE PREVIOUS
1-79 EDITIONS
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/18: CIA-RDP91-01355R000400120007-6
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/18: CIA-RDP91-01355R000400120007-6
FBIS-5213-88
3 June 1988
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
THROUGH : Acting Chief, Operations Group
SUBJECT Monthly Report -- Panama Bureau -- May 1988
I. GENERAL
A. The on-again, off-again negotiations aimed at ousting
General Manuel Antonio Noriega broke down at the last minute,
catching everyone in Washington -- but few in Panama --by
surprise. The only thing anybody really knew about the situation
at month's end was that nobody really knows anything about the
situation, including what the next U.S. and Panamanian regime
moves will be.
B. Bureau staffers were among embassy personnel whose
diplomatic i.d. cards appeared in a 19 May supplement to the
government paper CRITICA, which exhorted Panamanians to "Know
these Gringos" who are "starving the Panamanians to death."
Nothing further was printed until the very end of the month when
Bureau Chief Deputy Chief and Chief
Editor were identified in Havana PRENSA LATINA
dispatches -- subsequently picked up by various other agencies
and newspapers -- as the "director" and "assistants" of FBIS,
a canal area facility that operates the clandestine opposition
Radio Constitucional from its offices near Chiva Chiva. Bureau
staffers commented that if these allegations were true, our
reception of this radio should be better than it is.
C. In response to the continued unsettled situation, the
embassy requested and received permission to enter "authorized
departure" status. Under this status, dependents may request to
leave post for the United States with the government paying their
way and a daily stipend for 180 days. However, those leaving
post under this status may not return until the State Department
determines the situation here has improved sufficiently to
allow secure living conditions. It is estimated the "all
clear" will not be given for many months. It is not clear at
this time how many embassy people will take advantage of this
option.
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II. OPERATIONS
A. Monitorial/Editorial
1. Rumors of an imminent "deal" to remove General Noriega
from power led to several days of open speaker watches, as the
anticipated announcement kept floating just out of reach. The
watches culminated in what amounted to a rousing Noriega victory
speech and denunciation of U.S. pressure before a carefully
packed Legislative Assembly session.
In response to a State Department Operations Center
request, the bureau established a phone patch to the center
on 25 May and relayed about 14 hours of Panama City Domestic
Service in vain anticipation of an announcement of a deal with
General Noriega. The next day the bureau patched Noriega's
National Assembly address to the State Operations Center, for
which we received praise and thanks.
2. Monitor was the first to get a sampling of
the opposition clandestine Radio Constitucional. He picked it up
on his transistor radio at home and taped it. Broadcasting on
the FM band with a very weak signal, Constucional can now be
heard at the bureau via a reconfigured TV antenna.
3. The rest of the bureau's coverage area was also active
during May. Events included an extension of the month-old
Nicaraguan cease-fire despite another inconclusive round of
Sandinist-Contra talks; presidential elections in Ecuador; a
failed coup attempt in Guatemala; a Colombian plane hijacking,
and several man-made disasters in Mexico.
B. Communications
In response to a DCA requirement, the bureau began
encrypting its autodin communications traffic on 6 May.
C. Lateral Services
The bureau provided videotape, audio cassettes, and
transcripts of Noriega's 26 May National Assembly speech to U.S.
Southern Command's Office of Treaty Affairs and the 470th
Military Intelligence Brigade.
D. Technical
After much trial and error, Bureau Engineer began
using demodulation equipment supplied ESG and a bureau computer
to demodulate press agency casts found among TDM signals on the
34.5W Intelsat.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/18: CIA-RDP91-01355R000400120007-6
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/18: CIA-RDP91-01355R000400120007-6
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III. ADMINISTRATION
A. Personnel
1.
respectively, ot Cniet Editor
May.
the wife and daughter,
departed PCS on 20
2. Senior Editor arrived PCS on 31 May.
His wife and daughter will follow as the situation in Panama
permits.
B. Building and Grounds
Contractor Taller Raulito repaired a broken antenna link in
antenna field and reinforced the repaired area with concrete.
IV. VISITS
TO THE BUREAU:
-- Deputy Chief of Mission John Maisto, on May 12, to
brief bureau staffers on latest U.S. moves in Panama;
-- General Mark Cisneros, Southern Command J-3, on
13 May, for a briefing and orientation;
-- Colonel Sam O'Neal, U.S. Army South Deputy Chief of
Staff for Resource Management, on 4 May, for discussion on
possible logistical and documentation support to the bureau.
-- Captain John Chicky, S-2 of the 5/87th Infantry Fort
Clayton, to brief security officer on planned patrols near
bureau.
FROM THE BUREAU:
-- Chief Editor/Security Officer to
headquarters, 5/87th to coordinate on planned patrols of bureau
grounds.
-- Deputy Chief
TDY on 20 and 23 May.
to headquarters for
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/18: CIA-RDP91-01355R000400120007-6