MONTHLY REPORT - BANGKOK BUREAU - NOVEMBER 1981

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00385R000200030003-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2007
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 2, 1981
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2007/05/08: CIA-RDP83-00385R000200030003-5
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?1V FIDENTM.AtiL MBK-0033
2 December 1981
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director, FBIS
THROUGH : Chief, Operations Group
SUBJECT : Monthly Report - Bangkok Bureau - November 1981
battle with State Department over the impact of the Interagency t
Position asst ica ion System, a third year of grade retention
was granted to Bangkok on 16 November. In effect, this extends
the period of grade retention for all bureau employees and for
other Mission personnel to 21 September 1983. All original grade
retention privileges and restrictions remain in effect.
A. Monitorial/Editorial
Thanks to editorial alertness, the bureau was able to
provide consumers with the first monitored reportage of the
26 November attempted coup in the Seychelles and subsequent
hijacking of an Indian airliner. Suspecting that something was
amiss, duty editorl reacted quickly to a Ikon; Kong AFP 25
item, datelined New Delhi, reporting that an Air India international
flight en route to Bombay from Salisbury via the Seychelles had
been diverted. to an unknown destination. Treated as a hijacking,
the item was filed operation immediate and cleared the bureau
within 20 minutes of intercept. Subsequent reportage from AFP
and All India Radio confirmed that the hijacking was part of an
attempted coup in the Seychelles by mercenaries. Continued
coverage of events was taken over by Abidjan and Nicosia bureaus
as they opened and their reception of Paris AFP beams improved,
while Bangkok continued to file New Delhi-datelined Hong Kong AFP
items and All India Radio reportage. Bureau efforts to monitor
Seychelles radio--Victoria FEBA English/French--proved unsuccessful.
B. Lateral Services
1. On 3 November, Embassy political. officer Ed McWilliams
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In the first major development for months in the Mission's
 no at.t.ributron to FBIS.
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3. On 27 November, NPIC senior analyst 25
visited the bureau to pick up copies of FBIS materials dealing pity` e.
with the Kampuchea coalition talks. Ii previous NPIC 25
representative in Bangkok, is on TDY doing research for an
upcoming Special National Estimate. He was particularly
interested in Vietnamese statements on the talks.
requested bureau assistance in translating a 7-page handwritten
document given him by a "united Lao-Hmong organization." The
document, which reported anti-Vientiane and anti-Vietnamese
activities as well as the use of toxic chemicals in Laos, was
translated in one day by Lao/Thai monitor 25
2. In support of a local CBS correspondent, Steve Patton,
Embassy PAO Dick Virden requested bureau assistance in providing
statistics on Soviet broadcasting to South Asia, particularly
India. The Embassy had decided to provide Patton research
assistance for an upcoming article on India in the magazine
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT. Virden assured us there would be
1. At the bureau's recommendation, on 18 November FBIS
Headquarters declared Bangkok Bureau a limited shipment post.
Future staffers will be assigned Government-leased housing and
will benefit from recently purchased new furnishings, including
beautiful all-teak Thai-made furniture..
2. The search for the bureau's fourth Cambodian
monitor continued without tangible results. In addition to
a new candidate in Australia with whom the bureau is communicating,
Headquarters requested materials early in the month to test a
U.S.-based candidate. No word has been received from New Zealand
or England recruiting efforts.
3. On 16 November, certificates for 10 years of FBIS
service were presented to monitors 25
25
B.--.Buildings and Grounds
By the end of the month, the new 3-position editorial
desk was installed. The new desk arrangement provides for larger
CO V FIDEp TjA L
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editing workspace, gives easier access to the slot window, and
allows for the removal of Extel printers from the desk onto a
separate table accessible to all editors. The desk is also
equipped with a "lazy susan" reference shelf that is popular
at a number of other bureaus. Library enhancements, including
a wall-mounted map rack, will be completed in the first week of
December.
1. Only 3 weeks after his arrival, Ambassador John
Gunther Dean visited the bureau on 6 November. Following a
brief walk-through, the ambassador received a briefing on the
bureau and on FBIS operations worldwide. He displayed particular
interest in meeting and chatting with bureau employees and took
the opportunity to express his high appreciation for the FBIS
product, a comment he had made previously both socially and in
a Country Team session.
2. On both 13 and 15 November, the bureau was visited
by William Slayton, deputy assistant secretary for Foreign Buildings
Operationss (FBO),,and a team of FBO officers. The FBO visitors,
who were accompanied on both trips by the Embassy's new General
Services Officer Truman Brown, were in Bangkok to survey U.S.
Government-owned and rented properties and to conduct negotiations
for the construction of a new Embassy building.
3. Maureen Kirkpatrick, INR/Biographic Unit, visited the
bureau on the 20th to discuss reference materials and view our
library holdings.
Chief, Bangkok Bureau, FBIS
Attachments:
Engineering Report
Production Report
Distribution:.
C/Okinawa Bureau
CONE IDE SAL
Ap~aroved For Release 2007/05/08: CIA-RDP83-003 000200030003-5