MONTHLY REPORT--LONDON BUREAU--JANUARY 1981

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00385R000200080022-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 17, 2007
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: February 6, 1981
• Content Type: MEMO

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6 February 1981
MLD-1005
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director, FBIS
THROUGH : Chief, Operations Group
SUBJECT : Monthly Report--London Bureau--January 1981
A. Editorial/Monitorial
1. The hostage issue once again dominated editorial operations
until 20 January at 2030 GMT, when Tehran radio belatedly
reported that the 52 Americans had been released. The
bureau began special lateral filing to the Christopher
party in Algiers on the 8th, filed its first flashes on
the 16th citing nabavi's statement that terms had been
accepted by both sides and followed those with.more than
a dozen Z messages over the next 4 days as the crisis
inched tortuously to its climax. The efforts of bureau
and BBC staff were commended in separate messages from
the Director, FBIS. With the hostages freed, the BBC
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moved to return Tehran coverage to normal, ending 14
months of overnight staffing laid on exclusively for
the benefit of the U.S. Government and cutting back
significantly on the backstop requests levied on the
Middle East bureaus.
2. The bureau's other ongoing crisis--the situation in
Poland--is far from resolution; in fact at mid-month
the BBC extended the Polish team's hours to 0700-0230
GMT and, as tension mounted in the wake of a strongly
worded Polish Government statement, reinstituted its
overnight watch on Warsaw radio 29-30 January.
Currently, the BBC has arranged a schedule of "on-call"
monitors should developments warrant a midnight shift.
3. The bureau coordinated closely with the Middle East
bureaus, particularly Gulf, in providing full coverage
of the Islamic summit in At-Ta'if, Saudi Arabia, and
the BBC laid on special staffing and coverage
arrangements. The summit produced less wordage at
Caversham than had been expected since Saudi media
failed to carry several important speeches. Poor
reception of Riyadh radio here made it necessary to
text the final communique from the usually unproductive
Jidda IINA.
4. The Soviet republic parties held congresses during the
month, giving the Islamabad Unit its first opportunity
to provide worthwhile unique material. Although
technical difficulties and timely reporting by the
central media limited.the take, 13 items were filed
from Ashkabad, Frunze and Dushanbe. Several items on
the Armenian congress were transcribed from tapes
recorded by the Gulf Bureau.
The Kabul BAKHTAR NEWS AGENCY in English was observed
on 12 January operating on Moscow frequencies. It is
now being printed regularly and has yielded a number of
useful items. Experimental receipt of the OPEC NEWS
AGENCY via Bush House continues; a decision on where
coverage is to be located is still pending. The East
African Unit has surveyed the anti-Ethiopian clandestine
"Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea" and has identified
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two programs as likely candidates for regular coverage,
but this will have to wait until the unit's trainee
Tigrigna/Amharic monitor becomes operational.
6. PMU learned that two Persian-language newspapers,
ENGHELAB ISLAMI (ISLAMIC REVOLUTION) and MIZAN, which
reflect the views of Iranian President Bani-Sadr and
former Prime Minister Bazargan, are once again available
from a London newsagent and placed them on subscription.
Regularity of receipts is not yet know!"
B. Cologne Unit
1. On 19 January, having placed Algiers Radio on an open
watch in response to a message from Headquarters, the
Unit texted and was about to file the announcement on
release of the American hostages when London Bureau's
texted started to come in.ersion had been
delayed by the required double translation.
continued to cover Algiers as a possible backup should
BBC reception deteriorate.
2. Late in the month GDR Radio initiated a "Listeners
Forum" in which government ministers responded to
listeners' questions covered all seven 1-hour
programs in the series--a major monitorial effort
over and above the normal workload.
3. At month's end U gave extensive coverage to the 4-day
Bundestag budget debate in light of potential political
and economic difficulties surrounding the defense budget.
The unit filed extensive excerpts from speeches by the
chancellor and the foreign and defense ministers, as
well as by Franz Josef Strauss.
C. Communications
1. A failure in the emergency switching gear caused a total
power blackout at Caversham Park on 27 January from
1600 to 1627 GMT--the first such power failure ever.
Headquarters was notified by telephone and was asked to
alert other bureaus. All bulletins piped from Crowsley
were monitored during the outage but were not recorded.
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2. A heavy backlog of itemsL_____at the switch made it STAT
necessary for the bureau to restrict the file to
priority and above on 21 and 22 January.
a. Senior editor I returned to the bureau on PCS STAT
after home leave on 3 January.
arrived PCS on 8 Janua to take up the vacant STAT
post of Deputy Chief, having departed in STAT
November.
Chief, EDSS, visited the bureau 27-31 January STAT
and again 4-5 February en route back from vienna for
discussions about installation of the ROSET antenna.
(Lucky Harry: his first visit coincided with a real pea
souper--the worst in a decade.)
STAT
Attachments
cc: Chief, Austrian Bureau
Chief, Cologne Unit
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