MONTHLY REPORT--NICOSIA BUREAU--NOVEMBER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP94-00798R000200280004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 14, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: December 9, 1988
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/14: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200280004-1
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET 0 U 0
SUBJECT: (Optional)
Monthly Report -- Nicosia Bureau
FROM:
Chief, Operations Group
EXTENSION
NO.
DATE
November 1988
DATE
OFFICER'S
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
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FORM 61 0 USE PREVIOUS
1-79 EDIDONS
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STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/14: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200280004-1
FBIS-4819-88
9 December 88
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
THROUGH Chief, Operations Group
SUBJECT Monthly Report -- Nicosia Bureau -- November
I. OPERATIONS
1. Renewed ethnic violence in the Soviet republics of
Armenia and Azerbaijan sparked yet another flurry of activity at
the bureau at the end of the month. Coincidentally, the bureau
began the process of hiring a promising Armenian contract monitor
to supplement Armenian/Persian monitor The
bureau also increased coverage of Yerevan and Baku casts in
Armenian, Azeri, and Russian as much as the single monitor in each
language could handle and added one Russian program from the
Georgian capital Tblisi, following protests in that republic. A
number of programs from all three sources were phone-patched to
the BBC so that their Russian and Azeri monitors could share part
of the coverage load and insure timely coverage when Nicosia
monitors were off duty, or in the case of Azeri, to overcome
delays inherent in processing by our contract Turkish/Azeri
monitor, who lives and works in the Turkish-controlled part of the
island. To speed up filing of his material, bureau staffers had
to make numerous unscheduled trips to deliver and pick up
material. Early in December the bureau began eliminating the need
for some of these trips when the contract monitor began fax'ing
some urgent items to Tel Aviv Bureau for relay to Nicosia. The
number of phone feeds to the BBC of Soviet regional material grew
, to five casts (1 hour and 15 minutes) on many days in early
December and the specific programs to be fed were often readjusted
to take account of FBIS and BBC monitors' work schedules.
2. After months of effort spearheaded by Deputy Chief
and a major assist from of the BBC, FED
in Headquarters now has in hand what sh-OUrd-54-i-COmplete "bit
map" identifying which Armenian alphabet character to print for
each possible teletype code sequence. In a month or two, this
should lead to production of a new printer chip to enable printing
the Soviet ARMENPRES agency transmission in the Armenian alphabet,
instead of Cyrillic characters as at present. The Armenian
monitor must now devote time to transcribing ARMENPRES items into
Armenian before selecting and processing from the agency.
STAT
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/14: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200280004-1
3. The recent Nicosia newspaper campaign against the
bureau stopped on 7 November after the Government Spokesman issued
a widely publicized statement saying the bureau was "nothing to
worry about." From 8 November on, there has been no direct
comment or reportage on FBIS affiliation or its purported spy
mission.
4. The anti-Al-Qadhdhafi "Voice of the Libyan People"
program on Cairo's Voice of the Arabs radio, carried in the past
when Egyptian-Libyan relations have been severely strained and
resumed most recently in September after a hiatus of six months,
has not been heard since 21 October.
5. The bureau returned coverage responsibility for one
evening newscast of Tripoli Voice of the Greater Arab Homeland to
the BBC, after covering it since early 1987, now that reception
has improved again at London.
6. Beirut Voice of National Resistance radio, which had
not been monitored at the bureau since 22 August, was picked up
broadcasting on a different frequency on 9 November and has
remained monitorable since then.
7. With a fresh outbreak of fighting in Beirut this month
between the Syrian-supported Amal Movement and the Iranian-backed
Hizballah, the bureau put one morning newscast of the Voice of the
Oppressed radio, the mouthpiece of Hizballah, on experimental
coverage, and it has proved to be a productive source.
8. With Headquarters concurrence, the bureau switched to a
new method for delivering Tehran TV newscast videotapes to London
for daily Internet relay. The DHL courier service was dropped in
favor of "Datapost," which delivers the daily tapes an average of
five days from the time of broadcast and is expected to save as
much as $18K a year.
II. ADMINISTRATION
1. Regional Engineer was on TDY in Amman
13-18 November, and in Tel Aviv 27 November - 1 December.
2. Chief monitor in his capacity as
cruising monitor, spent one week at Tel Aviv Bureau to familiarize
the new staff cruising officer with regional radios. He returned
3 November.
3. Greek monitoring section chief
was guest of honor at a small bureau lunc
of service with FBIS, which began on 15
former Medburo in Karavas when
eon mar ing his 40 years
ember 1948 at the
was bureau chief.
imJfinf-1 in Part - Sanitized Coov Approved for Release 2012/08/14 : CIA-RDP94-00798R000200280004-1
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/14: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200280004-1
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III. VISITS
1. Editor trainees
along
, with left on 22 November
after completing their three-month training TDY's.
2. FED engineer visited the bureau 6-10
November for familiarization on field technical operations prior
to assignment to Panama Bureau.
Bureau Chief\
Nicosia Bureau
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/14: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200280004-1 , .