MONTHLY REPORT--NICOSIA BUREAU--JANUARY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-00733R000100080012-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: February 5, 1987
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/13: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100080012-3
MNC-7002
5 February 1987
MEMORANDUM FORu Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
THROUGH i Chief, Operations Group
SUBJECT a Monthly Report -- Nicosia Bureau -- January
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 perimeter wall,
which had been left open as an equipment access. Entrance to the site will
now be by the main entrance which should be completed by mid-February.
The landscape architect is now on site drilling the borehole to provide
water for our green areas. Please see January's weekly progress reports
filed by our Headquarters engineer for more detail on construction
progress.
B. , general manager of the BBC Monitoring Service, J'~'
visited the bureau 26-30 January. The four-day visit offered a good
opportunity to discuss Bureau/BBC coordination and bureau support of BBC
requirements. was most laudatory of the bureau's support of STAT
BBC coverage needs, noting at the beginning and conclusion of our business
discussions that there were no major problem the Bureau/BBC
relationship. A separate report onF 91_~ visit has been cabled to STAT
headquarters.
C. Nicosia was the site of three minor bomb incidents in early
January, while a fourth incident occurred in Larnaca. On 3 Janaury, police
found a "time bomb" near a kiosk in Nicosia's busy Ipiros Square. The
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 STAT
After contacting the police, the Marines advised that a SIAI
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.
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/13: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100080012-3
Finally, a small quantity of dynamite placed in a drainpipe in the
city of Larnaca exploded on 10 January, causing minor damage to the water
tanks of an adjacent apartment building. The DISI party paper I SIMERINI
reported later that a note was found near the pipe warning of "new
explosions, with casualties," unless Amin Sulaymin Za'rur, who is serving
a 7-year prison sentence for possessing weapons and explosives, was
released within a week.
Though there have been no direct claims of responsibility for these
four incidents, the independent paper 0 FILELEVTHEROS reports that police
are "fully convinced" that the Islamic organization "the Party of God"
(Hizballah) is responsible.
D. Late in January, the bureau installed BACH Version 2.1 for the
computerized generation of message headers, replacing its earlier
"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
notices, and various personnel work schedules; and to maintain the
bureau's SOP, inventories and accountable property records, the bureau's
lateral services system, and local cabinet and diplomatic lists, among
other things.
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
kidnapping four Beirut University College professors, three of whom are
American, and to threaten that one of the four would be killed unless
Muhammad 'Ali Hamadah, suspected hijacker of a TWA airliner being held in
the 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 possible kidnapping of Waite
since he left his hotel in West Beirut on 20 January to meet with the
kidnappers of foreigners being held in Lebanon, and the threats leveled by
a group calling itself the Islamic Jihad Organization for the Liberation
of Palestine that it would "execute" the four professors it claims to have
abducted if its demands are not met or if the United States undertakes any
military action against Lebanon, the bureau has liberally filed all
available information from Lebanese media on the hostage issue.
2. Having been alerted by AFP and Beirut Domestic Service reports
on an interview given by Libyan leader Colonel Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi to
AL-KIFAH AL-'ARABI, a Beirut publication not on regular coverage, the
bureau undertook to secure the 26 January edition of the paper, which
contained the interview, and filed it on the following day.
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/13: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100080012-3
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 ICO summit in Kuwait.
B. Lateral Services
1. The text of Egyptian President Mubarak's 27 January address at
the ICO 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 an route to
Cyprus with plans to attack "mainly Syrian" targets, STAT
Appropriate Embassy STAT
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.
A. Per
1. arrived PCS on 4 January to replace editor STAT
wha departed Nicosia on 18 January to take up new duties STAT
B. Visitors
1. general manager of the BBC Monitoring Service, STAT
visited the bureau 26-300 January for familiarization and discussion of
B au Chief
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/13: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100080012-3
Nicosia Bureau Production Report for January 1987
TOTAL PUBLISHABLE WORDAGE FILED DURING MONTH: 282140
TOTAL NON-PUBLISHABLE WORDAGE FILED DURING MONTH: 123940
TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLISHABLE ITEMS FILED DURING MONTH: 1061
BROAD- PRESS PUBLI-
CASTS AGENCIES CATIONS
II. INPUT OF REGULAR COVERAGE: 9180.00 22260.00 125.00
(minutes or issues per week) min. min. issues
III. OUTPUT FROM ALL SOURCES:
(publishable words per month)
CHINA
Beijing in
Persian to Iran
CLANDESTINE
(Clandestine) Radio Free Lebanon in
Arabic
24620
(Clandestine) Radio Free Lebanon in
English
680
(Clandestine) Radio Iran in
Persian
0
(Clandestine) Voice of the Mountain in
Arabic
7790
CYPRUS
Nicosia Domestic Service in
Greek
8750
Nicosia Television Service in
Greek
1030
Nicosia Television Service in
English
210
Nicosia ALITHIA in
Greek
Nicosia Cyprus MAIL in
English
Nicosia ELEVTHEROTIPIA in
Greek
Nicosia ELEVTHEROTIPIA tis DHEFTERAS
in
Greek
Nicosia I SIMERINI in
Greek
570
2460
260
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/13: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100080012-3
Nicosia I SIMERINI tis DHEFTERAS in
Greek
Nicosia KHARAVYI in
Greek
Nicosia KHARAVYI tis DHEFTERAS in
Greek
Nicosia 0 AGON in
Greek
Nicosia 0 FILELEVTHEROS in
Greek
Nicosia 0 FILELEVTHEROS tis
DHEFTERAS in
Greek
Nicosia PRESS AND INFORMATION OFFICE
in
Greek
Nicosia TA NEA in
Greek
EGYPT
Cairo Domestic Service in
Arabic
Cairo Voice of the Arabs in
Arabic
Cairo MENA in
Arabic
Cairo MENA in
English
FRANCE
Paris AFP in
English
GREECE
Athens Domestic Service in
Greek
Athens ATHENS NEWS in
English
Athens ELEVTHEROTIPIA in
Greek
Athens I KATHIMERINI in
Greek
Athens KIRIAKATIK:I ELEVTHEROTIPIA in
Greek
Athens RIZOSPASTIS in
Greek
Athens TO VIMA in
Greek
BROAD- PRESS PUBLI-
CASTS AGENCIES CATIONS
690
1140
980
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 A _ I
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I RAN
Tehran International Service in
Turkish
Tehran Domestic Service in
Persian
IRAQ
Baghdad in
Persian to Iran
BROAD- PRESS PUBLI-
CASTS AGENCIES CATIONS
LEBANON
Beirut Domestic Service in
Arabic
35730
Beirut Voice of Lebanon in
Arabic
28370
Beirut Voice of Lebanon in
English
550
Beirut Voice of National
Resistance in
Arabic
Beirut Ihdin Radio of Free & Unified
Lebanon in
Arabic
Beirut AL-ANWAR in
Arabic
Beirut AL-KIFAH AL-'ARABI in
Arabic
Beirut AL-NAHAR AL-'ARABI WA
AL-DUWALI in
Arabic
Beirut AL-NAHAR in
Arabic
Beirut AL-SAFIR in
Arabic
Beirut MONDAY MORNING in
English
LIBYA
Tripoli Domestic Service in
Arabic
Tripoli Voice of Greater Arab
Homeland in
Arabic
QATAR
Doha Domestic Service in
Arabic
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/13: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100080012-3
TURKEY
Ankara YANKI in
Turkish
Istanbul BULVAR in
Turkish
Istanbul CUMHURIYET in
Turkish
Istanbul DUNYA in
Turkish
Istanbul GUNAYDIN in
Turkish
Istanbul HURRIYET in
Turkish
Istanbul MILLIYET in
Turkish
Istanbul TERCUMAN in
Turkish
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
Moscow Radio Peace and Progress in
Persian
Moscow in
Greek to Cyprus
Moscow in
Persian to Iran
Baku Domestic Service in
Az er i
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Dubayy Domestic Service in
Arabic
UNITED KINGDOM
London AL-SHARD AL-AWSAT in
Arabic
BROAD- PRESS PUBLI-
CASTS AGENCIES CATIONS
150
0
1510
760
0
1700
5430
0
710
5550
6480
4720
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/13: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100080012-3