THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 21 MAY 1976

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0006015115
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 16
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: May 21, 1976

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2016/07/19 : CIA-RDP79T00936A013400010008-0
The President's Daily Brief
May 2 1 , 1976
2
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Exempt from general
declassification schedule of E.O. 11652
exemption category, 513(11,121,M
declassified pith', on approval of
the Director of Central Intelligence
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May 21, 1976
Table of Contents
Lebanon: Fighting fell off sharply yesterday despite Kamal Jum-
blatt's denials that the leftists have agreed to a cease-
fire. (Page 1)
Syria: Leaders of the ruling Baath Party have been meeting in
Damascus this week to review Syrian strategy in Lebanon.
(Page 2)
USSR:
(Page 2)
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USSR: Fourteen underground grain storage bunkers have now been
identified (Page 3) 25X1
Algeria-Morocco: Algeria is renewing its efforts to keep the UN
involved in the dispute with Morocco and Mauritania over 25X1
Western Sahara. (Page 4)
Notes: South Africa - Namibia; Sierra Leone; China (Pages 5
and 6)
At Annex
Cuba
Angola
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
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LEBANON: Fighting fell
off sharply yesterday
despite Kamal Jumblatt's
denials that the left-
ists have agreed to a
cease-fire.
Jumblatt indicated that he and his
leftist allies are still studying
a proposal made on Wednesday by
president-elect Sarkis to reopen
negotiations for a political set-
tlement.
A senior Syrian military officer
recently told the US defense at-
tache that Syria's immediate ob-
jective is a cease-fire, not nego-
tiations or Franjiyah's resigna-
tion. He implied that Syria is 25X1
prepared to enforce the cease-fire.
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The Christians have allowed Syr-
ians and Palestinians to patrol
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disputed areas during previous
cease-fires but always have denied
them access to Christian areas.
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SYRIA: Leaders of
Syria's ruling Baath
Party have been meeting
this week in Damascus,
apparently to review
Syrian strategy in Leb-
anon. President Asad
presumably will elicit
a statement of support
from the group in an
effort to counter in-
creasing domestic crit-
icism of his actions
in Lebanon.
Asad needs an expression of party
support at this time. Demonstra-
tions against Syria's role in Leb-
anon have occurred recently in
several areas of Syria and among
all principal ethnic groups. Arab
students in Europe have staged
protests at some Syrian embassies.
Many Syrians not actively involved
in the protests presumably are un-
happy with the economic problems
1
--continued
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A VAV AAA LI A A%. A-1 1J A A.J A- IA V A VL V A../ A
USSR:
associated with the Lebanon cam-
paign--some basic commodities are
now scarce or available only at in-
flated prices--and share the feel-
ing that Asad is protecting the
Lebanese Christians.
disaffection is espe-
cially widespread among Syria's
Druze population as a result of
Asad's attacks on Lebanese leftist
and Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt.
Security forces in Syria have re-
sponded to the growing unrest by
arresting large numbers of civil-
ians and some government officials
and military officers. Several
hundred persons may have been de-
tained over the past few weeks, al-
though many apparently have subse-
quently been cleared and released.
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USSR: Fourteen under-
ground grain storage
bunkers have now been
identified
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Most of the bunkers are located
near large cities in the European 25X1
part of the Soviet Union. Their 25X1
storage capacities range from ap-
proximately 30,000 to 100,000 met-
ric tons, with the combined capa-
city estimated to be about a mil-
lion metric tons. This figure is
a very small amount in relation
to civilian requirements and the
equivalent of approximately 1 per-
cent of total off-farm storage ca-
pacity.
All of the sites are 15 kilometers
(9 miles) from the nearest large
city. They also are generally up-
wind of the city, which indicates
nuclear fall-out patterns may have
been a consideration in their con-
struction. /
3
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FRANCE
SPAIN
PORTUGAL *Ma rid.
ATLANTC
OCEAN
Rabat
Canary Is. MOROCC
ALGERIA
WESTERN
SAHARA
MAURITANIA
*Nouakchott
TENERIFE
MALI
GRAN
CANARIA
FUERTEVENTURA
CANARY ISLANDS
(sp.)
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
o
LANZAROTE
and
MOROCCO
EL AAIUN
Saguic,
'13tiCraa
Phosphate deposits
WESrTERN
SA ARA
partition line
ALGERIA
MAURITANIA
0
0 50 100 Kilometers
Sp 100 Miles
59801 5-76 CIA
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ALGERIA-MOROCCO: Al-
geria is renewing its
efforts to keep the UN
involved in the dispute
with Morocco and Mauri-
tania over Western
Sahara.
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Algerian Foreign Minister Boute-
flika, in a letter this week to
Secretary General Waldheim, belat-
edly condemned the agreement Rabat
and Nouakchott signed on April 14
to partition the disputed terri-
tory. Bouteflika reiterated Al-
giers' persistent demand for a UN-
supervised referendum on self-de-
termination for the people of West-
ern Sahara.
The Algerian initiative is unlikely
to have much of an impact on the
UN. Only eight other African
states and North Korea have ex-
tended diplomatic recognition to
the new Polisario "state" created
last February.
Moroccan forces, meanwhile, con-
tinue to be harassed by Polisario
guerrillas despite the military
operation last month designed to
clean out the remaining pockets of
resistance in Western Sahara. The
Southern Zone commander reportedly
has proposed the establishment of
a no-man's land approximately 30
kilometers (18 miles) wide along
the entire eastern frontier of Mo-
rocco's portion of the Sahara.
4
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s?
GAM
GUIN
BISSAU
SIERRA
LEONE
LIBE
OrNTRAL Ar RICAN
0,r?PL,41..iC
Atlantic Ocean
GE& oftaivirie,:e,
590 lopo Miles
500 10.00 Kilometer.
Comoro Is.
(S
WALVIS BAY
AMBIQUE
I
MauritIu
C Reunia
THO
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The special security
zone created by South
African authorities
earlier this month in
northern Namibia has
been extended to cover
the entire length of
the Namibia-Angola bor-
der.
President Siaka Stevens
of Sierra Leone will be
seeking economic assis-
tance from Washington,
the World Bank, and the
International Monetary
Fund when he arrives in
the US on Sunday for a
private visit.
NOTES
The 1-kilometer-wide zone, from
which all villagers will be re-
moved, is designed to facilitate
counterinsurgency operations.
South African spokesmen are justi-
fying the extension of the zone by
citing an increase in guerrilla op-
erations by the South-West Africa
Peoples' Organization, the Nami-
bian nationalist organization.
The country's economy, dependent
mainly on diamond and agricultural
exports, has been deteriorating for
years, and the government has been
searching in vain for aid from all
sources.
Until 1975, Sierra Leone leaned to-
ward the more radical members of
the Organization of African Unity
but has since become more moderate
on many issues of concern to the
US. During his trip here, Stevens
is likely to promise to side more
closely with the US on interna-
tional issues in return for more
economic aid.
The US is an important customer
for Sierra Leone's diamonds and
coffee, but US investment is quite
small, limited mainly to participa-
tion in a titanium mining venture.
--continued
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Chinese
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CUBA-ANGOLA
Al
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Top Secret
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