LETTER TO(SANITIZED) FROM J. T. CAMPBELL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00765A000100030018-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 9, 2009
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: April 9, 1956
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2009/07/20 :CIA-RDP80-00765A000100030018-2 ~~
I v?~"tl?ou~AaaF CONFIDENTIAL
(SENDER W1~[, OAR IASSIFICATION TOP AND BOTTOM)'
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY _
OFFICIAL ROUTING SLIP 25X1
L_.J INfORMATION
D DIRECT REPLY
D PREPARATION OF REPLY
O RECOMMENDATION
D APPROYAL
(~ ACTION
D COMMENT
CONCURRENCE
SECRET`
L__J SIGNATURE
D RETURN
0 DISPATCH
~- FILE
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THE BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
Head Office : Broadcasting House, London, W. z
Caversham Park, Reading, Berks.
TELEPHONE: READING 7z~Qz TELEGRAMS AND CABLES: BROADCASTS, TELEX, LONDON
Reference:
07.MS.STC
Many thanks for your letter of 30th March on the subject of the
Voice of the Arabs broadcasts which I have now received.
The story ae unfolded by Cairo radio xa.s so puzzling that I was
prompted to send you the signal enquiring xhether you could throw any
light on the reports, and I em most grateful for your telephone cell -
it was good to hear your voice again.
The facts, as I know them, are fairly straightforward so far ae
the actual protests are concerned. The British Ambassador protested
to Premier Nasser about six specific broadcasts, four in Arabic and
two in Swahili; of these, three Arabic and the two Swahili were
monitored and translated by us. The fourth Arabic was, I understand,
the alleged broadcast of 6th March by Gamal Sanhouri, which neither you
nor ourselves monitored, and for which neither of us are prepared to
vouch. At the request of our Foreign Office, we have sent tape
recordings of'the five broadcasts which we monitored to Cairo to support
the British Ambassadors protests. So far I have not heard whether
this has disposed of the matter or not. At all events, I am quite
confident that those five broadcasts were in fact made, and correctly
monitored and translated by us. The origin of the s.lleged broadcast
on the 6th March is still not known by me, except that it was reported
from Bahrein. It hen certainly never been attributed, as far es I
know, to FBIS and I have informed our people here that it certainly was
not monitored by you.
From what I have said you will appreciate that FBIS monitoring
has not been involved in this matter as a source of the material xhich
xas the subject o# our Ambassadors protest.
There remains the A1-Akhbar~s press conference at xhich a recording,
said to have been obtained from American sources, xas played back to
correspondents. So far as I can ascertain, this particular recording
was not of a transmission which had been the subject o# protest, but I
 Mr. Alen i~e~eld _ 2 _
was puzzled as to how it had got into the hands of the Egyptian press.
This, I think, is still a mystery to both of us, but I would be most
graae#ul if you could- let me know the precise recordings which your
Mediterranean Bureau supplied to your cMbass~~ in Cairo in early Fie.rch.
'!"rye reason I ask this is so that we may be prepared in case the
Egyptians seek to make any further capital out of recordings which they
say they have obtained from American sources. It would. enable us to
check with our recordings here any use which they may make of them.
I hope this information which I have been able to give you, although
limited, may fill in the picture a little more, and I will certainly
keep you up-to-dete with any fw~ther news I get, anti I would be grateful
if ,you would do likewise.
I am very gle.d to hear your news that ,you hope to auiment the
Arabic staff at Kyrenis. by two monitors, end I for my part am able to
say that I am hopeful that we will very shortly have an additional
Arabic monitor here. I think there can be no doubt that for some time
to come Arabic is goin, to be a very important language from the point o#
view of our ,joint operation, and I feel with these additional resources
we shall be able to meet the remands which will inevitably be made upon
us.
J. T. Campbell
Head of Monitoring Service
Chief, FBIS,
2430 E; Street, N.k.,
Washington 25, U.C.
U.S.A.
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