LETTER OF INFORMATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00586R000300210016-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 15, 2013
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: May 22, 1961
• Content Type: MEMO

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/15: CIA-RDP83-00586R000300210016-1
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22 May 1961
MEMORANDUM FOR: Bureau Chiefs
FROM: Chief, FBIS
SUBJECT: Letter of Information
GENERAL
1. The following actions were taken in connection with recent Cuban
developments:
a. FBIS' entire coverage of Moscow broadcasts to Latin America
was temporarily transferred to the BBC to enable East and West Coast
Bureaus to concentrate on Latin American transmitters.
b. East Coast Monitor and former Chief
of the Key West Post, was sent to the Post from 19 April to 10 May
to assist with cruising and coverage of Cuban clandestine stations.
d. West Coast Monitor, was detailed to the
East Coast Bureau from 29 April to 10 May to increasethatstation's
capability to cope with increased Latin American coverage requirements
occasioned by the Cuban crisis.
e. During the crisis, three headquarters staff members assisted -
East Coast Bureau personnel I' nr APVisral night in cruising for Cuban
and clandestine broadcasts.
2. African Bureau
a. Headquarters approved award of contract for station con-
struction to the low bidder, D'Aiberto and Bogialla, Ltd., at a cost
of $47,000. Work started immediately and the contractor has made
rapid initial progress. The site has been cleared and a temporary
access road completed. After site clearance, it was obvious that
the closest farm would undoubtedly require relocation, at a cost of
About 50 pounds.
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b. Sites for the four houses have been cleared and work continues
to progress rapidly. Pouring of concrete for the foundation of one
house has been completed and the manufacture of concrete blocks at the
sites continues.
c. With the arrival of equipment two additional temporary moni-
toring positions have been completed. Three positions now provide for
an intensified monitor training and cruising program.
d. Training of the African Bureau's two foreign language monitors
and the cruising monitor continues. The Bureau's first monthly
production report indicated a daily average of 150 words of publishable
wordage filed to Washington during April.
3. Puerto Rico Survey
a. In support of the reception survey team sent to Puerto Rico an
1 May 1961, arrangements were completed with the Department of Defense
for support and loan of equipment. Through additional contacts it was
learned that MARCO( (Strategic Army Communications) is now constructing
a major communications relay center close to the Ponce area. Reception
tests have been authorized at their new receiver site at Salinas which
is approximately 20 miles east of Ponce.
b. Due to a decision to test reception of radio teletype circuits,
and installation of more complex equipment to meet the requirement,
Assistant Chief Engineer, ECB, accompanied the
team for a two-week period. In addition to checking radio teletype
circuits, he will insure that adequate reception facilities are installed
and that all erpment is functioning properly before he returns.
4. Through the IBIS Wire Service, President Kennedy received the text
of Khruohchev's 22 April message considerably in advance of official delivery
or commercial news service reportage. According to an NSC liaison contact,
whose office screens Wire Service material for White House staff use, the
Khruthchev text, monitored by Mediterranean Bureau from TABS Cyrillic, was
torn off the Executive Office Building printer page by page and sent directly
to a special session of the National Security Council then meeting in the
White House. The material was scanned by Mt. McGeorge Bundy, Presidential
Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, and passed to the President
who read the statement to the Council. ESC staff expressed its great ap-
preciation for this unusually valuable service.
5. Three White House officials began receiving ?BIS publications
regularly in April. Brig. Gen. Chester V. Clifton, Military Aide to the
President; Mt. W. W. Rostov, Deputy Special Assistant to the President for
National Security Affairs; and Mr. Pierre Bolinger, Presidential Press
Secretary, henceforth will receive copies of each Radio Propaganda Report,
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SUBJECT: Letter of Information
Daily Report Supplement, and World Reaction Report series by special messenger
from OCI. In addition; the President's' Special Assidtantfort.Science and
Technology, Dr: Jerome Wiesner, win receive onecopy of each RPR dealing with
bloc propaganda on scientific tetterk.,- 50X1
6. Mr. Charles L. Stermer, an analyst from the Department of State's
Office of Research and Analysis',.Asian:Communist Areas Division, was detailed
to FBIS Headquarters fot.ctVo weeks to supervise preparation of background:
materials for inie by the U.S. delegation tothe projected 14-nation conference
on Laos. Separate volumes of Daily Report material on Laos dating back to
August 1960 from Moscow, Peking, Hanoi and Pathet Lao broadcasts were asseMbled
and indexed by a team of IBIS editorial and clerical personnel working, with:
It. Stermer and of FDD. The project was completed 28 April. 50X1
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7. During the month such developments as the Soviet Union's first manned
space flight," the Abortive invasion of Cubs: by anti-Castro-contingents, and
the French generals' revolt in Algeria provided iomuchradio and press material
of intelligence-community interest that special measures had to be taken to
accommodate -consumers. -The vire-version-of the "Pink Sheet" vas greatly
expanded for transmission to headquarters and field recipients mndAhe daily
file on the IBIS Wire itself was increased from an average of 21,000 to an
all-time high f 55,000.on.22 April, the day the Algerian revolt began. On
that Saturday the Wire filed directly to Camp David for-the specific attention
of President Kennedy, while duty editors maintained constant telephone contact
with CampAavidto insure uninterrupted receipt of the 239 items transmitted.
On the following Monday, 24 April, the Daily Report's Latin America'voluee,.
normally only 25 pages in length, was increased to 58 because of the weekend
accumulation,of.Latin American reaction to the Cuba n affair.
. ?
8. IBIS support for the US delegation to the Geneva conference on Laos
began on 11 May following consultation with the Agency representative with
the delegation. This continuing service includes texts of authoritative
statements on the conference from the participating countries, as well as
capsule summaries of bloc leaderatatements, wirefiled to Geneva by IBIS
European, Far Eastern, and domestic bureaus; daily roundups of relevant bloc
propaganda prepared by the London Bureau, also wirefiled to Geneva; and daily
classified analyses of Mbecosi Peking, Mena and dissident Laotian propaganda
on the conference and related issues, prepared by the Radio Propaganda Branch
and forwarded through OCI channels as part of the Agency support cables to
the delegation.
9. Of 199 its included in the Current !Intelligence Digest during
April, 78 (39.1 percent) were 'based, wholly or in part on IBIS monitoring.
10. During the month 88 percent of Daily Report per were devoted
to broadcast material and 12 parent to press scrutiny.
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SUBJECT: Letter of Information
11. In early April the
and Operations Division, the
of the Latin America Daily Report.
Latin American Progress
Peace Corps, requested regular
This was the first
Section, Development
distribution
request from the
new agency for MIS service.
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12. On 4 May, at the request
of the Director, a
Special Memorandum
issued on the subject "Allegations of CIA Involvement in the Algerian
was
Generals' Revolt." The
memorandum contained
selected broadcasts and an
FBIS-prepared
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summary.
PROPAGANDA ANALYSIS COMMENT
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1. Radio Propaganda Reports issued( (Responsible
analyst indicated
in parentheses):
a.
"Meth Soviet Propaganda
Effort Exploits Manned Space
Flight"
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b.
'Diver ant Soviet
and CPR
Views on the 'National Liberation
Movement"
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c.
"Increasing Strain
in Albanian
Relations with Moscow and
the European Satellites"
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2. Propaganda Analysis Items
on
the FBIS Wire (Responsible analyst
indicated in parentheses):
a. Two more spot analyses of bloc propaganda on the Laotian
situation
were disseminated
on the Wire, bringing the total in this
series to
ten.
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b.
"Soviet Reaction
to Cuban Developments"
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c. "Ll Fu-chun
Dismissal Suggests
Shift in
Organisation
of
Planning in CPR"
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d.
"Increased
Stridency
of Communist
Clandestine Broadcasts in
Persian"
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3. RPB Special
Services
a. The last of a series of four weekly Special Memoranda on
"Omissions in the Soviet Rome Service," prepared
for the Director
at his request, was forwarded on 3 Ma. (Compiled
by
with
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contributions from all analysts; support from London
Bureauj
b.
A report on "Radio
Peking's Broadcasts to Latin America"
was
prepared
est
West
on a special study compiled by Editor
Coast Bureau at RPB's request.
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__thA
of e
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SUBJECT: Letter
c.
issue were
talks, in
d.
for use in
broadcasts
(Analyst:
4. The following
consideration for
analyst indicated
a.
series for
future following
b.
provided by
c.
Articles"
Commundeas"
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of Information
Sixteen analyses of Soviet propaganda
cabled to the U.S. delegation
a continuing service. (Analyst:
In another continuing service,
weekly briefings of the Assistant
rto_Africi 1 the Near and Middle
at
data
East,
few
and
will
the
on the
the Geneva
nuclear testing
nuclear test-ban
to USIA/IRI
USIA, on bloc
South Asia.
projected or under
(Responsible
(in the regular
fpr the
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was
Director,
and
Reports
months
Programing"
prognoses
be
supplied
examined)
are among Radio Propaganda
publication within the next
in parentheses):
"Soviet Outer-Space Projects
OSI/GMD; Soviet science spokesmen's
the manned space flight
"Soviet Broadcasts to and about
the Mediterranean Bureau)
"Soviet Provincial Press Treatment
(Support being provided by
ountered in the
" (Support being
Distributed
FDD)
Administration
of Centrally
of CPR
731sibleamffnc
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/15: CIA-RDP83-00586R000300210016-1
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SUBJECT: Letter of Information
EDITORIAL BRANCH COMMENT
GENERAL
1. Bureaus contributing material on the Cuban invasion, the gen-
erals' revolt in Algeria, and the first U.S. manned rocket flight are to
be congratulated for their good performance.
2. Bureaus are reminded that BBC cannot use press scrutiny and cer-
tain news agency material. This should be borne in mind when material
is available from diverse sources, and voice broadcast versions should
be used where possible.
3. Receipt of numerous improperly dratted correction and other
service messages makes it necessary to remind the field that Editorial
Handbook procedures must be followed. Editors should identify fully
each item to which the correction applies. They should also avoid ser-
vicing more than one item in a single message when there is a possibility
that separate desks, units, or even separate sections are concerned.
4. Requirements for FBIS services accepted by Liaison and Require-
ments Staff resulted in several requests for field support. Tokyo,
London, Mediterranean and East Coast Bureaus were asked to supply tape
recordings or program summaries of Moscow broadcasts and transcripts of
Russian and Cuban press material in response to a Voice of America re-
quirement in connection with a current study of VOA programing and news
coverage by a Congressional committee. London Bureau was asked to supply
Swahili language tapes for use in the Army's language training program.
While coverage of military portions of bloc May Day parades is a long-
standing routine service to the intelligence community, FBIS bureaus
might be interested to know that this coverage is also in response to
specific annual requirements levied by the Department of Defense which
receives this material on a priority basis by Wire. East Coast Bureau
provided tape recordings of Moscow in English, Vietnamese and Indonesian
for the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Department of the Army.
London Bureau
1. East Europe press services, for example TANYUG and PAP, often
carry items couched in poor English. It would be appreciated if editors
exercised greater care in eliminating faulty grammar and poor construction
generally. In East Europe logographs, the designation "East Berlin"
should be used for both voicecaste and ADN items.
2. Abbreviations that are not readily recognizable, such as CPCz and
BCP for the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and Bulgarian Communist Party,
respectively, ihould be avoided.
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U-B-C-L-A-S-S-I-F-I-E-D
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SUBJECT: Letter of Information
Mediterranean Bureau
1. Editors and monitors are commended for an excellent job in pro-
cessing the CAR 1961-1962 draft budget, which was published as a supple-
ment and distributed in response to requests far exceeding the number
anticipated. It was interesting to note that the BBC published sm text
of the draft in its Summary of World Broadcasts. Equally well handled by
the bureau was the current radio press interview granted by the Shah of
Iran, likewise of greet interest to consumers.
2. When appropriate, projected surveys of Soviet regional radios
should be coordinated with Hokkaido. It would also be advisable to keep
headquarters informed of bureau plans for survey projects.
German Bureau
1. FYI's rather than administrative messages should be used to in-
form headquarters that there will be no review of West German radio and
press for a particular day. FTI's are passed directly to the section con-
cerned whereas administrative messages may receive delayed distribution.
2. The bureau's file can be further compressed by cutting back on
press scrutiny items reporting discussions of paintings and Elvis-level
youth activities. Also, low-level economic material from the press need
not be processed.
Okinawa Bureau
1. It is noted that the definite article is being dropped more and
more frequently, especially in AMA copy. Editors are requested to in-
sert articles Macre necessary, for example in "Commentator said..." and
"Piper vent on...", etc.
ENGINEERING AND FIELD OPERATION
Z-monthly and monthly coverage change reports. In addition, Bureaus
1. Bureaus are requested to double-address to the BBC all virefiled
should henceforth nail to the BBC a copy of each complete coverage
schedule submittedvith their Progress Reports STAT
STAT
2. Bureaus are reminded that whenever a schedule or frequency
change takes place during the course of a coverage reporting period, the
average reception rating shown for the program concerned should reflect
only conditions after the change.
3. Field Bureaus are requested to report whenever Soviet bloc tele-
casts are carried live by other countries, both in Eastern and Western
Europe. Examples of such telecasts are the recent Gegaxin reception in
Moscow and the Moscow May Day parade, which were telecast over networ00
in Central and Western Europe. Announcements of upcoming network tele-
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casts and information on which countries actually carry them live should
be filed to BIS.
4. All field bureaus are again reminded that broadcast items con-
cerning new radio programs, new transmitting facilities, radio and tele-
vision exchange agreements and other items containing background infor-
mation on foreign radio developments should be filed "COPY TO BIS." In
recent months an increasing number of such items were not so flagged.
5. Radio Moscow changed to its summer schedule for international
broadcasts on April 25. The various field bureaus are to be commended
for their promptness in filing preliminary announcements and for their
efforts in confirming the various language schedules.
6. The addition to the Okinawa Bureau Operations Building is now
90 percent complete. Headquarters has also authorized expansion of the
bureau's editorial and teletype rooms, at an estimated cost of $5,000,
from FY 61 funds
7. To support TV monitoring the Key West Post was recently sent a
Polaroid camera and tripod. Also, a new and more powerful TV receiving
antenna will be installed by local contract.
? The full duplex common-user communications circuit from Head-
quarters to the Pentagon was changed over to the new automatic East
Coast Relay Station at Fort Detrick, Maryland, on schedule, becoming the
first FBIS 100 wpm circuit.
9. The allocated communications circuit to Tokyo has been rerouted
by the Army through Seattle instead of San Francisco, without effect on
FBIS communications.
10. The Pio.aeer Electric and Research Corporation has loaned FBIS
a long and medium wave Interference Suppressor for test and evaluation at
ECB. Preliminary tests indicate excellent results in eliminating un-
wanted stations on the same frequency. The unit has been sent by airmail
to the Okinawa Bureau for additional on-the-spot operational tests. It
is anticipated that the suppressors will substantially aid overseas
bureaus in reception of long and medium wave stations. This device was
designed especiaily to meet FBIS requirements.
11. For teat and evaluation, and to set up TV recording procedures,
a Japanese, Sony Video Tape Recorder has been ordered for headquarters
from fiscal year '01 funds. The budget for FY 62 also provides two addi-
tional units, one for the Tokyo and one for the Austrian Bureau. Video
tape recorders on the American market sell for approximately four times
the price of the Sony recorder.
U-N-C-L-A-S-S-I-F-I-E-D
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SUBJECT: Letter of Information
12. To aid in cruising for possible expansion of TV and FM reception,
and monitoring, high quality VHF receivers covering a frequency range of
30 to 300 megacycles have been ordered for most of the bureaus. An-
tennas will also be ordered when a package unit has been located, or
assembled to meet IBIS requirements.
ADMINISTRATION
1. The IBIS 1962 Operating Budget and Fr 1963 Preliminary Esti-
mates were submitted in early May.
2. Schultz Bros. Van and Storage Co. in Santa Rosa is now the Vanpec
agent for Northern California. Overseas Bureaus now utilizing Vanpec
service for return shipment of household effects should advise their
agent if a Bureau employee is transferring to the West Coast Bureau.
3. Bureaus are requested to order all forma on Requisition Form
No. 88.
4. Starting 1 July 1961 all requests for teletype parts should be
submitted on Requisition Form No. 88.
5. The following ?BIS regulatory issuances were relcnsed durins the
month of April:
STAT
PERSONNEL NOTES
Assignment
1.
New Employees
Clerk Typist
STAT
Admin. Staff
2.
Reassignments
From
To
Editor
Editor
STAT
Editorial Br.
East Coast Bureau
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SUBJECT: Letter of Information
3. Separations
Editor Editor, USSR & EE
East Coast Bureau Sect., Edi. Br.
Radio Operator (Retirement)
East Coast Bureau
Clerk
Okinawa Bureau
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STAT
STAT
STAT
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