FBIS: SIGNIFICANT INTELLIGENCE REPORTING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85-00024R000400400015-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 23, 2007
• Sequence Number: 15
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2007/10/23: CIA-RDP85-00024R000400400015-7
+ Soviet Leadership - FBIS was first to alert the Community to mounting signs that Brezhnev was
attempting to groom Chernenko as his favorite candidate for succession. FBIS watches leadership
struggle through all-media monitoring, including television.
+ Polish Crisis - FBIS was a principal source for political developments at each stage of the Polish
crisis beginning in 1980. FBIS provided the Community with speeches, government statements, and
martial law decrees. FBIS analysts obtained indications of Soviet actions on Poland from Soviet
material.
+ Lebanon Situation - Radio material monitored by FBIS' four Middle East bureaus was wirefiled
directly to Special Envoy Habib in Beirut for use in the delicate negotiations related to the
Lebanese crisis.
+ Hostage Affair - Throughout the long Iranian hostage crisis, FBIS provided monitored material from
ran~iaan radios giving texts of statements by Iranian leaders and student groups, unique source
materials for policymakers and analysts.
+ Iranian Action - An FBIS report that Iran was considering withdrawing its assets from U.S. banks
caused President Carter to freeze those assets before Iran could take action.
+ Falklands War - FBIS provided round-the-clock coverage of Argentine radio and press agency reports,
and Britis official statements, on the Falklands War.
+ Chinese Leaders - FBIS reports documented the rapid rise of Deng Xiaoping from his purging in 1976
to a position of paramount political force in China by the end of the decade.
+ Insurgent Radios - FBIS remote monitoring from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras
provides coverage of clandestine insurgent radios operating with low-power transmitters, relayed
to FBIS Panama for processing.
+ War Threats - FBIS monitoring provided signs of growing tension between Vietnam and Kampuchea and
between Vietnam and China in 1978 which presaged the Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea and the
Chinese incursion into Vietnam.
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Approved For Release 2007/10/23: CIA-RDP85-00024R000400400015-7
 Approved For Release 2007/10/23: CIA-RDP85-00024R000400400015-7
+ Analytical Aids - FBIS reporting provides unique information on areas where there is no official
U.S. presence e.g., a new working aid on the military organization of Vietnam, based solely on
translations from Vietnamese newspapers).
+ Foreign Technology - FBIS identified information in the Japanese press revealing Japanese plans
to market a radio-absorption device closely allied to U.S. developmental technology for the stealth
bomber.
+ Special Services - FBIS staff linguists provide special support for U.S. negotiators, TDY services
to other Agency components, and interpreting for foreign dignitaries, and occasionally special
assistance to high-level U.S. officials.
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Approved For Release 2007/10/23: CIA-RDP85-00024R000400400015-7