LOGNOTE--CHIEF, OPERATIONS GROUP, 6 MAY 1985

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP94-00798R000200320052-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 14, 2012
• Sequence Number: 52
• Publication Date: May 6, 1985
• Content Type: MISC

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/14: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200320052-3
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LOGNOTE -- Chief, Operations Group, 6 May 1985
1. (Williams) I asked for some background on the 26 April STAT
Kohl speech on Bitburg which had taken 8 1/2 hours to reach the
Wire. He was quite familiar with the incident and presumably was
expecting a question. He said the speech was very difficult for
them as it was impromptu and they had no "text," as was customary
for a Chancellor's speech. Kohl had completed a long speech to the
Bundestag on economic affairs and had sat down. After a pause he
got up again and resumed speaking for 29 minutes, this time on the
subject of Bitburg. quite properly handled the Bitburg section STAT
as an out-of-turn excerpt but was hampered by lack of text and that
they had not anticipated the speech and had only a poor recording.
There were few translators on duty and the speech was given to a
very senior man who had trouble with Kohl's southern accented
German, in a very emotional speech using language rarely encountered
in formal speechesso asked_about the amount of time the speech
l--hl
had taken to clear ire. I I said they had only one or two STATT
teletypists who cocle English teletyping and that it had to
be done very slowly. He said most of the blame had to fall on the
Monitoring Service, not on the teletype section. He added that,
unfortunately, he could not guarantee that in similar circumstances
the same thing might not happen again. But, he said, there were
lessons to be learned and they would review and study the handling
of this speech.
(cc: D/FBIS, C/DRD, AC/WSS,
C/London Bureau
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/14: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200320052-3