AUGMENTING FBIS'S SOUTH ASIAN CAPABILITIES (U)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00714R000100040005-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 20, 2009
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: September 26, 1998
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2009/04/20: CIA-RDP83-00714R000100040005-7
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
April 2, 1979
MEMORANDUM FOR: THE DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
SUBJECT: Augmenting FBIS's South Asian
Capabilities (U)
I have noted your memorandum of 21 March 1979 on this
subject. While proposing an FBIS bureau in Pakistan is
undesirable when we are pursuing the possibility of a
fallback position for the lost Iranian sites, it does not
seem to me that the two operations necessarily conflict. if
the Pakistanis should. prove cooperative on highly sensitive
technical capabilities, I should think there might also be a
fair chance that they might also agree to the much less
politically sensitive establishment of overt monitoring
capabilities. I recommend you at least keep this possibility
open. (S)
Meanwhile, I urge you to take at least temporary measures to
improve monitoring from the whole South and Central Asian
area. The value of having this overtly obtainable information
as rapidly as possible is even more obvious than it was when
I sent you my memorandum of 14 November 1978. Instability
and political ferment have meanwhile increased throughout
the whole area, notably in Afghanistan and Iran, but also in
Pakistan and in respect to the Kurdish issue which may come
to affect countries such as Turkey and Iraq. We also continue
to need more timely coverage of broadcasts from the Soviet
Caucasus and Central Asia and from the Soviet-Chinese border
area. (S)
Please report by 1 May 1979 all measures you are able to
take to improve FBIS coverage of all these targets. (C)
Zbigniew Brzezinski
SECRET
Review on 26 March 1983
NSC review completed.
Approved For Release 2009/04/20: CIA-RDP83-00714R000100040005-7
 Approved For Release 2009/04/20: CIA-RDP83-00714R000100040005-7
79
April 2, 1979
MEMORANDUM FOR: THE DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
SUBJECT: Augmenting FBIS's South Asian
Capabilities (U)
I have noted your memorandum of 21 March 1979 on this
subject. While proposing an FBIS bureau in Pakistan is
undesirable when we are pursuing the possibility of a
fallback position for the lost Iranian sites, it does not
seem to me that the two operations necessarily conflict. If
the Pakistanis should prove cooperative on highly sensitive
technical capabilities, I should think there might also be a
fair chance that they might also agree to the much less
politically sensitive establishment of overt monitoring
capabilities. I recommend you at least keep this possibility
open. (S)
Meanwhile, I urge you to take at least temporary measures to
improve monitoring from the whole South and Central Asian
area. The value of having this overtly obtainable information
as rapidly as possible is even more obvious than it was when
I sent you my memorandum of 14 November 1978. Instability
and political ferment have meanwhile increased throughout
the whole area, notably in Afghanistan and Iran, but also in
Pakistan and in respect to the Kurdish issue which may come
to affect countries such as Turkey and Iraq. We also continue
to need more timely coverage of broadcasts from the Soviet
Caucasus and Central Asia. and from the Soviet-Chinese border
area. (S)
Please report by 1 May 1979 all measures you are able to
take to improve FBIS coverage of all these targets. (C)
Zbigniew Brzezinski
SECRET
Review on 26 March 1983
Approved For Release 2009/04/20: CIA-RDP83-00714R000100040005-7