Documents / FOIA release
This is a compilation of Department of State Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) briefing notes to the Director of INR, mostly dated June 12, 1968, with some from June 6, 1968. The notes cover world events, including student riots in Paris, East German passport and visa rules for West Germans, a UN resolution on South West Africa, a change of Komsomol leadership, Sino-Nepalese relations, and the Colombian presidential resignation crisis. Unrest in Senegal and Somalia is also covered. None of the notes discuss UFOs.
“Cairo”3 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE INR CHIEFING NOTE GIST: KENNEDY ASSASSINATION: Arab and other RNA Area Reactions The Secretary The Director, INR DATE: June 6, 1968 INIT. A.M. Briefing COMMENTS CONTAINED IN THE SRIEFING LAITLARE WELFA AND TERRAZ Reutera, Washington UNCL June 5 Jordanian Ambassador Sharaf called at State Dept. June 5 to express his government's regret over shooting. "Informed sources said Sharaf did not assume any responsibility for the shooting suspect, Sirhan B. Sirhan—a Palestinian-born Arab. N.Y. Times June 6 Sirhan's father, contacted in Taiyiba on the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said news of his son's alleged action had "sickened him." (The father is separated from his wife who lives in California with her sons.) Amman's 5193 June 5 Deputy Prime Minister Touqan expressed regrets over shooting. N.Y. Times June 6 Palestinians in Amman voiced fear that waves of anti-Arab hysteria will sweep the US and other Western nations in wake of Kennedy shooting by Palestinian Arab. Some expressed belief Sirhan was hired Zionist killer used to discredit Arabs. Other did not believe he is Arab at all and suspect Sirhan is being made victim of a conspiracy to blacken Arabs in US. UAR official spokesman Zayyat XXII expressed deep regret in Cairo over the shooting. INR/RNA COMMENTS: Arab official reaction to the shooting, as can be expected, is one of regret. Most responsible Arab officials recognize potential for anti-Arab propaganda in fact that a Palestinian Arab has been arrested for the murder. Moreover, at least until Robert Kennedy's recent speech on the Middle East, the Senator's image in the Arab world had been relatively good. Arabs have fond memories of the late President Kennedy, whom they considered relatively sympathetic to-or at least less indifferent to-Arab points of view. This, as well as the State Senator's views on Vietnam, contributed to hopes in some Arab quarters that if nominated and elected President, the Senator might review current US policies in the Middle East. On the more popular and on the press level, the assassination of the Senator is being treated with some ambivalence. Most Arabs deplore the crime but allege that it has served to dramatize the Arabs' feelings of frustration with what they believe is the US' whole-hearted commitment to Israel. At the same time there is a tendency to see in the crime (as many Arabs professed to see in the assassination of President Kennedy) a "Zionist conspiracy" to discredit the Arabs. Although Israeli sources have speculated that the alleged murderer, Sirhan Sirhan, was connected with an Arab terrorist organization, no Arab group has thus far stepped forward to claim credit for the act. OTHER RNA AREA REACTIONS INR OFFICE BRIEFER EXTENSION LA/NE Wrampelmeier 4516 LIMITED OFFICIAL USE (Classification) FORM DS-1118 66 NW 31097 DocId:33061196 Page 102
Not linked to a story yet.
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 132 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.