Documents / Official release
This Clinton Presidential Library folder holds NSC cables from January 1999 to December 2000, filed under the heading "Flying Saucer or UFO". A withdrawal sheet lists eleven cables that were withheld in full or in part under Presidential Records Act and FOIA restrictions. The released cables include an FBIS summary of a Bogota TV newscast, which notes that a UFO photograph printed by El Espectador was a hoax. They also include a US Embassy Beijing report on Quanzhou, Fujian, and a Vladivostok cable on Governor Yevgeniy Nazdratenko.
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ESTABLISH -- DESPITE GOVERNMENT MONITORING -- INFORMAL NETWORKS OF TRUST TYPICAL OF CIVIL SOCIETY. LIKE-MINDED SYRIAN PROFESSIONALS, LINKED INFORMALLY, DISCUSS ISSUES SUCH AS HUMAN RIGHTS AND GRASSROOTS ACTION. OTHER INSTITUTIONS, SUCH AS SATELLITE TV (UNLICENSED DISHES CROWD DAMASCENE ROOFS) AND THE INTERNET (A FEW HUNDRED TEST SITES EXIST, AND THOUSANDS ARE ILLEGALLY CONNECTED TO INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS IN BEIRUT AND AMMAN), ARE ALSO CRITICAL BUILDING BLOCKS OF CIVIL SOCIETY. END SUMMARY. 2. WE REPORT SEPTEL ON POST CIVITAS PROJECTS. USIS DIALOGUES WITH NGO AND IO REPRESENTATIVES THROUGH TWO KINDS OF PROGRAMS: CLOSED SEMINARS AT THE PAO RESIDENCE, AND SEMINARS CO-SPONSORED BY USIS WITH IO'S (SUCH AS THE RED CRESCENT) AND NGO'S (SUCH AS THE DAMASCUS EMERGENCY SOCIETY). IN THESE CLOSED SEMINARS PARTICIPANTS HAVE DEBATED SUCH ISSUES AS THE ROLE OF VOLUNTEERISM IN SYRIAN SOCIETY, AND PROPOSED SUCH PROJECTS AS A UNIFIED DATABASE OF NGO ACTIVITIES AND MEMBERSHIP. IN PUBLIC LECTURES WHICH WE HAVE SPONSORED WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS, THE MESSAGE OF CIVIC SOCIETY AND OF DEMOCRACY IS IMPLICIT. SYRIANS ARE ACCUSTOMED TO THE ABSENCE OF FRANK PUBLIC DIALOGUE. FOR EXAMPLE, AFTER A LECTURE ON KAWAKIBI'S TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY WRITINGS ON DEMOCRACY WHICH CHALLENGED THE OPPRESSIVE OTTOMAN REGIME, AN AUDIENCE MEMBER ACKNOWLEDGED THAT TALKING ABOUT THE 1910'S HAD MEANING FOR EVENTS OF THE 1990'S. DURING RECENT ACULSPEC PROGRAMS U.S. ARTISTS ENCOURAGED STUDENTS TO BE CREATIVE; STUDENTS TOLD US THIS WAS THEIR FIRST CHANCE TO TRULY EXPRESS THEMSELVES. ## WHERE THERE ARE NO NGO'S 3. SYRIAN NGO'S EXIST AT THE SUFFERANCE OF THE OFFICIAL BA'TH PARTY AND OF THE GOVERNMENT. THE BA'TH PARTY DOMINATES POLITICS AND SOCIETY. IT CONTROLS THE PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY, YOUTH MOVEMENTS, THE WOMEN'S UNION, PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS, SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES. NO TOWN HOWEVER SMALL IS WITHOUT ITS ARAB CULTURAL CENTER, WHOSE MYRIAD CULTURAL ACTIVITIES SUPPORT SYRIAN BA'THISM ALL LOCAL POLITICAL AND CULTURAL OFFICIALS ARE FROM THE PARTY ELITE. (AT A RECENT CULTURAL FESTIVAL SPONSORED BY THE BA'TH YOUTH PARTY, THE PARTY OFFICIAL INTRODUCED THE PAO TO THE ARAB CULTURAL CENTER DIRECTOR, SAYING: "WE ARE ALL ONE; WHAT I DO IS WHAT HE DOES!") 4. BA'THIST PARTY ACTIVITIES ARE BURSTING WITH VOLUNTEERS SEEKING TO RISE IN PARTY CADRES OR JUST TO SURVIVE AND TO HOLD ON TO THEIR JOBS. SCHOOL TEACHERS DONATE SUMMER WEEKS TO COUNSEL IN YOUTH CAMPS FOR GRADE SCHOOL "ALTALA'A" (VANGUARD) AND HIGH SCHOOL "SHIBIBIT ATH-THAWRA" (YOUTH OF THE REVOLUTION) MOVEMENTS. THE EGALITARIANISM OF BA'THIST SOCIALIST IDEOLOGY IS EVIDENT IN THE LONG ROWS OF TENTS, AND PARTY LEADERS EATING THE CAMP MENU FROM STEEL PLATES IN THE CAFETERIA. CLASSICAL ARABIC
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Official release, from the nara 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. 64 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.