Μακαριος Δρουσιώτης

Millions of dollars supplied by the CIA to the government of Cyprus end up in secret accounts, outside state budgetary control, and are spent by opaque procedures for undisclosed purposes.  The payments are made in exchange for the operation of the American radio station in the Makedonitissa area of Nicosia (FBIS), and for the operation of other US communications infrastructure in Cyprus.  The governments are using this money to fund "secret assignments", but because of the prevailing opacity in procedures, the funds can be used for anything, even for internal politics.   This matter dates back to the 1960's, but now is the first time during which American funds may be used to fund anti-American policy!

 

History

 

The Foreign Broadcasting Information Service (FBIS) was founded during the Second World War, and with the beginning of the Cold War in 1946 it was placed under the authority of the CIA.   The purpose of this service was to monitor, record and translate radio broadcasts from the entire world, with a special emphasis on the countries of the east block and of the middle east.   Since 1948 the service has cooperated with the corresponding british service (the BBC's Monitoring Service).  The US and the UK monitor different areas and exchange the information they collect.  At the end of 2005 the service has changed its character and has been renamed the Open Source Centre.   The collected information is evaluated by the US for the purposes of forming foreign policy, and is at the same time available for sale to any interested party.

 

Cyprus

 

The FBIS has operated in Cyprus since the 1940's, when the island was still a British colony.  The Cyprus station of the FBIS operated in Karavas, and was among the most important stations in the FBIS network, since it was possible from there to monitor local broadcasts in an area extending into the Soviet Union.

 

On February 6th 1960, the US National Security Council (NSC/6003) decided its policy towards the newly founded Republic of Cyprus.  As far as the radio stations were concerned, the Council decided to cater for the unhindered use of the American communications installations in

Cyprus.

 

The installations included:

1. The FBIS monitoring station in Karavas.
2. A very powerful repeater, from which broadcasts from the greater area around Cyprus were relayed straight to Washington, USA.
3. A communications station run by the US National Security Agency (NSA).   The NSA was founded in 1952 by US president Truman with the purpose of "protecting the communications systems of the USA".  In substance, it is a high technology communications monitoring service. The NSA's seat in Maryland, USA, is alleged to have been, according to the latest revelations in Greece, the brain centre behind the recent telephone tapping scandal in that country.

After the signing of the Zurich agreements, Taylor Belcher, then US consul in Cyprus, informed Makarios of the operation of the stations and expressed the readiness of the US to supply financial benefits in exchange.  Makarios, with a letter dated October 22nd 1959, asked for American weapons to arm the 2000-man Cyprus Army provided for by the constitution of the republic.   The US refused to supply military aid, but agreed to a co-operation programme between the two countries.

 

During the first years of independence, relations between Cyprus and the US were exceptionally warm.   Makarios visited the US and met president Kennedy, and vice president Johnson visited Cyprus.  The US, through Greece, organised the cypriot central intelligence agency KYP, modelled on the US CIA, and supplied Minister of the Interior Polucarpos Georkadjis with equipment and funds for intelligence gathering and surveillance.   The Cyprus government of that era tolerated the operation of the communications installations without any special agreement and with no immediate financial compensation.

 

Early crisis

 

Cyprus - US relations were upset after the events of 1963 - 64. Makarios made openings towards the Soviet Union and drew up alliances with Soviet-friendly Middle East countries such as Egypt.  Makarios intended to disengage Cyprus from the Treaties of Alliance and Guarantee, while the US policy was the continuation of the dependence of Cyprus on Greece and Turkey.

 

In November 1967, after the Kofinou crisis, Turkey threatened Greece with war unless the Greek Army division of about ten thousand men stationed on the island since 1964 was not withdrawn from Cyprus.  President Johnson sent Cyrus Vance as his special envoy to the area. Greece, ruled since April 1967 by the Junta of the Colonels, submitted to the threat, and agreed with Turkey on the withdrawal of the division, the disbandment of the Cyprus National Guard, and the revision of the mandate of the UN Forces in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

 

At the end of November 1967, Cyrus Vance visited Cyprus to secure Makarios' consent.   The matter, as put by the US, was one of "war or peace".  The crisis had to be defused by any means and the possibility of war between Greece and Turkey completely removed.

 

Makarios had been informed by the Soviet Union that Turkey was bluffing and had no intention of invading.  According to a CIA report, the Russians were playing a double game, encouraging Turkey on one hand and assuaging Makarios on the other.  They wanted to destabilise NATO.  Makarios, reassured by the Soviet Union, did not take the Americans' warnings seriously and stubbornly refused to consent to the agreement between Greece and Turkey.

 

Purchase of influence

 

It was at that time that the Americans realised that they had no effective influence with which to handle crises in Cyprus.   According to a State Department telegram to the US Embassy in Nicosia dated November 29th 1967, "Since the beginning, the problem with Makarios was that the US had no effective means of handling him", since they had no economic or military aid programme for Cyprus.   "The communications installations, for which we are to pay a lease, are clearly anadvantage", the telegram continued.

 

In the end, Makarios remained intransigent, but Greece and Turkey proceeded to implement the agreement between them, and the Greek Army division left Cyprus.  To appease the Americans, Makarios immediately made an agreement with them, recognising the radio stations which had up to then operated illegally in Cyprus.  The acceptance of the operation of the stations, now legal, was made by an exchange of letters between the two governments on January 22nd 1968.

 

The US agreed to give Cyprus, in exchange for the operation of the stations, the sum of 1.4 million dollars per year.  This was an astronomical sum by the standards of the era.  The per capita annual income in Cyprus at the time was 1,300 US dollars, while today it is almost 20,000.  Correspondingly, the US compensation amounted to about 20 million dollars per year by modern standards.

 

This is much too large a sum to be accepted as compensation for the operation of installations which had operated freely for about 25 years.   Substantially, that money bought the US the influence which it did not have two months earlier, when they were trying to cope with the risk of a Greco-Turkish war.

 

The period 1968 - 1973 was a very good era in US - Cyprus relations. Makarios accepted the beginning of intercommunal talks for the solution of the Cyprus issue, and consented to the stationing of American U-2 spy planes at the Akrotiri RAF base.

 

Secret account

 

The money given as compensation for the radio stations, as well as for the stationing of the U-2's in Akrotiri, was first mentioned by reporter Lawrence Stern in his book "Wrong Horse" published in 1977. The book referred to the 1974 Cyprus crisis and the author had very good sources within the State Department and the CIA.  Many important information disclosed by Stern was verified 25 years later, when part of the State Department's secret archive was declassified.

 

Stern wrote that "The CIA gave Makarios a fixed annual sum, about a million dollars.   The sum was deposited in a special fund, to be used by him for any purpose he saw fit."   Stern wrote that the Americans' opinion was that Makarios used the funds for government puprposes of his own preference, and that "he himself did not benefit from it to any important degree".

 

What matters is that these particular disclosures by Stern are fully confirmed by documents in the American public records, both as far as the U-2's and as far as compensation for the radio stations is concerned.   In reference to the latter, David Popper, then US Ambassador in Nicosia, sent the following telegram to Washington in June 1970:

 

"On June 24 I delivered to ForMin Kyprianou check for 1.4 million constituting annual payment required under stations agreement. Kyprianou and I agreed that arrangement working out very well indeed and to mutual advantage".

 

After 1974

 

As a result of the Turkish invasion, the Karavas station closed down and was moved to the Makedonitissa area of Nicosia, where the Americans built installations on land leased from the Church of Cyprus for 99 years.  The 1968 agreement continues in effect, while the status of the operatives of the stations has been upgraded, since they are now treated as members of the Diplomatic Corps, and enjoy immunity from prosecution and all the other trappings of the status of diplomat.

 

The money supplied by the CIA still does not appear in any budget anywhere.   Reliable information reports that the money is deposited in a special account and is utilised, by completely opaque procedures, in programmes of "public interest".   But the cloak of public interest can cover anything.

 

Four years ago, the government of Cyprus granted a license for the operation of a relay station for the Voice of America, in the Cape Greco area.  The US pays the government of Cyprus 250,000 dollars annyally, which is deposited in the annual budget of the Ministry of Communications and Works (Electronic Communications Department).   About 700,000 dollars paid annually by the French for the operation of a similar station is deposited in the same budget.   An income of 500,000 pounds, corresponding to the above two payments for the year 2006, is recorded in the budget in question.  The CIA money for the American radio station is nowhere to be seen.

 

Five critical questions

 

1. In 1970 the US gave, in today's values, 20 million dollars annually for the radio station.  Today, how much money are they giving, who receives it, and how is it handled?

 

2. Is the payment of funds, outside of budget, purchase of influence? Is the present government of Cyprus, which is flying a rogue anti-American banner, subject to this kind of American influence?

 

3. Why is the operation of the radio station in Makedonitissa not the subject of any censure, despite the intense anti-American verbiage?

 

4. Is the handling of foreign funds without charted receipts with stamps on them acceptable?

 

5. Is there some relationship between the radio station funds and the government's decision to cease at once the defamation campaign against its political opponents, which portrayed them as having been funded from the US to support a "yes" vote in the 2004 referendum?

Makarios Drousiotis - Politis

07/05/2006