Office of the Historian

412. Memorandum From William E. Odom of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski)1

Washington, December 3, 1980

SUBJECT

  • Counterterrorism Training for Egypt (S)

As you know, CIA has a trained counterterrorism group for the Ministry of Interior in Egypt. It is composed of about forty men who were originally policemen. The Egyptian Ministry of Defense has come to us with a request [less than 1 line not declassified] to train a somewhat larger terrorism group in the Egyptian Army. This request was brought to the attention of the SCC Executive Committee on Terrorism last week. (S)

[Page 1377]

To avoid confusion in our own government, I held a meeting this morning with representatives from the CIA/DDO, DOD/JCS, and State. We determined the following:

—The Egyptians apparently want a second team and do not desire that their own Ministry of Interior specialists train Egyptian Army personnel.

—That Defense and the Army [less than 1 line not declassified] would like to meet the Egyptian Ministry of Defense request. (S)

Now that our own government, i.e. [1 line not declassified] and that it is the inter-agency consensus that we should, we agreed to take the following actions:

—State, through Atherton, will check with the Egyptian Government to confirm at the Moubarek level that indeed they want a second program.

—Defense will negotiate with the Egyptian military for a small [less than 1 line not declassified] training team if the Egyptian request remains valid. (S)

I was the only one who suggested drawbacks such as counterintelligence damage to our own [less than 1 line not declassified] capability. Defense assures me this problem is not serious. Everyone else is enthusiastic to go forward. DOD/ISA is enthusiastic to get some credit at the political level for being responsive to the Egyptians. (S)

Unless you object and raise this to your level, no other review will be made. (C)

  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Office, Presidential Advisory Board, Box 86, Sensitive XX: 11–12/80. Secret; Sensitive. Sent for action. Brzezinski wrote “OK. ZB” in the upper right-hand corner of the memorandum.↩