388. Telegram From the Embassy in Pakistan to the Department of State1
13188. Subject: Update on 22 Nov. Report.2
1. (S) Entire text.
2. Following updates long telegram summarizing 21 Nov. developments and is based on info not available at that time.
(A) Arrival GOP forces: German Amb3 visited compound at 1500 and 1700 on 21st in capacity Dean of Corps. He tried to enter building to speak with those inside but could not enter doors because of fire. Building surrounded by student age demonstrators everywhere, some with guns and with little indication much organization. Police outnumbered on both occasions and army nowhere in sight. (Separate MFA source reports fire brigade did not get to building until at 1800 because of fear of violence, that truckloads of demonstrators were spewing onto compound, most from Pindi, at 1500–1600 period, and that army numbers were not sufficient to enter compound until after 1700. Source also says some demonstrators were still in building as roof evacuation began.)
(B) Non-Pakistani involvement: Persian-speaking Emb officers manning inside of roof hatch believe language being used by determined band on outside was Arabic, in addition to Urdu; no Persian spoken. Army sources say interrogation of 6 demonstrators suggests Pak students involved covered Pak political spectrum but real hardcore activists were mainly Iranians and Palestinians.
(C) Third floor: Contrary to earlier report, evidence now suggests demonstrators at one time controlled whole building with exception of vault area.
(D) FSN deaths: Two FSN bodies were found on ground floor at opposite end of building from third (top) floor vault in which remaining FSN’s and US staff, plus Time correspondent sheltered on 21st. They were part of group of 4 FSN’s plus Vallejo (FBO officer) who were trapped in GSO spaces by swiftness of developments. Others involved there escaped with injuries (one broken leg); the phone operator and telex operator, both males, stayed at their stations in offices on same floor until around 1530 before they too made good their escape.
[Page 874](E) All India Radio (AIR): Ref. to AIR interruption of cricket broadcast with Khomeini remarks 21 Nov. reported in long summary sent 22 Nov, remains subject of controversy and denials; it should be regarded with suspicion, although Paks still refer to it as fact.4
3. Request this update and basic 22 Nov report be summarized to posts in neighboring countries.
4. Dept. should be aware also that Time correspondent here has been told two full pages of this week’s edition will be given over to her minute-by-minute account from inside the vault.5
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D790544–1006. Confidential; Immediate. Sent for information to Karachi.↩
- Not found.↩
- Ambassador Ulrich Scheske.↩
- See footnote 4, Document 384.↩
- See “Flames Engulf the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan” and “‘You Could Die Here,’” Time, December 3, 1979, pp. 26–27.↩