CLOSE UP - NBC WHITE PAPER - THE MAN WHO SHOT THE POPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100370008-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 45
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2007
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: September 21, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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21 6e p t, . 1982 710 :00 PM, WRC-TV
C: Or,;E ! rT ills T W PA PER
~,:CT T!:E POPE
Sponsor of program invited guests to a
screening and handed out copies of the
transcript. A State Dept. est forwarded
a copy of his transcript to
DDI/Terrorism who forwarded copy to
Public Affairs.
2-5-Jan. 1983 Revised version of 21 Sept.
1982 program
Revisions inserted to pt. version
from tape made b
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NBC WHITE PAPER - THE MAN WHO SHOT THE POPE - A STUDY IN TERRORISM
MARVIN KALB: (Vd)
It happened on May 13, 1981 on a warm Wednesday
afternoon. An unsuspecting Rome sparkled in the
sunlight, each of its fountains a silent witness
to other intrigues. The dome of St. Peter.'s
dominated the skyline of the Eternal City. It
was exactly 5:17 P.M. The Pope, riding in his
white Jeep through the crowded square, had just
opened his general audience, blessing a young
- and waving to the faithful. Then, suddenly,
a hand, a gun, and a volley of fire. The Pope
slumped, hit by two bullets. By attempting to
kill the spiritual leader of 800,000,000 Catho-
lics, the gunman had comm4tted a monstrous crime--
an unprecedented act of terrorism that also
wounded two American tourists, innocent bystanders.
There was in St. Peter's Square horror and dis-
belief. Who would want to shoot a Pope?The
gunman turned out to be a 23-year old Turk,
All Agca, a professional killer wanted for
murder in Turkey He seemed, under the circumstances,
remarkably cocky.
AGCA: (ro)
I am very sorry two tourists wounded.
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MARVIN KALB : (VO)
He expressed regret about having wounded the
tourists, but. not about having shot the Pope.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE:'
Why did you do it?
MARVIN KALB: CVO
At the time, everyone rushed to judgment, reach-
ing different conclusions about Agca. He was,
to some, a lonely and deranged killer, an Islamic
fanatic out to punish the Christian West. To
others, he was an agent of the Far Left, Libya
or Palestinian extremists. Perhaps of the Far
Right, neofascists in Turkey and Western Europe.
it should be said early on in this mystery that
there is little or no evidence to support any
of these theories. But then, if not, who was
Agca; = t,vo.o h2 pzX o-cer-z~
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MARVIN KALB : (0 19
After a nine-month investigation, NBC News has
accumulated a great deal of evidence, some of
it, to be sure, circumstantial, linking the
attempted murder here in St. Peter's Square to
the political and diplomatic needs of Red Square.
A Soviet connection is strongly, suggested, but
it cannot be proved. In the high risk world of
international terrorism, deniability is crucial
and expected, and responsibility is always care-
fully laundered. For the next hour, join us on
this dramatic odyssey, retracing the steps of
the man who shot the Pope.
MARVIN KALB. (VO)
It is said of John Paul II that he is happiest
,on Wednesday afternoons--when he emerges from
the inner sanctum of the Vatican and mingles with
thousands in St. Peter's Square. His general
audiences, though jampacked and public, still
have'a touch of intimacy about them. The priest
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v,K(IO) Cohl'd
in this Pope communes with individuals in the
crowd--each, to him, a precious gift from God.
He stops, he chats, he jokes, he prays, he
touches, almost always with a gentle smile.
These are his hallelujah people--his emotional
flock. [VOICES OF THE CROWD IN BACKGROUND.]
?John Paul is special. He is the first non-Italian
Pope in 455 years, the first Slavic-born succes-
sor to St. Peter. He is conservative in theology,
daring in his Polish politics, though now more
cautious. Indeed, his nationalism has become
indistinguishable from his Catholicism. During
this time of trouble they have, for John Paul,
become one. it is a dangerous combination.
(oc)
[SINGING OF THE CROWD.] One week before the
assassination attempt, the Pope, operating on a
kind of dark premonition, talked to his Swiss
guards, his personal police force, about terrorism.
He said, "We pray to God that violence and fanati-
cism will be kept far away from the Vatican. It
may happen that one day you will be asked to
sacrifice your life." On May 13, 1981, the. Pope
almost lost his.
r1 (vo)
During the attempted assassination, one bullet
creased the Pope's left shoulder. He instinc-
tively bent forward, and that saved his life.
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The second bullet hit the index finger of his
left hand, and then entered the upper part of
his abdomen, causing massive lesions and loss
of blood. Agca almost succeeded in his mission.
It is now clear from photographs taken just
seconds before the shooting that Agca did not
act alone. He had one accomplice, probably two,
in this conspiracy to kill the Pope. One is
seen with Agca. Turkish police have identified
OfiuR .
the man on the right as whose false
passport was produced on the safne day and in the
same place as Agca's. The other suspected accom-
lice, photographed after the shooting by an
American tourist, has not yet been named by the
Italian police. The speculate that Agca's
accomplices were supposed to create a diversion
so that he could escape in the commotion. But
they either panicked and ran, or deliberately
betrayed Agca.
.~....- rrt K V03
[OVER ITALIAN VOICE) For Italy, Agca's trial
was uncharacteristically brief--three days,
starting July 20, 1981--almost as if someone
wanted to sweep it under the rug. Agca, the
defendant, was haughty, defiant, dismissing his
attorney and claiming in a fifteen minute
peroration that he had intended merely to wound
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the Pope, not kill him. He even challenged
the right of the Italian court to try him.
AGCA : p C..
[IN FOREIGN TONGUE.]
MARVIN KALB : %10
The presiding
judge, in his first public
comments on the case, marveled at Agca's mental
agility.
SE 1E~j )o $4)sri ?1~H~ Yo oG 1
JUDGE [THROUGH INTERPRETER)
One thing is certain--that all the interrogations
of Agca reveal a lucidity and an ability, an
exceptional ability of his, to mislead the in-
vestigations, and to direct the particular inves-
tigator, which presumes either a personal and
natural capacity, or a specific schooling in this
matter.
MARVIN KALE :64
Agca, in a signed statement, mixed fact with
fiction, throughout suggesting that he yearned
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T-57 --some of international notoriety. For
what, he did not say. What he did say revealed
a chilling cast of mind. "I'm an international
terrorist," he said. "Ready to help other ter-
rorists everywhere. I make no distinction between
fascists or communists. The international ter-
rorist, as I see it, is not bothered by ideologi-
ca,1 labels. He has confidence in guns, and that's
enough.
But to a prosecuting attorney, and others, it
is not all that stark and simple.
OC-
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER [PROSECUTING ATTORNEY?]
[THROUGH INTERPRETER]
I believe that there was a plot behind Agca's
criminal gesture. k-plot hatched in other places,
hatched by other brains.
(off 5EVEKn3D SAIMAP104 t
The court, however, maintains that Agca was manipu-
lated--trained, directed, helped and subsidized
to kill the Pope*
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MARVIN KALE I(1IO)
'
Francesco charged with state security
at the time of the Agca crime, relates it more
directly to Eastern Europe.
rnA2iot h ? (00
FRANCESCO [THROUGH INTERPRETER]
The suspicion which arises is that the Pope was
targeted not so much because he was the head of
Christianity, but because he was a Polish Pope,
at the moment when, in Poland, there was on one
hand a big revival of Catholicism, and on the
other the link between this religious revival
and the Solidarity Union in confrontation with
the Communist state, and above all with the
Soviet Union.
MARVIN KALB 4V0)
[OVER CHURCH CHOIR] Victory Square, Warsaw,
June 2, 1979. Eight months after becoming Pope,
John Paul returned to Poland--the start of an
electrifying visit. More than just a hometown
boy who made good, John Paul seemed to personify
Poland, a magical link between church and state
that left little room for the commissars.- With
his presence and his prayers, the Pope unified
the Polish-people--a modern day Beck, challenging
the very legitimacy of Marxist rule. The Pope's
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N1K(Yo)Contd-
blending of religion with nationalism proved to
be a headQ' ix br the people of Poland who
suddenly realized that, for all their vulnerabil-
ities, they now had a trusted friend in Rome,
one of their very own, who was not afraid of the
Russians, and ?''id'*canded vast legions through-
out the world.~The fact is John Paul, with this
visit, inspired his countrymen to dream the impos-
sible dream that one day they would be free.
(CROWD CHEERS) And for a brief time, they dreamed
and acted and won a measure of freedom, encouraged
every step of the way by the Pope's defiance of
Soviet warnings.
t1A-T Sor- $dam.sK wagKERc' 5TAiKf- ?
,"In August, 1980, the workers in Gdansk led a
series of crippling strikes. They demanded funda-
mental reforms--freedom of speech and assembly,
an independent trade union, an unfettered church.
in the Communist world, these demands were unpre-
cedented. A crackdown seemed inevitable--if
not by Polish authorities, then by the Soviet
Army, intervening in Poland, as it had in Czecho-
slovakia, Hungary, and East Germany in earlier
times.
/AK -
But it didn't happen that way, in part, because
of the crucial secret role played by the Pope,
now disclosed for the first time. NBC News has
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M K OG (,oM'd
learned that in early August, as the crisis esca-
lated, the Pope sent an envoy to the Kremlin
whom we are pledged not to identify. He delivered
an extraordinary handwritten letter, in Russian,
prGZ}1n~/.
from the Pope to Soviet leader it
said that though.the Pope was the head of a uni-
versal church, he was still a Pole, and-deeply
affected by developments in Poland. And if the
Russians moved against Poland, he would lay down
the crown of St. Peter and return to his homeland
-t o
stand shoulder to shoulder with his people.
Backed by this implied threat, the envoy then
tried to win Soviet approval for creating Soli-
darity. He shuttled between Moscow and Warsaw
and Warsaw and Rome and finally persuaded the
Russians to gamble on coexistence with Solidarity
rather than run the risk of an open confrontation
with the Pope.
fv k VO
The Russians yielded, or so it seemed at the
time. StriketLech Walesa signed the historic
Gdansk Agreement setting up the first independent
trade union in a communist country. He signed it
with,a leftover souvenir from the Pope's visit.
Public confirmation of the Papal envoy's role. has
now come from a key Vatican insider, American-born
rnoNs t b ioQ H, AKj
Franco.
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MoaSit-aO MLARi
FRANCO:(Q4)
I do believe that, even though the Pope belongs
to the world, he's humanly a man who loves his
own country. And I am sure that the Pope will
try and. . . would have tried ever third in
the. . . everything possible to stop an invasion
of his homeland.
MARVIN KALB: fro
[OVER ARTILLERY SOUNDS] Time and again the
E signs conducted military maneuvers, suggest-
ing an invasion was imminent. The costly,
frightening, dangerous manuevers mirrored the
Kremlin's dilemma about Poland. Western intel-
ligence experts now believe that it was then,
in the late summer of 1980, that the plot was
BKEZt JE I
hatched. exasperated by the Pope,
might have uttered the Russian equivalent of,
"Will no one rid.me of this meddlesome priest?"
MK %1D
[OVER APPLAUSE) Not for a moment did the Pope
step back from his running confrontation with
the Russians. On January 15, 1981, he publicly
received Lech Walesa in the Vatican, while pri-
vately he approved of plans to send millions of
dollars to Solidarity, and to stiffen the spine
of the Catholic Church throughout Eastern Europe.
4:
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m-K YO CONT%D
John'Plul calle'd 't'fie"Arth and growth of Solidarity
a very extraordinary thing.
POPE JOHN PAUL II [THROUGH INTERPRETER]
Solidarity has the enormous task to watch out for
the rights of the working class of our fatherland.
Poland, as well as any other society and nation,
has the right, and an obligation, to strive for
this enormous task which faces you. World opin-
ion is in support of you.
MARVIN KALB : C40)
gRE ZH-JEWI
A month later,, on February 23, w, in somber
tones, told a Communist Party Congress that "The
pillars of the socialist state were crumbling
in Poland." Strong action was required,. but he
did not define what he had in mind.
Now, for the first time, top Vatican sources have
begun, cautiously, to discuss the plot to kill
the Pope.
CACD10AL 5iLVl0 otbi (oC)
Ole I certainly believe that any 007 at the
service of any government would have an easy job
trying to harm the Pope. If and what secret
service did the job, I don't know. We suspect,
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ODDi o Lorrt'd
e thinks a are trying to prove,.but we are
not certain. We carat saye certainly such a
power did this.
MARVIN KALB `VD)
What do you suspect?
CAt.)/NAL SILVIc ODD;
we - comma=:
You are going too far. fjXCSW
MARVIN KALB : Cv Oj
Waft 1111EE=
Alright,.let me put the
13
question this way. What possible motives could
there be behind the attempt to kill a pope?
. &LL oe~i,~.
(09
I suppose almost anything. it could be fanati-
cism. Material interests...dW perhaps, and probably
more, international political strategy.
MARVIN KALB: to
Spell that out for me. What do you mean, "inter-
national political strategy"?
What the word means...Political, international,
strategy. You understand quite well what I mean.
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Od&
Who is interested in this affair? A private
life UoL* t~'~a,?? LLet
%
person is not interested, unless he's a fool.
h?.
And this mantwas not a fool. That's proved.
He's an intelligent man. }de's a killer, really,
Q
professions , Soy he was certainly acting jr 4i,& ,r,,Q,,,,tiL Ct
d'tM~ertiy .
? - ow~c Act
MARVIN KALE : (V O)
. ftur tZ q44-n 4
It is now: since the assassination
attempt. The Pope, in this time, has witnessed
a martial law crackdown in Poland, engineered
by the Soviet Union, and he also suffered a sharp
setback last month, when he was refused permis-
sion to return to Poland for a major religious
and national occasion. More than once the Pope
must have wondered how Agca fit into this geo-
political puzzle, how he became a part of Soviet
strategy. [CHOIR SINGS)
act- M.K. Vo
n[Ok A TURKISH CHANT] The Turkey into which
Ali Agca was born in 1958 was, as always,
a careful balancing act between East and West.
it is a Moslem country of 45,000,000 people.
Because of its geography, sitting as it does on
the ancient trade routes between Asia and Europe,
it is schizophrenic, torn between the competing
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MK, V 0 c.6 t3TD
pressures of Islamic fundamentalism and secular
democracy. Because of its geography, too, it
SSIA4
has often been a target of JW~ strategic
slow
moves, resulting in thirteen major wars between
the two countries in the past 300 years. Part
of the reason is that Turkey controls the
Dardanelles, Russia's only outlet to the Mediter-
ranean, vital to the import and export of oil.,
machine tools, and consumer goods. "pinother rea-
son is that Turkey is a member of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization, its eastern flank
guarded by Turkey's 600,000 troops. Agca never
served in the Turkish military, never displayed
the traditional Turkish distaste for Russia. In
-recent years, with weapons and propoganda, the
Soviet Union has sought to destabilize Turkey,
a huge effort that cost more than $1 billion,
supporting both right- and left-wing terrorism.
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MARVIN KALB:
Vo
Lenin once said, "The purposes of terror is pp4~
to terrorize." The killing, by first the left
and then the right, was widespread. No one was
spared--judges, journalists, politicians, police-
men. Terrorism became a fuiltime occupation.
Agca, at a very early age, sucked into its wild
currents. Finally, after 10,000 people had been
slaughtered in one year, the Turkish military
staged a bloodless coup on September 12, 1980,
promising that when/4violence stopped, they would
return Turkey to civilian rule,,-and another crack
at democracy.
O e-
is,~ en, was the environment that spawned the
likes of Ahmm" Ali Agca The story of Agca is
a case study of a modern day terrorist. Bill
McLaughlin went back to the beginning, to Agca's
birthplace, in the hills of eastern Turkey.
BILL McLAU9HLIN:
`?tortuous Byzantine route that' Ali Ayca
took from TuTk g '-o Vatic Square began here,
in -, twenty.;feur >&s aqo. It was 1958,
a quieter. t In Poland, at the'` __of 38,
became that country's younges #
Ave
/
biiop, and here in
I'llaw ?Ali Agca was
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MARV IN KALB :(YO)
Lenin once said, "The purposes of terror is some
to terrorize." The killing, by first the left
and then the right, was widespread. No one was
spared--judges, journalists, politicians, police-
men. Terrorism became a fulltime occupation.
Agca, at a very early age, sucked into its wild
currents. Finally, after 10,000 people had been
slaughtered in one year, the Turkish military
staged a bloodless coup on September.12, 1980,
promising that whenlviolence.stopped, they would
return Turkey to civilian rule, and another crack
at democracy.
M. K.....
This, then, was the environment that spawned the
M t
likes of WmMW Ali Agca. The story of Agca is
a case study of a modern day terrorist. Bill
McLaughlin went back to the beginning, to Agca's
birthplace, in the hills of eastern Turkey.
BILL McLAUCHLIN : be..
The tortuous Byzantine route that Ali Agca
took from Turkey to Vatican Square began here,
in ~~~11*, twenty-four years ago. It was 1958,.
a "quieter time. In Poland, at the age of 38,
~6~1 3C - became t count7~ ,
r i' s youngest
bishop, and here in Ali Agca was
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born. Their paths would meet when one became a
Pope, and the other became a terrorist. [TURKISH
CHANT]
Ali Agca heard the call to prayer from the
minoret of this mosque five times a day for almost
twenty years. One thing we know about him is that
he ignored it. pretended to be many
things to many people, but he never pretended to
be religious, much less the sort of crazed Moslem
zealot who might be tempted to kill a Christian
leader.
e grew up here ink a pleasant, bustling
in southeastern Anatolia.
The streets of this provin-
cial capital" Riao"filled with young
boys doing o d jobs to help out their families,
just as OM All, always the dutiful son, used
to do when he was their age. [TRAIN WHISTLE)
He lived, literally, on the wrong side pf the
tracks, in the dirt-poor suburb of
where the only running water is the town fountain r
the most common means of transport is on foot
or donkey. His family still lives here, but
getting to see them is not easy. When we went
to No. 13 Street to visit the two-room
Agca house, we went with an escort of more than
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Pope, and the o her ecame a? a t` (TURKISH
C
`_~,'!( too
I` Ali Agcaheard the call to prayer from the
minoret of this mosque five times a day for almost
twenty years. One thing we know about him is that
he ignored &:*;`AA4 to be many
things to many people, but he never pretended to
be religious, much less the sort of crazed Moslem
zealot who might be tempted to kill a Christian
leader.
He grew up here in ; a pleasant, bustling
rf
i `in southeastern Anatolia. .'
The streets of this provin-
cial capital r filled with young
boys doing odd jobs to help out their families,
just as always the dutiful son, used
to do when he was their age. [TRAIN WHISTLE]
He lived, literally, on the wrong side of the
tracks, in the dirt-poor suburb of where the only running water is the town fountain..-
. ~c.C..
the most common means of transport is on foot
or donkey. His family still lives here, but .
getting to see them is not easy. When we went
to No. 13 --street to visit the two-room
Agca house, we went with an escort of more than
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a dozen armed men, representing every Turkish
18
civil and military security service. The Turkish
government, it appears, wants to be sure that no
one visits the Agcas without its knowledge.
Behind the door at No. 13 we found the shattered
remains of what used to be a family. ..dg~ Ali's
younger sister, Fatma, was somewhere in hiding,
but his mother, ', was there, along with
his 19-year old brother,- `I They were both
suspicious, resentful, and bitter.
kGCA: (THROUGH INTERPRETER]
A priest is wounded and the whole world is ex-
cited!
AGCA: [THROUGH INTERPRETER] Q~
Turkey as well!
. AGCA
It's like the buzzing of a fly to us. We are
not afraid of dying.
99
g
/Iv;.Spo~..c~~wO.y, le.^e~
BILL McLAUCHLIN: VD
And there was something else in the younger bro-
ther--something behind those same piercing eyes
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you see in the photos of Ali,.-..+4here was
a defiant pride.
MMMM AGCA :
/
No one should be ashamed of
Ali, saying he
wounded the Pope. I don't see my brother as a
terrorist, he's aezr. We are not afraid of
anyone when we talk.( Why do you look at me like
that? Everything is in the open now.
cu 22Yya" j
i 111,0111 AGCA:
It's out of our hands; it all depends on God.
BILL McLAUQHLIN : V O
Mrs. Agca's grief is real. Ali was her
favorite child. She was proud of him. She was
proud in the early years
when/ he went to
neighborhood schoolhouse.
remembered here as a
hard worker, neat,
remembered as having
Ace.
Am
this
is
very good student, and a
clean'child. He is also
been somewhat alcof, as
though he felt that.he was someone special. But
he was also a quiet boy who kept out of trouble.
Keeping out of trouble during those murderous*
years in Turkey was a fulltime job. Terrorist
killings and executions were commonplace.
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'like all of Turkey, was torn apart by
the terror of the Red and the Black. Marxists
and Fascists fought each other, and fought for
the hearts and minds of young Turks. On the
far right, there was this man;.-Colonel
7'u,rkes ,
His Neo-Nazi National Action Party
had its own private army of young terrorists.
The were called,,the Gray Wolves' They not only
*fought street'battles with the Left, they also
tried to infiltrate every sector of Turkish
society. e
BILL McLAUQ,HLIN: 1/ 01
O
The Grey Wolves took over Agca's high school dur-
ing his last two years there. 'He was friendly
with some of them, but never a member. He re-
mained aloof. The Left also had a strong power
A1120,0base in ate . One of its leaders was ~=
___ His name is worth remembering. Like
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21
BILL MCIAUCIN VO coast
Agca, Tore was born in Malatya... and founded the T=kish
People's Liberation Army -- a Marxist terrorist organization.
Later Tore moved to SYria and Lebanon, where Turkish and Israeli
intelligence believe he worked for this man, Vladimir Soldatov,
the Soviet ambassador to Lebanon, and the chief KGB agent in
the area.
Ankara, Turkey's capital was the next step in Agca's caning of
age as a professional terrorist.
Our intelligence sources believe that before leaving hone for
Ankara, Agca had already been recruited by a clandestine organ-
ization. He got to Ankara in 1976 by supposedly passing an
extremely difficult university entrance exam. Later he told
his family he didn't like Ankara and wanted to studyeconanics
at Istanbul University. Again, he took and passed an
equally difficult exam, or did he.
Noone form Agca's village bad ever passed those exams before.
The local high school was second-rate by Turkish standards
so we asked the question, was it possible that someone else
had taken those exams for Agca. One of Turkey's most 16spected
legal experts, Dr. Sahir Erman, is convinced that is what
happened.
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Agca's place. Professor Sahir Erman
*- &C, .
SAHIR MAN: [THROUGH INTERPRETER]
In our country, that examination is very, very
difficult. Even those who come from first rate
schools and hold advanced diplomas can't pass
this exam easily. It's impossible that it was
Ali Agca in person who took the examinations.
It must be someone else--another young man who
took the exams using dump Ali Agca's name and,
since he was well prepared, he passed both times.
That shows, too, that there was an organization.
Why? To get him out of his military service,
first of all, and then so that he could contri-
bute to the terrorism which was growing at that
time, especially in the Turkish universities.
So that organization had to have a man like Memit
Ali Agca in a Turkish university.
BILL McLAUQHLAN : vd
Dr. Erman requested copies of the exams Agca was
said to have taken to compare the handwriting.
inexplicably, the records had been destroyed)
And according to Agca's own testimony in Rome,
confirmed by Turkish intelligence, part of the
time he said he was attending university he was
actually training at a PLO camp in Lebanon, thanks
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to his mentor, Teslim Tore.
ACCA Ste: "After secretly training as guerrilla for about
40 days south of Beirut. I returned again to Turkey with the
help of Teslim Tore."
NYUCIN VO (Gunshots) In the spring of 1977, when he was 19
years old, Agca said he crossed secretly into Syria...and was
taken by Teslim Tore to a guerrilla camp like this one south of
Beirut. The camp Agca attended was run by the pro-Soviet Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Teslim Tore brought
hundreds of Turks, like Agca, to Lebanon for terrorist train rg.
It is now clear that a few months after that training in December,
1977 Agca was on someone's secret payroll. These bank account
records prove that at the age of 19, the poor student from
Malatya was in face a well-apid member of a clandestine organization
The first entry, for 40,000 Turkish lire (about $2,000) was
deposited by someone claiming to be Agca, except it wasn't Agca's
signature. It was Dr. Erman who requested and got the bank
records.
SAHIR E1 AN OC Through interpreter
The signature when the account was opened and the signature for
the withdrawla were not the same. Someone went to the bank under
the name of Helmet Ali Agca, giving false addresses -- addresses
that do not exist In Istanbul. They are imaginary addresse.
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24
BILL McLAUQHLIN: YD
Agca's sponsors set up accounts for him in sev-
eral Turkish banks. It was a convenient and
safe way to transfer funds to Agca. It is esti-
mated that over a twelve month period, Agca was
paid at least $18,000. After moving to Istanbul,
Agca had plenty of money to spend in the bazaar,,....
and it --he spent a considerable time creat-
ingthe cover of a student interested in right-
wing politics. He became expert at negotiating
the back alleys of the old Byzantine
Agca hung out at theme dR= Cafe; a favorite
watering hole for the Grgy Wolves. It was also
frequented by members of the Turkish Mafia, who
had close ties to Bulgarian intelligence.
world of left-:.and right-wing extremists, of
arms smugglers,jVW dealers, and secret agents
making deals in cheap cafes. It was the start
of 1979j, and Agca was ready for his first big
This, then,'was Agca's world in Istanbul.
job.
8i 11 /1104- An Q~
,E._
this is14where AJOW Ali Agca committed his first
murder. This is where he shot and killed Turkey's
.Spe4ai hoc - ic3 h .~~ae t-e T
best known editor, Abdi He was Y loud
voice in Turkey for reason and moderation. He
was a voice 4W spoke out against terrorism, and
Appr
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25
-
spoke with a pro-Western accent.
was a progressive liberal. He was despised by
the Right, but had angered the Left by coming
out in favor of martial law to stop terrorism.
He was outspoken in his beliefs. Someone decided
that had to be silenced. Agca silenced
jMMMM r riddling his body and his car with bullets
on the evening of February 1, 1979.
murder, announced by his own newspaper,
sent shockwaves throughout Turkey. There was
national revulsion and anger.
murder9?
whether by the Right or the LeftA was a brutal
act of terrorism that further destabilized Turkey.
AI~~~ ? manhunt for his killer ended on June
25.
An anonymous tip led 4M police to Agca, who freely
admitted that he was the assassin. In a televised
news conference, Agca insisted that he? acted
alone.
I7iPe./,t2~i '
-ELI AGCA:
[In Turkish].
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26
BILL McLAUGHLIN: 1//0
But he did not act alone. NBC News has obtained
t a-ck W klcksAD u- Mo -
these qM?. records a Agca was paid 200,000
Turkish / .'(worth $10,000 at the time), two
months before the- murder. The money was
deposited in his name in a bank near Istanbul.
It was withdrawn a month later/ on January 4, 1979
in The payment reinforces the image of
0
l
Lea /
Z
-
i
a~
~
Agca as a z
y~. ;'`l iller for hire--a terrorist
without ideology.
in addition, eleven days later, on January 15,
l~luz~P,yyc,c,
1979, Agca's mother, opened an account
.in her name for 100,000 Turkish lira, worth
$5,000 at the time. When I asked Mrs. Agca and
.about the bank accounts, they were both
firm in their denials.
What banks did, Ali use here in town?
-AND ?!M= AGCA :
[IN TURKISH]
INTERPRETER:
She says that she has no bank, no account.
BILL McLAUqKLIN:
V
I don't mean now; I mean years ago. Before.
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27
INTERPRETER :
[IN TURKISH]
AGCAS:
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]. . .
BILL NcLAUCHLIN: L/C
The family, it appears, is still trying to
ketmat_
cover up ?- Ali Agca's covert bank accounts.
And Agca was not alone even while awaiting trial
for the i murder in the maximum security
Prison.' On the night of November
24, 1979, Agca, wearing a military uniform passed
through eight checkpoints to a waiting car.
His escape/from Turkey's Alcatraz is still a
mystery
f z- keg" N2.Qs " Yv 940-C, p/07t-
could ' ,.ot ie t to kill
the Pope?
Z- 2'40
[THROUGH INTERPRETER]
Helping a well-known killer like Agca escape can
be part of an operation in which Agca can.succes-
sively be used as a tool, as a killer. It is
possible that the idea of the assassination came
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in stages. What does appear certain is that
when Agca escaped, he escaped for the purpose
of using him later for some sort of operation,
not necessarily for this one, but simply to make
available for use a killer who had already com-
mitted a homicide and who was notorious for his
coldbloodedness.
BILL McLAUGHLIN :
w
The day after his escape((Agca wrote a letter to
s newspaper. The young terrorist1 who
cared little for religion and who was rarely seen
inside a mosquetthreatened to kill Pope John Paul
II during his visit to Turkey. The Pope arrived
in Turkey two days later. [PROCESSIONAL MUSIC]
Because of Agca's threat, the Turkish government
ordered extraordinary security measures for the
Pontiff's visit.
s for Agca, he later claimed that
his threat had merely been a diversion to con-
fuse the Turkish police and allow him to escape
from the country. Perhaps. Or perhaps Agca had
64U_4_~ 49
established a new.-:?-7the religious zealot
who wanted to kill a Pope.
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29
The Turkish phase of Agca's life was over.
He was now an international terrorist.
MARVIN KALB :
For the next six months, Agca's trail is diffi-
cult to follow. He said that, for a time, he
went to Iran--even named the hotels, but this
cannot be confirmed. 3--intel-
ligence say he might also have gone to Syria for
.-training, but this cannot be confirmed
either. The trail only becomes clearer in July,
1980 when 4W surfaced- -in
Bulgaria, Turkey's next door neighbor.
For the believing Communist, Bulgaria must be
God's Little Acre--a tightly run dictatorship
on a short leash to Moscow, responsible in recent
years for
training and sanctuary. Courage
and political and independence are not its hall-
marks. No foreigner, especially a known Turkish
terrorist on the lam, could spend seven weeks in
the best hotels in `without the knowledge
and approval of the Bulgarian secret service.
Agca, by his own testimony, arrived in
between July 10th and 15and checked into the
modern Hotel Vitosha.
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30
In Room 911, he met a fellow Turk, Omer Mersan,
who helped Agca get a passport containing his,.
photograph but using the name of"=0
the same passport Agca carried when arrested in
St. Peter's Square. Agca also claimed that he
bought a gun here, but this does not check out,
and that he met a mysterious agent named
~e
here. This does not check out either. But Omer
Mersan does check out.
c4S ~
~.~ the time, a key figure in a huge
drug smuggling and gun-running operation.. con-
/9bvze~"
trolled Mafia-style by yet another Turk, -*,:-
known as "The Godfather". lu; charged
known
with weapons and drug smuggling, is now on trial
in Turku even though he runs his thriving illegal
business out of Bulgaria and travels on a Bulgarian
passport. Agca claimed that he had met
in?qwd= ~ a claim Italian investigators believe,
u9~u
even though = denied it. In a fashion both
iixotic and profitable, Communist Bulgaria cooper-
ates with this Turkish Mafia, behind the gray
facade of " which is Bulgaria's export/
pu.Nau
import corporation. Ugor? a Turkish expert
on Bulgaria's middleman role between the drug
pushers of the East and the gun dealers of the
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Mumcu
'Vlgaria is on the highway that connects Turkey to Europe.
For this reason it is involved in the smuggling network.
Bulgaria is not only the center of weapons smuggling, but also
is the centezffor the smuggling of electronic equipment and
other contraband. The Tdrkish mafia is responsible for the
smuggling originating in $ulgaria and therefore it would
be'right tc1claim, that there is collusion between the Bulgarian
authorities and members of the Turkish mafia based in Bulgaria.
MARVIN KALB:
It is not hard to spot. The border between Turkey
and Bulgaria is a busy crossroads--mostly Turks
with money crossing into Bulgaria for a cheap
holiday -- some with drugs. On the Turkish side, the
police check is comparatively casual...-,p for
the big trucks of the Bulgarian International
Auto Transport1carrying, among other things,
weapons into Turkey4~a veritable supermarket of
guns, rifles, and grenade launchers.
Agca depended on the Turkish gun-runners for a
passport and for protection in a Communist satel-
lite. Could the Bulgarian security service have
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provided that and operated without the knowledge
of the Soviet KGB? Only if you believe in fairy-
tales. Vladimir Sakharov, a KGB agent who de-
fected.
VLADIMIR SAKHAROV:
Soviet KGB must know, and they do, what the Bul-
garian secret service does at all times. Bulgarian
service is sf tightly controlled than. . . it
is as close to the Soviet KGB as you can be.
MARVIN KALB:
By the time Agca left Bulgaria for Western Europe
on August 31, it seems safe to conclude that he
had been drawn into the clandestine network of
the Bulgarian secret police and, by extension,
the Soviet KGB -- perhaps without him even being
aware of their possible plans for him.
[TURKISH CHANTS] These Turks are in West Germany,
where Agca spent most of the fall and winter,
part of that time here in West Berlin, where the
Turkish quarter nestles up against the Berlin
wall. There are in West Germany' 1.6 million
Turkish workers, the so-called "guest workers,"
cheap labor to help fuel the German economy.
For a known fugitive, no other country on the
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33
continent provided better cover, especially
during Agca's early exposure to the West. He
hid among his hardworking countrymen, most of
whom were probably frightened by the young
killer, or indifferent. Some clearly helped--
with money, sanctuary, and intelligence. They
were members of the 4=-Wolves, the same fanati-
cal fascists who terrorized Turkey and who now
honeycombed the Turkish community in West Germany,
selling heroin and hashish smuggled to them by
the Turkish Mafia and, with the profits, buying
the guns, then transhipped through Bulgaria to
Turkey. The Wolves, also known as the
National Action Party, the MHP, functioned in
part as a kind of Western branch office of the
Turkish Mafia.
Lf ,Aasla4
Ali a defector, directly links Agca
to the
Wolves in West Germany. Ali yi~~^s~ a-Q"'
doom
~,,a defector from the r Wolves, named
as the top man in this farf lung
smuggling operation which, he said, helped Agca.
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 Approved For Release 2007%05/21: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100370008-7 34
I know this fact beyond any doubt. The gray wolves arranged
mehmet ali agca's escape from prison in turkey and his
subsequent safe passage to Europe and Germany.The people who
arranged.Agca's escapeobtained a false passprt for him and
provided hirr. with money. After his arrival in Europe,?Agca was
employed by the Grey wolves as a tough who was used
to intimidat9 opponents
MARVIN KALB:
Four times in this mercurial environment, Agca
was spotted by unsympathetic Turks who had apparently
seen his photograph in the German edition of the
popular Turkish newspaper }- -on October 3,
1980/ in Frankfurt; on November 6 and December 11"
iA y'P.'r - a.-'.z
in West Berlirr,sATurkish. diplomats were informed
of these sightings. They promptly informed West
German authorities. Four timest the Germans claimed
they tried: but failed to catch'Agca.-
[BAND MUSIC] Often Agca slipped across the border
into Zurich, where there was also a large Turkish
community. Many of the fascist-AM Wolves had
settled in Switzerland after West Germany
tightened its visa regulations. Again] Agca lost
himself in a .gallery of Turkish faces. -According
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35.
MARVIN KALB cant
to Vatican sources, it was here in Switzerland as well as in
West Germany., that Agca received spending money -- lots of
it. By the time he reached St. Peter's Square, he had spent an
estimated $50,000, never once cashing a check.
Twice Agca stayed at the Hotel Rutli--fray September 9-12,
1980. Again, on April 31, 1981. It's assumed from here he met
his contacts in Zurich. Agca, os far as we know, never visited this
uunstore in Zurich -- hsuttered against intruders, but the gun that
was used to shoot the Pope was purchased here on July 9, 1980 --
a .9 um Browning automatic -- one of 21 weapons smuggled illegally
into Austria into the hands of Horst Gril1ii ier, the son of a
known Nazi and an associate of the Turkish smuggler, Ugurly.
Interestingly, four days after the shooting in St. Peter's
Square on May 17, 1981, Grillmeier disappeared.
Agca also spent time in Olten, a buburb of Zurich which has
become a haven for the Grey Wolves. One of then, Qner Bagci,
a 36-year old contact to Grillmeier, was arrested by Swiss police
operating on a tip from Italian investigators. Bagci
was charged with passing the Browning automatic to Agca in
Milan -- which is what Agca recently told the investigators.
They want Bagci to be extradicted to Italy. He isn4w locked
in.the Regensdorf Prison near Zurich, one key element in a
reopened investigation of the Agca crime.
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AGT
rrnxvna xnis:
Buy the time Agca reached Italy in, early April,
1981, he began to operate like a terrorist with a
mission, a. deadline -- no longer just a killer an
ice, on the run. On April 8, he arrived in Perugia,
a university town in central Italy. Normally,
a tourist from the Middle East gets a one month visa.
Agra, for his purposes, needed more time -- and a
different kind of cover. He decided to get a three-
month student residence permit. Agca stayed first at
the Hotel Posta, temporary home for many foreigners. I
talked with the manager.
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4tfj- mod.
I'm trying to trace the name of the man who
checked into this hotel. . . He checked into
this hotel on April 8, 1981.
HOTEL MANAGER:
[IN ITALIAN].
MARVIN KALB:
Yes. And his name is
[VOICEOVER.:
The name on his fake passport.] Would you be
able to check your books and see what.
[VOICEOVER: The manager checked the hotel's
registration book for 1981. Her pen found the
name.] Here. He was here from the 8th to the
10th of April, 1981. Having come from Turkey.
Passport #136635; August 11, 1980 was when it
was issued.
.37
On April 9th, Agca enrolled at the University
for Foreigners. The fee? $210. He got the
student permit he needed, and the name he used
was dutifully listed in proper alphabetical
order in a computerized printout.
_On April 10th, he
attended one class, in Beginner's Italian.
Never showed up again.
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 38
V(D
On April 13th, using his student permit to deflect
any possible suspicion, Agca checked into the
Hotel Torino in Rome.' He placed what West German
police termed "a long and expensive telephone
call" to Sarst*A-k near Hanover and talked with
a member of the Wolves. The
call was not tapped, and its contents not known,
but it demonstrated that Agca's ties to the'
Wolves continued into this critical period.
Milan--under the dome of the Galleria, the ele-
gant beefy cafe where Agca had been spotted a
40 few months before. Now on April 23rd, he returned
to Milan to the Condor Travel Agency to buy a
two-week honeymooners' tour of Majorca. [MUSIC]
Agca went alone. Aguest at the luxurious-Hotel
Flamboyan'.. Every morning he jogged for two hours
on the beach. Italian investigators now believe
that it was in this setting that a Wolf
courier offered Agca three million Deutschmarks
to kill the Pope, plus sanctuary in Bulgaria.
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The courier is said to have taken his orders from
a Turkish businessman in London named 'o'ho, in turn, took his order from -
head of the Turkish Mafia who, in turn, collabor-
ated with the Bulgarians in a number of dark
activities. This complex layering of responsibility,
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9_42,6, cen,~d..
this deliberate distancing of one level of
authority from another, is said to be typical
of the highly professional operation of the
Soviet KGB.
39
On May 9th, Agca returned to Milan and went to
the railroad station. In a very obvious place,
the left luggage department, he is supposed to
have picked up the gun left there by the courier
"who, as we know, is now in a Swiss..prison.
On May 10th, Agca left for Rome where he checked
a small satchel containing his. gun in the rail-
road luggage department.
On May 12th, Agca checked into the Pensione :,'
a ten minute walk from St. Peter's Square. The
room clerk remembers Agca.
ROOM CLERK:
He was not talking a lot; just a "Good Morning,"
"Good Evening," asking for the key, that's all.
~. [NBC
Did he seem calm, or nervous?
ROOM CLERK:
No. Always very calm. Always. Now, [unintelli-
gible]. . . even too much. Maybe. And even. . .
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40-
He was not used to have breakfast. Or wherever
he paid for it.
[NBC
Did you ever see him with anybody, or talking
to anybody?
ROOM CLERK :
Always alone. Always alone.
MARVIN KALB:
Agca's room looked, ironically, like a monk's
cell. On May 13th, Agca got up at 7:00 A.M.,
left his room by 9:00, walked through Rome;
in his pocket was a handwritten list of things
to remember. Among them, "Be careful of the
food." And "If necessary, wear a cross around
your neck." Until 4:00 P.M--when he entered
St. Peter's Square for.the Pope's Wednesday
audience. At 5:17 P.M., Agca shot the Pope.
These days, at his general audiences, the Pope
seems like a tired man--different, his aides say,
from the bubbling activist who inspired and
helped negotiate the birth of Solidarity in his
beloved Poland. The bullets from Agca's gun did
not kill him, but they seemed to have wounded
his spirit, the sense of fire and mission. Now
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41
he is a surrounded man; security everywhere.
His hallelujah people are checked and double-
checked, not allowed to get close until they've
walked through metal detectors, have their pockets
and purses examined. St. Peter's--suddenly out-
fitted like an airport, filled with modern day
fears about terrorism.
Agca's gun has changed John Paul's world,.in the:
process, scaling down his once high expectations
for Poland. Last December, he watched, helpless,
while his cherished Solidarity was crushed. Last
month he watched, just as helpless, while pro-
Solidarity demonstrations were suppressed. The
Pope could not even attend a major religious
service i n Pol and_ The Russians had checkmated
the Pope.
~'y S According to Vatican, American, European, and
ki h i
s
lli
t
t
T
t
th
id
5r 0 /Pz
ence sugges
ur
e ev
s
he
n
e
gence,
possibility that the Russians hatched the plot
against the Pope, or, at a minimumn, knew about
the plot and did nothing to stop it--believing
at a moment of desperate illusion that without
the Pope's unique support, the running rebellion
in Poland. could soon be contained. Shocking
though this possibility may be, the idea of a
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- 641,6 110 :
superpower considering assassination as an instru-
ment of national policy is not a Soviet monopoly.
The United States, over the years, has also re-
sorted to it. Just recall the plots against
L mumba`of the Congo, Castro of Cuba, and possibly
kw ;4 '.'of Libya. But there is a special evil that
highlights this example of state-sponsored terror-
ism because it was directed not against a poli-
tician, but against a Pope. And for reasons rang-
ing from.coverup to national self-interest, a
curtain of silence has descended over this crime.
Terrorism is part of the explanation; it has be-
come a way of life. Governments adjust to it,
bending every rule of principle and protocol
just to survive.
[CHILDREN TALKING] Even the Pope, to a degree,
bends to its forbidding pressures. He has, as a
man of God, forgiven Agca. His closest aides
say he wants to forget about the whole thing.
But they also say that he cannot forget because,
deep down, the Pope is described by those who
know him best as believing that the Russians
were behind Agca's attempt to kill him and that
they may try again. I am Marvin Kalb, NBC News.
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