SOVIET AGENT GETS IN TO SEE A U.S. PRISONER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000504900004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 11, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: February 13, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/11: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504900004-1
ARTICLE i -""`RON PAGE J=J
WASHINGTON TI'1ES
13 February 1986
Soviet agent gets in
to see a U.S: prisoner
By Biil Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Government officials were trying
last night to discover who allowed a
Soviet propagandist into a federal
prison in New York to interview a
former Italian official, awaiting ex-
tradition to Italy, whom the Soviets
have tried to link to the. attempt on
the life of Pope John Paul H.
Iona Andronov author of a book
attempting to connect t e LIA tot e
or
DAVE plot an now the New
correspondent ent forte Soviet wee
Lituraturnya azeta, wrote two arti-
cles s on his in erviews with
Francesco Pazienza, a former Ito ian
intelligence official who is awaiting
ext~ition on fraud cares.
A State Department orricLal, who
asked not to be identified, said he
found it "hard to believe" that per-
mission was granted foi the Soviet
journalist to interview the Italian
prisoner.
Justice and State Department of-
ficials responsible for the case could
not be reached for comment.
A spokesman for the federal Me-
tropolitan Corrections Center in
Manhattan said yesterday that Mr.
Pazienza has been held at the center
since March 4 of last year.
Kathy Morse. a spokesman for the
Bureau of Prisons, said the bureau
maintains an "open door policy" on
allowing journalists to interview in-
mates but said suspects awaiting ex-
tradition "are not our inmates."
The State and Justice de-
partments are the U.S. government
agencies responsible for granting
access to foreign nationals awaiting
extradition, she said in a telephone
interview.
The prison visit was first reported
yesterday in the Wall Street Journal.
Gordon Crovitz, a reporter for The
Journal, said last night that Mr.
Pazienza told him that he agreed to
be interviewed by the the Soviet
journalist to prevent the Soviets
"from telling lies about me."
"If I sit (Mr. Andronov] down and
talk with him, then he'll stop printing
that I had anything to do with the
pope plot;' Mr. Pazienza was quoted
as saying.
Mr. Andronov was one of the first
Soviet journalists to publish press
accounts charging that the CIA insti-
gated the attempted assassination of
the pope in 1981. In 1983, he wrote a
book called "On the Wolf's Track,"
setting out this line of accusation,
whichcwas published in English in
Sofia, Bulgaria.
In the Jan. 29 issue of Literatur-
naya Gazeta, Mr. Andronov wrote
that he had been "trying to get this
interview for a long time."
"Ordinarily decisions in such
cases are made quickly; however, in
this case the question was deliber-
ated for a long time by the New York
prosecutor's office, after that by the
Justice Department in Washington
and finally by the State Depart-
ment," Mr. Andronov wrote.
Earlier, on Jan. 15, Mr..Andronov
wrote that Mr. Pazienza had cailed
the Lituraturnya Gazeta and said.
"'Do you want to find out from the
truth about the assassination of the
pope? About this you will get the
documents which will prove that
at this point the line was cut."
-How did he manage to call at
all?" Mr. Andronov said.
He wrote that the person "best
informed" about the plot to kill the
pope was being held in New York in
order to prevent him from testifying
at the trial in Rome.
Since 1982, Soviet news agencies
have charged that Mr. Pazienza met
with accused papal assailant `Ieh-
met Ali Agca in an Italian prison to
arrange for Agca to confess that Bul-
garian security agents were impli-
cated in the pope plot.
Agca at tirst said in court
testimony that he met with Mr.
Pazienza, a former aide to the chief
of Italian military intelligence. But
he later said that he lied and had
never met the Italian.
The trial of seven Bulgarians and
Tirks charged with conspiracy in
connection with Agca's alleged at-
tack on the pope is drawing to a close
in Rome.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/11: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504900004-1