THE PAPAL PLOT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120057-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 57
• Publication Date: March 23, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120057-8
STAT
RADIO TV REPORTS,
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
NBC Nightly News STAnON WRC-TV
NBC Network
March 23, 1983 6:30 PM
Washington, DC
The Papal Plot
ROGER MUDD: There's new evidence linking Bulgaria to a
plot to assassinate the Pope in May 1981.
According to the "New York Times," a Bulgarian official
who defected to France shortly after the Pope was shot claims the
Soviet intelligence agency organized the assassination attempt,
and the Bulgarian Secret Service contacted Mammet Ali Agca, the
man who shot the Pope.
As Marvin Kalb` reports tonight, the Reagan Administra-?
ti 'on is not pleased with the way three CIA agents in Rome are
handling the Bulgarian connection.
MARVIN KALB: At the U.S. Embassy in Rome, the three top
CIA officials are in deep trouble. The station chief and his two
deputies whom U.S. law prohibits us from identifying are the
subject of a secret investigation in Washington, and they may
soon be fired because, according to key Administration sources,
they appear to have deliberately disobeyed presidential orders
about the Papal plot.
The orders came on more than one occasion from National
Security Adviser William Clark and CIA Director William Casey
that the three officials in Rome were to stop discrediting the
so-called Bulgarian Connection, and yet they continued, infuri-
ating senior officials in the Administration.
Why?
- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120057-8