CIA HARMS POPE PROBE - SENATOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120088-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 88
• Publication Date: February 11, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120088-4
ARTICLE APP.r.~'~P
O PAGE
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
11 FEBRUARY 1983
CIA harms
Pope probe
senator
From Chicago Tribune wires
NER' YORK-Sen. Alfonse D'Ama-
to [R., N.Y.] claims the Central
Intelligence Agency is obstructing
Italy's investigation of the attempted
assassination of Pope John Paul II.
D'Amato told a press conference
Wednesday after his arrival from
Rome that the CIA conduct was
"very suspicious" and that it was
obvious "the CIA would have liked
the investigation dropped."
Asked if he was suggesting that
CIA Director William Casey may be
involved in a cover-up, D'Amato
said, "Yes."
'D'Amato accused the CIA of at-
tempting to "cast doubt on the com-
petence and integrity of Italian au-
thorities."
?D'Amato was in Rome for five
d#ys conducting what he called 'a
oiie-man investigation into the 1981
sounding of the Pope. Officials in
the U.S. Embassy there regarded his
visit as a publicity stunt to influence
Polish and Italian Catholic voters
back home.
D'AMATO HAS BEEN saying that
the Bulgarian government and the
Soviet KGB secret police were be-
hind the shooting by Mehmet Ali
Agca.
D'Amato accused CIA officials of
spreading "disinformation" to lend
credence to theories that Agca was a
madman acting on his own.
'Be isaid there were other factors
he, could not disclose, but that he
would inform National Security Ad-
viser William Clark.
- O'Amato also said he was "shock-
ed to learn from a high CIA official.
in Rome that not one agent has been
ksigned exclusively to the case."
-'An Italian spokesman in
,*ashington said no assistance was
uested from the CIA. "Why
d we have assistance in this
niatter?" said Paolo Trabalza, first
;sCpretary of the Italian Embassy.
THE REAGAN administration has
taken the public p sition that the
Sen. Alfonse D'Amato
shooting is "an internal matter" for
the Italians to handle.
"That's nonsense," D'Amato said.
"We are talking about implications
that go far beyond an internal affair,
to the Bulgarians and the Soviets."
Last week, CIA officials in
Washington told reporters that the
Italian investigation so far had tur-
ned up no conclusive proof that the
Soviet Union was behind the
shooting. They said, though, that cir-
cumstantial evidence linked Agca to
the Bulgarian secret police.
If a Soviet connection were proved,
it would chill East-West relations
and negotiations over arms control, .
trade and other matters.
D'Amato cited three examples of
what he called CIA obstruction of the
investigation.
HE SAID THAT unnamed CIA
sources spread stories lending
credence to the theory that Agca was
insane and that the CIA suggested
that Italian authorities had tainted
Agca's testimony by improperly
giving him information.
He also accused the CIA of stop-
ping a key Senate Intelligence Com-
mittee aide from going with him to
Rome by spreading information
about the aide's interests in terrorist
activities. He refused to. identify the
aide.
"There is no positive information
coming forth from the CIA, only
disformation intended to cast
.doubt," D'Amato said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120088-4