PLOT ON POPE: BULGARIA TIE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130003-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 30, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130003-6
TIC n 2?"E.APED
O PAGE
Plot on Pope:
Bulgaria Tie?
NEW YORK TIMES
30 DECEMBER 1982
Bulgaria is also reputed to be a major Mr.
,/market for illegal arms dealing. Israeli on the
intelligence sources reported that the plicity" as well as on all other aspects
Bulgarian port of Varna handled 80 per- of the inquiry. But members of the Gov-
cent of a large flow of communist arms ernment of Prime Minister Amintore
to Palestine Liberation organization Fanfani, yielding to mounting pressure
camps in Lebanon. Many arms seized from the public and the press, appeared
fore the Chamber of Deputies on Dec.
b
and to have reached the terrorists via
their Palestinian friends What emerged from the daylong de- 4
There are many questions that would bate, in which four ministers reported
I.- .....e e..~__..a L.....r .,._ _M', ,to the Chamber and replied to ques- f
e
On Basis of Evidence, from terrorist groups throughout Eu- 20 to state the official view for the first
rope, including Turkey, are reported to time.
Answer Is Not Known have originated in Soviet-bloc pantries 2 Others Under Investigation
lice? If he did, was it at the behest of the that if Bulgaria engineered the plot then
K.G.B., beaded at the time the Soviet Union is ultimately responsi-
News Yuri V. Andropov, now ble declines drastically on the question
of motivation.
Anal the Soviet party leader? It is generally agreed that the Pope
Neither question, in the! ezercised extraordinar
infi i
~
ROME, Dec. 29 - Ind the Turkish Soviet Union and the attempt to assassi-
gunman who shot Pope John Paul II in nate the Pope. One is what the Soviet
St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, act motivation for such an attempt would
on the orders of the Bulgarian secret po- be. Unanimity among those who believe
sp.e~vtoTh.N..YOAClnm.s lishment of any direct link between the ?O~' W~ a GC?` UVC ULJCUL YVLGa
sibility rests with Moscow. they consider cautious in international ` ter Emilio Colombo and Interior Minis-
Nothing in the history of postwar Bul- affairs, would have taken so great a risk 'ter Virginio Rognoni limited their as-
garia points to an appreciable measure as plotting a political assassination of sertions of a Bulgarian link to the aG
of independence from the Soviet Union, ` Shakespearean magnitude, entrusting tempt on the Pope's life to Bulgarian sn-
its execution to a 23-year-old Turkish dividuals. An aide of the Justice Minis-
But if it turns out that the Bulgarian .1968.
secret police guided the actions of Meh- But many professional political and
met Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman intelligence analysts question whether
serving a life sentence after one of the the murder of the Pope would have sig-
most rapid trials in Italian judicial his- mficantly weakened the movement led
tory since World War II, then, it is by the Solidarity trade union, which
was at its peak in May 1981. They doubt
generally believed, the ultimate respon- even more that the Soviet Union, which,
aaac aaawa acaavaaa aau con w ;aac ar~act nW Aivazov. Bulgaria identified Mr.
on the basis of the evidence now avail- bold over its Eastern European satel- Vassilev as an army major who served
able. lites since the Czechoslovak --spring" of as secretary the
attache
to
based on substantive information,
al-
though no sources were disclosed. The
ministers also said that not only Mr. An-
tonov but two members of the Bulgar-
ian Embassy staff would have been de-
tained by Judge Martella if they had not
been covered by diplomatic immunity.
Justice Minister Clelio Darida said
that the two continued to be under in-
vestigation, although they have re6
turned to Bulgaria. He named them as
y
n
forefront of governmental, rousing the majority
front their regime openly o of and Poles to con-
journalistic and public discussion in
provoke
so
no
s a
e
at su
sequent events
orders of the Soviet union. proved that the Soviet Union had en-
tirely Polish means at its disposal to':
among Western secret services that. solve the Polish issue without attempt-
Bulgaria has rendered aid to the Soviet ing to do so by so spectacular and risky
K.G.B. in general espionage and "dirty- means as the murder of the Pope.
trick" activities in western and pro- So far, even the official Bulgarian in-
perts in non-Communist countries hold falling into the hands of the Italian po.
it to be inconceivable that Bulgarian se- lice, on- crowded St. Peter's Square,
cret agents would have undertaken so were far betterthan even.
portentous an assignment as the assas- A Matter of Allegation
sination of the Pope except. on express ; It i
l
r
d th
b
particularly not in foreign affairs. Polit- i
terrorist of doubtful emotional stability ter repeated in response to a question on
ical, diplomatic and intelligence ex- and doing so when the chances of his Tuesday that the. Government was not
Western countries and has not hesitated
yolvement is only a matter of allega-
tion. The only legal action taken against
foreign soil. a Bulgarian citizen was the arrest Nov.
In addition, European intelligence 25 of the station chief of _Balkan Air-1
and police officials are certain that con- lines, Serge Ivanw Antonov,-at his of-
siderable amounts of heroin from West- fice bere. His detention was ordered by '
ern Asia reach Western Europe via Bul- I_ Judge Mario Martella, the magistrate ,
garia and assume that a country that so Mr. Agcahahad the ct~one,oas he had
fully controls all phases of life within its contended, or had the support of accom-
borders cannot be unaware of this plices. Mr. Antonov was detained on
transit, traffic, much of it in Turkish suspicion of "active complicity." Under
trucks. They assume, therefore, that Italian law, criminal cases are pro-
minimally this trade has Bulgarian pared by an investigative magistrate
tolerance, if not approval. who then rules on 'whether or not the
evidence is strong enough to warrant a
trial.
here and Mr. Aivazov as bead of the em-
bassy's financial section.
As Judge Martella had done earlier in
his only statement since Mr. Antonov's
arrest - which loosed a wave of cir-
cumstantial reports in the-Italian press
and broadcasting without attribution to
accusing the Bulgarian Government.
'An Act of War'
Defense Minister Lelio Lagorlo ?ac~
cused the Soviet Union, without naming f
it, of committing "an act of war" by
choosing to assassinate the Pope rather
than invading Poland. Mr. Lagorlo did
not elaborate on the sources that pro-
vided him with the information on such
a Soviet diieaima.
The minister also reported that coded
radio traffic between Bulgaria and
-Italy rose sharply at the time of the at.'
tempt on the Pope's life, as well as dur-
ing last year's kidnapping by the Red
Brigades of Brig. Gen. James L. Dozier
of the United States Army, and said that
this suggested the activation of '-sleep-
er" agents. In line with assertions do.
pitting Bulgaria as a center of espio.
nage and arms and narcotics smug-
gling, Mr. Colombo hinted at visa re?
strictions on Bulgarians and expulsions
of Bulgarian Embassy staff members.
But the parliamentary debate did not
produce any additional specifics on a
Bulgarian-run plot on the Pope's life.
The only known facts are these:
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130003-6