CZECHS SEE CIA PLOT IN PAPAL PROBE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130008-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: December 28, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130008-1
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THE PHIL,.JELPHIA INQUIREr.
28 DECEMBER 1982
,Czechs see
CIA plot in
papal probe
Miodw" Pros .
PRAGUE. Czechoslovakia - The
CIA is orchestrating reports of Bul-
garian involvement in the shooting
of Pope John Paul U to weaken West-
ern European opposition to the
planned NATO missile deployment,
the official Czech news agency said
yesterday.
"Anti-communist centers want to
injure the international prestige of
the socialist countries, to weaken the
movement which is expanding in
Western Europe against the U.S. mis-
siles which are to be deployed at the
launching bases in West European
countries," the CTK news agency
said, quoting from an article in the
Czech Communist Party newspaper.
The article blamed "CIA misinfor-
mation activities" for the reports of
Bulgarian involvement in the shoot-
ing of the Pope on May 13, 1981, and
said those activities were part of the
campaign to weaken the peace move-
ment.
The Warsaw Pact has accused the
United States and its NATO allies of
escalating the East-West arms race
with its plan to deploy 572 cruise and
Pershing 2 missiles in Western Eu-
rope beginning in December 1983.
NATO says, the missiles are to
counter Soviet SS-20 missiles aimed
at Western Europe from bases along
the western edge of the Soviet Union.
Bulgaria has denied any connec-
tion with the shooting of the Pope by
Mehmet All Agca, a Turk, though
Italian investigators have arrested a
Bulgarian in the investigation and
have issued an .arrest warrant for
another. r ,
The so-called Bulgarian connec-
tion to the shooting has severely
strained relations between Italy and
Bulgaria.
The government-run media of
most Warsaw Pact states have come
to the defense of their Bulgarian
ally.
In Poland yesterday, a government
newspaper ridiculed charges of Bul-
garian involvement in the shooting
of the Polish-born Pope, calling them
"slander against ... socialist states."
The commentary in the daily Zycie
Warsawy, or Warsaw Life, said Ital-
ian politicians had singled out Bul-
garia for their accusations because
Agca bad passed through the Balkan
state on his way to Western Europe.
Agca is serving a life term in an
Italian prison for shooting the pon-
tiff. Italian newspapers have report-
ed that Agca admitted to investiga-
tors in prison that he had Bulgarian
accomplices, though the Italian gov-
ernment never has confirmed the
reports. Agca insisted during his tri-
al last year that be had acted alone.
The Warsaw newspaper said Sergei
Ivanov Af"Tonov, the Bulgarian air-
lines official arrested in connection
with the shooting, had been chosen
by the Italians because "be was not
protected by diplomatic immunity."
"Despite the absence of official
charges and evidence lagainst An-
tonov] Western mass media have un-
leashed a huge campaign, whose con-
tents are mainly accusations and
slanders against Bulgaria and other
socialist states," the newspaper said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130008-1