THE BULGARIAN CONNECTION: MORE THAN THE POPE PLOT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130015-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: December 22, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505130015-3
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THr WALL STREET JOUR\AL '"""~
22 Decetn~er 1982
The Bulgarian Connection: More Than the Pope Plot
Route
?t is interes:i^.~ tC SEP ho~~ neatl}? t::e ta-
`~ie:' n.'e ~caln~ ;urnE'd IL rega"C lv w'1tSt
;:,e pass =ails :i,E r?~.~garior, connection.
~'~::.`:~r a r~aaer e: weeis. Bu'.~zria
sa~,r;:o'~ bet a u emerge o< the ag-
~, to"e~ ;etc tnnocE:: part}~. Mahan judges
e^gaged :.^ pains:s.l:i.-;g inveSitgat10r15 are
cast a`~ cin.es or dupes ins suggested by
tG'est C~.^:;y^. inteL'iger?ce sources to the
?vew? 1'c-i: mimes?.:'tin Altdrepov becomes
Europe
b>' Claire Sterling
the g?,;iieiess and apparently helpless vic?
nrr: o`. a consptrac}~ reacrang from 'Moscow
to Cl:, headquanett at Langle}~. ~'a. tLE
;,lends s idez, in Faris;. The real villains
of ;.'te piece. suggesu Le MondE, are A.n?
dropo~''s arch?rn?als in the Hretnlin who,
watt the Ci.i,'s help, are dtsseminati-tg dis?
iniormaUOn througt-out hot?, the East and
t;'es: tc "des:abili:.e" the new Soviet lead-
ership.
That is a truly astonishing view of the
case.
TDe Btilgarian connection has to do Kith
t::re?e separate and sutister operations in
the VYes; w;,icls t,a~?E been traced direct}?
to the pulgznan secret service. They
are:
I ~ The most colossal smugglin? ring un?
covered to our time, doing a multi?billion-
dullar, t~-o-way t; ode to heroin: and arms
between the >vfiddle ?ast and Vagsterr: Eu?
rope.
~~ The use of a co.^.tpromisrd Italian la?
bon leader ti, irfilirate rand possibly ma?
nipulatPl Italy's Red Brigades, spy on Po-
land's Solidarity and help out to 2 proposed
plot tc assassinate Lech Vt'alesa.
3~ ?'l-e plot to kill the pope.
Three Italian judges, each of impecca?
hie s:andtng. Dad collected most of the
dartrtag evidence or. Bulgaria while
Brezhnec wa., still alive and Andropov was
still head of the KGB, supervising his Bul-
_ Fora' subalterns. That may_ be an awk?
ward fact, now that he Dos taken Brrzh?
nevi's place, but it is a fact all the same.
Judge Carlo Palermo had spent two
years investigating the dope-and-gun ring
ir. the Italian north. Over 200 gangsters of
assorted nationality were arrested often he
cracked down lase ,last November. Their
heroin supply had been coming from S,vria
and Turkey through Bulgaria to the 1~'est,
mostlti? in sea~d trucks. The smuggled
weapons-evenKhing from Bt'vwttutg auto-
matics and hand grenades w Colt helicop?
tern and leopard tanks-had gone back
east either by sea or overland through Bu]?
Tana agaut, w Syria. Iraq, Iran. carious
ra.ies:trtan formanoru and Turlash terTOr?
iss o; both the right and left.
A mass of evidence in Judge Palermo's
hands showed that: The ring's big deals
w'erE aImOSI im'arizbl}' maaE at the Cafe
fierlin and Hotel Vitaha in Sufia, the Bul-
garian, capita!; a major mle was played by
the Turkish arms 1,;a!ia operating in Sofia
under the direct control of the Bulgarian
secret service, and the smuggled goods
were passing freely through Bulgaria ~ith?
out customs control. Of all the countries
asked to help in Judge Palermo's investi?
gallon, Bulgaria alone refused.
Judge Ferdinando lmpoaimato has been
investigating the bent Italian labor leader.
Luigi Scricciolo since General Dozier was
kidnapped by the Red Brigades last winter.
Director of the Socialist labor federation,
L?l:i.. Scricciolo was fingered by his cousin
Lori after the tatter's .arrest u a Red
Brigadier dunng the Dozier affair. His
steadfast denial lasted from February un?
tit July, wher. he confessed w having been
a Bulgarian agent since I?~,.
Little by little. Scricciolo has added de
;ails. admitting that he had partiapated in
Red Brigade summit meetings and served
a< their liaison NiN the BWgarians. Some
weeks ago, he also admitted that his Bu1?
ganan control had asked him to help ar?
range for Lech Walesa's acsassi_n?tion dur?
uig the tatter's visit to Rome last January.
He refused, be said.
Judge Ilanu kianella has been tnvesii?
since September 1951. Exceptiona]ly metic?
ulous, cautious and correct, his ?refasaJ to
leaf; a word on his findings has madoened
man}? a reporter, myself included. As I
have learned in my own year-long search
in this case, however, there werE clues
pointing toward BWgaria from the stir
Several were provided by the Pope's
would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Age, in his
earliest interrogation Immediately after
the attack on 1?'lay 13. 29?1. B}' the follow-
ing Dec. ~ h~ Dad begun to make a fuller
confession to the Italian secret service. $v
last May he was talking a blue streak to
Judge Martella dunng a weeklong second
interrogation. Soon afterward, Judge I-~.ar?
fella issued his first order of arrest for a
TuridsD accomplice, Omer Bagci, who was
promptly found by the Swiss police and ex?
taadited to Italy. But the judge waited 5ve
mcraths before issuing arrest R'atrants for
three other Turks and tvvo'B'ulgarians. to
third Bulgarian he wanted was ptrotected
by diplomatic immunity, and .had skipped
the country . anyway.)
_ ..
One of the Tunics was Bekig Ce{enk, an
illustrious godfather of the TurxisD arms
Mafia, accused of introducing Agra to the
Bulgarian secret service 1n Sofia, and of ef-
fering him three million 1~est German
marks to kill the pope. Celenk was .living
freely in Munich, where he bad just
founded an "export-import" company,
when he learned of Martella's war, ant and
flew straight to Sofia.
The arrested Btilg2nan, Serghei An?
tonn?;. had beer, assist;.n! manager or his .
col:.*try's slate airline ir. ?,.;,me. The Bei-
garar: ernbass}~ czshier 1'assilte~~, I{ulet?,
also sough: by A4znella. had already taken
off for homE. Boil; were identified by Agra,
along with the absent third Bulganar,. To-
der A}ti?azov, when the Italian secret ser-
~icE showed him a large album of assoned
photographs. (Scricciolo had identifies an?
other three Bulga.-ians fmm the samE al?
bum.l
The proof of Bulgaria's guilt in the plot
to };ill the pope,is much too complex io ex-
plain in a couple of newspaper paragraphs,
Italy's civilian and military secret services
pronounced the ~ proof conclusive a: a re?
cent summit meeting. Prime Minster Farr
fart has said this was now a matter of fact,
no longer of speculation. Socialist Defensf
Minister Lagorio has told parliament that
the "Bulgarian trial arouses and justifies
LhE gravest preoccupation."
Judge ),:at'tella ltirrtseli will reveal not,D?
frig more until he .is ready to go to trial.
Bu: nobody who ha_s watched him work
could believe that his accusations against
Bulgaria were based on the ward of Meb?
me: Ali Agra alone. It is peculiar)}? offeu?
sivE, furthermore. to insinuate that this se?
veTely scrupulous judge K?euld have acted
under political pressure from ttiashington
or P.ome.
Thai said, the question, remains of what
on earth I?a1y and its .western allies are
supposed to do nox?. The enorrity of the
charges makes any conventional response
look silly. Does Ital}? mereh? break off ~ip?
lomatic relations with Bulga_ia because ri
tried to eluninate the bead of Ne CaL'tolic
Church? W?tat doer President Reagan. do
when and if be comes face to face with the
present ruler o` the Soriet Union, who had
presided over the KGB when it must have
given the nod to the l'ope's would-be?assas?
sins?
The out thing one hopes the West ~wi11
not do'Is give in to mtdetstandable tempa-
lion, and try sweeping it all tinder 22-e tttg.
' 2ts preference tot discreet silence during a
decade or more of Soviet atpport for imei-
national terrorism has simply tnoouraged
~ bigger and bo}der assaults cultninaling in
' w Dot Premier Fantani has called "tt-e
gravest alt of destabilisation the world bas '
seen for 60 years." Since si{ence has gotten
ur nowhere, why not at least 'try the d1s-
suasive ? farce of public exposure?
Claire Stirling, a trritc~r tc1~o lives ir.
P.onte, is worlds, on a book nbouulte Agce
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505130015-3