SOVIET PAPER SAYS U.S. STIRS TALK OF POPE PLOT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140014-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2011
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: January 6, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140014-3
iBRTICI
ON IWB~
NEW YORK TIMES
6 JA 1UARY 1983
Soviet Paper Says U.S.
Stirs Talk ofPope Ploi
MOSCOW, Jan. 5 (AP) - The Soviet
Communist Party newspaper Pravda
said today that the Central Intelligence
'Agency was behind the "utterly ab
surd" accusations that Bulgarian
agents helped arrange the shooting of
Pope John Paul II.
The Pravda article was the most an-
tthoritative Soviet response yet to West.
?.ern news aocounts suggesting that the
Bulgarian secret service, with the
knowledge by the K.G.B., the Sovietin,
telligence agency, was behind the at-
tack on the Pope.
"Only a blind person cannot am the
`hand of those crusaders from Langley
in the present anti-Bulgarian and and.
Soviet slander," Pravda said, alluding
to the C.I.A. headquarters in Virginia..
The paper offered no evidence to sup-
port its charge.
T daily said five people bad backed
the alibi of Sergei Ivanov Bulgarian nate airline emplagejailed
in Italy in connection with the case.
The man who shot the Pope, Mehmet
All Agca, told Italian prosecutors that
Mr. Antonov had helped him plan the
May 13, 1981, attack and was present in
St. Peter's Square when the Pope was
shot, according to Italian press ac-
counts. Mr. Antonav denies it.
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140014-3