POPE JOHN PAUL II AND THE WORK OF THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210004-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: May 20, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210004-3
MINNESOTA DAILY
20 May 1981
Pope John Paufli. and the wore
By Harold H. Dorland
border. ` ... ..,._
The pope's next "crime" was his speaking out
against the rising probability of nuclear war.
Just recently he visited Hiroshima and Nagasa
ki. Although he did not explicitly direct his con-
cern to the U.S. government, he was, in effect,
saying to us, "Do not start a nuclear war.. -While on the Asian trip, the pope also lectured
Philippine President Marcos about his domestic-
authoritarianism. Here is Marcos doing precise
ly what the CIA wants done within the United'
Statesand in every other "non-communist'-:
nation in the world, and the pope lectures him,.,
,against it. ii1'` *a:
Finally, we oughtto weigh carefully the role of .4.
'the Catholic Church in stopping cold the recent`
,beginnings of a Vietnam-type venture in El Saf
valor-one undertaken by the CIA. White most
t of us assumed the moving force in reversing El
Salvador was the U. S. Catholic Church under -
.the very able leadership of Minnesota's own- `Archbishop Roach, the pope himself may have,
played a private role, which I and others hadn't
noticed, but which the CIA may have been
cog- nizant of.
Thirty-six years ago, the CIA took up the "anti-
communist" campaign that Hitler "bungled"
and that was relinquished by British intelli-:.
genre. Here we are, hundreds of CIA political
assassinations later, in the worst crisis America
has been in. We simply have to stop CIA assas
sinations and begin to solve our domestic and . .
international political problems using the tools
of democracy and maturity: negotiation, bar- -
gaining, campaigning, debating policies, etc-
Who.will stop CIA political assassinations?Ypu`
and 1, and nobody else. The way to achieve this
k..is to force. the realityof, assassinations out into-
the open. If we citizens fail to do this, we'll run
the risk of total nuclear war up to near certainty.
. Meanwhile,.wwe'II continue suffering as our
economy worsens and as the forces of covert
authoritarianism tighten in America. Maybe-,-'_:
Europe-will come to believe ikmust war against.
America to put an end to the virulent fascism
that migrated from Germany to the United
-States in 1945.
%
One prediction I can safely make is thatweare
going to see hundreds more CIA political assas-,
sinations, domestic andforeign: TheCIAwill
riot stop killing until Americans stop the CIA. -
The attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul is -
probably the work of the CIA and its rightist as-
sociates. From what I can tell, the CIA has de-
cided to go on a rampage of political
assassinations here. in the United States and
overseas. What-I want to do in this article is
point out to readers what the possible political
motives are
The CIA is now in fhe control-of a group of ex-
tremely paranoid right-wingers who believe that
we must fight the Soviet Union in an all-out
showdown-the sooner the better. Within the
last seven days, we've witnessed Vice President -
(Mr. CIA). Bush attack Cuba in some of the
harshest language used by an American poli-
tician since the Bay of Pigs. Meanwhile, Secre-
tary of State Haig (long known as a "CIA
general" when he was in the Pentagon and on
Nixon's staff) is fanning the flames of hatred
against the Soviet Union in speech after speech.
Domestically, the economy is rushing toward
complete collapse, and even while this is hap- -
pening; Reagan et al: are pushing for extremely.
large increases in military and CIAspending.
Europe, meanwhile, is pushing far ahead of the
United States. It is becoming unified, its wealth
is growing, it is going socialist, and it is expand-
ing its democratic base. ,
But why would the CIA try to assassinate the
pope? A couple of years ago the CIA assassi
nated Aldo Mora in Italy because he was
"guilty" of reaching an agreement with the Ital-
ian communists. The agreement was to bring
them into the Italian government (for the first
time). Very soon this issue of official communist
participation in the executive offices of a NATO
government will again arise in France, with the
election of Socialist Mitterrand as president.
In the eyes of the CIA, what political crimes is
the pope guilty of? First of all, he played a very
significant role in preventing a Soviet invasion -'
of Poland. The CIA has long wanted the USSR
to march in, perhaps to start an all-out war be-
?'tween the Soviets and the West. I suspect we'll
soon begin to learn of numerous "dirty tricks"
the CIA has been carrying out in Poland to suck
the Soviets into precipitous action. And we may
also find out that if it had not been for the pope,
the Soviets would have moved across they
Harold H. Dorland was a member of the..;'
board of directors of the Washington..
based Committee to Investigate Assassi=-
nations and was president of the Minna:
sofa Action Council for Political
"Assassination Disclosures.. .w:.,
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210004-3