POPE JOHN PAUL II AND THE WORK OF THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100670047-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 47
• Publication Date: May 20, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100670047-6
h1INNESOTA DAILY
20 May 1981
~~~a~ Jc~~~ F~a~~ !~ a~ad t~~ w~ ~ ~~ ~ -
By Harold H. Dorland I
the attempt to assassinate Pope John Pau(is
probably the work of the CtA and its rightist as-
sociates. From what f can tell, the CIA has de-
cided to go on arampage of political
assassinations here: in the United States and
overseas_ bVhat?t want to do in this article is
point out to readers what the possible political
motives are. '~? L.: "-
The CIA is now in the-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 -
(,vlr. CIA). Bush attack Cuba in some of the
harshest language used by an American poll- ;
titian since the Bay of Pigs. ~~teanwhile, Secre- -
tary of State Haig (long known as a "CtA~
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 white this is hap--~
pening; Reagan et al: are. pus:~ing for extremely
large increases in military and l:lASpending.
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 C!A try to assassinate the '
pope? A couple of years ago the CiA assassi--
natedAldo Moro in Italy because he was
"guilty" of reaching an agreement with the ttal-
tan 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 anall-out war be-
tween the Soviets and the West. I suspect we Il
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 the- ~ ~:- -
border, . "
. The pope's next "crime" seas his speaking out -I
',against the rising probability of nuclear war.
': Just recently he visited Hiroshimaand Nagasa-.{
ki_ Although he did not explicitly direct his con- ~
tern to the U.S. government, he was, irieffect, I
saying to us, "Do not start a nuclear war_, ' '
r~Vhile on the Asian trip, the pope also lectured ~,
Philippine President lvtarcos about his domestic-
authoritarianism. Here is Marcos doing precise-i
ly what the CIA wants done within the United'
States and in every other "non-communist'= ~ ~ -`
.nation in the world, and the pope lectures him..-.
,~
;-against it. ~ n'; . '-='t-k%?:r'~L`
Finally, we oughtto weigh carefully the role of .':
the Eatholic Church in stopping cold the recent
beginnings of aVietnam-type vQnture in EI Sal ".
valor-one undertaken by the CI.~. Whilemost
> of us assumed the moving force in reversing EI
Salvador was the U.S. Catholic Church under- -I
the very able leadership of Minnesota's own
Archbishop Roach, the pope himself may have
played a private role, which 1 and others hadn't
noticed, but which the CIA maq have been cog-
~ nizant of. - - - - -
Thirty-six years ago, the CtA took up the "anti-
s communist" campaign that Hitler "bungled" : .
and that was reliriquished by Bntish iritelii-~_.
Bence. Here we are, hundreds of CIA political
assassinations later, in the worst crisis America
has been in. We simply have to stop CIA asses=.
sinations and begin to solve our domestic and. .
international political problems using the tools -
of democracy and maturity: negotiation, bar- -
gaining, campaigning, debating policies, etcc ?
t Who.will stop CIA political assassinations?You-,
? and I, and nobody else: The way to achievethis
+..is to force the realityof essassinadons out.into~
the open. If we citiiens fait to do this, we'll run
the risk of total nuclear warup to near certainty.
Meanwhile,.-we'll continue suffering as our
economy worsens and as tfie forces of covert
,. authoritarianism tighten in America. Maybe: ~-.
Europe~wilt come to believe it.must war against
~ America to put an end to the virulent fascism
that migrated from Germany to the United
States in 1945. - - ---~T ~ + ~%-~--'rte ~ .,: ~1y
- One prediction I can safely make is thats+?e are
going tosee hundreds more CIA political assay-.'
sinations, domesticanc~foreign:TheClAwilt ?-',
riot stop killing until Americans stop the CtA.:~;J
_ l ->,
Harold H. Dorland was a memberof the- -~
_ ; board of directors of the Washington-?- _ .:.'-.
based Committee to InvestigateAssassi:-
. nations and was president of the Minne:
sofa Action Counci{for Political
:.Assassination Disclosures:--~~~~.~;,.~-;
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100670047-6