WAS PAPAL PLOT A POLITBUREAU HIT?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000200910004-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: June 20, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200910004-9
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE C_-_3
WASHINGTON TIMES
20 June 1984
Was papal plot
ureau
of 1iit?
What contempt they must y
PATRICK BUCr1t~1rt~1, -' Washington was bedeviling the
have-for us!
From the summa- -'-1 - president on why he cannot seem to
rized report of the Ital- Even Hitler at the pinnacle of his get along with Mr. Chemenko.
ian state prosecutor, the attempted Power in 1940, one suspects, would, Herewith, a sample question from
murder of John Paul II in St. Peter's have recoiled - hearing the explo- - President Reagan's Thursday press
Square was a work of hired assas sion - at ordering Mussolini to conference: "Sir,, in recent
sins, aided and abetted, I quote,"'by' send Black Shirts to gun down Pope speeches this year about the Sovi-. I
organs and institutions of the Bul =r Pius,XII in St. Peter's Square. ets - you have held out' an . olive
garian state.' In Claire Sterling's remarkable :*branch to them, but at the same
"It is easy to see what really hap- . ; piece; displayed front and center by . time you usually either denounce
pened;' the summary reads. "In The New York Times, the prosecu- their system or their action. Would
some secret place where : every tors report was quoted directly, on it be better, in an attempt to get this ..,
secret is wrapped. in another ` the motive for the crime: - dialogue started again, whether at
secret, some political figure bf "Thc';Bulgarian Secret Service '. the summit or back in Geneva, if
great power took note of this grave . had as p'ecific political interest in you simply held out the olive branch
situation, and mindful of the vital killing John Paul II. The imposing without also taking a shot at them?'
needs of the Eastern Bloc, decided rise of Solidarity in Poland in tb' 1 And when we "get this dialogue
it was necessary to kill .Pope --~- - T " started again;' rest assured, Pres-
Wojtyla:' - s ,r = summer of 1980 and consequent 1 ident Reagan will `be publicly
The "grave situation" was^the social convulsions constituted a . instructed not to bring up that
Polish crisis; the "secret place" most acute crisis for the socialist unfortunate business: about the
was the Kremlin; the "political fig- states of Eastern Europe. This was pope-orthe KALair massacre, or
ure of . great power" was, almost perceived. as, a mortal danger to Solidarity, or the terror bombing in
surely, Yuri Andropov,.the veteran their political cohesion and mili- the Panjshir Valley. Well, what can
commandant of the KGB.... Lary strategy. And, since Poland's we do?
But the final decision to send an ideological collapse was mostly due
assassin to murder the' holy father to the perfervid religious faith of . For openers, the United States.
in the heart of the Eternal City was the population, sustained and ' might commend publicly the tenac-
not the work of a single Kremlin. . helped, above all, by the first Polish ity and courage of the Italian gov-
subaltern. No, this: was almost. . pope in history, the Polish rebellion ernment, and Judge Ilario
surely a politburo hit, signed off on- might be greatly weakened and Martella, the state prosecutor, and
- - - lead the Western nations in a con-
by Defense Minister Dmitri
Ustinov, and Foreign Minister fragmented "by this pope's 'phys- certed move to expel every Bulgar-
Andrei Gromyko, General Secre- ical elimination: " : ian diplomat from every NATO
tary Leonid Brezhnev, and his Sta- j What does the West intend to do capital. For years, the Bulgarians
linist crony, the current chief of- abouttit? The answer will likely be have gotten away, literally,. with
state of the U S.S.R Konstantin - nothing. Indeed, it was probably : murder, with assassinating . dissi-
Chernenko. in confident foreknowledge that the dents, with poisoned-tipped.
The "evil empire;' President - West would confine its moral out- umbrellas, smuggling drugs and
Reagan called it. Visualizing these rage to horrified backstairs whis- weapons in diplomatic pouches and
men seated about a table discussing p e r s that emboldened the ; collaborating with Westernterror-
,who would be assigned to assassin conspiracy in the Kremlin to strike ists like the Red Brigade.
" -T l T? :; , :: r f the pope in the first place. Again, Perhaps we must keep open the
Hate tte pope in St. Peter's Square, what contempt they must have for, lines of communication to ? the
can anyone come up with a better us! ;,,Kremlin;. nothing,. however,.
phrase?f. ' k -` 'i , .The same week Ms. Sterling pub- requires us to play diplomatic hosts
obscenity If Brezhnev, Andropov &:
Co. would order the murder, in-
supreme -pontiff ~of, tRoman,
Catholic church, againt what
political, religious or cultural
leader would they not. strike?. ,
Patrick Buchanan is a nationally,
syndicated columnist. ,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24 CIA-RDP90-00965R000200910004-9