THE BULGARIAN CONNECTION STILL HOLDS

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Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00965R000201340001-4
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RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
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1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
February 10, 2012
Sequence Number: 
1
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
February 12, 1985
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OPEN SOURCE
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201340001-4 WALL STREET JOURNAL 12 February 1986 The Bulgarian Connection Still Holds By GORDON CROVITZ The trial of seven Bulgarians and Turks accused of helping Mehmet All Agca try to kill the pope is in its final phase, with pros- ecutor Antonio Marini this week summing up his evidence of a conspiracy. His proof includes Agca's admission that the Bul- garians paid him for the shooting, circum- stantial evidence that Bulgarian agents in Rome planned the shooting and corroborat- ing evidence by members of the Turkish- Bulgarian smuggling mafia. Mr. Marini emphasizes that proof of the plot comes "independently of Agca's state- ments." Italian courts do give weight to kinds of evidence American courts do not. which is one reason they have successfully prosecuted terrorists. Mr. Marini urged the jury of judges and laymen not to be confused by the "falsehoods, scheming and conniving" that marked the seven-month trial. Agca, he said, "put himself on the market as a potential assassin of the pope and somebody enlisted him as a courier of death." The prosecutor offered his own explana- tion of Agca's confusing antics during the trial. He argued that at the beginning of the trial, Agca claimed to be Christ and predicted the end of the world to give the Bulgarians time to somehow rescue him. Earlier, Agca had confused his testimony following the June 1983 kidnapping of the daughter of a Vatican employee and subse- quent ransom notes demanding Agca's re- lease, which convinced him that the Bul- garians were still trying to spring him. Mr. Marini quoted Agca as saying that his ac- complices "wanted me to retract my accu- sations against them, confound the trial, and then I had the task of discrediting the Western press," which had connected the shooting with Bulgaria and the Soviet Un- ion. Now, according to Mr. Marini, Agca says: "I failed, certainly, and I want to abandon this double game." Proclaims Its Innocence Mr. Marini will announce later this week whether he believes there is enough evidence to convict the three Bulgarians and four Turks. Under the Italian system he could ask for acquittal or dismissal for lack of evidence, but his aggressive sum- mation suggests he will ask for a full con- viction. Meanwhile, the Soviet Bloc continues to proclaim its innocence. Just after the May 1981 shooting, Soviet publications claimed Agca was an anti-Christian fanatic acting alone. Then they claimed he was a fascist working for the Grey Wolves, a Turkish terrorist organization. Most recently, the communist line has been that the Central Intelligence Agency and the Italian secret service hired Agca to kill Pope John Paul II and then coached him to implicate the Bulgarians. This accusation centers around Francesco Pazienza, a former Ital- ian nfite`Iligence agent held in a New York jail pending extradition to Italy on fraud charges. A Jan. 15 article in the Soviet publica- tion Literaturnaya Gazeta claims, "Before being arrested in the U.S., Francesco Pa- zienza managed to hide in Paris a file that can shed some light" on the pope plot. The Jan. 29 issue of the same newspapes contains a half-page article based on an in- terview with Mr. Pazienza by its New York correspondent, Iona Andronov. It begins with a description of the searches required of journalists interviewing federal pris- oners in the U.S. As to the attempt on the pope, the article concludes, "About this, Pazienza, as I was convinced, Is afraid to talk out loud within the walls of this Amer- ican dungeon that has unseen ears." In fact, by now this communist propa- ganda line is completely unraveled, and of- fers no credible alternative explanation for the shooting. As early as 1982, articles in Soviet and Bulgarian periodicals began claiming that Mr. Pazienza had met with Agca in Italy's Ascoli Piceno Prison and arranged that Agca should implicate the Bulgarians. In the aftermath of the kidnapping and ran- som notes demanding his freedom, Agca announced in court that Mr. Pazienza had indeed visited him in prison. Like so many other attacks on his own credibility, Agca soon admitted he'd been lying about any meeting with Mr. Pazienza. Despite this, Christian Roulette, a French lawyer, wrote a book in 1984 charg- ing that Mr. Pazienza coached Agca; Mr. Roulette asked to testify in the Italian trial, but was forced to admit he had no knowledge of the purported secret Pa- zienza files. Mr. Marini said the Roulette claim was a glaring example of "massive falsification." The only other testimony connecting Mr. Pazienza to Agca comes from Giovanni Pandico, a convicted Mafia chief. According to reports in the Western press, 'Mr. Paz enza has dropped various s about wron oings by western intelli- gence, though he as denied that he was involved in a coaching of gca. e ian judiciary decided to close its investigations into the Soviet Bloc claim that Agca was somehow coached after Judge Ilario Martella took a deposition from Mr. Pazienza in New York last Dec. 13. The transcript of this interview is the principal evidence on Mr. Pazienza before the Rome court. Mr. Pazienza had requested the interro- gation to clear his name, but began by tell- ing Judge Martella, "You ask me the ques- tions because unfortunately I don't know what is true and what has been fabri- cated-that is, what has in fact come out of the trial hearing . . . and what on the other hand as usual has come out in the press in a, let's say, very confused way." Mr. Pazienza told Judge Martella that he ` never even dreamed of n to e co I Piceno n and a in any case he a e the Italian intelligence agency SISMI ore the pa shooting and wo ave a no access -to the prison. Judge Martella said he accepted a r. Pazienza had no contact with Agca, and said the only evidence to the contrary was from Pandico. 'What Is Your Information?' Then Mr. Pazienza described discus- sions in 1980 about SISMI setting up its own disinformation network and claimed SISMI had tried to assassinate him and would kill him if he were extradited. He re- ported on a conversation he'd had with U.S. Customs agents who asked if he knew that Stefano delle Chiaie, an Italian ac- cused of right-wing terrorism, had been in the U.S., accompanied by an unnamed Turk. Judge Martella repeatedly told Mr. Pazienza to confine his testimony to any information that could shed light on the pope plot. Finally, Judge Martella appar- ently became exasperated with the ram- bling testimony and there was the follow- ing exchange: Judge Martella: "What I would like to know, since you have raised it, is what is your information regarding the questions pertaining to the attempt on the pope's life? Here, to complete the logic, I asked you, and I repeat the question, to the ex- tent that you have knowledge of it, to clar- ify further the motives behind this joint ac- tion to kill the pope, if perhaps there was a direct interest of delle Chiale or of the Grey Wolves, or if on the other hand they may have acted as intermediaries, that is, on behalf of someone else. If you have knowledge of this, say so; otherwise, no.,, Mr. Pazienza: "Yes, sir. If I answer that I do have knowledge of this, I would be lying, and I don't want to lie." Judge Martella: "That is, you must not lie . . . " Mr. Pazienza: "I would have to tell you my speculations, which have absolutely no value." Judge Martella: "No. Very good." Nevertheless, the communist propa- ganda line remains that Mr. Pazienza has information that would clear the Bul- garians. It may be too soon to know ex- actly what the Rome court will rule, but it is not too soon to ask how the West would respond if the result is a guilty verdict af- ter all. What does the West say to Bulgaria and its Kremlin bosses if their agents are officially implicated in one of the most heinous crimes of the century? Mr. Crovitz, a Journal editorial writer, wrote extensively about the Agca case in his former post as editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal/Europe. _,.. Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201340001-4