REAGAN REASSURES ITALIANS ON PAPAL PLOT PROBE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91B00135R000701270019-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 13, 2008
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: February 6, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/06/13: CIA-RDP91 B001 35R000701270019-6
6 February 1983
REAGAN REASSURES ITALIANS ON PAPAL PLOT PROBE
w'ASHINGTON
.The White House told Vice-President George Bush to reassure anxious Italian
leaders that President Reagan supports their probe into the alleged plot to kill
the Pope,. even if the trail-`"leads to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, NBC News
reported Sunda
NBC,- on its evening news, said Bush, during his visit to the American embassy
in Rome Sunday, also was charged with stopping "all leaks, principally from.
CIA officials, that tended to dishearten the Italians and discourage the
investigation."
Following the report, a White House spokesman said Reagan last month publicly
stated the U.S. position on the probe, expressing ::'-'full confidence' that. the-~.
investigation is=:4yin. capable;;.hands, that the" Italians. are carrying out a rigorous .
investigation...
';':The-y-vartaus: ,reports? in,this country that the: U.S:-.r is- encouraging .or =>
discouraging: he:,,-investigation-::just are not'.true ,:" .spokesman Mort Ailin said.
"We""think the -Italians- should proceed without people prejudging -them. The fact
is they are carrying it out and you accept the results of the investigation.
Allin said the topic of the probe "certainly is expected to come up during
Vice President Bush's meetings with Italian leaders, but. he simply is stating
U.S. policy in-this matter.''
A U.S. embassy spokesman in Rome said most of Bush's time Sunday was
"private time' with. a few meetings with Italian leaders at the embassy. He
said no details of the meetings would be disclosed.
Allin said the White House would have no comment on stories regarding the
leaks.
"There have been stories the last couple of weeks that U.S. government
officials have been putting a little bit of cold water on the whole story,'' he
said.. "We're just not taking a position. The Italians will make the decision on.
.
the outcome of the whole investigation.".
NBC said leaks from CIA .officials in Washington appeared in the New York
Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Mall Street Journal this past week, stating
that Mehmet All Agca, the Turk who tried to kill the Pope, was " crazy, " and
therefore neither the Bulgarians nor the Russians would have used. him.
"But on this point, either the CIA is badly informed or chooses for
whatever reason-to badly inform the public," NBC correspondent Marvin Kalb
said, "because the evidence suggests Agca was anything but crazy."
NBC quoted Roman magistrate Severina-Santiapichi, who said in on the early
Interrogations, as saying "all the interrogations of Agca revealed a
lucidity."
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It quoted senior Vatican official Cardinal Silvia Oddi as saying, "This man,
lie was not a fool. That's proved. He's an intelligent man.''
Kalb said the White House was "so agitated" that National Security Advisor
William Clark and CIA Director William Casey conferred last week and ordered a
full-scale investigation into the CIA leaks, "and warned in messages to the
embassy in Rose that ,the leakers-.,would be severely punished.''
Kalb said CIA officials' motives for going against company orders and
administration policy are unclear.
"What is clear is that the President's men have put out the word that if
Andropov is found to be implicated in the Papal plot and if this damages the
arms control negotiations, then so be it. The president is described as wanting
the whole truth out and letting the chips fall where they may."
Approved For Release 2008/06/13: CIA-RDP91 B001 35R000701270019-6