A SOVIET PLOT TO KILL THE POPE - II

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130054-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 54
• Publication Date: September 15, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505130054-0
ARTICLE APPF.~A~ WASH%1GT0?I ''T'IMES
ON 'AGE ~ 15 SrTMPTFu~~t 1902
J~Ex~Y a:1LiR1
A Soviet plot
~~ kid the pope - II
~n a recent colur.~n I noted that.
Claire Sterling. the author of The
Terror Network and a recognized .
authority on 20th century political
terrorism, has established persua-,
sively in a major article in the cur-
rent Reader's Digest Lhat Mehmet
Ali Agra, the'It~rkish terrorist who
tried to kilt Pope John Paul II,'was
programmed by the Soviet. KGB
through i is Bulgarian catspaw to do
exactly what he tried to do. I said
that, outside of the Reader's Digest,
this blockbuster story had received
little or no coverage in the major
media.
I stand corrected. Information-
reaching mefrom Dallas, Tex., indi-
cates that the story has received
full coverage them, at least; as it
has in ma jor European newspapers,
and if it has been covered in Dallas
it has probably been covered also in
other cities across the country.
In the Boston-Newyork Washington
media corridor, however, it has met
with silence. It has not been dealt
with by CBS-TV o^ the other major
networks (althoutia an NBC White
Paper titled The .flan 'Nho Shot the
Pope - A Study iu Terrorism' is
scheduled to air Sept. 21).' It has
been downplayed by the New York
Times and relegated :o back pages.
It has not made a splash in the
bashington Post. ~e Los Angles
mimes, or the Chiccgo T)-ibune:
There is an ancient saying, cer-
tainly redolent of reg;onal chauvin-
ism, but containing some truth, that
if it is not reporsed in the New York
Times, it didn't happen. As far as
the eastern corridor brand of major
media is concxrned, the Soviet plot
to murder the pope didn't happen.
Now, of course, the Reader's Digest
has 12 million readers, no insignifi-
cant segment Those readers, if they
have read Claire Sterling's piece,
Jeffrey Hart, an English professor
at Dartmouth College, is n syndi-
cated columnist. ,.
now know the facts. But, though
much of its audience is serious and
intelligent, the Reader's Digest does
not count for much in so-called
"opinion-making" circles. And these
have definitely laid off' the. pope
assassination story. -'
' Why? In effect, the story has so
far been"spiked." In the best-selling
novel called The Spike, Robert Moss
and Arnaud de Borchgrave posit an
actual communist apparatus in the
major media that "spikes" -kills
- crucial anti-Soviet stories.
I myself do not necessarily believe
that theory.
In the present case the KGB kill-
ingattempt upon the pope, if it came
to light, would have been a major
Soviet disaster.
There are Hundreds of millions
of people around the world, includ-
? ing the Third World, who believe
that the pope is the Vicar of Christ.
If a communist plot, directed from
b'foscow, to kill the pope ever became
widely credible, it would be a psy-
Chologicalcatastrophe. In launching
this assassination operation, the
Soviets were terribly provincial and
Euro-centered. They were thinking
specifically of Poland and second-
arily of'Iltrkey.?
What seems to me to be the case
here is that.the major media have
an investment in the idea that the
Soviet Union is a "normal" country,
and that "normal" countries just do
not program a 'Iltrkish terrorist to
kill the pope. This conception took
precedence over the facts in the spe-
cificcase, which therefore became
"unimportant," just not "news:'
Come to think of it, "The Plot to
Kill the Pope" would make a fine
movie. Mehmet Ali Agca was re-
cruited and equipped and pointed
toward the pope with his Bulgarian-
supplied Browning automatic and
his $50,000 in cash. He thought he
vas going to shoot and escape. TWo
henchmen were to create a distur-
bance, which would give Agca a
chance to run for it. The Soviets did t
not tivant it that way. The shots were I
fired, and the two henchmen left
him in the lurch to be captured. They
were photographed running away,
one jumping on a bus. The Soviets
wanted Agca captured, because he
is a Zltrk -thus making Tltrkey ;
seem less desirable as a NATO ally,
an unstable terrorist country. No ?I
doubt, the Soviets hoped he would
be killed in Vatican Square, his last
political service. .
But, Agca lives on in jail. He has
given Claire Sterling just enough
correct information to indicate that
he can give a lot more. He has
escaped from jail before. Stay tuned.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505130054-0