PROBE OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120099-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 99
• Publication Date: February 6, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120099-2
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
PROGRAM NBC Nightly News STATION WRC-TV
NBC Network
DATE February 6, 1983 6:30 P.M. GTY Washington, D.C.
Probe of Assassination Attempt
CHRIS WALLACE: George Bush is in Italy tonight,
continuing his trip through Western Europe to sell the Reagan
nuclear arms policy. But on this stop, NBC News has learned that
the Vice President has a secret mission, to tell Italian leaders
to continue their probe into the shooting of Pope John Paul, even
if that investigation ends up involving the Soviet Union.
Diplomatic correspondent Marvin Kalb reports.
MARVIN KALB: It is not on the Vice President's public
agenda, but we've learned he's been instructed by the White House
to assure anxious Italian leaders that President Reagan fully
supports their controversial investigation into the papal plot,
even if the trail leads to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov.
During his visit to the U.S. Embassy in Rome today, Bush
had a related chore, to stop all leaks, principally from CIA
officials, that tended to dishearten the Italians and discourage
the investigation. Similar leaks from CIA officials in
Washington flooded the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and
the Wall Street Journal this past week, stating, among other
things, that Mehmet Ali 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, it seems that
either the CIA is badly informed or chooses, for whatever reason,
to badly inform the public, because the evidence suggests Agca
was anything but crazy.
Severino Santiapichi, the Roman magistrate who sat in
on the early interrogations:
SEVEREINO SANTIAPICHI [translated]: That all the
Material supplied by Radio N Reports, Inc. may be used for file and reference purposes only. It may not be reproduced, sold or publicly demonstrated or exhibited.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120099-2
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120099-2
interrogations of Agca reveal a lucidity.
KALB: Cardinal Silvio Oddi, a senior Vatican official.
CARDINAL SILVIO ODDI: And this man, he was not a fool.
It's proved. He's an intelligent man. He's a killer, really, a
professional.
KALB: So agitated is the White House that National
Security Adviser 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 U.S. Embassy in Rome
that the leakers will be severely punished.
Why would CIA officials choose to go against company
orders and administration policy? There is no clear answer as
yet. 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.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120099-2