MEDIA REPORTS LINK SOVIET BLOC AGENTS TO ATTEMPT TO KILL POPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140060-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 60
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/09/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140060-2
ARTICLLr APTLUM THE WASHINGTON POST
ON PAGE -~ / 15 September 1982
,.,,Media -Reports Link
Soviet Bl
it to icif-pow
By Michael Getler
and Robert J. McCartney
Washln`ton Past ata8 writer.
Faro investigative reports in the U.S.
media this month contend that there is sub-
stantial circumstantial evidence that links
Soviet Bloc intelligence agencies to the Tur-
kish gunman who shot and seriously wound-
ad Pope John Paul 11 in May 1981.
American officials who have followed this
situation say that the U.S. intelligence com-
munity assessment agrees there is circum-
stantial evidence for strong 'suspicion that
the Soviet security agency-the KGB--ei-
ther knew about the plot against the pope or
' promoted it. But, these sources say, there is
ieJ+amoking gun" that proves a Soviet role.
""" The public reports, one in the current ed-
ition of Reader's Digest and another pro-
,duped by NBC Television and scheduled to
;be.' broadcast Tuesday, suggest that the
1{iemlin either plotted or acquiesced in the
.attempted murder of the pope - because of
et dissatisfaction with the pontiff's
w
ed rode
fo e
__.. _
end
L,e.n*>v support
t union Solidarity in his Polish home-.
land A preview of the NBC report, by cor-
respondent Marvin Kalb, was shown to re-
porters yesterday.
Radio Moscow, . reacting to the
published Reader's Digest article byre,
Sterling, has, denounced such allegations,
calling them -absurd' and "unfounded" , ,
A central argument of both reports is that
the 24-year-old gunman, Mehmet All Agca,
obtained his forged 'passport and the Brow-
ning 9-mm automatic used in the attack {
from associates of a shadowy Turk named
Abuser Ugurlu, who worked mostly out of
Bulgaria and is said to have links to Bulgar-
ia's secret service. NBC reports Italian inves-
tigators as saying that an Ugurlu associate
sent a courier to Agca offering him 3 million
West German marks and sanctuary in Bul-
garia to shoot the pope.-
U.S. officials say Agca got both his pass-
port and his gun in Sofia, the Bulgarian cap-
ital, in 1980. '
Agca, 24, is serving a life sentence in Italy
for shooting the pope on May 13, 1981. He
admitted at his trial that he had shot the
pontiff but did not identify who financed his
travels through several European countries
before he reached Italy.
While the public reports do not directly
implicate the Soviet KGB in the shooting,
they contend that Bulgaria is one of the So-
viets' most obedient allies, that the Kremlin
knows everything that is going on in Bulgar-
ia on security matters, and that Bulgarian
intelligence would be unlikely to act without
Soviet approval.
The American intelligence assessment also
is based heavily on the Bulgarian connection,
sources say, in combination with analysis of
Agca's movements around Europe, money ..
that was paid to him, and the timing of the
attack upon . the pope, which came as the
Solidarity movement was gaining strength'
"If there was no Solidarity movement, then I
suppose everyone would believe Agca was '
just a kook," one- source said.
Sources said, however, that the assessment
officially does not go beyond casting strong
suspicions on the Bulgarian secret service,
although it is widely assumed in the intel-
ligence community that the KGB was behind
the Bulgarians: Sources say former secretary
,
of state Alexander M. Haig Jr., who has clad
some disputes with the intelligence commun-
ity before about the extent of Soviet involve-
ment in terrorism, is the one who seems
most convinced of Moscow's role.
There also are some intelligence analysts
who are said to be dubious about a Soviet
link, believing that the KGB would not have
chosen a plan in which the assassin was vir-
tuafly certain to be caught.
Some officials here believe that money
may be 'k big factor in explaining the possible
conspiracy. Bulgaria is said to be a major
.center of the international gun-running trade
and sources say the Bulgarians have gotten
lots of. business, by supplying both sides in
the civil strife in Turkey. Some officials be-
lieve-that the Bugarian nercret service
ma
have promised Ugurlu, the alleged kingpin of
the smuggling business, a better deal if he
could use his contacts with the Turkish ter-
rorist groups to recruit an assassin. Ugurlu
reportedly is under arrest in Turkey, al-
though it could not be immediately deter-
mined here if charges against him have any
connection with the assassination attempt
.C0A7TV 1.D
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The Digest article suggests that Agca may
not have known who his true backers were.
Author Sterling also has written a boot,
"The Terror Network," which suggested that
the KGB was a major promoter of interna-
tional terrorism.
Before Agca shot the pontiff,-Turkishhp -
lice had identified him as a member of' a'
neo-fascist Turkish terrorist group called-the
Gray Wolves. Both NBC and Reader's.Di-
gest suggest that Soviet Bloc intelligence s r-
vioes may have chosen' Agca as a hired i n
because he was. known as a rightist and. tbp
would not be suspected of links to the
Italian officials who prosecuted Agca
said that there were signs that Agcy hadje-
ceived assistance from'-other persons. =T
NBC report also quotes, a Vatican ofi~l.
Cardinal Silvio Oddi, as; saying that "we, s-
pect, we think" that a foreign power, m y
have been . behind the shooting, possibly 4-
cause of "international - political strategy."
NBC also quotes unidentified papal aides-;es
saying that John Paul believes the Russians
were behind Agca's attempt to kill him "spd
that they might try it.again." . tri!
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