DARE WE SHRUG OFF INFAMY?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505110042-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 42
• Publication Date: June 22, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505110042-5
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MICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE 3.3 .,.
Letters to the Editor
Dare We Shrug Off Infamy?
Thanks to Suzanne Garment for her ex-
cellent piece on the attempted assassina-
tion of Pope John Paul II by the Bulgarian
puppets of Moscow (Capital Chronicle,
June 15).
It is indeed astonishing that so few in
the media have paid heed to this mon-
strous crime. It must rank among the
worst in history, for it shows clearly Com-
munism's utter contempt for every individ-
ual and for every human value. This was
not simply an attack upon the head of the
Catholic church but upon everyone who
stands for freedom and order in society.
Congratulations also to Ms. Garment
for the measured tone and calm nature of
her writing. It is a pleasure to read such
fine prose.
* * *
Although I agree with Suzanne Gar-
ment's premise that the State Department
and other U.S. government agencies have
soft-pedaled the "Bulgarian Connection," I
take exception to her contention that the
Bulgarian story is "sinking like a stone"
on Capitol Hill.
On June 7-three days before Claire
Sterling publicly summarized the Italian
state prosecutor's report on the plot to kill
the pope-the House Foreign Affairs Com-
mittee Task Force on International Nar-
cotics Control held hearings to investigate
the Government of Bulgaria's involvement
in narcotics trafficking, gun-running and
international terrorism.
To its credit, the Drug Enforcement Ad-
ministration came down hard on Bulgarian
terrorism during the hearing. "The Gov-
ernment of Bulgaria has established a pol-
icy of encouraging and facilitating and
trafficking of narcotics through the corpo-
rate veil of KINTEX ... (and) KINTEX
assists the flow of guns and ammunition to
left-wing insurgency groups in Turkey and
Lebanon," said John Lawn, Acting Deputy
Administrator of the DEA. Paul Henze, a
consultant with the Rand Corporation, ad-
ded: "Narcotics and terrorism are two
sides of the same coin.... Nothing Bul-
garia does can be regarded separately
from the larger framework of pernicious
and destructive Soviet operations directed
against the Free World. They range from
propaganda and disinformation to support
of terrorism and assassination."
Only the State Department was equivo-
cal. Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark
Palmer labeled the evidence against Bul-
garia "allegations," and he added that vir-
tually nothing more can be done to punish
Bulgaria.. Similarly, when Secretary of
State Shultz testified before the full For-
eign Affairs Committee on June 13, he re-
fused to spell out sanctions we might im-
pose on Bulgaria.
Tougher sanctions are clearly available.
For one, the Secretary of State should at-
tempt to reconvene the Customs Conven-
tion on the International Transport of
Goods. Bulgaria now uses this Convention
to truck arms, heroin and, if the Italian
prosecutor is correct, assassins throughout
Europe and the Middle East. Second,
mounting evidence suggests that Bulgaria
has shifted a substantial portion of its
smuggling. operation to the seas. The State
Department should thus consider abrogat-
ing our bi-lateral maritime transport
agreement with Bulgaria. Finally, the Ex-
ecutive Branch should-at the very least-
conduct a full-scale review of possible U.S.
and multi-lateral sanctions against Bul-
garia.
Meantime, those of us in Congress Who
are pursuing the Bulgarian connection will
continue to hold the Administration's feet
to the fire. Perhaps this heat will yield
more action, and less ambivalence, from
Foggy Bottom and the White House.
EDWARD F. FEIGHAN (D., OHIO)
Chairman, House Foreign Affairs
Committee Task Force on International
Narcotics Control
Washington
* * *
The attempted assassination of John
Paul II reminds one of a similar "Bul-
garian connection" involving the success-
ful assassination of King Alexander I of
Yugoslavia at Marseilles on Oct. 9, 1934.
Investigation showed that more than one
assassin was involved. Besides a number
of Croatian terrorists, there was a Bul-
garian named Georgiev, a member of the
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organ-
ization, involved in this elaborate scheme
to eliminate Yugoslavia's king, whose poli-
cies were unsuitable to the political aspira-
tions of Mussolini's Italy.
In spite of all the evidence linking Italy,
Hungary and Bulgaria with this murder-
in which M. Barthou, the French Foreign
Minister, also lost his life-the Western de-
mocracies were reluctant to condemn the
mentioned countries for fear of political
consequences. This was the beginning of
"appeasement" politics.
It seems that history is repeating itself.
Instead of the IMRO and fascist Italy,
there is the KGB and Bulgaria, as evi-
dence seems to point out, directly or indi-
rectly involved in the plot to murder John
Paul H. Is our reluctance to call a spade a
spade not a repetition of an appeasement
policy as in 1934?
ALEXANDER C. NIVEN
On the CIA's and the media's cover-up
of Soviet involvement in the assassination
attempt on the Pope: we have been here
before:
From an abundance of examples in the
Thirties, I quote Geoffrey Dawson, the in-
fluential editor of the London Times, who
doctored and sometimes killed the dis-
patches of his Berlin correspondent.
"I do my utmost, night after night," he
wrote about the Nazis, "to keep out of the
paper anything that might hurt their sus-
ceptibilities.... I shall be more grateful
than I can say for any explanation or guid-
ance, for I have always been convinced
that the peace of the world depends much
more than on anything else upon our get-
ting into reasonable relations with Ger-
many." (History of the Times, Part II, p.
734.)
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505110042-5