'YOU HAVE NO PROOF'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140027-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2011
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: December 27, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140027-9
ARTICLE A i NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON - On Nov. 9, the
day before Leonid Brezhnev died, Ital-
ian Interior Minister Virginio Rognoni
received d visit from the C.I.A.'s vices
chief of station in Rome and a staffer
from the U.S. Senate Intelligence
Committee. The Americans wanted to
know about the Bulgarian connection
to the shooting of the Pope.
Mr. Rognoni explained that All
Agca, the Turkish gunman, had been
informed a few months before that
Italy could not afford the cost of keep.
ing him in solitary confinement much'
longer. To Mr. Agca, that meant he
would be transferred to an ordinary
prison and would promptly be mur-
dered. That induced him to talk about
the Bulgarian Government officials
who hired him to kill the Pope.
..What proof do you have?" asked
the C.I.A. man.
The man in charge of Italy's inter-
nal security laid out the facts: that the
gunman was a cold-blooded killer for
hire, and not a fanatic or ideologue;
that he was able to pass into Bulgaria
easily on an Indian passport -and take
up residence in a first-class hotel,
which requires secret service knowl-
edge; that he entered penniless and
came out with $50,000 from what is
hardly a land of opportunity; that be
was able to describe accurately the
living quarters of the Bulgarian offi-
cials who Were his controls and con-
tacts; and that a flurry of electronic
communication came out of the Bul-
garian Embassy Just before the at-
tack on the Pope, similar to the ac-
tivity that took place before an Ameri-
can general was abducted.
The C.I.A. man waved that all
aside. "You have no proof," he said,
and did his best to convey to the Ital-
ia- rover ment a high degree of skep-
ESSAY
`You Have
No .
Proof
By William afire
this story? Why are we setting-bur-
selves standards of proof that the
Soviet bloc will make impossible to
meet?
One reason is humanly institution-
al: most spooks, after the C.I.A.'s flat
rock was flipped over in the post-
Watergate era, don't want anybody to
think that assassination is part of any ?
nation's "dirty tricks," and so they
come to the defense of the K.G.B. in
grand le Carre fashion, hinting that
the evidence is part of an anti-Andre.
recctorr of Cent
ral gence Richard
Helms, who was pointing a finger at
this "classic intelligence operation"
from the start.)
Another reason has to do with the
workings of the American press:
where does a story of such magnitude
come off being broken in the Readers' .
Digest, and developed in detail by
NBC, a mere television network?
Such a story needs establishment 1e.
gitimacy; only a major newspaper
can properly provide that.
Than there is the bogglement fan
tor: the story of the spymaster who
gave the order to kill the Pope and
thereby saved Poland from Solidarity
and rose to the top in the Kremlin -
that's a large lump of information to
digest. Evil so audacious is unbeliev-
able.
The central reason for the shameful
reluctance to urge. the Italians on is
political: we have to deal with this
an Andropov, say our doves, and if
the chain of circumstance is drawn
too tight we might not be able to trust
the Soviets on arms control.
That fear of not being able to briar
back detente motivates most of those
who wish this awful trail of circum-
stance would vanish. We know
enough; they do not want to know any
more.
That is why, after facts are pre :
sented which compel common sense
to lay the crime at the Kremlin door,
we will hear the faceless . officials
complain, "you have no proof."
meat have at least guilty knowledge of the
"`"`"~'
.
"What proof do you want?" asked plot was elevated to the top post in the
Mr. Rognoni. The circumstantial evi. Kremlin - was . seen by Italians as
dace already presented, along with further evidence ht ~U.S. wanted
some more that the gunman was ex-the pected to reveal, was the best that Why do we require tangs to touch
could be garnered an a covert opera-
tion. Nobody would come forward
with a fingerprint of Yuri Andropov an
the gun, but it was certain that no such
mission could be undertaken without
the permission of the+K.G.B., than
headed by Mr. Andropov.
According to one report of the meet-
ing, the C.I.A. representative contin-
ued to +view with distaste the conclu-
sions being reached by the Italian in-
vestigators. Meanwhile, in other capi-
tals - and in Washington - middle-
level C.I.A. men with journalistic con-
tacts have been pooh-poohing the
story. In Rome, U.S. foreign service
officers have been telling Italian dip-
lomats that the investigation is an in-
ternational embarrassment.
This, the Italian Government found
itself pursuing a can that caused it to
strain relations with a Communist
neighbor and profoundly offend the
new Soviet leader without the moral
support of the government of the
United States. The lackadaisical atti-
tude of most of the U.S. press on this
subject throughout the. early winter -
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140027-9