THE PLOT TO MURDER THE POPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2011
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: September 1, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
~ -^T ~.GLE APr"RFD
READER'S DIGEST
OIL PAGE 71 September 1982
A READER'S DIGEST EXCLUSIVE REPORT
This investigation of the elaborate international
plot to murder Pope John Paul II is the work of
one of Europe's most respected journalists-
American-born Claire Sterling, who has lived in
Italy for the past 30 years. Such investigative
reports as last year's The Terror Network, which
Foreign Affairs called a "landmark book on terror-
ism,' have earned Sterling an international repu-
tation. The have also opened doors for her to
priinary information sources available to few in
her field. Working on assignment for Reader's
Digest, Sterling traveled for four months, tapping
these sources in Turkey, West Germany, Italy,
Tunisia and other countries. The evidence she has
assembled casts sinister new light on last year's
events in 'St. Peter's Square. A key element in
the complex web: the Bulgarian connection. Elmo
THE BY CLAIRE 5reRIANG
PLOT TO
MURDER
THE POPE
May 13,1981, a youngg man
in St. Peter's S uare shot and nearly killed
QnWednesday,
Pope John Paul II. The gunman, captured
at the scene, was soon identified as 1Vlehmet
Ali Agca.(pronounced Ahjah), a 23-year-old
Turk. Within hours the world learned that
he had escaped from an Istanbul prison
while awaiting a death sentence for the ter-
rorist murder f a Turkish 'ournalist. Front-
page stories around the globe described him
as a fascist thug working for Turkey's neo-
CQNTINL.
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
 Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
Nazi Gray Wolves. It was pre-
sumed that the Gray Wolves had
sent Agca to Rome to kill the
Pope--or that he was a right-wing
crackpot acting on his own.
But Mehmet All Agca was nei-
ther Gray Wolves hit man nor
crackpot. And he did not act alone.
As I learned in months of investiga-
tion, there is hard evidence that
Agca was an instrument in an elab-
orate international plot. Whether
through negligence, nearsighted-
ness or indifference, not a single
country concerned has pressed an
investigation to the end.
Agca's trial in Rome in July 1981
lasted just 72 hours. Testimony was
limited strictly to his guilt in actual-
ly firing the two gunshots that
grievously wounded John Patil Il,
the first Polish pope in the history
of the Roman Catholic Church.
Agca was sentenced to life impris-
onment, but not a word was said in
the courtroom about a plot. Two
months later. however, in a report
ex platning the sentence, the judge
referred to "hidden forces" and
the existence of a high-level
conspiracy."
Italian belief in the existence of
such a conspiracy was formally con-
firmed in June of this year with .the
arrest in Switzerland of a Turk
named Omer l3agci. In asking for
extradition, Italy accused Bagci of
"direct participation in the at-
tempted assassination of Pope John
Paul II."
Long before this development,
however, there was proof of' a
plot. At the scene of the crime,
Agca had at least two accomplices.
One, not identified, was photo-
graphed from behind (by an ABC-
'I'V newsman) as he fled the crowd
with a gun in his hand. A second,
clutching a black dispatch case, was
seen racing for a bus on the edge of
St. Peter's Square. Several witness-
es noticed him because he jumped
off the bus at the next stop. On the
basis of their descriptions, a corn-
posite portrait was made that bore
a striking resemblance to a half-
hidden face next to Agca's in a
snapshot taken by an Italian pho-
tographer. At the close of Agca's
Yak Turkish police tentatively.
identified this second man as ()finer
Ay, also a terrorist fugitive.
Agca's conspiratorial ties with
Omer Ay were subsequently traced
through a passport office in the
Turkish town of Ncvsehir. Both
men had been provided with per-
fectly counterfeited passports is-
sued there on the same day (August
11, 1980), with consecutive num-
bers (136635 and 136636). Although
these passports carried photographs
of Agca and Ay, they bore the
names of two Nevsehir residents
(Iaruk Ozgi n and Galip Yihnaz).
Agca was still using his Ozgiin
passport when he arrived in Rome.
Still more suggestive of a con-
spiracy are notes, jotted in Turkish,
that were fi-und in Agca's pocket at
the time of his arrest. A "control"
must have given him these last-
minute instructions:
Friday between 7 and 8 a.m.
telephone.
May 13, Wednesday, appear-
ance in the Square.
May 17, Sunday, perhaps ap-
pearance on the balcony.
May 20, Wednesday, Square
without fail.
Choose a bag carefully.
Hair dye is essential.
If necessary, wear a
Short jeans, sports
Montgomery jacket.
cross.
shoes,
After Wednesday, round trip
to Florence or nearby sta-
tion. Be careful not to be
seen around Vatican or
places where attract atten-
tion.
Necessary: tear up postcards.
Finances: 6oo,ooo lire (18o,ooo
hotel, 20,000 telephone,
200,000 daily expenses,
100,000 for shoulder hag,
pants and shirt, 1oo,ooo re-
serve foe emergencies.)
Tomorrow, money for three
days in hotel.
Necessary: trip to Naples,
purchase bag and hair dye.
Check if train ticket valid.
Be very careful about food.
Breakfast here at 9 a.m.
was found there. He had dutifully
torn up postcards of the Pope rid-
ing; in rn open jeep. The bag, care-
fully chosen to contain his bulky
Browning automatic, was with him
at the Vatican.
New Breed. These scattered
leads were not much to go on, but
others were furnished by Agca
himself. Although he refused to
testify at his trial, he had previously
told his interrogators a great deal-
much of which turned out to be
true. In this and other ways, he was
full of surprises.
He fit into none of the common
slots: religious crackpot, national-
ist fanatic, mere hired mercenary,
fascist hit man or communist
agent. Tall and gaunt, with deep-
set (lark eyes framed by cropped
black hair and high -cheekbones,
Agca displayed quick intelligence
and a confidence close to arrogance.
With cool skill, he faced down his
Italian questioners, who had no
doubt that he had been coached by
experts.
Judge Domenico Sica, who has
cross-examined scores of terrorists,
assured me that he had never expe-
rienced one like Agca. "From the
start, he dominated the interroga-
tion," Sica said. "He would lead
me where he wanted to go and
then, when I confronted him with
contradictions, he would just stop
talking."
According to Nicola Simone, of
U;OS, Italy's anti-terrorist po-
lice, "lie could even put himself to
sleep in a chair and wake up rc-
freshed. He was always in control."
Showing no signs of guilt or fear,
Agca was at once secretive and
oddly talkative. What he cared
about most was terrorism for its
own sake. While insisting it was his
own idea to kill the Pope, he boast-
ed of getting help from various
terrorists abroad-"Bulgarians,
English and Iranians."
"I make no distinctions between
fascist and communist terrorists."
he told his interrogators. "My ter-
rorism is not red or black: it is red
"Here" was the Pensione Isa in''i and black." He called himself an
Rome, where his room had been "international terrorist," one of a
reserved by somebody speaking
fluent Italian; Agca does not. The
hair dye for his getaway disguise
t'a
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
 Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
new breed emerging after a decade i
of planet-wide violence. From
what 1 could confirm in his story,
this self-assessment seems close to
the truth.
If any country offered ideal con-
ditions for development of that new
breed, it was Agca's homeland.
Eastern outpost of NATO and for
years one of the few Islamic democ-
racies, Turkey was singled out for
systematic demolition by the Soviet
Union as early as the mid-196os.
At that time, according to high-
ranking KGB defector Vladimir
Sakharov,a few young Turks were
handpicked for training in the So-
viet Union, and in Syria under
Soviet supervision. With their
return home, there began what
Sakharov called "a violent cam-
paign of urban terrorism, kidnap-
ping and assassination."
Left-wing violence started in
1968 in the universities, eventually
striking sparks on the right. Each ~
side then inflamed the other, and
the killings spread from big cities to
remote villages. By September
1980, when the military took over
to stop the turmoil, Turkey was
enduring terrorist murders at a rate
of about one every hour.
Favorite Son. Out of this ungov-
ernably wild environment stepped
Mehmet Ali Agca. Born in 1958,
near Malatya. an ancient provincial
capital, Agca was ten when the
troubles began. Leftists held the
city of Malatya, rightists the outly-
ing shantytowns, including Yesil-
tepe, where Agca grew up. Friction
flared between the right-leaning
nd left-leaning Alawite
a
. Mehmct All had plenty of those.
His father was a drunk who beat
his wife; he died early in the mar-
riage, leaving her with three small
children. Living on a tiny pension,
Mezeyyen Agca leaned heavily on
Mehmet Ali, her eldest and favorite
son. He, in turn, seemed to adore
his mother. To help support the
family, Mehmet Ali worked after
school, peddling water and hauling
bricks and cement.
Last December, Mezeyyen Agca
received me in her sparsely fur-
nished two-room home and talked
about her son. Nothing was wrong
with him until he went away, she
said. It was during his years at
Ankara and Istanbul universities
that "those villains got him."
home, he'd been "so loyal. so re-
spectful-I'll never understand it."
A solitary adolescent, he had no
girlfriends, went alone to sports
events or movies, took no interest in
politics. "The only thing he cared
about was reading," his mother
told me. ,He would read until
three in the morning."
But before Agca left for Ankara
in 1976, he did make some friends
in Malatya. Nearly all were right-
ists, but a lew were leftists, or so
Agca wrote later in his Rome pris-
on cell: "In 1977 1 decided to go to
Palestine on the recommendation
of a schoolmate from Malatya,
Sedat Sirri Kadem. Sedat and I
went to Damascus. There I met
Teslim Tore. who went with me
to Beirut. After a 4o-day course at'
a secret guerrilla-traininga,~ p.
Teslim Tore helped me get into Turkey."
Though we have only Agca's
word for this, it cannot be Its-
missed out of hand. Sedat Sirri
Kadem, who was arrested, in 1981,
turned out to be a member of
Dev-Sol, one of Turkey's deadli-
est left-wing terrorist bands. He
has admitted knowing Agca. Tes-
lim Tore, also from Malatya, was
chief of the THKO (Turkish Peo-
pie's Liberation Army), a virulent
communist group. Police in An-
kara said that, at last report, he
was an instructor at a Palestinian
guerrilla camp in Lebanon.
Sunnite
Moslem sects, fanned by calculated
provocation on both sides.
The Agcas were Sunnite. But
Mehmct Ali showed no special
grudge against the Alawitcs and
seemed to have little religious
commitment. "He went to the
mosque-sometimes;" his younger
ime. I k also
brother Adrian told
s unthink-
able drank alcohol,
for a pious Moslem.
At the Yesiltepe high school.
Mehmet Ali is remembered as a
model student. "He was very bright
and conscientious," said the princi-
pal His teachers recalled that he
was "always thinking about his
personal problems."
THKO is a sister group of one of
five clandestine groups Agca said
he "maintained relations with" be-
tween 1977 and 1979. Two of the
others, Emegen Birligi and Halkin
Kurutusulu, are also hard-core
Marxist. Agca named as well Akin-
cilar, on the extreme religious right,
and Ulkuculcr, which stands for
the neo-Nazi Gray Wolves. The
fact that these leftist and rightist
bands had been killing one another
off for years did not necessarily
mean they were hopelessly at odds.
The two sides were committed to
the same immediate objective: the
dismantlement of the Turkish
democratic state. Both leftists and
rightists thus flocked to Palestinian
training camps. An aspiring "inter-
national terrorist" like Agca would
have had no scruples about shut-
tling between one side and the other.
Volunteering to Hang. Whether
or not he did go to Beirut for
training in 1977. Agca's life took a
mysterious turn soon afterward.
On December 13 of that year, an
account was opened in his name at
an Istanbul branch of the Turkyy Is
Bankasi, one of Turkey's major
banks. The first deposit of 40,000
Turkish lire (around $2000) was a
fortune for a hard-up student in
Turkey, and much more was to
come. These mysterious payments
are a master key to the Agca case.
At the time, how-
ever, nobody in
Turkey knew about
Agca's generous
paymaster-or
much of anything
about the young
man from Malatya.
He had passed un-
noticed through his
university days. un-
remembered in
class, inactive in stu-
dent politics; un-
known to the police.
Then. on Febru-
ary 1, 1979, Abdi
lpekci, editor of the moderately left-
ist newspaper 11-filliyet and the na-
tion's most influential commentator,
was shot and killed while driving
home from work. Five months after
CQNTINUEP
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
 Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
the murder, an anonymous caller until he himself named two. "May-
told Istanbul police that lpekci's as- be he knew he'd be tortured and
sassin, named "Ali," was at a right- beaten into confessing. anyway,"
wing student hangout, the Marmara said Gunes.
coffeehouse. The police raided the By freely effect admitting his
to get
place and arrested Agca. Ab
Although Milli yet and the Turk- ? himself hanged-and
ish Journalists' Union had offered a went still further by put-
reward of. six million Turkish lire ting the blame on the far
($12o,ooo at the time--a truly Tabu- right for this sensational
lous prize in Turkey) for the capture killing. First he named as
of Ipekci's killer, the anonymous the driver of the getaway
caller never showed up to collect. car a right-winger called
And while the only evidence against Yavus Caylan. Then he
said he'd gotten the mur-
Agca was his resemblance to a corn- der gun from a notorious
posite drawing made of one of the g
three men seen running from the Gray Wolf, Mrhmet
murder scene, he confessed readily. Sener. He also recalled
"I did it; I killed Ipekci," he said at a returning the gun to Sener at a
nationally televised press confer- branch office of the (Gray Wolves')
ence-speaking as if National Action Party.
he were discussing Yavus Caylan swore on the wit-
the weather. ness stand that he drove Agca to the
Agca had come murder scene knowing nothing of
to the press confer- the latter's intentions; he was sen-
ence after 15 clays of traced to three years, later in-
secret interrogation creased to 15. Mrhmet Sencr
at security police slipped away. to Europe unhin-
headquarters.I.cx-k- tiered. (lie is currently in a Swiss
ing jaunty and fit, he jail, on a passport-falsification
had joked with re- charge. No more is likely to be
porters and showed learned from him unless Switzer-
no sign of police land permits his extradition to Tur-
key.) The gun was never found.
u-rwre.
The story of Above all, the faceless paymaster
Mrhmet Ali Agca's who had financed Agca since late
arrest, interroga- 1977 was never pursued.
tion and confession .was told to me Sending Signals. The existence
personally by Hasan Fehmi Gunes, of this mysterious figure was first.
the man responsible for Turkey's brought up in court at the end of
security forces during the Ipekci af- the trial by the Ipekci family law-
Saltir Erman. Setting out to
er
,
fair. Minister of the Interior at the y
time in Premier Bulent Ecevit s So- identify Agca's possible backers,
cialist Republican government. Erman established that a series of
Giines was a radical well to the left of bank accounts in different cities
Ecevit, ardently committed to the had been opened in Agca's name by
incrimination of the far right for the somebody forging his signature.
worst of 'Turkey's terrorist crimes. Amounting to 260,000 Turkish lire
t the
Nobody outside a tight little cir-
cle knew of Agca's arrest for clays,
Gunes told me. "1 didn't even tell
Premier Ecevit," he said. Present in
person during the interrogation,
Gunes conceded that Agca's ready
confession was surprising. There
had been no witnesses against Agca
(about $12,000 a
time), paid in over 12
months, the funds depos-
ited in any one city were
invariably withdrawn in
another by the real Agca.
The disparity between
the forged and genuine
signatures was obvious,
Sahir Erman assured me.
Confined in the Kar-
tal-Maltepe prison, Agca
waited in what appeared to be the
expectation of getting sprung. On
October i i, he sent out a cryptic
signal from the witness stand.
"After 1 was captured," he told
the court, "the Minister of Interi-
or, liasan Fchmi Gunes, came to
Istanbul and talked with me. His
proposal was that, it'll would say a
high official of the National Ac-
tion Party ordered me to kill
Ipekci, or state that I was a mem-
ber of that party, Gunes would
help me."
We may never know how much
of this statement was blackmail or
bluff. Giines himself told me about
Agca's allegations, and added, If
all the charges made against me
were true., I'd have been hanged
long ago."
Agca may have been laying a
false trail that first time, but there
was no mistaking his blackmailing
intent when he took the stand
again. "I did not kill Ipekci, but I
know who did," he told the court
on October 24, adding that he
would reveal the true assassin's
name at the court's next sitting. It
was an explicit warning to his pa-
trons to get him out, and that is
what they did.
On November 25, 1979, Agca
walked out of Kartal-Maltepe mili-
tary prison, donning an army uni-
form and passing through eight
successive doors, each heavily
guarded. He could not have done it
without -high-level help.
The day after his escape, he sent
a letter to Milliyct about Pope John
Paul's impending visit to Istanbul:
"Western imperialists, fearing that
Turkey and her sister Islamic na-
tions may become a political, mili-
tary and economic power in the
Middle East, are sending to Turkey
the Commander of the Crusades,
John Paul, disguised as a religious
leader. If this visit is not called
off, I will definitely kill the
Commander-Pope."
COAYTL'V U1 )
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
 Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
T`j
Coming from a youth seldom I key's front pages for weeks on end. From Yugoslavia, Mehmet Ali
seen in a mosque, the Islamic zeal- According to Agca's handwrit- Agca embarked on a bewildering
ot's tone is unconvincing. In hone, ten account, he entered Bulgaria on tour of the Continent, passing
Agca brushed the letter off as a ruse a less-than-perfectly forged Indian through 12 countries, never staying
to distract police from pursuing passport as Yoginder Singh. He long, often doubling back. At 22,
him while they concentrated on stayed at several expensive tourist having spent all but three years of
protecting the Pope. But this is a hotels before checking into the de- his life in a poor peasant home in a
quite illogical explanation. A likeli- luxe Hotel Vitosha. There, he said, remote part of Turkey, and with no
er version is that Agca was advised he picked up the Browning 9 mom . hr forei In language sEnglis, ave hake moved
to write the letter for future use. he used to shoot the Pope, fr
At this point in Agca's career, the some "Syrian" whose name he con- with apparent case around urbane
setting shifts. After his prison veniently forgot. He also acquired European capitals. He shopped at
break, his patrons handed him over the perfectly counterfeited passport Yves Saint Laurent boutiques,
the border and up the line to some- issued to "Faruk Ozgiin" from i drank champagne at fashionable w body else. The key to this next someone whose name he surpris- Bandy innMillan,saa a J intered cde ii Palma
phase lies in a lengthy stopover ingly ~ theC1Hot ieVitosha," Agca Mallorca.
Agca made in Bulgaria on his way
to Western Europe. stated, "l made the acquaintance of From the time of his escape to his
he spent some
To have stayed in Bulgaria for Oto marsan, whose nme was e in Turkey:, Marsan $5potoore in o on plane fares and first-
some e 50 (lays, as Agca did, is given
enough in itself to raise suspA art "Involved r nlblack-marketi oh and class did I Agcalca Not
a check. Yet he was
about his future actions. Apart from the Soviet Union, Bulgaria is eons--cigarettes, liquor and oc- never short of cash.
Europe's most inflexible commu- casionally arms." For $1500 in A Apart rt from luislst in iBulgar a,
nist police state; it is also one of deutsche marks, according to Agca, g ca tors
oth Moscow's principal surrogates
roadc~to Ste Peters
Bulgaria Faruk Ozgun undertook to n Tur- overclon ilths
has serviced tesi has t bands esrc Europe's ter- meontand h. In deliver
911 of the Vitosha, There, on instructions lfr from Mar-
since the early 1970s, d
one
providing since Western
sin
d providing y, and acting facili-
as a alsnameo a acof, oth- in Muln ch,lp a claimed tto h av had
ties prime a sanctuary, and
prme staging area for trans-ship- as iscunidentified n{ but later oi r
anoMustafarot~i Kuti I r all hisreti-
ment of Soviet-bloc weapons. playing a key role cence on some matters, Ahas
The latest proof of this role came "running" Agca. gone out a her way Agca has
after Italian police liberated kid- Whether or not Marsan acted as plainly n
their
napped American Brig. G d'' u James the courier, the Ozgfin his was given to Agca in Sofia, under unlikelyi~torthave found ollicc
put
Lee Dozier r last ast winter
Red Brigade captors on trial. Their circumstances directly implicating own. For instance,
team leader testified that, as part of the Bulgarian secret service. The the very existence
the effort "to destabilize Italy; passport was stamped at Edirne on of Omer Marsan
Bulgaria offered the Red Brigades August 30 with a Turkish exit visa. and his where-
"money and arms" while they were That visa was a fake. But the Bul- al uts might had
holding Dozier. garian entry stamp, dated August Agca unot nknown
revealed
One of Bulgaria's more pres- 31, was valid. Thus someone must them.
sing assignments for the Soviet have smuggled the Ozgun passport On May 22, i98i
Union has been to help destabilize from Turkey to Bulgaria--some- nine da a 2,1 the
neighboring Turkey. The Bulgari- one who did not match Agcy's pho- Pope shot,
an secret service knows every- tograph on the passport but who opa e' wa
s as s o.
thing about Turks crossing the was able to have it stamped on the Rom's -ca's S tel-
frontier, legally or otherwise. No Bulgarian side. A courier must Liexc ons about Marsan
Turk could loiter for long unob- have rushed the passport to Agca in
served in Sofia, the capital--esp c- Sofia, since he used it to leave for to to West est Gerermmnanuy's
s dei
i-i cially not somebody like Agca, a Yugoslavia that very day. ann. The German police brought
convicted fascist murderer whose Marsan in for questioning, and he
picture had been featured on Tur- admitted that he had stayed in the
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
 Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
Hotel Vitosha in Sofia during the
summer of 1980. He also conceded
that he had net Agca there, but
said he had known him only as
"Metin." He agreed that Metin had
phoned him "many times" in Mu-
nich. But he asserted that he had no
idea Metin was Agca until the Pope
was shot.
The German police released
Marsan in 24 hours. lie had an-
swered questions "fully" and
"Openly," they told pie, and had
committed no crime in West Ger-
many. Free to go, he dropped out of
sight.
Agca's connections with Marsan,
and with a German named I iorst
Grillmeier, are crucial to under-
standing the plot to murder the
Pope. Both men are associates of
Abuzer Ugurlu, the boss of an
enormous gunrunning ring based
in Sofia and known
as the Turkish
arms Mafia. Grill-
meter, moreover, is
known to have ac-
quired-on July 9,
i98o-the Brown-
ing automatic that
Agca claimed to
have picked up
from the unnamed
Syrian in Sofia later
that summer. An
Italian secret docu- I
ment describes
Grillmeier as a
"frequent visitor" to East Germa-
ny, Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Bul-
garia. "We believe he has been
supplying weapons to international
terrorists," the report noted.
Questioned by Austrian police after
Agca's arrest, Grillmeirr was also
released in 24 hours, and vanished.
Italian intelligence officials believe
he is now hiding out in an Eastern
bloc country.
It was former Interior Minister
Cones who first conveyed to me the
immensity of Abuzer Ugurlu's
clandestine realm. "Ugurlu," he
said, "he is the Godfather!" His
smuggling trade with Turkey runs
into millions of dollars. A Turkish
citizen, Ugurlu also travels on a
Bulgarian passport. Ile has a spa-
cious villa in Sofia, a privilege gen-
erally reserved for high-ranking
Communist Party leaders.
Obviously, Ugurlu has earned
these privileges by performing in-
valuable services for Bulgaria in its
drive to dismantle Tur-
key. Large quantities of
arms found in the posses-
sion of Turkish terror-
ists-both rightist and
leftist-during the past
two years have come
through the network op-
erated by Ugurlu, with
Bulgaria's help. A defec-
tor from Ugurlu's ranks
has stated unequivocally
that the Turkish Mafia "is under
the control and supervision of the,
Bulgarian secret service."
The long and short of it, then, is
that Ugurlu worked for the Bul-
garians. The Bulgarians, in turn, do
what the Russians want them to do.
No secret police organization has
more intimate links with the KGB
than Bulgaria's. What is more, the
KGH keeps tabs on all terrorists as a
platter of course. It is inconceivable
that the KGB, would not have
known all there was to know about
a terrorist as closely involved with
the Bulgarian secret service as Agca
was.
By leaving it to Godfather Ugur-
lu's men to take care of Agca's
needs in Sofia-providing him
with a gun, a passport, contacts like
Marsan and Mustafaeof--the Bul-
garian secret service could stay one
degree remove,] from Agca. The
Soviet K(;B, yet another degree re-
moved, might then truthfully say it
had never laid eyes on the man who
would shoot the Pope.
Inexplicable Bungle. We would
surely know more about the whole
affair if the police of West
Germany, Austria, Swit-
zerland, Italy and Tur-
key had coordinated
their efforts. Their poor
teamwork in the case of
Omer Marsan was even
worse in that of Omer
Ay. His arrest in the
West German seaport of
Hamburg last Febru-'
ary-for a traffic viola-!
tion-caused a ripple of excitement.
Starting on May 25, 1981,
Rome's DIGOS, via the Italian
branch of Interpol. had sent a series
of communications concerning
Omer Ay to Interpol headquarters
outside Paris for worldwide distri-
bution. They included the compos-
ite drawing of the man with the
black dispatch case, the photograph
of the half-hidden face next to Agca
in St. Peter's Square, and a photo-
graph of Omer Ay himself. An
accompanying DIGOS report noted
"a strong resemblance" between
the latter two. Written beneath the
composite drawing was a detailed
physical description tallying closely
to the real Omer Ay.
On June 4, Turkey issued an
international arrest warrant to the
Interpol agent in Ankara for "all-
country circulation," formally ac-
cusing Omer Ay of helping to
procure Agca's and his own coun-
terfeit passports.
Yet Interpol headquarters de-
nied that they had ever received the
half-face photograph and Omer
Ay's picture from Italy. Turkey's
June 4 arrest warrant was not actu-
ally sent to Interpol until Septem-
ber 4; they received it only on
December 7. The Hamburg police
did not receive the DIGOS docu-
ments and the arrest warrant until
the following February-nine
months after Lite assassination at-
tempt in Rome. By then, of course,
the trail was cold. Omer Ay flatly
told the German police that he did
not know Agca and claimed he had
never been to Rome. The Italians
did not ask to interrogate him. The
Turks did ask, but still have not
obtained extradition.
It is hard to account for these
mix-ups and lost chances, or for
official indifference. In West Ger-
many, for instance, a high-ranking
police official handling the Agca
case told me, "Our police simply do
not take this case as seriously as
you do."
Key officials in every Western
country concerned have told me
privately that they believe the So-
viet Union was behind the hidden
forces that "ran" Agca. "His control
was probably the Bulgarian secret
agent Mustafaeof," says Francesco
4
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
 Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
Mazzola, head of an Italian parlia- Many Turks believe that a num-
mentary watchdog committee over- her of their own security police
seeing Italy's secret services last were involved with these patrons
year. Without naming names, see' toward the end of I`1 Agca's caster arkish the
oral high Vatican officials appear to phase. s has been under close
e
share this view. After talking with
Vatican sources, Francesco D'An-
drea of Giornale Nuovo wrote about
"a plan elaborated in collaboration
between the Soviet K(ai and a cer-
tain sector of the Turkish secret
services, tied to a powerful group in
their country that wants to force
Turkey out of NATO and into the
Soviet zone of attraction." Vatican
officials reached this conclusion, he
said, on the basis of "precise indica-
tions ... passed through diplomatic
channels."
For all Agca's moving in right-
ist circles, there is no evidence that
he was ever a Gray Wolf. Portray-
al of him as a rightist assassin does
not really make sense. Why would
time, n
investigation. His position has been
complicated by his brother's arrest
as a local leader of the underground
Turkish Communist Party and the
tors to send a defiant and desperate
message to his patrons. He is still
waiting for an answer, from back-
ers who may have no further use
for him, whose faces he may never
have seen, and whose true connec-
tions. perhaps. he never knew.
arrest of his two sons as members of
the lets-wing terrorist l)ev-Sol.
Meant to Be Caught. A wide-
spread assumption in the West is
that the Pope must have been shot
because he is a Pole. This could be
true. Though Pope John Paul 11 is
by no means an aggressive anti-
Soviet hawk, be is undeniably the
spiritual father of Poland's Solidar-
ity trade-union movement, which
could never have been born with-
out his blessing. As we have seen
since martial law was declared in
Poland Solidarity is an intolerable
rightists in or out of Turkey want threat to the very foundations of the
to assassinate the head of the Ro- Soviet empire.
man Catholic Church, especially -1f that was the Russians' sole
under communist Bulgaria's aus- motive, however, why would they
pices? 0 e might equally ask, what k a Turk to pre the gun?
good could have come of it for the pick Turk was there at St. Peter's
Turkish left? Among Turks close
to the case. a widely credited theory ito signal Christendom that Islamic
holds that Turkey's right-wing Turkey was an alien and vaguely
forces were infiltrated and manipu- sinister country that did not belong
lated in the Soviet Union's interest. in NA11). A Turk who happened
Here is what they believe then Iran- also to carry the brand of a convict-
spired: ed fascist murderer was all the
Mehmet Ali Agca was spotted better for the part.
early on and recruited for future There is reason to believe that
use on the turbulent domestic Mehmet Ali Agca was not only
scene. He may never have known used but betrayed, that he was
who really paid and controlled him. counting on his two accomplices to
Familiar with right-wingers since create a diversion at the Vatican so
Malatya, Agca was probably en- he could slip away. Instead, they
couraged to keep moving in their ran away themselves, on orders.
company to build up a rightist per- His right-wing persona firmly es-
sona. Whether or not he was also tablished. Agca was meant to be
caught. "lie was not in much of a
encouraged to help murder AbdiI
osition to bargain after that," said
p
Ipekci, he was probably persuaded' a high 1)IG()s official. "If he talked,
to confess to that killing, covering he would just be left to rot in jail. If
for others and pinning the blame on not, maybe his patrons would
the right.. spring him again."
Once freed, he was too notorious As in Istanbul, Agca talked and
to keep in Turkey, and evidently did not talk, revealing just enough
too useful to be terminated. His information-about his contacts
Turkish patrons therefore passed with Marsan and Mustafaeof, for
him on to other forces more directly instance-to his Italian interroga-
accountable to the Soviet Union.
Alehm,r/ Ali Agca a! Rome police headgaarters
COI\7 V ED
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
 Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9
Assassin aims his ureu/-on (circle,
above) over Ilse hruds of'speclalors
seconds before shooting
Abuzer Uguiln. "The (;odfi:deer"
Hasan Fe%nii Giines. fornirr
Turkish interior Afinisirr
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505140063-9