YOU HAVE NO PROOF

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91B00135R000701270051-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 13, 2008
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: December 27, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

At!TxCL~s' Approved For Release 2008/06/13: CIA-RDP9~1 BOO135ROOO7O127OO51-0
WASHINGTON - On Nov. 9, the
day before Leonid Brezhnev died, Ital-
ian Interior Minister Virginio Rognoni
received a visit from the C.I.A.'s vice
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 Ali
Agca, the Turkish gunman, had been -
informed a few months before that
Italy could not afford the cost of keep.
i 'ring him in solitary confinement much".*..
longer. To Ivor. Agca, that meant he
would be transferred to an ordinary
prison and would promptly be mur-
ESSAY
`you Have
IVo .
Proof
By William Safire
this story? Why are we setting our-
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
t 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. is
grand le Carr& fashion, hinting that
the evidence is part of an anti-Andro-
pay plot. (An exception is former Di-
rector of Central Intelligence 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 Le-
gitimacy; only.a major newspaper
can properly provide that.
Then there is the boggiement fac-
tor: the story. of the spymaster who
gave the order to kill the 'Pops 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
man Andropo'r, say our doves, and it
the chain of circumstance is dram
too tight we might not be able to trust
the Soviets on arms control. :
That fear.cf not being able to bring
back detente motivates most of those
who wish this awful trail of circam
stance world vanish. We ]mow
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 bear the faceless. officials
complain,"you nave no proof."
dered. That induced him to talk about
the Bulgarian Government'othcials could be garnered on a covert' opera-
WbDhired him to ]all the Pope. don. Nobody would come forward
--What proof do you have?" asked with a fingerprint of Yuri Andropov on
the C.IA man. the gun, but it was certain that no such
The man in charge of Italy's inter-. mission could be undertaken without
nal security.laid out the facts: that the.; the permission of the! K.G.B., then
gunman was a cold-blooded killer for beaded by Mr. Andropov.
hire, and not a fanatic or ideologue; According to one report of the meet-
that he was able to pass into Bulgaria ing, the C.I.A. representative contin-
easily on an Indian passport-and take - ued to -view with distaste the conclu.
up residence in a first-class hotel, sions being reached by the Italian in-
which requires secret service knowl- vestigators. Meanwhile, in other capi-
edge; that he entered penniless and tals - and in Washington -.middle-
came out with $50,000 from what is level C.I.A, men with journalistic con-
hardly. a land of opportunity; that he tacts have been pooh-poohing the
was able to describe accurately the. story. In Rome, U.S. foreign service
liv rg quarters of the Bulgarian offi- officers have been telling Italian dip-
dais who g'ere his controls and con- lomats that the investigation is an in.
,.acts; and that a flurry of electronic .. ternational embarrassment. . .
communication came out of the But- Thus, the Italian Government found
garian Embassy ' just before the. at. ? itself pursuing a case that caused it to
tack on the Pope similar to the an? strain relations with a Communist
tivity that took place before an Amen- neighbor and profoundly cffend the
can general was abducted. ? :.- new Soviet leader without the.moral
The C.I__ man waved that. all .:.. support of the government of the
?side. "You have no proof," he said, United States. The lackadaisical atti-
and did his best to convey to the Ital- tude of. most of the U.S. press on this
fan Government a high degree of skep. subject thrmIghOut the early winter-
ticism from. the American Govern- especially after the man wno had to
meat have at least guilty knowledge of the
"What proof do you want?" asked plot was elevated to the top post in the -
Mr. Rog=a- The circumstantial evi- Kremlin - was _ seen by Italians as -.
deuce already presented, along with further evidence that the U.S. wanted
some more that the gunman was ea-.. the investigation shut down.
peeted to reveal, was the best that . Wby do we require Imp to touch
~~ Approved For Release 2008/06/13: CIA-RDP91 BOO 135ROO0701270051-0