THE PLOT AGAINST THE POPE: FACT & FANTASY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505110029-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: July 10, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

TAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505110029-0
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE_ f z . NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
10 July 1984
The plot against thE~pe:
tact iantasy
t u4kt this point,. U.S. intelli-
gence officials say, the Italian
ASHINGTON prosecutor made two key
Con. - destine officers, but let .us .errors.. He. asserted, that the
servatives are claim. assume, for the sake of argu- ;:Bu
Igarians for the first and
ing they have suc- ment, that the conservatives"-` last time: requested =emergency.;
r"ceeded _ in .? "punishing". wo .; are, correct,-arid the two.-men clearance and "sealingof a-
clande.stine'ClA operatives for are indeed being transferred. truck on the embassy
their. failure to come up ,with a,Punishme grounds.
nt. ui.,Ahis case And he speculates that..Celik
proof that Bulgaria -and ulti would be doubly uniust n?o .e .;;;;f ~,~?e - o~ , :. a
ate Pope John Paul
II. -
Both.-the Rome
station chief and his
deputy are being
transferred, accord-
ir.g to sources, be.
cause of their
skepticism -about the
case drawn up by Ita. -
attempt to assassin..
a
e
links tal flaw..It rests sole. o at the time' Agca'?
Turkish assay 1 claimed Aivasov was in St. Pe
sin IMehmet Ali Agca Nelson ly on the unsup?
ported- testimony of Ler;g Square.
with three Bulga. Antonov, the airline offi-;
rians on the day of, Agca, a provenliar cial, denies . Agca's charges.
the crime. who said he?intended Ahrdsov now has an alibi from
The CIA will not first to kill the Queen of Eng the two -.customs officials._:.
comment land until he found out she was
on the movements of its clan _a woman Va311ev has gone back to Eul-
garia; and Gelik has vanished.
To review the evidence. The That. _means the case comes.-
I central part of the.Itaiian case down to Agca's testimony
against the Bulgarians is
? _.?Agca's claim that.: he was.. alone-and, by the pros-
own admission, Agca
accompanied ? , to' St., -_Peter's
Square ec liar.__.
on March 13 by Bulga-; ~s a a ria "The
e
n diplomat Todor Aivasov, defense would blow
airline official Sergei Antonov, th case out of the water in an
military attache Zhelyo American court," one Amer.
t Vasilev and Turkish neo-Nazi. ican expert noted. "But this is
Oral Celik ,. an Italian court. Anything
Ce k was allegedly with could happen:":
Agca when he shot and wound- i ~1r TITL7TAT T[T" ., i
-, 11 Vr
an s off the Italian 4 plomafuc trucks sealed at their-fi
case against"-; the embassy. " Further- Antonov's"
Bulgarians,r:;on `the defense lawyer has two witnes--
theory that if the CIA - ses;iboth Italian customs offi-
gets involved the cia -s, who say. the truck was
plot would be dismis. loaded and sealed in broad day-
sed as a CIA light on a busy street, under'
machination. their supervision, and they are
Two, and more im- prepared to swear there was no
portant. the Italian one4nside. They further-attest
h
an Aivasov was with them,
---?? prosecutor's case t
lian prosecutor Anto? watching the -truck -being
nio Albano, who Lars-Erik appears to have a fa- I
d
d
case has become high-
p.m. Celik then fled and has 1
ecutor speculates that Celik 1 conservatives attacking - the
was smuggled out of the coun- Reagan administration for not
try in a Bulgarian truck con- doing more to help the Italians
taining diplomatic effects, for f embarrass the KGB. It has also
which the Bulgarians _ re- become politicized within
quested unprecedented emer- ?-journalism, with some repor-
gency clearance: ters actively trying tp prove
"What was so immensely '.:'.the-case against the Bulgarians.
important and useful in the instead of reporting, neutrally,
[truck's) cargo that the Bulga- : on the. evidence.'
rian Embassy should make Those of us who are more
such unique demands for .-skeptical about the Bulgarian
urgency-EXACTLY ON MAY i plot are accused of closing our
13, 1981? ". the prosecutor asks..] eyes to the evil machinations
"We must conclude that on of the KGB and its Bulgarian
board . that truck, hidden henchmen. Would the KGB be
among those personal effects, so evil as to plot to kill the
was Oral Celik." Pone? Sara (a., thn Tt~l;
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505110029-0
? 1-11 a vucy to Keep its _ rsuigartans routinely _-,bad di-'j