THE CIA, ANDROPOV AND POSSIBLE PAPICIDE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120108-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 108
• Publication Date: February 2, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120108-1
' ~ 01 r_ ~r_ P.i"~EJ
~r'~f ? l1Jw
THE WASHINGTON TIMES .
2 February 1983
ARNOLD BEICHIVJUN
Andropav and
by the Rthe KGB, which,
The CIA, A~dropov
Judging by the Readers Digest and
NBC exposes, seems to be probable,
? Andropov's position as the new Polit-
d possible aI buro boss and as the U.S.S.R.'s
Vide. . Spokesman would be so -Seriously
compromised as to make possible
What is going on with the "My view of his ouster by his own and, perhaps,
Andropov is that some r - unhappy cofeagues in thePolitburo.
White House, the CIA, people make this KGB thing sound There is precedent for such anouster
the Soviet KGB, Italy, horrendous. Maybe I speak defer- - Nildta S. yshehev was ?? ed-
Bulgaria,Tturkey -and sively as a former head of the CIA.. out of office in October 1964.:
Yuri Andropov, as the suspect in the V But leave out the.operational side t
Case of the Pope's Assassin? of KGB -.the naughty things they ! mugh spot. The Italu~
Something is going on and my ~llegedly do.. " is Ina Judi-
cial
"scenario" may explain the strange The Washington Times of Dec; 27' berate gatioa proceeds with all
lassitude exhibited by the CIA and : published my critical commentary ttbmRome been meag r the news.
CIA Director William Casey towards ?on this interview. Now one must aY seems -to be
what is potentially one of the greatest itssume that-Bush, like .a~-:.?ambi- avoiding the en -o n seems a to a-
scandals in modern history -the i tious vice president, wouldn't have' tiavoion,a ding strange commnton the phenomeno investi since
n, since
greatest since.the June 1914 events made such an outrageously idio3ic ?afterall a pope; the vicarnf Christ,
at Sarajevo. The reputed lack 'of statement about the KGB without
.:r. .
was that and almost killed..
interest by the CIA in the Italian some encouragement or even an
di
i
l i
i
ju
c
a
nvest
gation of the attempt
on the pope's life almost two years
ago has become a subject of private
discussion by former CIA executives
who still maintain connections with
the agency.
If it is true the CIA is maintaining
a lofty attitude towards the Italian
probe, such inaction would come
only on direct orders from the White {
House. Such orders may well have
been issued by President Reagan
for all kinds of reasons. One of them:
to get Soviet agreement on some
acceptable form of arms control or
on a pullout of Cuban troops from
Angola or on some other conten-
tious question.
There is a clue which might con-
firm this scenario:
On Dec. 20, 1982, The' Chris-
tian Science Monitor published a
tape-recorded interview with Vice
President George Bush. In theques-
tion and answer session, Bush, for-
mer bead of the CIA, made several
statements about the Soviet secret
police, the. KGB - until recently
headed by Yuri Andropov.- which
implied that the KGB was much
maligned. The crucial paragraph in
the interview quoted Bush as follows:
order from the president himself Further, a source who follows the
or from a trusted Reagan aide. Bush Catholic press in America told me
and the president had several meet- that leading Catholic journals have
ings following the vice president's kept their reporting of the case to a
meeting with Andropov. Brezhnev's bare minimum, if reporting at all.
successor as party chieftain. ? ' - Is the pope also signaling that he is
If We theory is correct, then what
Bush was doing was exonerating in
advance Yuri Andropov of any
involvementwith the assassination.
plot against the pope. Bush's kind
words about the KGB are, of course
,
belied by everything we know about some trumps and has displayed those
the KGB and a lot of that knowledge . trumps by discouraging rather than
is to be found in ~ the recently . ':."..encouraging speculation 'about
published report, "Soviet Active Andropov and by -leashing the CIA
Measures,". issued by the Perma- while awaiting some more by
nent Select Committee on Intelli- Andropov?
genie of -tine House of Represents- The New York Times seems to be
fives... ;,, - ;?: , 'the only daily newspaper working
The House report dstaili' same - = ,,,ion the ' of thepope's assassin,
KGB activities against-the enemy,' ` - Aid. Rosenthal, its executive editor,
-the United States- activities whit j assigned at leasst five of his fop
range from the disgusting to he 1 ' Loormspondents to keep working on
unspeakable. Obviously. the CIA.-
wh c~ h uncovered some of these
"active measures," the White House
-.ind Bush himself know what the
KGB is capable-of. Yet, strangely,
Bush deplores the exaggeration
about the KGB's'%aughty things"
ready to forgive and -forget if
Andropov will soften the Soviet atti=
tude toward Poland and elsewhere
towards Catholics in the Soviet
empire? Is there some kind of
"blackmail" operation going on
therase.~ `
Tlner+ed9 scan ` r >
ethmg going.oniad
?-'tbere is`n6-doubt that-Vice.Presi-
dent3ush's tour of YVestera Europe
has more to do with Yuri ?Andropov
than with -any.of the cover stories
put out for his tour d'horizon.
I:0117~?,T1V UF-Z~
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120108-1