Posted on 03/30/2005 8:47:35 AM PST by knighthawk
New documents found in the files of the former East German intelligence services confirm the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II was ordered by the Soviet KGB and assigned to Bulgarian agents, an Italian daily said on Wednesday.
The Corriere della Sera said that the documents found by the German government indicated that the KGB ordered Bulgarian colleagues to carry out the killing, leaving the East German service known as the Stasi to coordinate the operation and cover up the traces afterwards.
Bulgaria then handed the execution of the plot to Turkish extremists, including Mehmet Ali Agca, who pulled the trigger.
The daily said the documents had been handed over to Bulgaria and would be made available to the Italian parliamentary commission inquiring into the activities of formerly Communist eastern European regimes in Italy.
The newspaper said the documents consist mostly of letters from Stasi operatives to their Bulgarian counterparts seeking help in covering up traces after the attack and denying Bulgarian involvement.
Ali Agca, who is now in jail in Turkey, claimed after his arrest that the operation was under the control of the Bulgarian embassy in Rome. The Bulgarians have always insisted they were innocent and argued that Agca's story was part of an anti-communist plot by the Italian secret service and the CIA.
The paper said the documents back up the pope's own memories of the assassination attempt in May 1981 in his book "Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums," in which he said he was convinced that the attack was not planned or directed by Ali Agca.
Ping
How would have assassinating the pope have benefited the Soviets?
Gee!!! Ya think?!?!?!?!?!?!
Leaving him alive sure didn't help them.
Read up on Solidarity, Poland, and the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc.
............................and, what does this have to do with Spain and France?
Retribution for Poland.
What did pooty know and when did he know it?
Pooty was a big KGB operative and he hung around the east germany if I remember correctly.
I thought I had read this story before. LOL
Little history. If you remember the pope is polish and he was giving support to the solidarity movement in communist controled poland. Which was the first tear in the iron curtain.
Interesting. I'd never even heard of this connection before, which is odd, since usually something leaks out in cases like this.
finally an Eastern European ping thats actually highly interesting
The assassination attempt took place during the time that both the Vatican and the Reagan Administration were hard at work assisting Lech Walesa and Solidarity in Poland.
I'd say that motivation for such an attempt.
While apparently unrelated, the timing relative to Reagan's assassination attempt, has always intrigued me......
Are you serious, I mean is this a serious question?
In short, the soviets were threatening to crush the solidarity movement with troops ala Hungary 1956(?).
The Pope said, in a letter, "if you do, I'm going home to Poland".
The soviets thought better of trying to stop Walesa and backed down for the moment then hatched the plot to murder the Pope.
"How would have assassinating the pope have benefited the Soviets?"
The Pope was encouraging the Polish People to stand up to Soviet occupation to the point where he said if the Soviets attempted to put down the Solidarity Movement he would return to Poland to fight.
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