it had been directed by the Bulgarian secret service, “acting on orders from the Soviet Union. This accusation depended on the secret confession of [Agca].…As he was taken from a Rome police station, Agca surprised waiting reporters by publicly implicating the Soviets in the conspiracy. He said, ‘The KGB organized everything.’
“In a chaotic encounter outside the police station, the slim, unshaven Turk, speaking in broken English and flawed Italian, claimed that he was trained as a terrorist ‘in Bulgaria and in Syria.’ Italian officials believed that he was aided in the assassination attempt by three Bulgarians: two former employees at [Bulgaria’s] Rome embassy and Sergei Ivanov Antonov, onetime Rome manager of the Bulgarian airline. ‘Was Antonov involved?’ newsmen asked, as Agca climbed into a police van. ‘I knew Sergei,’ Agca replied. ‘He was my accomplice.’
‘And the KGB?’ ‘Yes, the KGB.’”
In 2008, “Claire Sterling, a prize-winning journalist and author, had just published The Terror Network when Ali Agca tried to kill the pope…. Miss Sterling had quickly seen the Bulgarian connection when it became known that Agca had made several trips to Sofia, Bulgaria, and stayed in a hotel favored by the Bulgarian KGB. In Rome he had also had contacts with a Bulgarian agent whose cover was the Bulgarian national airline office.
“ The Time of the Assassin , published in 1983, was Miss Sterling’s in-depth look at the plot to kill Pope John Paul II and the subsequent investigation. She had no doubt the plot originated at 2 Dzerzhinsky Square, KGB headquarters in Moscow. The KGB assigned this super-wet operation to the Bulgarians…. The Bulgarians then looked for cover and deniability among a Turkish extremist group involved with the KGB in lucrative drug smuggling routes through Bulgaria to Western Europe.”
President Reagan and CIA Director William Casey decided to play down the Soviet link. Reagan had survived an assassination attempt on March 30, 1981, as he left the Washington Hilton Hotel. He and Casey feared any administration hint of Soviet involvement in the plot to kill the pope might upset U.S.-Soviet relations, and conspiracy theorists would quickly conclude the KGB had also targeted Reagan.
Shortly after John Paul was released from the hospital, he visited Agca in prison. Sentenced to serve nineteen years, Agca was released early and sent back to Turkey to stand trial on an earlier unrelated charge. The pontiff later told old friends on two occasions that he was also satisfied the hand behind the plot was in Moscow.
During his trial, “Ali Agca feigned madness by declaring he had acted on God’s instructions. He later claimed to be the new messiah and to have conspired with Vatican prelates who recognized him as deity. Italian psychiatrists concluded he had been instructed to play the fool as a way of hiding Bulgaria’s—Moscow’s—tracks.
The Italian examining-magistrate in charge of the investigation, Ferdinando Imposimato, told Italian radio, ‘I believe Agca said many true things, but then he tried to torpedo the trial after being threatened inside prison by a Bulgarian agent who got inside to make sure he would retract his allegations.’”
Later, “ Corriere della Sera , Italy’s most influential daily newspaper, disclosed new documents found in the files of former East German intelligence services which confirmed the 1981 assassination plot was ordered by the Soviet KGB and then assigned to the Bulgarian satellite service. Metodi Andreev, a former official in charge of the Bulgarian KGB’s files [reportedly] said he had seen correspondence between Stasi, the East German service, and the Bulgarian agents. These included an order from the KGB to pull out all the stops to bury Bulgaria’s connection to the plot.” Bulgaria then handed the execution of the plot to Turkish extremists, including Mehmet Ali Agca, who pulled the trigger. On the Pope’s
“In a chaotic encounter outside the police station, the slim, unshaven Turk, speaking in broken English and flawed Italian, claimed that he was trained as a terrorist ‘in Bulgaria and in Syria.’ Italian officials believed that he was aided in the assassination attempt by three Bulgarians: two former employees at [Bulgaria’s] Rome embassy and Sergei Ivanov Antonov, onetime Rome manager of the Bulgarian airline. ‘Was Antonov involved?’ newsmen asked, as Agca climbed into a police van. ‘I knew Sergei,’ Agca replied. ‘He was my accomplice.’
‘And the KGB?’ ‘Yes, the KGB.’”
In 2008, “Claire Sterling, a prize-winning journalist and author, had just published The Terror Network when Ali Agca tried to kill the pope…. Miss Sterling had quickly seen the Bulgarian connection when it became known that Agca had made several trips to Sofia, Bulgaria, and stayed in a hotel favored by the Bulgarian KGB. In Rome he had also had contacts with a Bulgarian agent whose cover was the Bulgarian national airline office.
“ The Time of the Assassin , published in 1983, was Miss Sterling’s in-depth look at the plot to kill Pope John Paul II and the subsequent investigation. She had no doubt the plot originated at 2 Dzerzhinsky Square, KGB headquarters in Moscow. The KGB assigned this super-wet operation to the Bulgarians…. The Bulgarians then looked for cover and deniability among a Turkish extremist group involved with the KGB in lucrative drug smuggling routes through Bulgaria to Western Europe.”
President Reagan and CIA Director William Casey decided to play down the Soviet link. Reagan had survived an assassination attempt on March 30, 1981, as he left the Washington Hilton Hotel. He and Casey feared any administration hint of Soviet involvement in the plot to kill the pope might upset U.S.-Soviet relations, and conspiracy theorists would quickly conclude the KGB had also targeted Reagan.
Shortly after John Paul was released from the hospital, he visited Agca in prison. Sentenced to serve nineteen years, Agca was released early and sent back to Turkey to stand trial on an earlier unrelated charge. The pontiff later told old friends on two occasions that he was also satisfied the hand behind the plot was in Moscow.
During his trial, “Ali Agca feigned madness by declaring he had acted on God’s instructions. He later claimed to be the new messiah and to have conspired with Vatican prelates who recognized him as deity. Italian psychiatrists concluded he had been instructed to play the fool as a way of hiding Bulgaria’s—Moscow’s—tracks.
The Italian examining-magistrate in charge of the investigation, Ferdinando Imposimato, told Italian radio, ‘I believe Agca said many true things, but then he tried to torpedo the trial after being threatened inside prison by a Bulgarian agent who got inside to make sure he would retract his allegations.’”
Later, “ Corriere della Sera , Italy’s most influential daily newspaper, disclosed new documents found in the files of former East German intelligence services which confirmed the 1981 assassination plot was ordered by the Soviet KGB and then assigned to the Bulgarian satellite service. Metodi Andreev, a former official in charge of the Bulgarian KGB’s files [reportedly] said he had seen correspondence between Stasi, the East German service, and the Bulgarian agents. These included an order from the KGB to pull out all the stops to bury Bulgaria’s connection to the plot.” Bulgaria then handed the execution of the plot to Turkish extremists, including Mehmet Ali Agca, who pulled the trigger. On the Pope’s
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