Soviet's Ordered Assassination Attempt on Pope, Documents Claim

Newly discovered documents indicate that the Soviet Union ordered the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II:

www.hindustantimes.com...

"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."

JP2 was a Polish Catholic and, upon being elevated to the Papal throne, was a strong advocate for christianity in lands that were then under the iron hand of the Soviets.

Wow, thats fascinating. I'd've thought that more conspiracy theorists would be interested in this. If its true then it shows that the tactic of outsourcing, even thru multiple parties, isn't so crazy. Ali was a nutter tho no? Why'd they pick him?

BBC: Italy revisits plot to kill Pope

According to Italian media reports, they contain evidence that the attack was planned by the Soviet KGB.

Another source here. BBC...

Originally posted by Nygdan
Wow, thats fascinating. I'd've thought that more conspiracy theorists would be interested in this. If its true then it shows that the tactic of outsourcing, even thru multiple parties, isn't so crazy. Ali was a nutter tho no? Why'd they pick him?

Yes, I thought it was interesting to see how the KGB was acting through intermediaries. This also made me wonder if, perhaps, Putin was involved in this plot at some level (considering that he was a KGB man in east germany... and the east germany spy service was involved in the cover up).

EDIT: I forgot to point out, yesterday, that when the Pope was a bishop in Poland he would go into new cities that the communists had constructed -- cities that had been tailored around marxist philosophy -- and preach to the workers. This was a direct challenge to the forced atheism of the communist powers.



[edit on 31-3-2005 by onlyinmydreams]

Originally posted by onlyinmydreams
Newly discovered documents indicate that the Soviet Union ordered the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II

This is not true.

Firstly, the USSR didn't intend to kill JPII. Secondly, even the stupidest intelligence service in the world doesn't tell the assasin who does he work for.

Originally posted by Zibi

Originally posted by onlyinmydreams
Newly discovered documents indicate that the Soviet Union ordered the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II

This is not true.

Firstly, the USSR didn't intend to kill JPII.

So they did or did not have a plot against him?

Secondly, even the stupidest intelligence service in the world doesn't tell the assasin who does he work for.

The bulgarians hired ali, not the russians.

Sergei Antonov Found Dead

Sergei Antonov, the Bulgarian who gave Mehmet Ali Agca the gun used to shoot Pope John Paul II, has been found dead in his apartment in Sofia.


Bulgarian Antonov accused in plot attempt on Pope in '82 found dead

02.08.2007

Sergei Antonov, 59, a Bulgarian implicated in the attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, has died in Sofia, news agency BTA said today. The agency quoted Georgi Gelev, a hospital official, as saying that Antonov had been found dead in his apartment. Gelev said Antonov had died several days ago, but did not say what caused his death. Italy had accused Antonov, formerly a Rome-based representative of Bulgaria's Balkan Airlines, of complicity with Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot and wounded the Pope in Rome in May 1981. Ali Agca, the man arrested on the spot and sentenced for the attack, told police that Antonov had given him the pistol he fired against the Pope and that the Bulgarian secret services were implicated.

This is an old theory, but one that I will buy into. From some sources it appears this may actually have been breathed into life by Uri Andropov before he ascended to the Presidency in the Former Soviet Union. The Bulgarians were often used as trigger men and Soviet operatives for what is termed "wet works",aka assassinations. The Soviets could easily claim "Deniable Plausibility", in any screw-up or assignment that went out of control. The Soviets could easily claim that this was a "rogue" operation and they knew nothing about it. The Bulgarians enlisted the turk as a shooter, or so the story goes.

Read Tom Clancy's "Red Rabbit" , it is very instructive on this operation and it is not all fiction. Andropov was maneuvering for position to take the Presidency, and this operation was his shot across the bow to the other Politburo members who might try to impede his move.

You have got to admire Uri's balls though if this is true. It takes a "set" of steel ones to take out a Pope. It has been done before, but not so dramatically.



[edit on 5-8-2007 by sharkman]

[edit on 5-8-2007 by sharkman]

There hasn't really been much outrage over this...hmm, maybe because it wasn't the Americans or the British perpetrating the conspiracy.

Even Catholics I know aren't making a big deal out of it, but it certainly won't give them a good impression of Putin and his cronies.

No, i thought this was old news. Did this not come out in the trial, but they could not prosecute a conspiracy or something.

Originally posted by onlyinmydreams
Newly discovered documents indicate that the Soviet Union ordered the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II

More like a recently discovered Tom Clancy novel.

Red Rabbit