tags: bomb, shooting, religious figure target, muslim suspect, Turkey, Bulgaria, Communist, KGB, escaped prisoner, right-wing, turkish, palestine nationalism cover story, catholic target, solidarity, Soviet, Russia incident
conspriacy theories: CIA, Gladio
Wednesday, 13 May 1981 1981 Pope John Paul II shooting assassination attempt The first attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II took place in St. Peter's Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck four times, and suffered severe blood loss. A planned bomb was not set off. Ağca was apprehended immediately, police found a letter in his pocket which read: 'I have killed the Pope so that the world may know of the thousands of victims of imperialism.' He was sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. Suspect was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope's request and was deported to Turkey in June 2000. An official inquiry established the assassination attempt had originated from Moscow and that the KGB had instructed the Bulgarian and East German secret services to carry out the mission. The Bulgarian Secret Service was allegedly instructed by the KGB to assassinate the Pope because of his support of Poland's Solidarity movement, seeing it as one of the most significant threats to Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. Ağca told many stories, originally Ağca claimed to be a member of the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), but they denied any ties to him. In 2011 Polish communist leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski claimed an alternative cover story that Islamic fanatics sponsored the would-be assassination. 'Radical Islam detested the pope and saw in him a leader of crusades,' he told Poland's 'Jezus' Catholic magazine. As of 2015, "his motive remains a mystery."
Details: once a member of a Turkish far right group known as the Grey Wolves. During his 19 years imprisoned in Italy, Ali Agca converted from Islam to Christianity.Pope helped to pressure Italian authorities for his eventual release and deportation to Turkey in 2000.
Disinformation conspiracy version: It was a Illuminati Zionist MK-Ultra Bilderberg mafia controlled Gladio operation plot against muslims that the CIA and western media quickly blamed on the KGB and operatives in Bulgaria intelligence to create hatred between the East and West during the time of the Cold War. The CIA controlled the Grey Wolves. Leo Zagami: Agca was on a GLADIO mission."Khaled Saifullah Khan will pray for these infidels, including our new MK-ULTRA brainwashed Jesus Mehmet Ali Agca and that corrupt muslim called Erdogan. The finance minister of Turkey as already joined the Bilderberg Mafia two years ago.
details:
The leading theory advocated since the early 1980s by Michael Ledeen among others, is that the assassination attempt had originated from Moscow and that the KGB had instructed the Bulgarian and East German secret services to carry out the mission. The Bulgarian Secret Service was allegedly instructed by the KGB to assassinate the Pope because of his support of Poland's Solidarity movement, seeing it as one of the most significant threats to Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. Ağca himself has given multiple conflicting statements on the assassination at different times. Attorney Antonio Marini stated: "Ağca has manipulated all of us, telling hundreds of lies, continually changing versions, forcing us to open tens of different investigations". Originally Ağca claimed to be a member of the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), but they denied any ties to him.
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published that documents recovered from 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 and East German agents with the Stasi to coordinate the operation and cover up the traces afterwards. Markus Wolf, former Stasi spy-master, has denied any links, and claimed the files had already been sent in 1995. In March 2006 the controversial Mitrokhin Commission, supported once again the Bulgarian theory, which had been denounced by John Paul II during his travel to Bulgaria. Senator Guzzanti claimed that "leaders of the former Soviet Union were behind the assassination attempt", alleging that "the leadership of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate Pope John Paul" because of his support for Solidarity, relaying "this decision to the military secret services" (and not the KGB).
Related: Juan María Fernández y Krohn, a former Roman Catholic priest who tried to stab John Paul II a year later
Bojinka plot, a planned terrorist attack by Islamist terrorist that included a plot to assassinate the Pope
*Reference
*Gladio conspiracy theory
CIA invovled in POPE ASSASSINATION - Scrap Book ...
u2r2h-documents.blogspot.com/.../cia-invovled-in-pope-assassination.ht...
Jun 25, 2009 - Her book outlined the theory that Agca was not the only gunman who ...One of these "stay behind" operations was Operation Gladio, which had ...
Turkish Gladio-like groups not a surprise, says researcher ...
https://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/.../turkish-gladio-like-groups-n...Jan 30, 2009 - CIA operations officer Duane Clarridge, who served both in Turkey and Italy, had contacts with both ... Mehmet Ali Ağca, whose attempt to assassinate PopeJohn Paul II failed in 1981, was a link to the .... ZIONIST WAHHABIS ...
Context of 'November 30, 2007: CIA and Mossad Committed ...
www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=complete_911_timeline...
Nov 30, 2007 - A Turkish fascist, Mehmet Ali Agca, shot and nearly killed the Pope in May 1981. ... realized by the American CIA and Mossad with the help of the Zionistworld ... when the NATO-led Gladio “stay behind” network was exposed.
Freemasonry, Traditionalism and the Neo-Caliphate ...
www.conspiracyschool.com/.../freemasonry-traditionalism-and-neo-calip...
Aug 13, 2013 - Pan-Turkism was first called for in the 1860s by a Hungarian Zionistnamed Arminius .... CIA chief Allen Dulles devised a plan whereby on the explicit request of the ... Paul II's life by Grey Wolves member Mehmet Ali Agca may have been related to Gladio.[41] ..... [41] Lucy Komisar, "The Assassins of a Pope.
Way Madsen (anti-American pro-russian disinfo) The CIA's plan for «Pan-Turania» to replace the USSR
m.strategic-culture.org/.../the-cia-plan-for-pan-turania-to-replace-the-uss...
Nov 26, 2013 -The CIA's control officer for the Wolves during the 1960s and 1970s was reportedly the CIA's station chief in Ankara, former National Intelligence Council vice chairman Graham Fuller, who was also assigned as a CIA chief in Afghanistan, Lebanon, and north Yemen, and who is the former father-in-law of Ruslan Tsarni, the uncle of the alleged Boston bombers. It was a member of the Wolves, Turkish national Mehmet Ali Agca, who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, an event the CIA tried to pin on the governments of the Soviet Union and Bulgaria. Turkes also promoted the ideology of the Wolves. Another promoter of the Wolves was Samuel Huntington, the neocon darling and author of the book "Clash of Civilizations," the "bible" for western military attacks on and occupation of Muslim nations. Huntington, who received his inspiration from Zionist intellectual guru Bernard Lewis, is evidence of the link between Zionism and pan-Turania.
THE POPE AND THE AXIS OF TERROR - BBC
www.bbc.co.uk/.../the_pope_and_the_a...
British Broadcasting CorporationSep 11, 2010 - This is the story of the man who tried to kill the previous Pope in 1981 and .... At the very time that the Agca-Soviet theory crumbled, the BBC made a .... the United States, putting the spying, thieving, Jewish Zionism in their country. ...GLADIO, about which much remains unclear to this day, but which appears ...
Threats And Controversy Surrounding Pope Benedict ... [on pro-jihad/ Russia disinfo Genesis Communications Network]www.arcticbeacon.com/articles/29-Nov-2006.html
Are Threats And Controversy Surrounding Pope Benedict Another Illuminati Show To Incite More Hatred And War
Former Assassin of Pope John Paul II now claims from his Turkish cell he is the real Messiah or the Jesus of the end times.
29 Nov 2006By Greg Szymanski
The mainstream press and television outlets have been running stories, claiming Pope Benedict's life may be in grave danger. These media trumpeted threats come on the heels of his recent outbursts critical of Muslims made in Germany.
After the inflammatory comments, Benedict XVI back peddled on his statements, saying they were taken out of context or misunderstood.
However, a Vatican insider and former Illuminati member of the powerful Monte Carlo P2 Masonic Lodge claims the statements were made on purpose to further fuel the evil engine of war as well as being choreographed by none other than the Black Pope, Jesuit General Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, the real force behind the Vatican-led Illuminati New World Order.
As controversy and possible violence now surrounds the Pope, an evil voice out of the past sounded loud and strong this week as the Turkish assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981 declared from his prison cell that he is the new Messiah or the Jesus of the end times.
At the time of the shooting of John Paul II, the act was quickly blamed on the KGB, pitting immediate hatred between the East and West during the time of the Cold War.
Although this was the mainstream world conception, critics and insiders claim the shooting was an "inside job" devised to ignite hatred instead of bringing the world closer together in peace.
And as the controversy swirls around Benedict, the same critics are saying the threats presented in the media are a precursor for another "inside job" on the Pope, this time pinning the threats of violence or future violence on fundamental Muslin extremists in an effort to further the flames of war in Iraq and Iran and gaining dwindling support for the Middle East war among Americans.
In an effort to get the "other side of story," former higher-up Illuminati member and Italian aristocrat, Leo Zagami, who recently visited Turkey, had this to say about the shooting of Pope John Paul II as it relates to the latest controversy surrounding Benedict XVI.
"In the last few hours Mehmet Ali Agca (born January 9, 1958) the Turkish assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981 as declared from prison that he is the new Messiah, yes the new Jesus of the end of times.
"This news arrives to us as no surprise in this never ending Illuminati theatre.
"Let's make it clear to everyone that Mehmet Ali Agca went to visit the Scontrino Lodge in Sicily and Prince
"Alliata di Monreale ( my illustrius Mentor) the Puppet Master of LA ROSA DEI VENTI AND GLADIO before going to Rome to execute is GLADIO PLANED MISSION : KILLING JOHN PAUL II
"The Pope was just a Illuminati puppet of this evil show that still goes on twenty years later...
WAKE UP TURKEY SATAN IS VISITING YOUR HOLY LAND!
"Mehmet Ali Agca as also said yesterday to the Turkish Press that the Vatican is about to fall in the Abyss of chaos and destruction, and soon we will all face Armagedon , so these are indeed the end of times also for our dear PSYOP puppet A?ca!
"Khaled Saifullah Khan will pray for these infidels, including our new MK-ULTRA brainwashed Jesus Mehmet Ali Agca and that corrupt muslim called Erdogan who recently invited P2 illuminati Brother Silvio Berlusconi for his daughters wedding. And the finance minister of Turkey as already joined the Bilderberg Mafia two years ago.
"The Vatican Illuminati and their Zionist brothers have already made their plans to use and abuse Turkey
in the next few years as a Trojan horse for the rest of the muslim world, and at the end of the day the
city of Troy his in Turkey...what a coincidence.
"And on top of all this Buyukanit as been nominated as new General in charge of the defense headquarters.
The problem is that General Buyukanit is a Jewish Zionist and a Freemason close to the Vatican Neo
Illuminati and his Masters from Jerusalem.
"So why are Turkish citizens falling into this New World Order trap and Erdogan submits willingly to Vatican
Luciferian powers by meeting the Nazi Pope Ratzinger?
"Well, Turkey is desperate to join the European Union and enjoy the wealth and decadence of the western
Satanic powers under firm Vatican Jesuit Zionist control, and it seems to me that Turks are falling
into this trap willingly , because of the level of satanic infiltration in their society and in the
religious institution of their country, something that only one man in Turkey could eventually stop and that
man is Fethullah Gulen, a true master of his country who as to stand up now against Satan before his
country is completely under Vatican/Zionist control.
"Last but not least the so called communist of the PKK (a bunch of dangerous CIA/MOSSAD puppets) have been used to scare away until recently the foreign investors interested in Turkey. This evil plan is put
in action so the illuminati sharks with the help of their Rotarian Masonic Network can buy everything
cheap before joining officially the EU and making the prices go up like crazy and make loads of money.
"These meetings to decide the future of Turkey and the rest of the Muslim world have already been made, and the most important ones have been the gathering of all the masonic Lodges connected to the CLIPSAS network on the 30th of October 2005 , the Rotary 100 years anniversary gathering with Comandante Giorgio Hugo Balestrieri in Ankara in April 2005 and last but not least the usual Bildeberg meeting of a couple of years ago.
"To finalize the corruption of Erdogan , the Vatican Satan and the Italian illuminati slave State, had
already sent 3 years ago their most loyal Opus Dei servant Fini from Alleanza Nazionale to Ankara with a
message and a warning from illuminati Puppet and Puppet Master Silvio Berlusconi.
"At that point they started brainwashing Erdogan with the following: you have to distance yourself from all religiousleaders including Fethullah Gulen otherwise you cant join Europe that's our main request coming from Vatican HQ's. And after they started to insist on this point more and more, until they initiated Erdogan in the illuminati Lodges and they said to him, NOW YOU ARE ONE OF US AND WE ARE THE ONES RULING THE WORLD so the only chance to be a pat of Europe is to become a part of us the great Satan.
"But our dear Brother Erdogan Prime Minister of Turkey is a simple village peasant and went on falling more
and more into the hands of Satan like most people with his background who are given important positions by the Puppet Masters of Nato, they finally had another puppet for their evil games, another Neo illuminati under
Vatican/Zionist control.
"Well now you know the truth Turkey, its your turn to act against those people who are bringing pornography, drugs and weapons into your country to slowly make out of a great city like Instanbul another Babylon. Please don't fall for it my dear Muslim Brothers and rebel before is to late and you are also
trapped like the United States citizens in the Matrix of Satan.
"Last but not least Mehmet Ali Agca said that he was
the guy who inspired Dan Brown for the Da Vinci Code
and that he has written a 100 pages book called THE
VATICAN CODE.
"Well what next?"
Greg Szymanski
The Assassination Attempt on Pope John Paul II, page 1 - Above Top ...
www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread413669/pg1
Nov 21, 2008 - 6 posts - 2 authorsIn 2006, Agca wrote Pope Benedict XVI the following letter: ... Given the connections between the CIA, Gladio, and the Turkish Deep State, this idea ... Claire Sterling, or o the CIA connected Zionist extremist Michael Ledeen.
Tangible Information: GLADIO, Pope Assassination, CIA
tangibleinfo.blogspot.com/2009/03/gladio-pope-assassination-cia.html
Mar 13, 2009 - GLADIO - carnage in Bologna by CIA .... When the Pope passed, Ağcafired several shots and critically wounded him, but was grabbed by ...
Pope John Paul II assassination attempt - Wikipedia, the ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Pope_John_Paul_II_assassination_a...
WikipediaThe Pope was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the .... and the CIA – all three of whom had co-operated in NATO's secret Gladio ...
BBC News - Bizarre story of Pope's failed assassin
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/.../8465527.stm
British Broadcasting CorporationJan 18, 2010 - Archive picture of Mehmet Ali Agca pointing a gun (circled) at Pope ... of the shooting, was linked to an underground network known as Gladio.
CIA invovled in POPE ASSASSINATION - Scrap Book ...
u2r2h-documents.blogspot.com/.../cia-invovled-in-pope-assassination.ht...
Jun 25, 2009 - Her book outlined the theory that Agca was not the only gunman .....http://tangibleinfo.blogspot.com/2009/03/gladio-pope-assassination-cia.
(4/6/97) The Assassins of a Pope - Monitor
www.monitor.net/monitor/9703b/turkeycia-sidebar.html
Apr 6, 1997 - The Gladio conducted bombings, and then blamed the bombings on the left. ... man who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, Mehmet Ali Agca. ...The CIA said the assassination attempt was the work of the Soviets, ...
*wikipedia
Pope John Paul II assassination attempt - Wikipedia, the ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Pope_John_Paul_II_assassination_a...
WikipediaThe location of the shooting, marked by a stone tablet, in St. Peter's Square ... ofPope John Paul II took place on Wednesday, 13 May 1981, in St. Peter's ... The Popewas shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the ...
The first attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II took place on Wednesday, 13 May 1981, in St. Peter's Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck four times, and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was apprehended immediately, and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope later forgave Ağca for the assassination attempt.[1] He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope's request and was deported to Turkey in June 2000.
Contents
[hide]Attempted assassination[edit]
Incarceration of Ağca[edit]Beginning in August 1980 Ağca, under the alias of Vilperi, began criss-crossing the Mediterranean region, changing passports and identities, perhaps to hide his point of origin in Sofia, Bulgaria. He entered Rome on 10 May 1981, coming by train from Milan. According to Ağca's later testimony, he met with three accomplices in Rome, one a fellow Turk and two Bulgarians, with operation being commanded by Zilo Vassilev, the Bulgarian military attaché in Italy. He said that he was assigned this mission by Turkish mafioso Bekir Çelenk in Bulgaria.[2] According to Ağca, the plan was for him and the back-up gunman Oral Çelik to open fire on the pope in St. Peter's Square and escape to the Bulgarian embassy under the cover of the panic generated by a small explosion.
On 13 May, they sat in the square, writing postcards waiting for the Pope to arrive. When the Pope passed through an adoring and excited crowd of supporters, Ağca fired four shots at 17:17[3] with a9mm Browning Hi-Power semi-automatic pistol, and critically wounded him. He fled the scene as the crowd was in shock and disposed of the pistol by throwing it under a truck, but was grabbed byVatican security chief Camillo Cibin,[4] a nun, and several spectators who prevented him from either firing more shots or escaping and was arrested. Four bullets hit John Paul II, two of them lodging in his lower intestine, the others hitting his left index finger and right arm; the Pope was immediately rushed to the hospital while the authorities combed the site for evidence. Two bystanders were also hit by stray assassin's bullets; Ann Odre, of Buffalo, New York, was struck in the chest while Rose Hill, of Jamaica, was slightly wounded in the arm. Çelik panicked and fled without setting off his bomb or opening fire.
Ağca was sentenced, in July 1981, to life imprisonment in Italy for the assassination attempt, but was pardoned by president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in June 2000 at the Pope's request. He was then extradited to Turkey, where he was imprisoned for the 1979 murder of left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçiand two bank raids carried out in the 1970s. Despite a plea for early release in November 2004, a Turkish court announced that he would not be eligible for release until 2010. Nonetheless he was released on parole on 12 January 2006.[5] However, on 20 January 2006, the Turkish Supreme Court ruled that his time served in Italy could not be deducted from his Turkish sentence and he was returned to jail.[6] Ağca was released from prison on 18 January 2010, after almost 29 years behind bars.[7]
Relationship with Pope John Paul II[edit]
Following the shooting, Pope John Paul II asked people to "pray for my brother [Ağca] ... whom I have sincerely forgiven."[8] In 1983, he and Ağca met and spoke privately at the prison where Ağca was being held. Ağca reportedly kissed the Pope's ring at the conclusion of their visit. The Pope was also in touch with Ağca's family over the years, meeting his mother in 1987 and his brother a decade later.
Although Ağca was quoted as saying that "to me [the Pope] was the incarnation of all that is capitalism", and attempted to murder him, Ağca developed a friendship with the pontiff. In early February 2005, during the Pope's illness, Ağca sent a letter to the Pope wishing him well.
Motivations for the assassination attempt[edit]
Several theories exist concerning Mehmet Ali Ağca's assassination attempt. One, strongly advocated since the early 1980s by Michael Ledeen among others, is that the assassination attempt had originated fromMoscow and that the KGB had instructed the Bulgarian and East German secret services to carry out the mission.[9] The Bulgarian Secret Service was allegedly instructed by the KGB to assassinate the Pope because of his support of Poland'sSolidarity movement, seeing it as one of the most significant threats to Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe.
Ağca himself has given multiple conflicting statements on the assassination at different times. Attorney Antonio Marini stated: "Ağca has manipulated all of us, telling hundreds of lies, continually changing versions, forcing us to open tens of different investigations".[10] Originally Ağca claimed to be a member of the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), but they denied any ties to him.[11]
Grey Wolves[edit]
Some people, notably Edward S. Herman, co-author with Frank Brodhead of The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection (1986), andMichael Parenti, felt Ağca's story was dubious, noting that Ağca made no claims of Bulgarian involvement until he had been isolated in solitary confinement and visited by Italian Military Intelligence (SISMI) agents. On 25 September 1991, former CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman (now Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy) revealed that his colleagues, following hierarchical orders, had falsified their analysis in order to support the accusation. He declared to the US Senate intelligence committee that "the CIA hadn't any proof" concerning this alleged "Bulgarian connection".[12][13] Neither the Severino Santiapichi court, nor the investigation by judge Franco Ionta, found evidence that that SISMI planted Ağca's story. A French lawyer, Christian Roulette, who authored books blaming Western intelligence agencies for the assassination attempt, testified in court that documentary evidence he referred to actually did not exist.[14][15][16][17]
The Bulgarian secret services have always protested their alleged involvement and argued that Ağca's story was an anti-Communist plant placed by the Grey Wolves, the Italian secret service, and the CIA – all three of whom had co-operated in NATO's secret Gladionetwork.[citation needed] Gladio was at the time involved in Italy's strategy of tension, also followed in Turkey by Counter-Guerrilla, the Turkish branch of Gladio[citation needed]. The Pope's assassination would hereafter have taken place in this frame[citation needed]. Edward Herman has argued that Michael Ledeen, who was involved in the Iran-Contra Affair and had alleged ties to the Italian P2 masonic lodge also linked to Gladio, was employed by the CIA to propagate the Bulgarian theory.[18] Indeed, Le Monde diplomatique alleged that Abdullah Çatlı, a leader of the Grey Wolves, had organized the assassination attempt "in exchange for the sum of 3 million German Marks" for the Grey Wolves.[19]In Rome, Catli declared to the judge in 1985 "that he had been contacted by the BND, the German intelligence agency, which would have promised him a nice sum of money if he implicated the Russian and Bulgarian services in the assassination attempt against the Pope". According to colonel Alparslan Türkes, the founder of the Grey Wolves, "Catli has cooperated in the frame of a secret service working for the good of the state".[12][13]
The "Bulgarian Connection"[edit]
Then KGB Director Yuri Andropov, was convinced that Pope John Paul II's election was the product of an Anglo-German conspiracy orchestrated by Zbigniew Brzezinski to undermine Soviet hegemony in largely Catholic Poland and ultimately to precipitate the collapse of the entire Soviet Union. The Pope's announcement of a pilgrimage to Warsaw fueled Andropov's apprehension, with Andropov issuing a secret memorandum to Soviet schoolteachers:[20]
Ali Ağca had made several trips to Sofia, Bulgaria. He also claimed to have had contacts with a Bulgarian agent in Rome whose cover was the Bulgarian national airline office. Soon after the shooting, Sergei Antonov, a Bulgarian working in Rome for Balkan Air, was arrested based on Ağca's testimony and accused of being the Bulgarian agent who masterminded the plot. In 1986, after a three-year trial, he was found not guilty. According to the CIA's chief of staff in Turkey, Paul Henze, Ağca later stated that in Sofia, he was once approached by the Bulgarian Secret Service and Turkish mafiosi, who offered him three million German marks to assassinate the Pope.[21]
American journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave claimed that the Bulgarians chose Ağca to supply themselves with plausible deniability; choosing a member of the Grey Wolves that had allegedly been involved with the local KGB in drug smuggling routes through Bulgaria to Western Europe would distance themselves because of the implausibility of the link.[22]
The Mitrokhin Commission's claims[edit]
Further information: Italian Mitrokhin Commission
According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, documents recovered from 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 and East German agents with the Stasi to coordinate the operation and cover up the traces afterwards. However, Markus Wolf, former Stasi spy-master, has denied any links, and claimed the files had already been sent in 1995.[23]
In March 2006, pending national elections, the controversial Mitrokhin Commission, set up by Silvio Berlusconi and headed by Forza Italiasenator Paolo Guzzanti, supported once again the Bulgarian theory, which had been denounced by John Paul II during his travel to Bulgaria. Senator Guzzanti claimed that "leaders of the former Soviet Union were behind the assassination attempt", alleging that "the leadership of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate Pope John Paul" because of his support for Solidarity, relaying "this decision to the military secret services" (and not the KGB).[24] The report's claims were based on recent computer analysis of photographs that purported to demonstrate Antonov's presence in St Peter's Square during the shooting and on information brought by the French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, a controversial figure whose last feat was to indict Rwandese president Paul Kagame, claiming he had deliberately provoked the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against his own ethnic group in order to take power.[25] According to Le Figaro, Bruguière, who is in close contacts as well with Moscow as with Washington, D.C., including intelligence agents, has been accused by many of his colleagues of "privileging the reason of state over law."[26]
Both Russia and Bulgaria condemned the report. "For Bulgaria, this case closed with the court decision in Rome in March 1986", Foreign Ministry spokesman Dimitar Tsanchev said, while also recalling the Pope's comments during his May 2002 visit to Bulgaria.[27] Senator Guzzanti said that the commission had decided to re-open the report's chapter on the assassination attempt in 2005, after the Pope wrote about it in his last book, Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums. The Pope wrote that he was convinced the shooting was not Ağca's initiative and that "someone else masterminded it and someone else commissioned it". The Mitrokhin Commission also claimedRomano Prodi, a former Prime Minister of Italy, was the "KGB's man in Italy". At the end of December 2006, Mario Scaramella, one of the main informer of senator Guzzanti, was arrested and charged, among other things, of defamation. Rome's prosecutor Pietro Salvitti, in charge of the investigations concerning Mario Scaramella, cited by La Repubblica, showed that Nicolò Pollari, head of SISMI, the Italian military intelligence agency and indicted in the Imam Rapito affair, as well as SISMI n°2, Marco Mancini, arrested in July 2006 for the same reason, were some of the informers, alongside Mario Scaramella, of senator Paolo Guzzanti. Beside targeting Romano Prodi and his staff, this "network", according to Pietro Salvitti's words, also aimed at defaming General Giuseppe Cucchi (current director of the CESIS), Milan's judges Armando Spataro, in charge of the Imam Rapito case, and Guido Salvini, as well as La Repubblica reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo, who discovered the Yellowcake forgery affair.[28] The investigation also showed a connection between Scaramella and the CIA, in particular through Filippo Marino, one of Scaramella's closest partners since the 1990s and co-founder of the ECPP, who lives today in the US. Marino has acknowledged in an interview an association with former and active CIA officers, including Robert Lady, former CIA station chief in Milan, indicted by prosecutor Armando Spataro for having coordinated the abduction of Abu Omar, the Imam Rapito affair[29]
Spies in the Vatican[edit]
In 2009, journalist and former army intelligence officer John Koehler published Spies in the Vatican: The Soviet Union's Cold War Against the Catholic Church.[30] Mining mostly East German and Polish secret police archives, Koehler says the attempt was "KGB-backed" and gives details.[31]
Possible Vatican connection[edit]
On 26 June 2000, Pope John Paul II released the "Third Secret of Fatima" in which he said that Ağca's assassination attempt was the fulfillment of this Secret. 13 May (the date of the assassination attempt) is the anniversary of the first apparition of the Virgin Mary to the three children of Fatima, something the Pope has always regarded as significant, attributing his survival on that day to her protection. Some doubt the Church's full disclosure of the contents of this Secret, believing that it actually predicted the Apocalypse. While in prison on remand, Ağca was widely reported to have developed an obsession with Fatima and during the trial claimed that he was the second comingof Jesus Christ and called on the Vatican to release the Third Secret.
On 31 March 2005, just two days prior to the Pope's death, Ağca gave an interview to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.[32] He claimed to be working on a book about the assassination attempt. La Repubblica quoted Ağca claiming at length that he had accomplices in the Vatican who helped him with the assassination attempt, saying "the devil is inside Vatican's wall". He also said:
- "Many calculating politicians are worried about what revealing the complete truth would do. Some of them fear that the Vatican will have a spiritual collapse like the Berlin Wall. Let me ask, why don't the CIA, the Sismi, the Sisde and other intelligence agencies reveal the truth about the Orlandi case?
- Q: They say it's because there is still some uncertainty in the Emanuela Orlandi case.
- Ağca: In the 1980s, certain Vatican supporters believed that I was the new messiah and to free me they organized all the intrigue about Emanuela Orlandi and the other incidents they won't reveal."
Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, disappeared at age 15 on 22 June 1983. Anonymous phone calls offered her release in exchange for the release of Ağca. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was alleged to be part of the kidnapping, although no charges were ever laid.
A week after this interview, Associated Press reported Ağca denying having made such claims.[33]
In November 2010, Ağca publicly asserted that Cardinal Agostino Casaroli had been the man behind the assassination attempt on John Paul II in 1981.[34]
In fiction[edit]
The plot from the Tom Clancy novel Red Rabbit is largely centralised around the attempt on the Pope's life which is ordered by the KGB and carried out by a Bulgarian assassin also responsible for the murder of Georgi Markov[citation needed]. This hypothesis is supported by the movie Karol: The Pope, The Man.
The A.J. Quinnell novel In the Name of the Father describes the aftermath of the plot to assassinate the Pope. Church leaders are shocked to discover that the attempt was orchestrated by the highest levels of the Kremlin.[35]
In the Frederick Forsyth novel The Fourth Protocol, the assassination attempt is directly referenced as a badly executed plot wherein Ağca initially acts alone, but is supported by the KGB once his intent is discovered.
The 1982 Tom Skerritt film Fighting Back featured footage of this event in its opening credits' depection of a television news story on violent crime since 1963 from the reporters' viewpoints.
See also[edit]
Juan María Fernández y Krohn, a former Roman Catholic priest who tried to stab John Paul II a year later
Bojinka plot, a planned terrorist attack by Islamist terrorist that included a plot to assassinate the Pope
Three Secrets of Fátima
References[edit]
Jump up^ "Man who shot pope mourning his death, lawyer says". MSNBC. 4 April 2005. Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
Jump up^ Lee, Martin A. (3 March 1997). "Les liaisons dangereuses de la police turque". Le Monde diplomatique (in French).
Jump up^ "1981 Year in Review: Pope John Paul II Assassination (sic) Attempt". United Press International (UPI)). 1981.
Jump up^ "Security Chief for the Vatican Was 'Guardian Angel' to Pope".The Wall Street Journal. 6 November 2009. Retrieved 6 November2009.
Jump up^ Newton, Paula (12 January 2006). "Man who shot pope freed".CNN. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 14 January 2006. Retrieved 26 October 2008.
Jump up^ Goktas, Hidir (20 January 2006). "Man who shot pope must return to jail: Turkish court". Reuters. Archived from the original on 20 January 2006.
Jump up^ "Man who shot pope released from prison". CNN. 18 January 2010. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
Jump up^ "Holy See defers to courts on possible release of would-be Papal assassin". Catholic News Agency (Vatican City). 9 January 2006.
Jump up^ Kostin, S., & Raynaud, É. (2011). Farewell. Amazonencore.
Jump up^ 'Ali Agça revient à la liberté avec ses secrets', 12 January 2006,Libération(French)]
Jump up^ http://u2r2h-documents.blogspot.com/2009/06/cia-invovled-in-pope-assassination.html
^ Jump up to:a b "On the Trail of Turkey's Terrorist Grey Wolves" by Martin A. Lee
^ Jump up to:a b Martin A. Lee, "Les liaisons dangereuses de la police turque", in Le Monde diplomatique, March 1997 (French)
Jump up^ "Italian Judge Said to Drop Probe of Agca Being Coached". The Washington Post. 22 December 1985.
Jump up^ Crovitz, Gordon (8 January 1986). "Pope Trial: What Secret Files?".The Wall Street Journal.
Jump up^ Tagliabue, John (15 January 1986). "Court in Pope plot won't extend trial to hear testimony in U.S.". The New York Times.
Jump up^ Christian Roulette (1984). Giovanni Paolo II, Antonov, Agca. La pista. Rome: Edito da Napoleone.[page needed]
Jump up^ Lobe, Jim (23 June 2003). "Veteran neo-con advisor moves on Iran". Asia Times.
Jump up^ Nezan, Kendal (July 1998). "Turkey's pivotal role in the international drug trade". Le Monde diplomatique.
^ Jump up to:a b Remnick, David. "John Paul II", The New Yorker Magazine. 11 April 2004.
Jump up^ Paul B. Henze. The Plot to Kill the Pope, Holiday House, 1985.[page needed]
Jump up^ Arnaud de Borchgrave, The Attempted Assassination of John Paul II, 6 April 2005.
Jump up^ "Stasi Files Implicate KGB in Pope Shooting", Deutsche Welle, 4 January 2005.
Jump up^ "Soviets 'had Pope shot for backing Solidarity'". The Daily Telegraph. 3 March 2006.
Jump up^ Rwanda : Bruguière incrimine Paul Kagamé, Le Figaro, 21 November 2006 (French)
Jump up^ "Un juge provocateur", Le Figaro, 22 November 2006, p.2
Jump up^ "Soviet Union ordered Pope shooting: Italy commission". Reuters. 2 March 2006.
Jump up^ Il falso dossier di Scaramella – "Così la Russia manipola Prodi",La Repubblica, 11 January 2007 (Italian)
Jump up^ "How one man insinuated himself into poisoning case",International Herald Tribune, 9 January 2007.
Jump up^ John Koehler, Spies in the Vatican, Pegasus, 2009. ISBN 978-1-60598-050-8
Jump up^ Publishers Weekly, review of 'Spies in the Vatican', 11 May 2009
Jump up^ "L'ultima verità di Ali Agca 'Avevo dei complici in Vaticano'". La Repubblica (in Italian). 31 March 2005. (English translation with some commentary: "The Latest Truth From Ali Agca: 'I had accomplices in the Vatican'"[dead link])
Jump up^ "Agca Denies Accusing Vatican of Complicity in Pope Shooting".Turkish Weekly. Associated Press. 4 April 2005.
Jump up^ "Vatican ordered hit on Pope John Paul II" Press TV, Teheran, Iran (10 November 2010
Jump up^ In The Name of the Father, Google Books,http://books.google.com/books/about/In_the_name_of_the_father.html?id=GJc1izYyDIkC
Further viewing[edit]
Jon Blair (2005). Zero Hour – The Plot to Kill the Pope. 3BM Television.
Meissen, Randall J. Living Miracles: The Spiritual Sons of John Paul the Great, Alpharetta, GA, Mission Network: 2011. Several sections of this work discuss the assassination, its cultural impact on Catholic seminarians, and the protection of the pope attributed to Our Lady of Fatima.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Attempted assassination of Ioannes Paulus II (1981).Records of the RFE Rome Bureau on Antonov trial (boxes 16–19), Open Society Archives
[show]
Pope Saint John Paul II
Coordinates:
41°54′09.5″N 12°27′24″ECategories:
Assassination attempts
History of the Papacy
Contemporary Italian history
Crime in Vatican City
Pope John Paul II
1981 crimes
1981 in Vatican City
1981 in religion
*Sources
30 December 2014 Gunman who tried to assassinate John Paul II is expelled from Italy two days after laying flowers at his grave and saying he wanted to meet Pope Francis UK Daily News Mehmet Ali Agca laid white roses on the tomb of Pope John Paul II Comes 31 years to the day the Pope visited him in prison and forgave him He fired shots at point-blank range at the Pope in St Peter's Square in 1981 Vatican officials have denied his request for a meeting with Pope Francis
An assassin who tried to kill Pope John Paul II has been expelled from Italy two days after he laid
Mehmet Ali Ağca - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmet_Ali_Ağca
Wikipedia
He claims to have received two months of training in weaponry and terrorist tactics in... In 1983, the pope and Ağca met and spoke privately at the prison where ...
Ali Agca, the terrorist who shot Pope John Paul to be freed ...
▶ 1:11
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdKGVI4IQx4
Jan 12, 2010 - Uploaded by ROME REPORTS in English
If there are no last minute changes, on Monday 18th January theterrorist who shot Pope John Paul II will ...
.
Assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II carried out by Islamic terrorists, Polish communist leader claims UK Daily Mail 6 April 2011 The assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II was carried out under orders from Islamic terrorists, Poland's last communist leader has claimed. The Polish-born pope almost died in the attempt when Turkish sniper Mehmet Ali Agca shot him with four rounds in St Peter's Square in the Vatican in 1981. An official inquiry into the shooting blamed Soviet-sponsored assassins who wanted the pope dead because of his support for the democracy movement Solidarity. Many in Poland have placed the blame at the feet of the communist authorities and will now see Mr Jaruzelski's claims as [disinformation cover story] an attempt to confuse the matter further. His assassin Mehmet Ali Agca was a trained sniper. Three Bulgarians, including airline representative Sergein Antonov, were also tried after Agca claimed he had been acting on behalf of the Soviets. Although Agca was sentenced, the case against the Bulgarians fell apart due to a lack of evidence.... court was right to drop the charges. 'there were various countries and various forces that wanted the pope to be eliminated, but it does not mean that they gave Ali Agca the order to kill him'. troll: The story is probably true. What is for sure is the Americans did murder Pope John Paul I with poisen in 1978
https://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/.../muslim-who-tried-to-kill-pope-j...
Dec 29, 2014 - Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul II twice from close range in St Peter's Square. ... Pope's condemnation of Muslim barbarism in Turkey falls on deaf ears with Erdogan .... waynelee8 on Terrorism hijra: Gulf countrie…
Radical Islam in the West: Ideology and Challenge
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0786462108
Brian R. Farmer - 2010 - Religion
immune to terrorism when a young Turk named Mehmet Ali Agca, a member of a ...terrorist group known as the Gray Wolves, attempted to assassinate Pope ...
The Woman and the Dragon: Apparitions of Mary
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1455614378
David Michael Lindsey - 2001 - Religion
Pope John Paul's assassin, 23-year-old Mehmet Ali Agca, had been imprisoned in 1979... of the pope, using the Islamic terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca as their cover.
The Pope's Risky Trip - The Daily Beast
www.thedailybeast.com/.../11/.../the-pope-s-risky-trip.ht...
The Daily Beast
Nov 21, 2014 - In 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca shot Pope John Paul II at close range in St. Peter's ..... to say there are not 80 million to 160 million Muslim terrorists.
Dictionary of Terrorism - Page 5 - Google Books Result
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1135165955
John Richard Thackrah - 2013 - Political Science
The initial overall organisation of several guerrilla factions was the Islamic Alliance ... A Turkish citizen, Mehmet Ali Agca tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in ...
The President, the Pope, And the Prime Minister: Three Who ...
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1596980346
John O'Sullivan - 2006 - Political Science
Agca admitted his guilt and sought forgiveness from John Paul. ... today's world of al Qaeda terrorism—is that the pope's attacker was acting on behalf of a radical ... there were large and self-consciously Muslim diasporas across the Continent.
Pope John Paul II shot - May 13, 1981 - HISTORY.com
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pope-john-paul-ii-shot
HistoryA third bullet struck 60-year-old American Ann Odre in the chest, seriously ... Hepleaded guilty, saying he acted alone, and in July 1981 was sentenced to life in ....Pope John Paul II is shot and wounded at St. Peter's Square in Rome, Italy.
Radical Islam in the West: Ideology and Challenge
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0786462108
Brian R. Farmer - 2010 - Religion
immune to terrorism when a young Turk named Mehmet Ali Agca, a member of a ...terrorist group known as the Gray Wolves, attempted to assassinate Pope ...
The Woman and the Dragon: Apparitions of Mary
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1455614378
David Michael Lindsey - 2001 - Religion
Pope John Paul's assassin, 23-year-old Mehmet Ali Agca, had been imprisoned in 1979... of the pope, using the Islamic terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca as their cover.
The Pope's Risky Trip - The Daily Beast
www.thedailybeast.com/.../11/.../the-pope-s-risky-trip.ht...
The Daily Beast
Nov 21, 2014 - In 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca shot Pope John Paul II at close range in St. Peter's ..... to say there are not 80 million to 160 million Muslim terrorists.
Dictionary of Terrorism - Page 5 - Google Books Result
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1135165955
John Richard Thackrah - 2013 - Political Science
The initial overall organisation of several guerrilla factions was the Islamic Alliance ... A Turkish citizen, Mehmet Ali Agca tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in ...
The President, the Pope, And the Prime Minister: Three Who ...
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1596980346
John O'Sullivan - 2006 - Political Science
Agca admitted his guilt and sought forgiveness from John Paul. ... today's world of al Qaeda terrorism—is that the pope's attacker was acting on behalf of a radical ... there were large and self-consciously Muslim diasporas across the Continent.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pope-john-paul-ii-shot
HistoryA third bullet struck 60-year-old American Ann Odre in the chest, seriously ... Hepleaded guilty, saying he acted alone, and in July 1981 was sentenced to life in ....Pope John Paul II is shot and wounded at St. Peter's Square in Rome, Italy.
Pope Is Shot in Car in Vatican Square - The New York Times
www.nytimes.com/learning/general/.../0513.html
The New York TimesMade Threat In '79: Alleged Assailant Wrote a Letter Saying He'd Kill John Paul ... May 14 -- Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded yesterday as he ... Pilgrims in St. Peter's Square fell to their knees to pray for the Pope's recovery.
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