1981 Pope John Paul II assassination attempt
Encyclopedia
The first attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II
took place on Wednesday, May 13, 1981, in St. Peter's Square at Vatican City
. The Pope was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca
while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck 4 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. He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
at the Pope's request and was deported to Turkey on June 2000.
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 May 10, 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.
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 May 13 they sat in the square, writing postcards waiting for the Pope to arrive. When the Pope passed, Ağca fired several shots with a Browning Hi-Power
semi-automatic pistol, and critically wounded him, but was grabbed by Vatican security chief Camillo Cibin
, a nun, and several spectators who prevented him from either firing more shots or escaping. Four bullets hit John Paul II, two of them lodging in his lower intestine, the others hitting his left hand and right arm. 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.
The Pope was transferred from the car to the Apostolic Palace for an initial assessment because the wound did not externally appear serious. Once the Pope's pulse and blood pressure were assessed, it became clear the Pope was in danger, and an ambulance was summoned. He was taken to the hospital. The general surgeon who operated on the Pope at the hospital, where he was in charge of one of the operating theatres, Professor Dr. Francesco Crucitti, was at another hospital at the time of the attack but was told by a nun there of the attempt. He raced down the wrong way of a street in his vehicle, and was stopped by a policeman with an Uzi machine gun, and managed to convince him to give him an escort to the hospital, where he was immediately prepped for emergency surgery, the Pope having just been anointed by his secretary. The Pope, despite the fact that the bullet avoided both his abdominal aorta and the mesenteric artery, lost nearly three-quarters of his blood and thus suffered shock from near-exsanguination
due to the intestinal perforation. He underwent almost six hours of emergency intestinal surgery, which required transfusions and a temporary colostomy (which later had to be reversed), at the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic
(the trauma center affiliated with the medical school of the University of the Sacred Heart), which always keeps a suite of rooms reserved for the Pope's use. Several months later, he came down with a cytomegalovirus infection due to receiving some blood that was fresh and that had not been sufficiently prepared- because of the emergency, there had been no time. Upon encountering the Pope in Rome's Rebibbia Prison for the first time following the attempt, Ağca, a professional assassin, asked him how he had managed to survive. The Pope, who was conscious until going into surgery, suspected that he would live, thanks to what he earnestly believed to be the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Fatima
(who, in one of her appearances to the three children, had prophesied that a "Bishop in white" would be
attacked). Pope John Paul II was extremely grateful to Dr. Crucitti and the rest of his medical staff who he had consulted (including his old friend and personal physician, the Polish immunologist Professor Dr. Gabriel Turowski, who had come to Italy to give his expertise and who diagnosed the CMV infection, and who became a grandfather during the crisis, and Dr. Renato Buzzonetti, the official Papal physician, who would again seek out Dr. Crucitti's advice when the Pope developed a benign colonic tumor). The Pope personally returned from his vacation at Castel Gandolfo in August of 1998 to deliver his condolences to the family when Dr. Crucitti passed away, and later personally celebrated his funeral and gave the homily (the doctor had a reputation for mentoring many future prominent physicians and surgeons at the Polyclinic, one of Italy's best hospitals).
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 İpekçi
and 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 January 12, 2006. However, on January 20, 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. Ağca was released from prison on January 18, 2010, after almost 29 years behind bars.
Although Ağca had been quoted as saying that "to me [the Pope] was the incarnation of all that is capitalism", and attempting 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.
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.
, co-author with Frank Brodhead of The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection (1986), and Michael 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 September 25, 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". 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.
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 Gladio network. Gladio was at the time involved in Italy's strategy of tension
, also followed in Turkey by Counter-Guerrilla
, the Turkish branch of Gladio. The Pope's assassination would hereafter have taken place in this frame. 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. 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 Mark
s" for the Grey Wolves. 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".
, was convinced that the 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:
Ali Agca had made several trips to Sofia, Bulgaria, and stayed in a hotel favored by the Bulgarian (DS). In Rome he had also had contacts with a Bulgarian agent 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, he later stated that in Sofia
, he was once approached by the Bulgarian Secret Service and Turkish mafiosi, who offered him three million German mark
to assassinate the Pope.
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.
, 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.
In March 2006, the controversial Mitrokhin Commission
, set up by Silvio Berlusconi
and headed by Forza Italia
senator 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). 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 the power. 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."
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. 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 claimed Romano 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. 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
released the "Third Secret of Fatima" in which he said that Ağca's assassination attempt was the fulfillment of this Secret. May 13 (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 coming
of Jesus Christ and called on the Vatican
to release the Third Secret.
On March 31, 2005, just two days prior to the Pope's death, Ağca gave an interview to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica
. 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:
Emanuela Orlandi
, the daughter of a Vatican employee, disappeared at age 15 on June 22, 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.
In November 2010, Ağca publicly asserted that Cardinal Agostino Casaroli had been the man behind the assassination attempt on John Paul II in 1981.
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
.
Mention of this assassination attempt was at the end of the anime Chrono Crusade
.
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
took place on Wednesday, May 13, 1981, in St. Peter's Square at Vatican City
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
. The Pope was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca
Mehmet Ali Agca
Mehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish assassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he served a...
while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck 4 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. He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
dr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006...
at the Pope's request and was deported to Turkey on June 2000.
Attempted assassination of the Pope
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
. He entered Rome on May 10, 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
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
in Italy. He said that he was assigned this mission by Turkish mafioso Bekir Çelenk in Bulgaria.
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 May 13 they sat in the square, writing postcards waiting for the Pope to arrive. When the Pope passed, Ağca fired several shots with a Browning Hi-Power
Browning Hi-Power
The Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, 9 mm semi-automatic handgun. It is based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at Fabrique Nationale of Herstal, Belgium. Browning died in 1926, several years before the design was finalized...
semi-automatic pistol, and critically wounded him, but was grabbed by Vatican security chief Camillo Cibin
Camillo Cibin
Camillo Cibin was a Papal bodyguard and Inspector General of the Corpo della Gendarmeria, the security and police force of Vatican City. He retired in 2006 after 58 years of service in the security force and over forty years as its commander.Cibin was with Pope John Paul II when he was shot in St....
, a nun, and several spectators who prevented him from either firing more shots or escaping. Four bullets hit John Paul II, two of them lodging in his lower intestine, the others hitting his left hand and right arm. Two bystanders were also hit by stray assassin's bullets; Ann Odre, of Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, was struck in the chest while Rose Hill, of Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, was slightly wounded in the arm. Çelik panicked and fled without setting off his bomb or opening fire.
The Pope was transferred from the car to the Apostolic Palace for an initial assessment because the wound did not externally appear serious. Once the Pope's pulse and blood pressure were assessed, it became clear the Pope was in danger, and an ambulance was summoned. He was taken to the hospital. The general surgeon who operated on the Pope at the hospital, where he was in charge of one of the operating theatres, Professor Dr. Francesco Crucitti, was at another hospital at the time of the attack but was told by a nun there of the attempt. He raced down the wrong way of a street in his vehicle, and was stopped by a policeman with an Uzi machine gun, and managed to convince him to give him an escort to the hospital, where he was immediately prepped for emergency surgery, the Pope having just been anointed by his secretary. The Pope, despite the fact that the bullet avoided both his abdominal aorta and the mesenteric artery, lost nearly three-quarters of his blood and thus suffered shock from near-exsanguination
Exsanguination
Exsanguination is the fatal process of hypovolemia , to a degree sufficient enough to cause death. One does not have to lose literally all of one's blood to cause death...
due to the intestinal perforation. He underwent almost six hours of emergency intestinal surgery, which required transfusions and a temporary colostomy (which later had to be reversed), at the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic
Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic
The Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic is a large general hospital of 1,850 beds in Rome, Italy. It serves as the teaching hospital for the medical school of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , and owes its name to the university founder, the Franciscan friar, physician and psychologist...
(the trauma center affiliated with the medical school of the University of the Sacred Heart), which always keeps a suite of rooms reserved for the Pope's use. Several months later, he came down with a cytomegalovirus infection due to receiving some blood that was fresh and that had not been sufficiently prepared- because of the emergency, there had been no time. Upon encountering the Pope in Rome's Rebibbia Prison for the first time following the attempt, Ağca, a professional assassin, asked him how he had managed to survive. The Pope, who was conscious until going into surgery, suspected that he would live, thanks to what he earnestly believed to be the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fátima is a famous title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she appeared in apparitions reported by three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal. These occurred on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13...
(who, in one of her appearances to the three children, had prophesied that a "Bishop in white" would be
attacked). Pope John Paul II was extremely grateful to Dr. Crucitti and the rest of his medical staff who he had consulted (including his old friend and personal physician, the Polish immunologist Professor Dr. Gabriel Turowski, who had come to Italy to give his expertise and who diagnosed the CMV infection, and who became a grandfather during the crisis, and Dr. Renato Buzzonetti, the official Papal physician, who would again seek out Dr. Crucitti's advice when the Pope developed a benign colonic tumor). The Pope personally returned from his vacation at Castel Gandolfo in August of 1998 to deliver his condolences to the family when Dr. Crucitti passed away, and later personally celebrated his funeral and gave the homily (the doctor had a reputation for mentoring many future prominent physicians and surgeons at the Polyclinic, one of Italy's best hospitals).
Incarceration of Ağca
Ağca was sentenced, in July 1981, to life imprisonmentLife imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
in Italy for the assassination attempt, but was pardoned by president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
dr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006...
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 İpekçi
Abdi Ipekçi
Abdi İpekçi was a Turkish journalist, intellectual and an activist for human rights. He was murdered while editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet.-Biography:...
and 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 January 12, 2006. However, on January 20, 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. Ağca was released from prison on January 18, 2010, after almost 29 years behind bars.
Relationship with Pope John Paul
Following the shooting, Pope John Paul II asked people to "pray for my brother [Ağca] ... whom I have sincerely forgiven." In 1983, he and Ağca met and spoke privately at the prison where Ağca was being held. Agca 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 had been quoted as saying that "to me [the Pope] was the incarnation of all that is capitalism", and attempting 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
Several theories exist concerning Mehmet Ali Ağca's assassination attempt. One, strongly advocated since the early 1980s by Michael LedeenMichael Ledeen
Michael Arthur Ledeen is an American specialist on foreign policy. His research areas have included state sponsors of terrorism, Iran, the Middle East, Europe , U.S.-China relations, intelligence, and Africa and is a leading neoconservative...
among others, is that the assassination attempt had originated from Moscow and that the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
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
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organisation founded in 1967. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization , the largest being Fatah...
(PFLP), but they denied any ties to him.
Grey Wolves
Some people, notably Edward S. HermanEdward S. Herman
Edward S. Herman is an American economist and media analyst with a specialty in corporate and regulatory issues as well as political economy and the media. He is Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also teaches at Annenberg School for...
, co-author with Frank Brodhead of The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection (1986), and Michael Parenti
Michael Parenti
Michael Parenti is an award-winning, internationally known American political scientist, historian, and culture critic who has been writing on a wide range of both scholarly and popular subjects for over forty years. He has taught at several universities and colleges and has been a frequent guest...
, 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
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
) agents. On September 25, 1991, former CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman (now Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy
Center for International Policy
The Center for International Policy is a non-profit public policy research and advocacy think tank with offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City. It was founded in 1975 in response to the Vietnam War. The Center describes its mission as "promoting a U.S...
) 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". 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.
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
Grey Wolves
The Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
, the Italian secret service, and the CIA - all three of whom had co-operated in NATO's secret Gladio network. Gladio was at the time involved in Italy's strategy of tension
Strategy of tension
The strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
, also followed in Turkey by Counter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
, the Turkish branch of Gladio. The Pope's assassination would hereafter have taken place in this frame. Edward Herman
Edward S. Herman
Edward S. Herman is an American economist and media analyst with a specialty in corporate and regulatory issues as well as political economy and the media. He is Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also teaches at Annenberg School for...
has argued that Michael Ledeen
Michael Ledeen
Michael Arthur Ledeen is an American specialist on foreign policy. His research areas have included state sponsors of terrorism, Iran, the Middle East, Europe , U.S.-China relations, intelligence, and Africa and is a leading neoconservative...
, who was involved in the Iran-Contra Affair
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran–Contra affair , also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or Iran-Contra-Gate, was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of...
and had alleged ties to the Italian P2
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
masonic lodge also linked to Gladio, was employed by the CIA to propagate the Bulgarian theory. Indeed, Le Monde diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique is a monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first created mainly for a diplomatic audience as its name implies...
alleged that Abdullah Çatlı
Abdullah Çatli
Abdullah Çatlı was a Turkish convicted drug trafficker, and contract killer for the Counter-Guerrilla. He led the youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party...
, a leader of the Grey Wolves, had organized the assassination attempt "in exchange for the sum of 3 million German Mark
German mark
The Deutsche Mark |mark]], abbreviated "DM") was the official currency of West Germany and Germany until the adoption of the euro in 2002. It is commonly called the "Deutschmark" in English but not in German. Germans often say "Mark" or "D-Mark"...
s" for the Grey Wolves. In Rome, Catli declared to the judge in 1985 "that he had been contacted by the BND
Bundesnachrichtendienst
The Bundesnachrichtendienst [ˌbʊndəsˈnaːχʁɪçtnˌdiːnst] is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinated to the Chancellor's Office. Its headquarters are in Pullach near Munich, and Berlin . The BND has 300 locations in Germany and foreign countries...
, 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
Alparslan Türkes
Alparslan Türkeş was a Cypriot-born Turkish nationalist politician who was the founder and former president of the Nationalist Movement Party party...
, the founder of the Grey Wolves, "Catli has cooperated in the frame of a secret service working for the good of the state".
The "Bulgarian Connection"
Then KGB Director Yuri AndropovYuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.-Early life:...
, was convinced that the Pope John Paul II's election was the product of an Anglo-German conspiracy orchestrated by Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski is a Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981....
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:
The Pope is our enemy. . . . Due to his uncommon skills and great sense of humor he is dangerous, because he charms everyone, especially journalists. Besides, he goes for cheap gestures in his relations with the crowd, for instance, [he] puts on a highlander's hat, shakes all hands, kisses children, etc. . . . It is modeled on American presidential campaigns. . . . Because of the activities of the Church in Poland our activities designed to atheize the youth not only cannot diminish but must intensely develop. . . . In this respect all means are allowed and we cannot afford sentiments.
Ali Agca had made several trips to Sofia, Bulgaria, and stayed in a hotel favored by the Bulgarian (DS). In Rome he had also had contacts with a Bulgarian agent whose cover was the Bulgarian national airline office. Soon after the shooting, Sergei Antonov
Sergei Antonov
Sergei Antonov was a Bulgarian airline representative who was accused of involvement in an assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II by Mehmet Ali Ağca in 1981....
, 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, he later stated that in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
, he was once approached by the Bulgarian Secret Service and Turkish mafiosi, who offered him three million German mark
German mark
The Deutsche Mark |mark]], abbreviated "DM") was the official currency of West Germany and Germany until the adoption of the euro in 2002. It is commonly called the "Deutschmark" in English but not in German. Germans often say "Mark" or "D-Mark"...
to assassinate the Pope.
American journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave claimed that the Bulgarians chose Ağca to supply themselves with plausible deniability
Plausible deniability
Plausible deniability is, at root, credible ability to deny a fact or allegation, or to deny previous knowledge of a fact. The term most often refers to the denial of blame in chains of command, where upper rungs quarantine the blame to the lower rungs, and the lower rungs are often inaccessible,...
; choosing a member of the Grey Wolves
Grey Wolves
The Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
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.
The Mitrokhin Commission's claims
According to Italian newspaper Corriere della SeraCorriere della Sera
The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
, documents recovered from former East German intelligence services
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
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
Markus Wolf
Markus Johannes "Mischa" Wolf was head of the General Intelligence Administration , the foreign intelligence division of East Germany's Ministry for State Security . He was the MfS's number two for 34 years, which spanned most of the Cold War...
, 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
Italian Mitrokhin Commission
The Mitrokhin Commission was a parliamentary commission set up in 2002 by the Italian Parliament, then led by Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition, the Casa delle Libertà, and presided by senator Paolo Guzzanti...
, set up by Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
and headed by Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
senator Paolo Guzzanti
Paolo Guzzanti
Paolo Guzzanti is an Italian journalist and politician. He was previously a member of the Italian Socialist Party.-Biography:Born in Rome, he is the nephew of Elio Guzzanti and father to actors Corrado, Sabina and Caterina....
, 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). 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
Jean-Louis Bruguière
Jean-Louis Bruguière was the leading French investigating magistrate in charge of counter-terrorism affairs. He was appointed in 2004 vice-president of the Paris Court of Serious Claims . He has garnered controversy for various acts, including the indictment of Rwandan president Paul Kagame for the...
, a controversial figure whose last feat was to indict Rwandese president Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame is the sixth and current President of the Republic of Rwanda. He rose to prominence as the leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front , whose victory over the incumbent government in July 1994 effectively ended the Rwandan genocide...
, claiming he had deliberately provoked the 1994 Rwandan Genocide
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
against his own ethnic group in order to take the power. 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
National interest
The national interest, often referred to by the French expression raison d'État , is a country's goals and ambitions whether economic, military, or cultural. The concept is an important one in international relations where pursuit of the national interest is the foundation of the realist...
over law."
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. 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 claimed Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
, a former Prime Minister of Italy, was the "KGB's man in Italy". At the end of December 2006, Mario Scaramella
Mario Scaramella
Mario Scaramella is an Italian lawyer, self-styled security consultant and nuclear waste expert who came to international prominence in 2006 in connection with the poisoning of the ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko...
, 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
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
, showed that Nicolò Pollari
Nicolò Pollari
Nicolò Pollari is a general of the Italian Guardia di Finanza, who was the former head of Italy's national military intelligence agency, or SISMI, until his resignation on 20 November 2006.He was born in Caltanissetta, Sicily....
, head of SISMI
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
, the Italian military intelligence agency and indicted in the Imam Rapito affair
Imam Rapito affair
The Abu Omar Case refers to the abduction and transfer to Egypt of the Imam of Milan Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar...
, as well as SISMI n°2, Marco Mancini
Marco Mancini
Marco Mancini was the second-highest ranking officer of Sismi, the military intelligence agency of Italy until his 5 July 2006 arrest for his participation in the kidnapping of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr...
, 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
CESIS
Comitato Esecutivo per i Servizi di Informazione e Sicurezza was an Italian government committee whose mission was the coordination of all the intelligence sector, and specifically between the two civilian and military intelligence agencies , with the aim to report all the relevant information...
), 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
Yellowcake forgery
The Niger uranium forgeries are forged documents initially revealed by Italian Military intelligence. These documents seem to depict an attempt made by Saddam Hussein in Iraq to purchase yellowcake uranium powder from Niger during the Iraq disarmament crisis....
affair. 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
Imam Rapito affair
The Abu Omar Case refers to the abduction and transfer to Egypt of the Imam of Milan Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar...
Spies in the Vatican
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. Mining mostly East German and Polish secret police archives, Koehler says the attempt was "KGB-backed" and gives details.A Vatican connection?
On June 26, 2000 Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
released the "Third Secret of Fatima" in which he said that Ağca's assassination attempt was the fulfillment of this Secret. May 13 (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
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
. While in prison on remand, Ağca was widely reported to have developed an obsession with Fatima
Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fátima is a famous title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she appeared in apparitions reported by three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal. These occurred on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13...
and during the trial claimed that he was the second coming
Second Coming
In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
of Jesus Christ and called on the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
to release the Third Secret.
On March 31, 2005, just two days prior to the Pope's death, Ağca gave an interview to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
. 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 caseEmanuela OrlandiEmanuela Orlandi was a citizen of Vatican City, who mysteriously disappeared on June 22, 1983.-Disappearance:Orlandi, then 15-year-old, vanished on June 22, 1983. She was in her second year at a liceo scientifico in Rome...
?
- Q: They say it's because there is still some uncertainty in the Emanuela Orlandi case.
- Ağca: In the 1980's, 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
Emanuela Orlandi
Emanuela Orlandi was a citizen of Vatican City, who mysteriously disappeared on June 22, 1983.-Disappearance:Orlandi, then 15-year-old, vanished on June 22, 1983. She was in her second year at a liceo scientifico in Rome...
, the daughter of a Vatican employee, disappeared at age 15 on June 22, 1983. Anonymous phone calls offered her release in exchange for the release of Ağca. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus
Paul Marcinkus
Paul Casimir Marcinkus was an American archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He was best known for his tenure as President of the Vatican Bank from 1971 through 1989.-Early life:...
was alleged to be part of the kidnapping, although no charges were ever laid.
A week after this interview, Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported Ağca denying having made such claims.
In November 2010, Ağca publicly asserted that Cardinal Agostino Casaroli had been the man behind the assassination attempt on John Paul II in 1981.
In fiction
The plot from the Tom ClancyTom Clancy
Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...
novel Red Rabbit
Red Rabbit
Red Rabbit is a New York Times bestselling novel by Tom Clancy. It incorporates the 1981 plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II.-Plot summary:...
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
Georgi Markov
Georgi Ivanov Markov was a Bulgarian dissident writer.Markov originally worked as a novelist and playwright, but in 1969 he defected from Bulgaria, then governed by President Todor Zhivkov...
.
Mention of this assassination attempt was at the end of the anime Chrono Crusade
Chrono Crusade
, also known as Chrno Crusade due to a typo in the original logo, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Daisuke Moriyama. It was originally published by Kadokawa Shoten in Dragon Magazine which began serialization in November 1998. A 24-episode anime television series based on the...
.
See also
- Juan María Fernández y KrohnJuan María Fernández y KrohnJuan María Fernández y Krohn is a former Roman Catholic priest and former Belgian lawyer who tried to physically attack Pope John Paul II in 1982....
, a former Roman Catholic priest who tried to stab Pope John Paul II - Three Secrets of FátimaThree Secrets of FatimaThe Three Secrets of Fátima consist of a series of visions and prophecies given by an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three young Portuguese shepherds, Lúcia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto, starting on 13 May 1917. The three children claimed to have been visited by a...
Further viewing
- 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
- Records of the RFE Rome Bureau on Antonov trial (boxes 16–19), Open Society ArchivesOpen Society ArchivesThe Open Society Archives , abbreviated as OSA, is an archive and center for research and education located in Budapest, Hungary. Its collections and activities relate to the period after the Second World War, mainly the Cold War, the history of the formerly communist countries, Human rights, and...