Free Republic

Soviet leadership ordered John Paul II hit: Italian commission MOSCOW : Leaders of the former Soviet Union ordered the assassination bid on Pope John Paul II in 1981, the head of an Italian parliamentary commission announced. But the post-Soviet intelligence service of President Vladimir Putin immediately dismissed the allegation as an absurdity. Italian Senator Paolo Guzzanti said the findings of the commission showed "beyond all reasonable doubt" that Moscow's military secret service, the GRU, was responsible for the shooting as the late pope greeted pilgrims in St Peter's Square. The assertion, for years a favourite of conspiracy theorists in Italy,...

A Turkish assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981 has said he will deliver a true account of his assassination attempt after he is released from jail, his lawyers said. Mehmet Ali Agca, 52, will be set free on January 18 after spending over 28 years in Italian and Turkish prisons. "I will answer to all of these questions [about the assassination attempt] in the next weeks," Agca said in a letter released by his lawyers earlier this week. He also said that he wanted to visit Rome, meet with Pope Benedict XVI, and pray to...

January 18, 2010 Gunman Mehmet Ali Agca may reveal KGB plot to kill Pope John Paul II Richard Owen The Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II nearly 30 years ago is to be released from prison today Monday and has raised hopes that he will finally shed light on whether the assassination attempt was a KGB plot. Mehmet Ali Agca, 52, said last week that he would “answer all questions” about the murder attempt after his release. When he was arrested minutes after the attack on St Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, he claimed that...

The subject head of the document, carried under the words, “Special Importance,” read: “Regarding Senator Kennedy’s request to the General Secretary of the Communist Party Y. V. Andropov.” According to the memo, Senator Kennedy was “very troubled” by U.S.-Soviet relations, which Kennedy attributed not to the murderous tyrant running the USSR but to President Reagan. The problem was Reagan’s “belligerence,” said the memo, and made worse by Reagan’s stubbornness. “According to Kennedy,” reported Chebrikov, “the current threat is due to the President’s refusal to engage any modification to his politics.” That refusal, said the memo, was exacerbated by Reagan’s political...

Britain is facing a new wave of Eastern European immigration which will put British workers’ jobs at risk... Twenty nine million Bulgarians and Romanians will gain the right to live and work unrestricted in Britain in 2014 under European “freedom of movement” rules. Last night forecasters said it could lead to a significant number of new arrivals, in the same way as when Poland and other Eastern European countries gained the same rights in 2004, with the scale likely to be increased by the economic crisis gripping the rest of Europe. And a Government report was disclosed to show concern...

Bulgarian contingent duty in Multinational Division Central South came to an end Dec. 17. Multi-National Force - Iraq CAMP ECHO, Iraq, Dec. 19, 2005 — Bulgarian contingent duty in Multinational Division Central South (MNDCS) came to an end Dec. 17. During the farewell ceremony, MNDCS Commanding General Maj. Gen. Piotr Czerwinski thanked Bulgarian soldiers for their outstanding duty in MNDCS. "I would like to thank you personally and all Bulgarian soldiers who served so far in Iraq," said Czerwinski. "Your commitment has always been contributing to the success of the Multinational Division." During the ceremony, Bulgarian soldiers were awarded by...

Eastern European wave filling Shore jobs Published in the Home News Tribune 7/07/02 By JOHN LOFTUS STAFF WRITER [Ocean City, N.J. --]  There are plenty of jobs in Bulgaria. But Ana Ivanova says the money isn't good. So for the second summer in a row, she has come to Ocean City, N.J., to work for the kind of pay college kids earn in an American resort town. That would be about four times, maybe more, she said, than she could get back in her hometown, Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. Trouble is, as of late June, she had not found a...