Polish (counter) spies in John Paul II assassination attempt (Oct. 06)

Catholic News ^ | January 2007

[bd476]

Polish spies in John Paul II assassination attempt

This week CathNews presents the top stories from 2006. This story was originally published on 13 October 2006.

The revelations are made in an article in Polish weekly Wprost by Leszek Szymowski who was assisted by Marek Lasota, a research fellow of the Polish Institute of the National Memory.



The authors detail evidence confirming that the Soviet KGB planned and led all efforts to "eliminate" the Polish Pope, from 1978 up to 1989, when the Communist regime finally collapsed in Poland, and soon after in all Eastern and Central European countries of the former Soviet Bloc.

According to the website Oracle Syndicate the new evidence delivers a crushing blow to all "conspiracy theories" invented by the Soviet disinformation experts or circulated in the West, which blamed Turkish right wing groups or even the CIA.

The new evidence, found in Berlin in the archives of the East German communist secret service, also confirms the role of the Bulgarian secret services.

The researchers say that the Kremlin allotted to East German intelligence the task of countering all reports and accusations against the Bulgarians.

However, what was not known earlier was the participation of the Polish secret services in the preparations for the plots against the Pope, the researchers say.

The researchers also say that a total of 21 or 22 attempts on the life of John Paul II were planned between 1978 and 1989.

However, the whole picture concerning these attempts remains dim.

For a long time, this code-name used by the Polish special service, was mistakenly linked to a singular provocation, led by a super-secret "Section D" of the SB in Cracow, in 1983. "Section D" was a special operations group, secretly organised in the Polish Ministry of Interior to carry out criminal operations against the Church.

This particular action aimed at compromising a Cracow priest, Andrzej Bardecki, an editor of Tygodnik Powszechny weekly paper and one of the closest friends of then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla. In 1983, special SB agents Grzegorz Piotrowski, Barbara Szydlowska and Barbara Borowiec (women agents) broke into the apartment of the priest and left there provocative materials. The provocation failed.

In 2005, research by the Polish Institute of National Memory (IPN) discovered that the "Operation Triangolo" embraced a series of hostile actions against the Pope, carried out by the Polish communist secret services.

These shocking findings showed that the assassination of John Paul II had become the most important goal in the history of the communist special services in Poland. The Polish communist services worked for at least four years on a plan to kill the Polish Pope.

However, the secret files on "Operation Triangolo" disappeared from the archives on 11 April 1989 when a special delegation of the KGB officers came to Warsaw to secure and move out these documents. These documents are still kept as "top secret" in Moscow, the researchers say.

Church's 'Black Bishop' under scrutiny

In another story, a Roman Catholic seminary in Rome is opening its archives on the late Bishop Alois Hudal, who is accused of helping Nazi war criminals escape trial.

The Italian news service ANSA said researchers hope the documents at Rome's Teutonic College will shed light on the so-called Black Bishop.

Hudal, who died in 1963, was head of the Teutonic College during and immediately after World War II, ANSA asid. He was known for his pro-Nazi views and is alleged to have helped many Nazi war crimes suspects escape trail - including Franz Stangl, commander of the Treblinka concentration camp in Poland.

Much of the evidence against against Hudel has been collected by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish organization that works to find Nazi war criminals, ANSA said.

[bd476]

Catholic News reprinted this and placed it on their front pgae.

[bd476]

From the article: "The new evidence, found in Berlin in the archives of the East German communist secret service, also confirms the role of the Bulgarian secret services..."

It would be interesting to learn how new evidence found in the files of the East German communist secret service is differentiated from old disinformation.

[onyx]

I am pinging Salvation and NYer to see if either knows anything else about this.'

[bd476]

Thanks Onyx. The timing is strange. It's interesting that Catholic News has decided that this October 2006 article should be reprinted now as a story of the year.

[ScaniaBoy]

Here is another earlier thread on this issue:

Crime of the Century (The plot to kill the pope: Willful CIA & MSM bungling)

There is part of the answer to your question (It would be interesting to learn how new evidence found in the files of the East German communist secret service is differentiated from old disinformation):

The recently discovered documents — which are mainly correspondences between East German Stasi spies and their Bulgarian counterparts — reportedly discuss the Soviet assassination order as well as efforts to cover-up any traces of involvement by Bulgaria's spooks.

The sorting through the East German Stasi archives goes on, but very slowly. In her fantastic book "Stasiland" (a must read for anyone interested in how life was behind the "curtain") the Australian journalist Anna Funder describes the work at the Stasi File Authority. According to her story 15 000 sacks of shredded documents, index cards, hand ripped files, photos and unwound tapes and films were found in 1990. At the time of her report (2003) all work was carried out by hand. No computers, no scanners, just manual puzzlers. You really feel that the German government is putting an all out effort into this project.

A copy of a memo from the head of the Agency reads thus:

Time required for the Reconstruction:
1 worker reconstructs on average per day 10 pages
40 workers reconstruct on average per day 400 pages
40 workers reconstruct on average in a year of 250 working days 100 000 pages
There are on average 2500 pages in one sack
100 000 pages amounts to 40 sacks per year
In all. at the Stasi File Authority there are 15 000 sacks
This means that to reconstruct everything it would take 40 workers 375 years

I guess I don't have to explain why the situation is like it is. Suffice to say that the truth about the Stasi operations will only come to light piecemeal if at all. However, the story about the attempted assassination of the Pope is corroborated by Italian and Bulgarian findings.

PS: I ping some of the "conspiracy researchers" who may have more to contribute.

[bd476]

Thanks ScaniaBoy.

[chilepepper]

These shocking findings showed that the assassination of John Paul II had become the most important goal in the history of the communist special services in Poland

Misleading - Moscow called the tune and the Bulgarians, East Germans, Poles, etc. would dance to the beat. If it was "the most important goal", that would be because the Soviet KGB and Soviet party bosses decided it was the most important goal - important enough to bring in the other East Europpean spy agencies.

The KGB correctly assessed the danger JP2 presented to Communist rule, and their worst nightmare was realized. JP2 started the ball rolling in the dismantling of the USSR - when Poland went, there was a stampede to escape from the Communist shackles...

[ScaniaBoy]

You are correct.

I never know if sentences like the one you quoted are due to inablity to write correctly or a deeper misunderstanding of the history.

[ScaniaBoy]

See also this:

The Third Secret: The CIA, Solidarity and the KGB's Plot to Kill the Pope (Hardcover) by Nigel West

Synopsis This text is the inside story of how the CIA combined with the Vatican under the Polish Pope John Paul II to launch a massive campaign to destabilise Warsaw - and how the KGB reacted by trying to kill the Pope in 1981. The rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1980s, which began the undermining of the Soviet Bloc and the defeat of international communism, was essentially funded by the CIA covertly, through the Vatican. Pope John Paul II (elected in 1978) had a deep interest in mysticism and long believed in "the third secret" - the third piece of advice given to the eldest of the three children at Fatima (Portugal) in 1917 by an apparition of the Virgin Mary. This secret, written down by the last surviving child, who became a nun, was revealed by [should be "to", SB] the Pope in 1980 and described an avoidable apocalyptic catastrophe in Europe. Thereafter the Pope began his ideological offensive against the Soviet Bloc.

[mware]

Hey Onyx, you don't think this could have something to do with the new archbishop in Poland that resigned this morning because he was spying for the communist do you????

[mware]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1763659/posts

[Chode]

JPII threatened the Soviets he would quit being Pope, move to Poland and be a Parish Priest in Warsaw...