Posted on 03/02/2006 2:31:06 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
RUSSIA'S top-secret military intelligence service dismissed today as "absolutely absurd" accusations made by Italian politicians that Soviet agents were involved in a bid to kill Pope John Paul II.
"All affirmations about any involvement of Soviet intelligence services, including the military secret service, in the attempted assassination of the pope are absolutely absurd and have nothing to do with reality," a spokesman for the service was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
The head of an Italian parliamentary commission said earlier today that leaders of the former Soviet Union ordered the pope's assassination, leading to a foiled attempt on his life at the Vatican in May 1981.
"This commission believes, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the leaders of the USSR took the initiative to eliminate Pope Karol Wojtyla and that they communicated this decision to the military secret service in order that it carry out the necessary operations to commit a crime of unique gravity, without equal in modern history," the commission's report said.
Turkish hitman Ali Agca shot and seriously wounded John Paul II in St Peter's Square on May 13, 1981.
Agca, who was overpowered seconds after the attack, was put on trial in July 1981 and sentenced to life imprisonment in Italy, but freed in June 2000 after being pardoned by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
Despite rumours linking Agca with the Bulgarian secret services, and by extension the Russian KGB intelligence service, the reasons for the attack have always been shrouded in mystery.
I'm waiting for them to tell us the claim is fake, but accurate.
The Ruskies were liars then and they are liars now.
Just as they used to proclaim the accusations that the Soviets massacred Polish offices at Katyn were 'absurd.'
The Soviets had motive - Polish nationalism - but I think this is just a little over the top even for them. The Iranian mullahcracy suggests itself as a more likely suspect. KGB involvement seems most likely CIA disinformation to me.
Didn't some ex-Stasi dude lay-out the whole plan a couple years age? IIRC the KGB planned it, sent the Bulgarian secret police to carry it out, and ordered the Stasi to cover their tracks. One of the Bulgarian spies was photoed in the crowd with Agca but eventually released.
The late Pope himself discounted the KGB angle.
There is another theory that is not much mentioned.
In the 60s and 70s the Italian Mafia was making a fortune smuggling heroin from Turkey (using an alliance with Turkish criminals with links to the Turkish military junta) and the Bulgarian "KGB" (I don't remember what the Bulgarian version of the KGB was actually called) were partners in the smuggling in a smuggling link that was truly world wide.
The mafia was using the Vatican banking system to launder their drug trade money. The Pope was a threat to that arrangement and the Mafia contracted a hit on the Pope using their Turkish-Bulgarian contacts. Remember the P2 lodge scandal? The banker hanging from London bridge?
I discount the KGB because if they got cought it would have been bad and they would not have used such a hit system. A guy on the street with a hand gun?
Also, the Turkish gunman started to speak about the Fatima prophesy - sounds like someone in the Vatican had him mention this so the Ope can get the hidden meaning of it - i.e. its an inside the Vatican job - you are warned - that is Mafia kind of stuff.
Also, there were claims the hit team from Turkey hid out in a Freemasonic P2 lodge that the mafia also used.
Anyway, after the failed attempt the Italian state for the first time since Mussolini went after the Mafia in a systematic way to break them and they probably did destroy their organization to a large degree.
Knew a few of what kind of people?
Mafia types? Vatican Freemasons linked bankers linked to Mafia drug laungering and suspected of poisoning Pope John Paul I in 1978?
KGB types. Moscow was choke full of them.
But who was behind John Paul I's assassination? And who was behind the impostor for Paul VI?
What assasination and what imposter?
There is a school of thought that JP I was murdered (remember that he was only Pope for 33 days before he had a heart attack). He allegedly had no prior heart problems, yet there was no autopsy and no investigation....
There is another theory about Paul VI that he had been doubled by an actor--there are websites that show before and after pictures and there are some physical characteristics that look different (i.e., the length of the nose in relation to the ears, shape of the ears, shape of the nose).
Don't know whether there is anything to them or not, just idle speculation.
I'd heard the first yarn about JPI. I doubt we'll ever be able to prove anything either way. The one about Paul, I hadn't heard.
However, I have heard rumours about Diana's death, the faking of the moon landing, and thousands about JFK!
Lots of comments on here about the Russians, the Bulgarians, the Turks, and Mafia, but has anyone ever seen the actual report put forth by the Italian Commission which made the claim? What evidence did it have for its conclusions?
Want to know who tried to kill Pope John Paul II? I think the same people who killed Pope John Paul I.
Did you find it odd that the Italian Commission referred to the late Pope John Paul II using his civilian Polish name?
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