Operation Gladio

by Paul L. Williams

  Fearing that Turkey is attempting to realize a new political, military, and economic power with its Islamic brother countries in the Middle East during this highly sensitive time, the western imperialists are sending John Paul, who behind his religious mask is a commander of the cross, with all speed to Turkey. If this senseless and poorly timed visit is not cancelled, then I will not hesitate to shoot the Pope. This is the only reason I escaped from prison. Revenge will be certainly taken for an attack on Mecca by the United States and Israel.42

  Ağca was not only an experienced assassin, who already had spewed his hatred of John Paul II, but also a radical Islamist and pan-Turkish visionary, who longed for the return of the Ottoman Empire. Even better, he suffered paranoid delusions, at times professing that he was Jesus Christ.43

  THE GLADIO DIRECTIVE

  Early in April 1981, Abuzer Uğurlu received word from Gladio: Kill the pope and blame the Communists.

  It was to be the ultimate false flag attack.

  The message came with a payment of $1.7 million.44

  The arrangements had been made by members of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, P2, and the Safari Club, a covert organization that had been established by Henry Kissinger.

  The gunmen would be Çatlı and Ağca.

  Needless to say, writing about such matters as the İpekçi murder, the Underworld and the conspiracy to assassinate the Pope has inevitably made me a target for wide ranging attacks. These serious threats from certain enemies and even enemies of enemies within the same circles all in all gave me the impression that at the very least I was getting near the truth. Investigating the assassination conspiracy, I felt obliged to study the İpekçi murder and the relationship between the banker Calvi and the Vatican. This, in turn, led me to the scandal involving the P2 Mason's Lodge and the connection between Calvi and the Italian Mafia. If I hadn't investigated the connection between Ağca and the Nationalists, the smugglers of the Underworld and their international associates, the Vatican and the banker Calvi, Calvi and the P2 Mason's Lodge and finally the P2 lodge and the Italian Mafia, I would never have been able to get to the roots of the whole matter.

  Uğur Mumcu, Papa, Mafya, Agca, 1984

  Known as “the blond ghost” because of his aversion to cameras, Theodore Shackley had been one of the CIA's most infamous agents. He had helped to set up the heroin trade in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and had overseen Operation Phoenix, which involved the killing of 40,000 noncombatant Vietnamese who were suspected of collaborating with the Viet Cong.1 The blond ghost also served as a principal figure in Nugan Hand Bank, overseeing the deposit of billions in black funds into the Australian laundry. From Australia, he went to South America, where he took an active part in Operation Condor by organizing death squads. In Chile, he teamed up with Stefano Delle Chiaie for the murder of Salvador Allende.2

  In 1976, Shackley became the CIA's deputy director for operations, a position which placed him in charge of covert operations throughout the world.3 He used this position to set up corporations and subsidiaries throughout the world to conceal the Agency's involvement in the drug trade and its ties to Edwin Wilson and other notorious arms suppliers, who were providing highly sophisticated weaponry to Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Many of these firms were set up in Switzerland and came to include Lake Resources, Inc., the Stanford Technology Trading Group, Inc., and Compagnie de Services Fiduciaire. Others, such as CSF Investments, Ltd., and the Udall Research Corporation, were located in Central America. A few were established in the United States, including the Orca Supply Company in Florida and Consultants International in Washington, DC. All were funded by heroin proceeds and a few, including the US firms, were interlinked with the Vatican.4

  After leaving the CIA in September 1979, Shackley formed Research Associates International, which specialized in providing intelligence to business. Such intelligence consisted of classified CIA files that the blond ghost had removed from the Agency.5

  In 1980, Shackley's talents were sought by the Reagan-Bush election committee and he became a key operative in planning the October Surprise, by which the hostages remained in Iran until after the election.6

  THE SAFARI CLUB

  Shackley was also a member of the Safari Club, an intelligence allegiance that was forged by Henry Kissinger on September 1, 1976. Members included the heads of the intelligence agencies of the United States, France, Egypt, Iran, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia and a host of CIA agents and former agents. The primary function of the club was the orchestration of terrorists and proto-terrorists by proxy groups throughout the world—from Renamo in Mozambique to Unita in Angola, and from the Contras in Nicaragua to the mujahideen in Afghanistan and Central Asia.7

  In 1981, Count Alexandre de Marenches, the chief executive of the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE—the French secret service), served as the leader of Safari. Marenches was also a member of the SMOM, along with CIA director William Casey, Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Treasury Secretary William Simon, US ambassador to the Vatican William Wilson, Licio Gelli, Fr. Felix Morlion, and General Santovito of SISMI.8 Through the SMOM, Marenches became aware of John Paul II's negotiations with the Kremlin and agreed that the Polish upstart had to be removed from the Holy Office.9

  SHACKLEY AND SANTOVITO

  Shackley arrived in Rome on February 3, 1981, for a series of meetings with General Santovito.10 The assassination, in keeping with the strategy of tension, would be blamed on the Soviets. The plan would involve a multitude of CIA associates, including journalist Claire Sterling; Paul Henze, the station chief in Ankara; Michael Ledeen, a consultant to the US National Security Council; Fr. Felix Morlion of the right-wing Pro-Deo movement; Francesco Pazienza, a CIA informant and SISMI official who helped engineer the Bologna bombing; and Frank Terpil, the agent who had been assigned to work with the Grey Wolves.

  Santovito soon emerged as the lead character in the assassination plot. He would handle all aspects of the investigation. He would provide cover for the co-conspirators. He would grant shelter to the assassins. As the head of military intelligence and the commander of the Italian Gladio units, he was uniquely qualified for the role. By the time of his meeting with Shackley, the general was working closely with Stibam, ensuring safety to the massive arms for drugs operation that had been set up by the Sicilian Mafia, the Turkish babas, and the CIA.

  The SISMI general was also implementing the strategy of tension by launching terror attacks throughout Italy with P2 puppetmaster Licio Gelli. He was diverting the financial police from probing too deeply into the transactions of Banco Ambrosiano and the ongoing flow of millions in cash to the Vatican shell companies. He was serving the CIA by commissioning underworld figures to conduct hits on troublesome politicians, magistrates, pentiti (informers), and journalists. Stretched to the limits, Santovito's network of connections extended to Giuseppe “Pippo” Calò, the Sicilian mob enforcer; Salvatore “Toto” Riina, the godfather of the Corleonesi clan; Giovanni Pandico, the leader of the Camorra; and Franco Giuseppucci, Maurizio Abbatino, and Alessandro d'Ortenzi, the founding fathers of Banda della Magliana.11 No man knew more about Gladio than Santovito. No official was more valuable to the operation. And no individual was more at risk of exposure.

  THE “BULGARIAN THESIS”

  In Rome, Shackley and Santovito worked with Francesco Pazienza, the second in command at SISMI, and Fr. Felix Morlion, a Dominican friar and former OSS spook, in developing the “Bulgarian thesis,” a bogus scenario to place the blame of the murder of John Paul II on the Soviets. Morlion had discovered the perfect patsy. Sergei Ivanov Antonov, a Bulgarian communist working in Rome for the Balkan Airlines, lived one floor above Morlion in the same apartment building. Since Antonov constantly traveled back and forth from Bulgaria, he could be presented as an agent for Bulgaria's Committee for State Security (CSS), who had been commissioned by the KGB director Yuri Andropov to kill the Holy Father. The contract, a
ccording to the script, would have been necessitated by the pope's support of Solidarity and his capacity to unite the Polish people in opposition to Soviet rule.12

  As soon as the investigation of the holy homicide got underway, a team of CIA spin doctors, including Claire Sterling, Michael Ledeen, and Paul Henze, would circulate the “thesis” and manufacture connections between Antonov, the CSS, and the Kremlin. To make matters more believable, Antonov, with his sinister Russian-sounding name, could be depicted as an agent who also worked in tandem with East Germany's General Intelligence Administration (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung). This enhancement could be useful since a certain Antony Ivanov Antonov, a Turkish cog in the drug smuggling ring, was alleged to have served as an East German informant.13

  Henze, who possessed a literary flair, served as the CIA station chief in Ankara. For this reason, he could be counted upon to provide manufactured “inside information” on Antonov. Ledeen, who acted as the CIA's contact with SISMI, had close ties to NBC and other major American news outlets. Sterling remained the CIA's leading agent of disinformation. In 1981, when the Bulgarian thesis was being developed, Sterling had published The Terror Network, which blamed the source of almost all acts of international terrorism on the Soviet Union.14

  At the end of March 1981, Count Marenches passed a warning to the Vatican security services about a planned attack by an “unspecified foreign power” that was to take place in the immediate future. The count could not provide details. The warning had come to him from his agents within the Eastern Bloc. The security officials duly noted the warning, unaware that de Marenches was merely building a platform that would support the Bulgarian thesis. When the message was conveyed to the Holy Father, he merely dismissed it with the wave of his hand. He knew he had nothing to fear from his new friends in the Kremlin.15

  BND PROTECTION

  After “escaping” from prison, Mehmet Ali Ağca made his way to the Hotel Vitosha in Sofia where he met with Bekir Çelenk and other babas. He returned to his old job as an “enforcer” of the Stibam pipeline that led from the Balkans into Western Europe. During this time, he made several trips to Palermo where he met with Pippo Calò and Toto Riina. He also traveled to Milan for conferences with Henri Arsan. As he crisscrossed through the Mediterranean region, he constantly changed his passport and assumed new identities.16

  In the months before the scheduled hit, Ağca and Çatlı were safe and secure in Munich. It was a perfect place of refuge. In 1981, West Germany was home to fifty thousand Grey Wolves, who acted as storm troopers for the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND—Germany's Federal Intelligence Service) to address any protest or problem with the 1.5 million Turkish workers.17 The BND was an outgrowth of Gladio. It had been set up by the CIA under former Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen, who became a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in 1956.18 The complicity of the BND in the assassination attempt on John Paul II has been widely ignored by the US press, even though Çatlı later testified to a judge in Rome that he had received three million marks by the German secret service to perform the hit.19

  Within Munich Ağca and Çatlı were joined by Oral Çelik, a fellow Grey Wolf who would take part in the attempted papacide. Çelik had provided backup to Ağca in the İpekçi killing. Like Ağca, he, too, served the babas by providing protection for the TIR trucks along the Balkan route. In the winter of 1981, Çelik was the subject of a Red Bulletin from Turkey's Interpol for a string of murders, including the execution of a teacher in Malatya.20

  MEETING WITH MORLION

  On April 18, Ağca, Çatlı, and Çelik traveled to Milan to meet with Bekir Çelenk at Stibam. They stayed at the Hotel Agosta, where Ağca registered under the name Faruk Ozgun.21 From Milan, the trio made their way to Rome for a visit with Morlion to learn the layout of the priest's apartment. On April 23, the day John Paul II was holding a private audience with CIA director William Casey, the Turks were provided with 9mm Browning Hi Power semiautomatic pistols with 13-round cartridge clips. They had received training on the use of these weapons by CIA agent Frank Terpil. The semiautomatics had been imported from East Germany by Horst Grillmayer, an arms dealer and operative of the BND. The place of origin was significant since the pistols, when found, would support the Bulgarian thesis.22

  THE ATTEMPTED HIT

  On May 13, 1981, John Paul II appeared in the “papamobile,” an open-top jeep, before an adoring crowd of five thousand. As he was being driven around St. Peter's Square, he stood upright to return a young girl he had been holding to her mother. It was 5:19 in the afternoon. A series of shots rang out, with bullets striking the Holy Father and two women from New York. Chaos ensued and a small explosion went off in the corner of the square. Ağca fled, tossing his pistol under a truck, before he was collared by the Vatican security chief.23

  The pope was rushed to the Gemelli, the teaching hospital of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. He had been struck by four bullets—two remained lodged in his lower intestine; the others had hit his left index finger and his right hand. He slipped in and out of consciousness; his blood pressure fell dramatically; his pulse was weak and faltering. By the time he reached the operating room, John Paul II had lost between five and six pints of blood.24 “A moment or two later,” Dr. Francesco Crucitti later recalled, “it would have been too late.”25 One of the bullets had passed within a few millimeters of the central aorta. If that had been nicked, death would have been almost instantaneous. On exiting the body, the same bullet came within a centimeter of shattering the pope's spine. He had survived by a miracle.26

  THE CRIME SCENE

  At the scene of the attempted assassination, a Dutch coach driver said that the pope had been shot by Ağca and two other gunmen. Other onlookers provided the same testimony. Some mentioned a diversionary explosion that had gone off in a corner of the square.27

  The arrest warrant, signed by Achille Gallucci, Rome's prosecutor general, stated that Ağca had acted “in collaboration with other individuals whose identity remains unknown.”28 By the end of the day, Luciano Infelisi, the magistrate who had been assigned to the investigation, concluded: “There are documented proofs that Mehmet Ali Ağca did not act alone.” The proof, in part, consisted of the variety of casings found in the vicinity. Such evidence did not appear in court, neither did the investigating magistrate. Infelisi, who came to know too much, was quickly removed from the case and assigned other duties.29

  SPEEDY TRIAL

  The trial lasted only three days. Ağca rejected the jurisdiction of the Italian court, claiming that the incident occurred in Vatican City, a sovereign state. When his demand for a change in venue was rejected, Ağca said, “I shall not answer questions. I do not acknowledge this court. The trial has ended. Thank you.”30 During the trial, Sister Letizia, a Franciscan nun from Genoa, identified Ağca as the would-be killer and stated her belief that he acted alone. But the nun's testimony was undermined by a photograph that had been taken by an American tourist. The photo showed a man running away from the scene with a pistol in his hand. In light of this evidence, the court ruled that there existed “no valid elements permitting to confirm or exclude” the possibility of other gunmen.31

  Neither the prosecutor nor the defense attorney made note of the sighting of two unlikely figures at the scene of the crime: former CIA agents Theodore Shackley and Tom Clines. The presence of such prominent spooks in St. Peter's Square at that particular time and at that particular hour remains unexplained.32 In his biography of Shackley, titled Blond Ghost, noted journalist David Corn does not mention Shackley being at the crime scene, or his clandestine meetings with Count de Marenches and General Santovito.33

  UNEXPECTED VISITORS

  Ağca was sentenced to life in prison with one year of solitary confinement. Despite this sentence, the prisoner soon received an ongoing stream of surprising visitors, including Francesco Pazienza, General Santovito, Fr. Morlion, members of the Camorra (including fellow prisoner Raffaelo Cutolo), agents from th
e CIA, and Monsignor Marcello Morgante, who represented Archbishop Marcinkus of the IOR.34 The visits were choreographed by Pazienza to advance the Bulgarian thesis. During his daily visits, Pazienza, with Cutolo at his side, showed Ağca photographs of Antonov and several Bulgarians they wished to implicate in the assassination attempt. For hours, Ağca poured over the photos, memorizing distinctive characteristics and receiving information about the personal habits and tics of the fall guys.35

  By the fall of 1981, Ağca was singing a new song to Italian prosecutors—he had acted in service to the KGB; the assassination team had included an accountant and a military attaché from the Bulgarian Embassy in Rome; and the plans were drafted in the Rome apartment of Sergei Antonov.36

  Antonov was arrested and subjected to daily and nightly interrogations by the Italian police. He proclaimed his innocence and denied any ties to the KGB or the CSS. The grilling continued with injections of psychotropic drugs. Antonov, although disoriented, continued to insist that he played no part in the assassination attempt. He was kept in prison for three years. By the time of his release he was psychologically damaged and physically disabled. For the rest of his life Antonov was unable to carry on a conversation or to perform a simple task. On August 1, 2007, he was found dead in a barren apartment in Sofia.37

  THE STORY UNRAVELS

  At the start of 1982, the disinformation campaign was in full swing. Claire Sterling published articles on the KGB's involvement in the attempt on John Paul II's life, and the articles appeared in Reader's Digest and other national periodicals; Michael Ledeen issued a barrage of “insider” reports for Il Giornale Nuovo; and Marvin Kalb presented special reports on the Soviet connection to the sacrilege.38 The theory soon became accepted as fact by such influential media outlets as the New York Times.39 Operation Mockingbird, once again, was living up to its name. By 1985, Claire Sterling's The Time of the Assassins (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston) and Paul Henze's The Plot to Kill the Pope (Scribner's) were published to widespread critical praise. Few noted that the basis of these works was a strategic mendacity and that both authors were in the employ of the CIA.