Italians say that Moscow was behind Pope John Paul assassination attempt.
Senator Paolo Guzzanti, of a special Italian parliamentary investigation said this week:
"This commission believes, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the leadership of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate Pope John Paul...They relayed this decision to the military secret services for them to take on all necessary operations to commit a crime of unique gravity, without parallel in modern times."
Pope John Paul was shot in St Peter‘s Square on May 13, 1981 by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca.
"It is completely absurd," said Boris Labusov, spokesman for Russia‘s foreign intelligence service, "We are tired on denying these rumours."
In the book of memoirs published just before he died, the Polish Pope said that he thought that there was a ‘mastermind’ behind the shooting, and the Turk was not operating alone.
7 comments:
There seems to be no proof provided.
Agreed, until such proof is provided, it could have been underwritten by any person or organization with an axe to grind.
Mehmet, a known assassin, did previously kill a "left-leaning" journalist and seems to have exhibited no preference in his trade. His background does not provide a logical path to his dastardly deeds and he looks like a "gun for hire".
Mehmet gets up one morning and said to himself "I think I'll take a trip to St Peter's Square in Rome and kill the Pope". This scenario does not make much sense until some reward and benefactor are thrown into the mix. So far we have only heard opinion. The benefactor has not been conclusively identified.
Judgement is witheld until proof is provided.
You are right that there is no evidence at all included in the press reports about this...just an Italian saying that 'beyond reasonable doubt'...etc.
And, of course, I have no idea about the 'report' at all because I have not read it.
But neither do I take any notice of the denials of the Russians. Putin's Russia seems to look back at Satlinism in a 'partiotic' way and they seem to have trouble comming to terms with what was going on back then.
For instance, the recent denials by Moscow of Stalin and the politbureau's knowledge of the Katyn Massacre of 20,000 Poles is just not credible.
Whether this is a kind of Freudian collective denial, or just plain lies, is unclear. But Russia must start facing up to its past.
So did the Soviets kill the Pope? I have not a clue. But do I believe a single word that the Putinists say today?
Is the Pope a Hindu?
It would be good to see this in a "why-now" sort of context. Europe is polarizing drastically right now over resources, with Russia at one end (which, along with China, has deep dependence on Iranian oil) and the rest of Europe justifying its alignment with the US as defense of this or that bourgeois freedom. Why is this coming up again? Russia is 'tired' of denying such rumors because they are old and worn, whatever the amount of truth to them. Poland's pope is dead. The symbolism of it is what is most significant, its divisive and confusing impact on the European working class.
The problem is edie, nobody trusts a word Russia says. And it's their own fault.
Could the Turk have acted alone?
It's not that far fetched to think that he had KGB backing...the CIA had an assasination policy for along time, so why not the Ruskies?
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