Word: bulgaria
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Bulgaria denies charges that it sent its navy to supply Nicaragua with arms, claiming that all three of its rowboats have never left domestic waters...
...allegations about Bulgarians could be proved, they would point strongly toward Soviet complicity. Not only is Bulgaria the Soviet Union's staunchest ally but, according to most experts, the Bulgarian secret service is run directly by the KGB. The allegations could implicate Andropov, who headed the KGB at the time, as well as former President Leonid Brezhnev. Says Stefan Sverdlev, a former colonel in the Bulgarian secret service who defected to Greece more than three years ago: "I do not doubt for one instant the role of the Bulgarian secret service in this attack. But if they...
Stung by the speculation, Bulgaria for the first time has explicitly denied involvement. At an unusual Sofia press conference, the director of Bulgaria's state news agency charged the West with a frame-up "aimed at influencing the sentiments of millions of Catholics." The Soviet news agency TASS rejected "absurd insinuations" linking Moscow to the plot. Even many Western analysts, while convinced that the Soviets often act through Bulgarian proxies, believe the assassination attempt was too sloppy to have been directed by the KGB. Says a West German intelligence official: "I cannot believe that the KGB would do something...
...other Italian cases, however, strengthen the Bulgarian connection. Luigi Scricciolo, 34, a former Italian labor official arrested in February on charges of spying for Bulgaria and aiding the terrorist Red Brigades, has reportedly named as his contact one of the Bulgarians implicated in the papal plot. In Trento, 200 people have been jailed on charges of smuggling arms and drugs into Western Europe under the direction of a man reputed to have close ties to Bulgaria. In Israel, intelligence officials have long asserted that Bulgaria has trained Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists...
...years it has been no secret in Western Europe that Bulgaria's secret service has tolerated the shipment of billions of dollars worth of arms from Turkey, much of it for use by terrorist organizations. The new allegations, however, raise fears that Soviet-directed terrorism and subversion reach farther, and with far less restraint, than had previously been believed. Italy's relations with Bulgaria are already badly frayed. But with so much at stake, Italy and its Western allies are prudently waiting for more solid evidence before making any additional charges public. -By Kenneth W. Banta. Reported...