Herman,E. Brodhead,F. Rise and Fall of Bulgarian Connection. 1986

Herman, Edward S. and Brodhead, Frank. The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection. New York: Sheridan Square Publications, 1986. 255 pages.

During the 1991 hearings for confirmation of Robert Gates as director of the CIA, it was revealed that for years following the 1981 shooting of the Pope, CIA analysts had been unable to find evidence of Soviet complicity. In 1985 William Casey told Gates to try harder, at which point the issue became more political than analytical and the waters got very muddy.

It may have always been political; professional propagandists were hard at work after the shooting to lay the blame on the USSR. One was Paul Henze, a long-time CIA officer, another was Michael Ledeen and his friends at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and then there was Claire Sterling, who wrote an article on the shooting for Reader's Digest in 1982. All appeared to be more interested in their crusade against "Soviet-sponsored terrorism" than with presenting hard facts to support their case.

This book argues that the hard facts never existed. The authors analyze the background of Mehmet Ali Agca and the evidence surrounding the shooting, and trace the history of the "Bulgarian connection" as an example of Western disinformation. Frank Brodhead is affiliated with Resist, a progressive funding agency, and Edward Herman is an editor of "Lies Of Our Times" and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
ISBN 0-940380-06-4