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Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 REVIEW OF THE NEWS m Here, from the congressional hop- per, are some of the bills and Resolu- tions of interest to Conservatives: Terrorism (S. 2469, introduced on March 22nd, referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee). Incredible as it may seem, terrorism as such is not a crime in the United States. President Reagan, in his State of the Union address on January 25th, mentioned the rieed for legislation to combat terrorism. As an important first step in that direction, Senator Jeremiah Denton (R.-Alabama), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism, has introduced S. 2469 to make terrorism a federal crime and give the F.B.I. primary investigative jurisdiction over it. The Denton bill defines “terror- STERLING. ..Continued ficient evidence, and four times differ- ent sections of the Italian courts have found that the evidence against him was strong enough to warrant his continued retention. So Agca has told lies as almost everybody does who starts out as a professional killer and begins to talk. You never get a straight story in 24 hours. Every judge who has handled these people. says the same thing. Although he has surely told lies of one kind or another since he began to con- fess, the core of his confession has evidently been considered by the Italian judiciary as a whole involved in this case to be sound enough to warrant go- ing to trial. Q. A couple of weeks ago Pope John Pau! met with Agea In his cell. it was a very dramatic meeting. Would you speculate on what Agea might have told the pope, and second, what Is the ism” as “the knowing use of force or violence against any person or property in violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any State, terri- tory, possession, or district, with the intent to intimidate, coerce, or influ- ence a government or person in fur- therance of any political or ideologi- cal objective.” Individuals found guilty of committing (or procuring the commission of) a terrorist act would face the death penalty (if the death of anyone resulted from the act) or imprisonment for not less than 20 years, or for life, or for life without possibility of parole. Those found guilty of attempting to commit, or threatening to commit, an act of terrorism would also face view of the Vatican aé to the possibility of Agca being IInked to the KGB In this matter? | A. 1 don’t really know what they talked about. The pope said that was a secret’ and it was going to remain a secret and I think it will. But the pope did say when he came out of that meeting that he has full confidence in this penitent, -Agca, which really was taken to mean in‘Italy that what he was saying, in effect, was, “I believe Agca is sincerely repentant.”” The impli- ‘cation of that is that if he is sincerely repentant, his confession to the judge involving the Bulgarians has credibil- ity. It doesn’t necessarily mean that every word he says is true, but that essentially it has credibility. This at a time when there is a tremen- dous campaign going on conducted along parallel lines by the Russians and Bulgarians on the one hand and Western spokesmen on the other hand to deny Agea all credibility, and I think 55 SPECIAL EDITION -- TERRORISM -- 26 JUNE 1984 9 May 1984 Pg. 53 From The Hopper Pending legislation of special interest to Americans alarmed about Big Government. atringent prison sentences, as well as the death penalty should their actions cause the death of another person. The Denton bill is carefully phrased to strike a balance between the need to punish terrorists and to Jeremiah Denton offers bill to combat terrorism. protect the constitutional rights of all Americans. The Senator is convinced that it effectively “addresses a prob- lem in our society that we must clearly face and resolve as soon as possible. Terrorists must be put on notice that their activities are criminal and simply will not be tolerated by law-abiding Americans.” that the pope was therefore giving him strength. Q. What Is the view of the Vatican as you understand It as to the culpability of the KGB? A. There are clearly divided views in the Vatican, and understandably so. There are many forces in the Vatican that prefer not to have this case go any further because of the enormous complications it could have for them with what is called the church’s silenced churches in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, where conditions have always been very, very difficult for the church to operate at all. On the other hand, there are certainly forces in the Vatican that believe that justice must be pursued in this case, that it should be left to the Italian courts, that the courts should be free to process this investigation to the end, that it’s morally unacceptable to do otherwise. | Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5