The history of Gladio teaches us that certain elements within our democracies, presented as models, should stop deceiving citizens who can be sacrificed on the altar of inhuman economic supremacy defended by an old-fashioned bellicose ideology.
On August 3, 1990, the then Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti revealed to the astonished Senate the existence in Italy and throughout Western Europe of a secret army, known as the “stay-behind” army, created by NATO and whose origins dated back to the end of World War II.
But what was its real purpose ?
To fight the advance of communism in Europe.
But what was its real purpose ?
In this current context, it is extremely interesting to look back or discover the motivations and maneuvers of the NATO-led Western bloc from the immediate post-war period until the fall of the USSR.
Unfortunately, in August 1990, the Gladio scandal [1] was overshadowed by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the immediate adoption of UN Resolution 660 ordering the withdrawal of Iraqi troops.
The media focused on the so-called Gulf War, and Gladio did not get the coverage it deserved.
Nevertheless, the scandal was enormous.
Seventeen European countries, in addition to Turkey, were involved in the scandal.
Not only NATO countries, but also so-called “neutral” countries.
NATO member countries [2] : Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, France, Portugal, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Greece and Turkey.
“Neutral” countries : Spain [3], Cyprus, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Austria.
At this point, however, it is necessary to recall the historical context of about 75 years ago.
After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the new enemy of the West was called “communism” and had to be fought by all means to prevent its spread.
For many countries, the trauma of German occupation had indeed been immense.
The basic idea was to be able to react efficiently in case of a new occupation.
The creation of Gladio
The actors directly involved in the creation of these “stay behind” fighter networks [4] were the CIA (or OSS before 1947) and the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or British MI6).
The techniques used were always the same.
The intelligence services worked to create separate networks to carry out espionage, sabotage, or subversion missions.
To build these organizations, the CIA worked with the security services of other countries to recruit volunteers, who in turn recruited other agents.
Later, lists were provided to the CIA and MI6, and related investigations revealed that the Pentagon also had information about these networks, which was rather obvious. [5]
Klaus Barbie, former SS member.
Of course, the recruited members had to be viscerally anti-communist.
They were often very close to the most radical right-wing extremists.
In Germany, the RTL television network revealed in a 1990 report on Gladio that former members of Hitler’s dreaded Waffen-SS, which had exterminated communists under the Third Reich, were part of the local “section” of Gladio.
Interestingly, these permanent networks were closely linked not only because of their common origin (CIA, MI6), but also because of the regular meetings held within the Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) [7] and the training and exercises carried out under the cover of NATO.
These networks had different names : Rose des Vents in France, Aginter Press in Portugal, Absalon in Denmark, Counter-Guerrilla in Turkey.
Gladio must therefore be seen as a single, highly organized entity rather than a series of small, isolated networks.
Although only the top leadership of the organization (CIA and NATO in the lead) had an overview.
War materiel was also supplied by NATO and the CIA.
Weapons were hidden in thousands of secret locations throughout Europe.
And it was the discovery of some of these “depots” that brought the first news of their existence.
This was the case in Germany, for example, where some foresters discovered one of these “depots” on October 26, 1981.
In fact, forester Heinz Lembke revealed the location of as many as 33 weapons caches. [8]
In Greece, the estimated number was as high as 800.
The directive charged the OPC with “planning and conducting special operations“, i.e., all activities “conducted and financed by this Government against hostile foreign states or groups or in support of friendly foreign states or groups, but designed and conducted in such a manner that the involvement of the U.S. Government is not apparent to unauthorized persons and that the U.S. Government can, if necessary, disclaim responsibility“. [12]
Richard Nixon later defined these covert actions as “activities that, while intended to further U.S. programs and policies abroad, are planned and executed in such a way that the public does not see the hand of the U.S. government. [13]
Unorthodox, if not outright lying, methods fomented at the very heart of the U.S. state apparatus, stripped of the filter of official language of the famous “Truman Doctrine” of March 1947, accurately described in FM Manual 30-31B.
On the other side of the Atlantic, all this has always been firmly rejected.
It was certainly not glorious content.
In fact, it revealed, in very crude language, everything necessary for sabotage, bombings, assassinations, torture, terrorism and electoral fraud.
An aside also concerns the infiltration techniques advocated within far-left organizations, especially to incite their more radical members to commit illegal acts that could legitimize a counter-guerrilla response. [14]
All of this is reminiscent of the present day and the manipulation of so-called “lampposts” [15] belonging to Islamic extremist groups that are driven to commit terrorist acts.
In the absence of a Soviet invasion, the networks interfered with democratic processes…
In practice, Gladio initially consisted of “creating forces that would remain in a state of dormancy until war broke out and they could be activated“, meaning a Soviet invasion.
In this historical context, such precautions were understandable.
However, a Soviet invasion never occurred in any of these countries.
Instead of waiting passively, “the same groups or cells that were originally intended to serve in the event of war began to use their power to interfere with national democratic processes in peacetime“.
This interference is now well known :
“This use of force takes the form of violence, sometimes to the point of terrorism, and is made possible by the equipment provided to these organizations during the Cold War. Worse still, in some cases the security services have preferred to protect the perpetrators in order to maintain their operational capacity“. [16]
Subversive or violent actions then began in most of the countries concerned.
In France and Italy, the “demagnetization” operation was authorized by a JCS directive on May 14, 1952, with the aim of combating the growing influence of the Communists :
“Limiting the influence of the Communists in Italy and France is a priority objective. This objective must be achieved by all means“.
This obviously included the use of clandestine guerrilla organizations and terrorism.
The document continued :
“It is not essential that the Italian and French governments be informed of the ‘demagnetization’ plan, as this would be perceived as a violation of their national sovereignty. The problem is precisely this: these operations, in addition to being outside any democratic control, also violate the principle of national sovereignty of the countries concerned“. [17]
In France, questions were also raised about the April 22, 1961 coup d’état of the generals in Algeria, orchestrated by General Challe and the OAS.
The affair was short-lived, but all the evidence suggests that the coup against De Gaulle, orchestrated by General Challe and the OAS, had the approval of the CIA and its director, Allen Dulles, as well as the supporters of the secret war within NATO and the Pentagon.
Le Monde wrote at the time :
“The behavior of the United States during the recent crisis was not particularly skillful. It seems certain that American agents encouraged Challe“. [18]
Il colonnello Geōrgios Papadhopoulos (al centro della foto) prese il potere…
Among the coups perpetrated by the resident armies, the April 21, 1967 coup in Greece, known as “Prometheus” after the name of a program devised by NATO, at the end of which Colonel Geōrgios Papadhopoulos seized power, certainly deserves mention.
This operation, which took place in the midst of political chaos in Greece, was directed against George Papandreou, who had in fact defied the USA.
George Papandreou and his son Andreas George Papandreou were neutralized and 10,000 citizens, potential opponents, were arrested and taken to “reception centers”[19].
Interestingly, this operation was carried out during a NATO exercise (Anvil Express), and U.S. support for Turkey continued for a long time. [20]
…and in the worst abuses
Let’s stay in Turkey.
The secret war in this country straddling Europe and Asia was certainly one of the bloodiest.
General Talat Turhan, who spent the years after his torture by the Gray Wolves talking about Turkey’s secret army, blamed the United States for encouraging the violence that bloodied Turkey in the 1970s, with a total death toll of more than 5,000.
Referring to the FM 30-31B manual, he said : “The proposals contained in this document, most of which seem to me to be in total contradiction with the Constitution and the laws, were almost all implemented after the masses of March 12, 1971 and September 12, 1980“.
The “Grey Wolves” is a neo-fascist, anti-communist and anti-Kurdish armed movement that is closely linked to the “counter-guerrilla” of the Turkish army.
Among its most famous members is Ali Agça, who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981.
Abdullah Catli, another member of the movement, revealed that he provided Ali Agça with false documents and a gun to carry out the operation. [21]
The attempted assassination of John Paul II is a textbook case.
At first, the Soviet secret services were accused (the so-called “Bulgarian trail“).
Subsequent developments, however, revealed the involvement of the Gladio network and, consequently, of the US secret services in a “strategy of tension” in Italy.
It is also possible to note the close connection between “stay-behind” networks in different countries, such as Ali Agça’s Turkish network operating in the heart of Italy, which suggests an even higher level of surveillance.
The toll was very high : 38 dead and several wounded.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the shots were fired from the International Hotel, owned by ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph), which is close to the CIA and has always been at the center of very disturbing events. [22]
No reservations had been made for three days before the attacks, showing a cold premeditation in committing these atrocities, commonly attributed to the Gray Wolves, although the shooters have never been officially identified.
Then Ankara’s deputy public prosecutor, Dogan Oez, published a report to this effect, implicating the MIT (Turkish intelligence) and the counter-guerrilla, i.e. the Turkish Gladio.
He was assassinated on March 24, 1974. [24]
There were also numerous attacks in Italy in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Initially misattributed to far-left groups, investigations later revealed that the perpetrators were instead part of the Italian far-right under the auspices of Gladio :
On December 12, 1969, the bombings known as the “Piazza Fontana Massacre” (named after the famous square in Milan where most of the victims were located) occurred : four bombs exploded in different squares in Rome and Milan, killing 16 innocent civilians and injuring 80 others.
On May 31, 1972, in Peteano, three Carabinieri, lured by an anonymous phone call to an abandoned Fiat 500, were killed by the explosion of a bomb placed in the trunk of the car.
On May 28, 1974, a bomb exploded during an anti-fascist demonstration in Brescia, where more than 3,000 people had gathered, killing eight people and injuring 102 others.
On August 4, 1974, a bomb exploded on the Italicus express train from Rome to Berlin, killing 12 innocent civilians and injuring 48 others.
On August 2, 1980, the first day of summer vacation in Italy, an explosion ripped through the second-class waiting room of Bologna station, killing 85 people and injuring 200.
After the Piazza Fontana massacre in 1969, Italy’s military intelligence service (the well-known SISMI) went so far as to plant bombs in the villa of leftist publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in order to accuse communists and the far left in general of terrorism.
Clemente Graziani, a high-ranking member of the Italian fascist organization Ordine Nuovo who had close ties to SISMI (Military Intelligence and Security Service, involved in some of these attacks), later made chilling statements about terrorism :
“Terrorism, of course, has the disadvantage of killing old people, women and children. […] Operations of this kind are still considered despicable, degrading and, above all, useless crimes to defeat a conflict.
But the norms of revolutionary warfare undermine these moral and humanitarian principles. These forms of terrorist intimidation are now considered not only acceptable, but absolutely necessary.” [25]
Belgium also experienced an unusual wave of terror between 1983 and 1985, known as the “Brabant killings“.
This was a series of 16 extremely violent robberies, mostly in supermarkets, in which 28 people died, including two children shot in cold blood.
After the Gladio revelations in 1990, the Belgian justice system naturally wanted to investigate the possible involvement of the now exposed Belgian Gladio network, STC/Mob and SDRA8, the two Belgian intelligence services involved.
The latter were most notable for their total lack of cooperation, refusing to disclose the list of members of the network, in which the judges particularly wanted to verify the presence of a very tall man described by numerous witnesses.
The CIA and MI6 also refused to provide any information.
However, it seems that the most serious lead for these events is a neo-Nazi group, the WNP (Westland New Post), which most likely had links to SDRA8. [26]
A European Scandal
At the end of 1990, the scandal spread throughout Europe after Giulio Andreotti’s initial statements were quickly confirmed by numerous public and military figures in Europe.
However, very few countries decided to launch serious or parliamentary investigations.
In Italy, a 326-page report was published in 2000.
The document, which covered a wide range of topics, explained how “these massacres, these bombs, these military operations were organized, promoted or supported by men within Italian institutions and, as has recently been discovered, by people linked to US intelligence structures”. [27]
At the Piazza Fontana bombing trial, General Maletti stated :
“The CIA, carrying out the instructions of its government, wanted to create an Italian nationalism capable of stopping what it saw as a shift to the left, and for this reason it may have used extreme right-wing terrorism.
The general impression was that the Americans were prepared to do anything to stop Italy’s shift to the left“. [28]
The European Parliament also commented on the scandal on November 22, 1990. Greek MEP Efthymios Efthymidis summed up the situation in these words :
“The Gladio system has been operating for 40 years under different names. (…) It has operated in secret and we can reasonably attribute to it the responsibility for all the acts of destabilization, provocation and terrorism that have been committed in our countries during these four decades and in which it has been directly or indirectly involved“.
The European Parliament also unanimously condemned the creation of these clandestine networks and demanded not only their immediate dismantling, but also their complete exposure through the establishment of parliamentary commissions of inquiry in each country.
However, only two countries, Italy and Switzerland, have opened such inquiries.
Finally, the chairman of the committee was instructed to forward the resolution to the Secretary General of NATO, the governments of the member states, and the government of the United States.
No response, of course.
The few responses from the Pentagon or the CIA to the European requests bordered on the indecent, vacillating between “top secret” or “there is nothing in the archives” and “we have no knowledge of these networks”.
Swiss historian Daniele Ganser summed up the situation this way:
“In the minds of the White House strategists, therefore, it is clear that the war did not end in 1945. Rather, it has evolved into a form of silent and covert conflict in which the intelligence services have become the privileged instruments for the exercise of power“. [29]
And that is the problem.
All these “covert” wars were totally or partially unknown to the leaders of the countries concerned.
In any case, they were completely outside any democratic control.
Some of those who “inspired” these methods were concerned about the excesses of such intelligence services.
For example, George Kennan, a member of the State Department under Truman, confided that “the worst thing that can happen to us in this fight against communism is to become like those we are fighting“. [30]
After the Gladio revelations, all networks operating under CIA and NATO supervision, i.e. under the control of U.S. military and intelligence agents, were dismantled.
At least officially.
As for the shadow networks, the reality may (probably ?) be quite different.
The 1996 Susurluk case seems to indicate that collusion between the state and a certain form of “manufactured” terrorism still exists in Turkey. [21]
Moreover, why would the United States suddenly part with such a valuable weapon that has served its nefarious interests in Europe so well ?
Taken together, these events form a coherent series of subversive and criminal acts unworthy of the “free world” countries that inspired and carried them out…
Most of these events only began to make sense several decades later, when they were analyzed, verified, and tested by independent researchers such as Daniel Ganser.
History, as Paul Valéry aptly defined it, is “that great undercurrent, often silent, whose meaning is revealed only when large periods of time are taken into account“.
Taken together, all these events form a coherent picture of subversive and criminal acts that do not befit the countries of the “free world,” especially the United States, which inspired and carried them out.
It is also interesting to note that all the “false flag” operations were ultimately an integral part of the actions carried out by Gladio, since the main goal was to discredit the opponent of the time (the communists) by creating a climate of terror.
What might once have been naively described as “conspiracy theories” was the reality of the facts perpetrated by Gladio.
These networks in themselves constituted a vast conspiracy aimed at discrediting communism.
In conclusion, one can (and should) ask :
“How far does deception go even today ?“
So many questions, so many answers.
The history of Gladio teaches us that certain elements within our democracies, which are presented as models, should stop deceiving citizens, who can be sacrificed on the altar of an inhuman economic supremacy defended by an old-fashioned war ideology.
To initiate this change, it is necessary to inform citizens about these shameful methods.
As Arthur Rowse has written, “As long as the American public remains unaware of this dark chapter in American foreign relations, the agencies responsible will feel little pressure to change their ways”. [31]
Bibliography
[1] Gladio means “sword”.
[2] NATO was founded in Washington on April 4, 1949.
Its headquarters were first established in Paris and later moved to Brussels when General De Gaulle withdrew France from the “Alliance” on March 7, 1966.
At its inception, nine European countries joined the organization : Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, France, Portugal, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway.
Greece and Turkey soon joined (1952), followed by Germany (1955).
[3] Spain did not join NATO until 1982.
It was thus a neutral country, although Franco, who held political power in the country for almost 40 years until 1975, enjoyed the support of the American authorities.
[4] “Stay-Behind” refers to networks behind the front line responsible for subversive operations, sabotage, and any operation designed to fight the enemy from within.
The term is actually misused in the case of the Gladio armies, since the members of these networks, if they acted according to their intended prerogatives in occupied territory and in wartime, did so only in friendly territory and only in peacetime.
[5] Daniele Ganser, NATO’s Secret Armies: Stay-Behind Networks, Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, pp. 13-14. [6] Ibid, p. 262.
[6] Ibid, p. 262.
[7] ACC : the “Allied Clandestine Committee”, the second command center within NATO, met several times a year at its European headquarters (Paris, then Brussels from 1966).
[8] Daniele Ganser, “NATO’s Secret Armies: Stay-Behind Networks, Gladio, and Terrorism in Western Europe,” p. 282.
[9] Ibid, p. 297.
[10] NSC : The “National Security Council” advises and assists the President of the United States in his foreign policy decisions.
[11] The OPC (Office of Policy Coordination) included representatives from the State Department, the Defense Department, and the CIA.
[12] Daniele Ganser, NATO’s Secret Armies: Stay-behind Networks, Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, pp. 90-91.
[13] Ibid, p. 62.
[14] Ibid, pp. 315-319.
[15] The term “lamppost” is specifically used by Webster G. Tarpley to describe a scapegoat who is easily manipulated.
Other names by which they are referred to are “fuses”, “pigeons”, or “service idiots”.
Their intellectual abilities must be limited, but they must also have the necessary public credibility.
They are manipulated and pushed into action even though they have neither the ideas, skills, nor resources to do so.
The best candidates for the role of “Lamplighter” are psychotics, psychopaths, or sociopaths.
They may be fanatics with criminal intentions or pathetic ideologues. They are often very confused and incompetent individuals, and they usually fail at whatever they do.
“Fabricated Terror Made in USA,” Webster G. Tarpley, ed. Half Moon, p. 108.
[16] Daniele Ganser, NATO’s Secret Armies : Stay-Behind Networks, Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, pp. 13-14.
[17] Ibid, p. 109.
[18] Ibid, pp. 140-141.
[19] Ibid, pp. 301-302.
[20] Ibid, p. 321.
[21] Abdullah Catli died on November 3, 1996, in Susurluk, Turkey, in a car accident involving other prominent people.
Among them were Husseyin Kocadag, a senior police officer, Abdullah Catli and his girlfriend, Gonca Us, a former Miss Turkey who had joined mafia networks.
The only survivor was a conservative deputy, Sedat Bucak.
Later, former Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told parliament : “This incident exposed the most covert connections within the state”.
[22] Daniele Ganser, NATO’s Secret Armies: Stay-behind Networks, Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, pp. 323-324.
[23] ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph) is suspected of having been involved in one way or another in the assassination of Salvador Allende in 1973 and the coup that brought Pinochet to power that same year.
[24] Daniele Ganser, NATO’s Secret Armies: Stay-Behind Networks, Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, pp. 323-324.
[25] Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on Terrorism in Italy and the Causes of the Failure to Arrest Those Responsible for the Tragedies: Tragedies and Terrorism in Post-War Italy until 1974.
[26] Daniele Ganser, “NATO’s Secret Armies: Stay-Behind Networks, Gladio, and Terrorism in Western Europe,” pp. 196-200.
[27] Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on Terrorism in Italy and the Causes of the Failure to Arrest Those Responsible for the Tragedies: Tragedies and Terrorism in Post-War Italy up to 1974.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Ibid, p. 88.
[30] Daniele Ganser, “NATO’s Secret Armies : Stay-Behind Networks, Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe”, p. 92.
[31] Arthur Rowse is a former Washington Post reporter and one of the few Americans to mention Gladio. The excerpt is from one of his articles.
Appendix 1 : The “Berlusconi” Dossier (2010)
Silvio Berlusconi has undoubtedly changed Italy.
Soon after entering politics in 1994, he began to focus mainly on his problems with the judiciary.
Over the next 16 years, he introduced 36 laws that either barred or “guaranteed” his trials for bribery, corruption, falsification of accounts, violation of anti-trust laws and other crimes, thanks to his parliamentary immunity.
Not to mention his so-called “sex scandals”.
All of this is part of his “visible” political presence.
The less visible, and often unknown to most, is his connection to the secret P2 Lodge.
This secret organization infiltrated political parties, ministries, secret services, the judiciary, major banks and the media in the 1970s and 1980s with the aim of subverting the state and creating an authoritarian regime.
Virtually the entire Italian far right was a member, including Silvio Berlusconi, whose membership number was 1816.
The affair was long forgotten by the media.
However, the affair came to the fore again when Berlusconi began to criticize Italian public television, the judiciary, and the Italian constitution, calling, among other things, for a political reform that would transform Italy from a parliamentary to a presidential republic.
One of the cornerstones of the subversive program of the secret P2 Masonic Lodge.
Some people began to wonder if, at that time, there were not already a few people working to put the P2 script into practice: abolish the Constitution and create a totalitarian state.
Today we know that those few were right.
Appendix 2 : This “terrible” virus has never been isolated…
Meanwhile, there is no law in Europe.
As early as January 2020, it would have been possible to denounce the situation : the clinical use of a PCR kit is illegal.
Every single test used for this purpose is a crime.
Then they started killing us (starting with the elderly) with midazolam, morphine or overdoses of hydroxychloroquine.
When the head of WHO was asked about the blatantly exaggerated doses that were so lethal, he replied:
“You have to start somewhere“.
Then they went on with their so-called “vaccines”, not to mention the hallucinatory crimes against humanity that have since been committed.
In Europe, five or six countries have been practically without a constitution for two years.
In practice, it is as if they were in a state of war.
The only law that counts is the law of war.
And the fact that they are now trying to apply on a global scale what they were trying to apply then in individual countries (not only in Europe) is not only a clue, but proof that the same forces behind the scenes are now responsible for this “plandemic”, as they were in the past for Piazza Fontana, the central station in Bologna, or the Oktoberfest in Munich.
The plan initiated with the “virus farce” allows them to do much more.
