Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance Between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia

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Anna Laura Braghetti, Paola Tavella, Le Prisonnier. 55 jours avec Aldo Moro, 1999 (translated from Italian: Il Prigioniero), Éditions Denoël, Paris ( ISBN 2-207-24888-7) (in Italian and French) Planchar, Roland (8 September 2006). "De nouvelles découvertes". La Libre Belgique (in French). Archived from the original on May 18, 2020. Leo A. Müller, Gladio. Das Erbe des kalten Krieges, 1991, RoRoRo-Taschenbuch Aktuell no 12993 ( ISBN 3499 129930). (in German)

Gladio: the Story of a Conspiracy - CounterPunch.org Gladio: the Story of a Conspiracy - CounterPunch.org

After World War II, the UK and the US decided to create "stay-behind" paramilitary organizations, with the official aim of countering a possible Soviet invasion through sabotage and guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. Arms caches were hidden, escape routes prepared, and loyal members recruited, whether in Italy or in other European countries. Its clandestine "cells" were to stay behind in enemy-controlled territory and to act as resistance movements, conducting sabotage, guerrilla warfare and assassinations. US intelligence also assisted in the set up of a West German stay-behind network. CIA documents released in June 2006 under the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, show that the CIA organized "stay-behind" networks of West German agents between 1949 and 1953. According to The Washington Post, "One network included at least two former Nazi SS members—Staff Sgt. Heinrich Hoffman and Lt. Col. Hans Rues—and one was run by Lt. Col. Walter Kopp, a former German army officer referred to by the CIA as an "unreconstructed Nazi". "The network was disbanded in 1953 amid political concerns that some members' neo-Nazi sympathies would be exposed in the West German press." [45] This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Following the fall of France in 1940, Winston Churchill created the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to both assist resistance movements and carry out sabotage and subversive operations in occupied Europe. It was revealed half a century later that SOE was complemented by a stay-behind organisation in Britain, created in extreme secrecy, to prepare for a possible invasion by Nazi Germany.Jenkins, Philip (1990). "Strategy of tension: The Belgian terrorist crisis 1982–1986". Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. 13 (4–5): 299–309. doi: 10.1080/10576109008435838. Gladio was not so much a hidden structure, but a ‘secret’ that the Italian state shared with other countries and which eventually became completely its own. 1 Evidence of the extent of Operation Gladio’s activities throughout Europe was uncovered after the publication of this report. With the 1948 elections, the country was given the tools to fight internal conflicts with the weapons of democracy and within the institutions of parliament. The only true subversive and destabilising phenomena were terrorism, which blighted the so-called ‘Years of Lead’, 8 Between the late 1960s and the late 1980s, Italy experienced a wave of far-right and far-left terrorism, including the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Aldo Moro and, for example, the bombing of the Bologna train station in 1980 that killed 85 people. and organised crime. Recently, the mafia complex was unearthed from its Sicilian sanctuary, and the extent of its infiltration into significant parts of the country was revealed. 9 Beginning in 1986, an attempt to dismantle the entire power structure of the Sicilian Mafia ( Cosa Nostra) began with the indictment of 475 mafiosi. Over the course of investigations, the depth of Mafia influence on the Italian political system and business infrastructure was made public.

CIA ORGANIZED SECRET ARMY IN WESTERN EUROPE

a b Ganser, Daniele. "Terrorism in Western Europe: An Approach to NATO's Secret Stay-Behind Armies" (PDF). ISN. Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, South Orange NJ, Winter/Spring 2005, Vol. 6, No. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2023. The A.C.C. consisted of the members of the C.C.U.O. plus the US and coordinated the stay-behind activities, as was stipulated on its first meeting in April 1959 under French supervision: Operation Gladio’s idea was safeguarding democracy and the Western way of life. NATO, the CIA, MI6, and other intelligence agencies formed an uneasy alliance. They saw the creation of these “stay-behind” armies as a vital insurance policy.Ganser, Daniele (2005). NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe (PDF). New York: Frank Cass. ISBN 978-0-7146-8500-7. Secondly, the commission faced time-related problems. The time allotted to the commission was initially five months, a period which the final report deplored as "very little" and short in comparison to other inquiries. The Senate granted on July 12, 1991, a request for extra time, which enabled the committee to work for another three months. Unfortunately most of the allotted time fell during the parliamentary recess, which further frustrated the effort to fully pursue the intended lines of inquiry. For instance, the commission had planned to interview several investigative journalists, people like Richard Brenneke and had requested several " dossiers chauds" (English: "hot cases"). [ clarification needed] Handled material and major findings [ edit ] It was only then, in June 1959, and in concert with American services that SIFAR (‘R’ Office – SAD section) released their first organic report on the progress made to that point. This was sent to the new Chief of the Defence Staff, General Aldo Rossi. Primarily, the report summarised the goals of the structure: Gladio was created in the eventuality that NATO declared an emergency “caused by internal subversion or military invasion.” The topics covered during these meetings changed according to the phases of development of the organisation. In the three years 1956-1958, these mostly related to establishing and mobilising the training centres of Capo Marargiu (CAG) and Olmedo (a communications base). The issues most frequently involved financial concerns and the transmission of documentation and training materials. The Fox at IMDb, a 2017 English drama with Gladio as a main plot point, produced in the Netherlands by Alex ter Beek and Klaas van Eikeren.